How my office is feeling the economy

Yesterday morning I walked into the front office at my work and there was a stack of boxes 4 feet high, filled with paper towels and hand soap.

“What is this for?” I asked our receptionist.

“Apparently,” she quipped, “we are preparing for an attack of dysentery.”

In reality, the change is because the paper towels that went in the the fancy automatic no-touch towel dispenser are too expensive in the face of budget cuts. Now we have to use a dispenser that we have to touch.

The germaphobe in me is very, very upset.

If you, too, are facing cutbacks, or you just want a good deal, freebies, or coupons, check out www.cheapfree.com.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

This past weekend Ian and I went to see the movie Coraline, which was pretty cool albeit a bit creepy for some kids.  The movie was based on Neil Gaiman’s book, and I just finished another of his novels, The Graveyard Book.  This story, about a boy named Nobody Owens who lives in a graveyard, also had dark undertones.  Bod, as his friends call him, is taken in by a family of ghosts after his birth family is murdered.  Unfortunately, Bod’s killer is still out there, so he must stay in the graveyard, learning its magic ways, until the world is safe again.  This book was a wild ride, exhilarating and suspenseful, but ultimately an affirmation of life.  I highly recommend it.

Writing?

The past two weeks have been super hectic for me on the photography side of things (multiple engagement sessions, client meetings, etc.) and also on the school side of things.  While I haven’t been able to do any writing for my stories, I have been doing lots and lots of paper writing.  The paper writing is at least some form of writing, which I guess is a step in the right direction, but it’s all on depressing topics.  Just ask me about the Holocaust, the Vietnam War, the politics of representation, and the manipulation of reality TV images.  Come on, I dare you.

Yeah, the children’s book writing is way more fun.

Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls: Moving Day

Yay!  I just finished reading Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls: Moving Day, and it’s the most fun reading I’ve had in a while.  Lately I have been focused on a lot of YA novels, but after my last venture to the bookstore I stocked up on two middle grade novels.  This book, by famed author Meg Cabot, was a real treat.  It follows nine year-old Allie as she learns that her family is moving.  She develops a book of rules to help her negotiate the tricky waters of friendship, family, and school (don’t stick a spatula down your best friend’s throat, if someone is yelling from excitement, the polite thing to do is yell back.)  This book made me laugh a lot, and it’s the first in a series so I will definitely be reading more.

Only in Hollywood

I went to the grocery store yesterday for my weekly food shopping excursion and the store  was absolutely packed.  There were people walking around muttering to themselves, 20 people in each aisle, check out lines were 6 carts long, and if people had been driving cars instead of shopping carts there would have been a lot of casualties.  I seriously wondered if Los Angeles was suffering from a zombie infestation.  But no.  It was just because the Oscars were on in an hour and everyone was running around getting ready for their Oscar parties.  People were nearly breaking into fistfights over bags of chips because of an awards ceremony.  Only in Los Angeles.

New Computer! New Writing Machine!

On Wednesday night Ian, who is bad at keeping secrets, woke me up at 2 am.  “Tanya,” he whispered, “I got you a present.”

“What did you get me?” I mumbled in that half-awake, move-your-lips-as-little-as-possible way.

“I got you a new computer.”

“What?” I exclaimed, now fully awake.

“I decided you needed a new, not hand-me-down computer.  It’s an early graduation present.”

!!!

The needing a new computer part is true.  Right now I operate on two different but equally dysfunctional computers – a little Toshiba laptop that is over six years old and sounds like an airplane taking off when it boots up or has trouble with an operation, and a Mac Mini that’s, well, mini.  It keeps telling me that sites like Facebook and Google don’t exist, and it stalls intermittently when I open too many programs at once.  I mostly only use my computers for the Internet and writing, so it’s been okay so far, but the technology is on its last legs.

I am so excited to get a new blank slate for my writing projects.  Now I’ll have some better organization with my stories (no more projects from college!), plus the computer has a built-in camera.  Yay!  I can do web cam stuff and take Photobooth pictures.  Let’s face it, every time I go into an Apple store, I make Ian get in a photo with me.  We have photos of us on Mac computers all across SoCal.  Even though the camera is a novelty and not a necessity, it makes me happy.

Check her out here.  Isn’t she pretty?

I shall call her Writing Machine and she shall be my writing machine.  What a good husband I have.

Taming of the dog

Sometimes when I am trying to work and can’t think straight because my dog is barking and barking and barking because he’s hungry because he’s on a diet because he’s fat because he doesn’t discriminate between food and trash and eats everything, I stop and do the dishes and it is the only thing that calms him down.  There is an irony in this.  I hate doing the dishes.  But I hate a non-stop barking dog more.

Call an exterminator!

Yesterday I got out of one of my classes early because my professor was sick, so a friend and I decided to work on an upcoming assignment. We headed to a class building with wide hallways, and sat around chatting and working. Twenty minutes in, my friend says, “Do you have anything against killing ants?”

I say, “No. Why?”

She points out an itsy bitsy little bug crawling along three feet from us.

I blow on it and the ant flies away. “See? No killing,” I say proudly. We go back to work, leaning up against the wall, and I forget about the ants.

Bad move. Forty minutes later, as I am sitting in my next class, I notice a tiny ant crawling over my coat.

I flick him off.

Then, I notice another ant. I try to flick him off, and he crumbles under my fingers. Gross.

Then, another ant. And another. And another.

Apparently, during our study session, my friend and I had been sitting in an ant colony. I’m so glad I pay a ton of money to sit in ant-infested classrooms.

Thinking about it, my skin still itches.

Bookstore sleuth

This past weekend Ian and I ventured to Barnes and Noble to spend the last of our holiday gift card. I was poking around the middle grade section when an ever-helpful saleslady came by and asked if I was finding everything okay. “Actually,” I said, “I was wondering if you can point me in the direction of any new releases?”

Happy to have books to suggest, the woman led me to book after book, telling me what to look for if I have a girly-girl reader, a strong reader, one who isn’t afraid of scary stories, a reluctant boy reader, etc. I kept things vague and told her I was looking for something in the ten to twelve year-old range, so she swooped me around the store, eyes lighting up, belly laughing, glowing over her favorites. It’s so much fun to see someone get so excited over kid’s books. She talked about taking Diary of a Wimpy Kid into her break room, and having laughed out loud with no one around. We talked about the state of the book publishing industry (layoffs, tighter control over what’s going out), the kinds of books that are winning the prestigious awards, and that summer is a heavy release season because everyone wants to be on the summer reading list. It was such a treat to hear someone talk so lovingly about books and be so knowledgeable about the industry that I felt a smidge bad when Ian came over and told her the books were for me. She said, “Well, I’ll stop talking your ear off,” and I wanted to hear her talk more but the spell was broken. Apparently it was only cool to talk about the books when she thought I was buying them for someone else. Perhaps in the future I’ll have to make up an imaginary kid I am buying books for. A way younger sister, perhaps? A niece? Things to consider for next time…

Gardening fun

Instead of buying each other cut flowers this Valentine’s Day, Ian and I decided to buy each other some plants for our garden. Our container gardening success is limited – our plants vary between degrees of dead with no hope of revival to struggling to get by. We have, however, perfected the art of growing grass. Though this is very cool, we decided to attempt something more challenging this Valentine’s Day and we got each other a whole assortment of goodies: tomato plants, bell pepper plants, chile pepper plants, basil, strawberries, and a whole pretty pot of succulents. These will join our paper whites, tulips, and our lemon tree. Growing edible plants is part of our larger plan to add more foods to Ian’s diet. Hopefully the plants don’t die before they get big enough to eat.