New shoes.

I got some new shoes while I was home in Boston. They have an ankle strap that you can take off.
I like them.

I like to think I have become a better worker in the past year, but that is a lie.

I am sitting in a cafe, thinking about writing a cover letter since my job ends in two months and unemployment is not an appealing lifestyle to me.
Instead of actually working on it, though, I do everything I can to avoid actually writing words in a document. I didn't even notice that I had resorted to all of my favorite procrastination tools from college until I started to clean out my inbox. I just deleted 150 emails that I do not need, but I still don't have a usable cover letter. Must work on that.
Shit. I just realized that blogging about procrastinating is yet another old favorite. Expect lots of posts in the coming weeks. . .

Today I bought myself a ring. I like it.


Also, if my mom knew how to find my blog, she would be pleased if I said "Happy Mother's Day!" So, Happy Mother's Day, Mom! You are the best mother a girl could ask for, and I'm lucky I got you.

I always eat burgers when I travel.*

I am sitting in a restaurant/bar in SFO, waiting for my flight to go home and eating a delicious cheeseburger with fries when I pull out my latest book (thanks for all the suggestions, by the way), In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan. The cover exhorts me to Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly Plants. I take another look at my non-local, non-plant-based meal, and decide to blog instead.

*I used to always eat McDonalds when traveling, but most aeroports don't have them anymore. This makes me sad.

Dilemma

If I move back east next year, I will be on the east coast, near my friends and family, and possibly near all the interesting jobs.
If I stay in California, I get to keep in touch with my San Francisco friends more easily, enjoy better weather, and continue the California adventure.
Right now, I'm feeling pulled to New York. Is that dumb?

That library book sound makes me happy.

Up until I was about thirteen, I was an avid reader. I read all the time, even spending many elementary school recesses sitting at the edge of the play yard, my nose stuck in whatever book I was enthralled with at the time. My parents used to have to come in and check on my in the middle of the night, since I usually stayed up way past my bedtime reading.
When I got to high school, though, I kind of stopped reading. I quickly figured out that my teachers were assigning me many more pages a night than I could ever get done, so I figured out what actually needed to be read and what I could learn by taking notes in class, which was most of it. I was always busy, so I never had any time to seek out fun books, let alone read them.
This continued through college. Every now and then, especially on vacations and a couple of times during my year as a nanny, I would find some book, usually of the Chick Lit persuasion, and read it in two days. I would remember how much I enjoyed getting lost in a story, even one with as badly-developed characters and thin plots as the books I was reading. Then I would quickly forget again, because I didn't have a book right in front of me to pick up as soon as I finished my last one.
When I graduated last June, I realized that I would finally have time to devote to reading again. I read something like six books in as many weeks. When I moved to San Francisco, I brought along Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides, because my friend Lisel told me it was good, and it seemed like it would last me until I was able to get a library card. Since then, I've been reading nonstop, and it's wonderful. Last week, I took People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks out of the library, because Emily has been talking about it for upwards of a year, only to return it four days later because I wasn't able to put it down, so I finished it that quickly. Right now I'm reading the Yokota Officer's Club by Sarah Bird because its cover had plenty of pink on it and it looked good. I'm not sure what I'm going to read next, but I'd better decide soon, because given the rate I'm going, I'm going to need a new book tomorrow.
What's your favorite book of all time? What are you reading right now?