eReader review

I have borrowed an eReader to play with and see if I like it. Well, I know I like it, but do I really like it enough to BUY one?

I am around it all day at work. I sell it like it is candy, but for myself - the girl who is secretly sniffing books because the smell of print and paper is fantabulous - can I convert to a machine in order to read my books???

In really spending time playing with it, I have come to find out is that it can be distracting. I don't have time to read because I am too busy doing other things on it, like checking my email and reading blogs. I love the color magazines on it. I would love to have a bunch of magazines, but when I have had the subscriptions, I don't make time to read them. They just end up piled up in some corner, never read. But on the eReader, they seem so much more manageable.

The consistent time I read is before bed. About an hour or two before I go to sleep, I crawl into bed and grab a book. It is there that my body learns to rest and get tired. My mind is also occupied, which usually (crossing my fingers here) tires out the final bits of my awake brain. I like this routine. It really helps when I close at work and don't get home til late and need to get up early the next day. I, then am not up forever. I am able to actually go to bed and routinely, get tired.

Last night, I downloaded Fallen by Lauren Kate.


I just finished reading Falling Home by Karen White and was in between books. I started to read Unbroken by Lauren Hillenbrand, but I hate to say it - it is out of my normal reading genre so I am struggling to stay focused. I know that while reading, by just pushing a button, I can switch over and read a blog or check the internet. I really want to read Unbroken, but feel I may need the book to really stay focused on this - I mean it is a HISTORY book. It will take all of my focus. I was never really adept at retaining history information and I am sorry now, especially now, because there are so many things I would like to know that I know I should know because I vaguely remember being taught in school. I think I may need to start my eReader experience with a lighter, easier to read book.

I am lucky too because by borrowing the eReader, I can buy anything on work's dime. I can download a million magazines or newspapers or books - whatever I want and I don't have to pay for it. When the time comes, if it does, that I buy an eReader, I will then be responsible for paying for my content. I am also, on the side, busily adding free content to my online eReader account so that, if and when I buy, my eReader will have lots of things in the library to begin with.

Ahem, I completely digress.

So far here is what I have come up with -

PROS -

• the prices of books are drastically less, even with coupons
  
• I won't have to carry around 15 pound books depending on what I am reading
• I can carry as many books as I want and it is still the same size and weight in my bag
  
• I won't have books hidden in the closet, resting on my nightstand, bleeding out into the family room and every other room (including my car)
• I can keep all my books on my eReader and since I rarely reread a book, I can delete any time I want to
• I can lend a book to anyone who has the application (whether they have an eReader or not)
• I can be a total tech snob and I can check my email, read blogs, etc on the eReader
• I can highlight, check the dictionary and bookmark any passage or page I want
• I can read with Saint sleeping next to me and not have a friggin spotlight on the book in order to see clearly
• There isn't a messed up dark crease in the book that I continually can't read due to reading at night, with only a booklight
• I can prop the eReader up by sheets and blankets and not have to hold it open
• I can see all of the page at once and turn with the flick of my finger
• if I lose or break my eReader every book I have ever bought is on the internet account, so my replacement eReader will automatically upload my library
  

Cons -

• I won't feel the weight of a book, the smell of the paper and ink
• I can't resell my books back to the used bookstore
  

So the verdict?

I love the eReader. It did make my eyes feel a little strained and I did develop a slight throb of a headache last night. I am not sure if this is because I am SO TIRED (it's been weeks that I have really had a good sleep) that my body was begging to fall asleep, meanwhile my brain was getting addicted to Fallen and wanted to stay up and read. I am thinking I would like to borrow the original eReader and see if the e-ink screen makes a difference, but I have let my boss know that I would like to keep the eReader for at least a few more days, hopefully giving myself enough time to contemplate the eye strain, if there is any because I woke up this morning having slept a very nice six hours, which as of late, is very good.

********************

Upon searching for covers, I am a BIG fan of the skins that are so incredibly artistic like this one by DecalGirl and I can't believe they sell covers that stand up like a frame. LOVE IT!!

an eyebrow raising event

For many years now I have been fascinated with getting an eyebrow ring. Yes, you read that right. I have wanted an eyebrow ring. The other day on my way out of town, after the holiday, I convinced Saint to go run a quick errand with me. We made a stop at my favorite tattoo parlor and had them insert an eyebrow barbell. It is a slightly curved half ring that basically only the top silver bulb and the bottom bulb show. One is above the eyebrow and the other is below.

YES, I GOT ONE!



I knew when I was considering this that I work in retail and may get to work only to have my boss tell me to take it out. I was prepared for this. I was ok with this. But this is the first time I have worked somewhere where it is such a casual environment. I am surrounded by tattoo'd, pierced and very different types of people. I felt like this was a good time as any to give it a try.

Honestly, I am not even sure it will stay. I like it. I am having fun with it and would like to replace the simple silver bar with a bar with small diamonds on each side, once the swelling goes down. The guy who did the piercing obviously did such a good job because there has been no bleeding, no puss and no discoloration. It is simply swollen. I guess it would help if I slowed down and remembered that I did this and not catch it on my shirts or hit it when brushing the hair out of my eyes.

But it is on my face and I hate when people make comments and it is impossible for people to NOT make comments. That is just the way it is, especially when working in retail. Everyone has an opinion. Go figure.

I also wonder if I am too old to pull it off. I have know people who maybe need to grow up and look a bit more adult like, but that is just culture talking. I hate that whole assumption that we need to look or be like something in order to be considered accepted.

I broke down and told my father over the phone because I was worried about the next time I saw him. He was disappointed and a bit pissed. Not surprising, I had a feeling. Saint thinks he may just be concerned with the impression on my 14 year old niece. Yes she does like tattoos and piercings, not that she has any and I do know I have made an impression on her. Haven't figured out how to talk to her about it. It is hard when, even at my age, I want my parents to support me and approve of me, so I am bummed about my dad. I figured my dad would tell my mom, but maybe not. I appreciate that Saint said he loves it and says it's sexy - now that is shocking because I never, not once, mentioned that I wanted one to him.

So far the people at work have had nice things to say about it and my boss is totally fine with it, though he has said if our district manager says no, I will have to take it out. One guy at work actually said, "I never noticed your piercing." This isn't like a new wave of craziness. It is just something I have wanted to do and now seemed like a good time. I am not going to run out and get a bunch of tattoos or other piercings. Especially when every time I barely touch it, it pings with small pain. This is just a simple and small thing I did for myself. Cool thing is, I can totally cover it up with my bangs.

snow day

Yesterday, I woke up to it billowing snow all around me. It wasn't sticking to the ground when I left for work, but it was enough to let me know it was going to be a good storm.

For my lunch hour I walked outside to get a feel of the weather. On the way, I stopped to take a picture of a cluster of people who had found a good, small hill to sled down.


Later that day, our district manager called to find out what was going on with the weather and to let me know to keep an eye on things and if necessary call the closing team and tell them not to come in due to weather hazards. I then called our general manager to let him know. Continuously throughout the day I felt like the middle man. Our DM would call inform me of things, then I would call our GM and tell him. It was a bit frustrating even though I know the DM is the bigger boss, I wish she would have gone through out GM. Each time I talked to our DM I got the feeling she really wanted us to close the store. About midway through the day, I pulled a meeting and we started to treat the day as if we were closing - all projects stopped and we just started to clean up. About an hour later, we got the call to officially close.

I had to kick out a huge family who had decided to camp in our cafe. We make closing announcements for the last 15 minutes we are open to let people know they need to get their stuff and get ready to head out, so I was a bit pissed when AFTER our announcement that we were now closed, I hear the mom ask if any of her twenty kids needed to go to the bathroom. I mean come on, do you have no consideration for my people? The whole reason we were closing early was for THEIR safety so they could get home before the roads got really bad. How rude! And just to make it worse, I made the announcement one hour before we closed and on the half hour.

In the end, we closed early, but ironically, I stayed an hour later than scheduled to help us get a good close.

Everyone was praying for a snow day today. Me? I already had the day off, so in my head, I officially called a snow day just for fun.

Driving home yesterday was scary, the roads were so icy that every couple of feet my tires would slide and the light on my dashboard would blink indicating ice. I stopped at Target to get cat food (I was running low and was worried if I got snowed in), wood, soup and milk. I drove extremely slow and just let those who needed to drive fast go around me. After a drive home that took twice as long, I dug in and shoveled my driveway. It was quite a bit of work due to the fact that it had all day to develop.



I have zero plans today. Okay, so I need to do a load of laundry, but other than that absolutely nothing needs to get done. I'd like to clean out my fireplace and just empty the leftover ash into the trash. I do have enough to make another batch of PB Kisses Cookies which I think would be nice to have and share. I'd like to play a couple of movies that I got for Christmas and I borrowed an eReader from work thinking about downloading that new book, Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand that we are literally selling by the loads. (excerpt below)

The Story of Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

Growing up in California in the 1920s, Louie was a hellraiser, stealing everything edible that he could carry, staging elaborate pranks, getting in fistfights, and bedeviling the local police. But as a teenager, he emerged as one of the greatest runners America had ever seen, competing at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where he put on a sensational performance, crossed paths with Hitler, and stole a German flag right off the Reich Chancellery. He was preparing for the 1940 Olympics, and closing in on the fabled four-minute mile, when World War II began. Louie joined the Army Air Corps, becoming a bombardier. Stationed on Oahu, he survived harrowing combat, including an epic air battle that ended when his plane crash-landed, some six hundred holes in its fuselage and half the crew seriously wounded.

On a May afternoon in 1943, Louie took off on a search mission for a lost plane. Somewhere over the Pacific, the engines on his bomber failed. The plane plummeted into the sea, leaving Louie and two other men stranded on a tiny raft. Drifting for weeks and thousands of miles, they endured starvation and desperate thirst, sharks that leapt aboard the raft, trying to drag them off, a machine-gun attack from a Japanese bomber, and a typhoon with waves some forty feet high. At last, they spotted an island. As they rowed toward it, unbeknownst to them, a Japanese military boat was lurking nearby. Louie’s journey had only just begun.

That first conversation with Louie was a pivot point in my life. Fascinated by his experiences, and the mystery of how a man could overcome so much, I began a seven-year journey through his story. I found it in diaries, letters and unpublished memoirs; in the memories of his family and friends, fellow Olympians, former American airmen and Japanese veterans; in forgotten papers in archives as far-flung as Oslo and Canberra. Along the way, there were staggering surprises, and Louie’s unlikely, inspiring story came alive for me. It is a tale of daring, defiance, persistence, ingenuity, and the ferocious will of a man who refused to be broken.
The culmination of my journey is my new book, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. I hope you are as spellbound by Louie’s life as I am.


Currently I am sitting in my PJs drinking coffee curled up in a blanket playing on my laptop with the tv in the background. Saved by the Bell just ended and I switched back to the news. Every once in awhile a good gust of wind blows a bunch of snow off the roof and into the air. It is really cool looking. It is still snowing, lightly, but I imagine it will continue most of the day. I need to get up and go shovel the driveway from what collected overnight, but I am not ready to actually move anywhere other than from the coffee machine to the couch.

Tuesday enjoying the fire

the steel toed boots

Saint works in a place where he is in charge of a team of people who unload a truck of product and then push it out to the floor, among other things. Point is he works around a lot of heavy boxes and uses major equipment. And on occasion a large flat will roll over his foot or feet and it will hurt.

His current shoes are being held together with duct tape. DUCT TAPE. Do they work? Yes, but he has rolled over his toes more than a few times. I have recommended that he gets some steel toed shoes, but he refuses. He swears they are heavy and ugly.

I found a FABULOUS deal on a pair of black steel toed boots for him for Christmas. I looked forever (about three hours) for a pair that did not have the ankle support because I was sure that was a major deal breaker. No luck. Must have the ankle if I was to have steel toes. I bought them online, so I got free shipping, a low price and a discount on top of that. Even though I wasn't sure he would love them, I thought the practicality of them would win him over. (Is that how all women think?)

When he came into town (and the boots were in transit to my place to be wrapped) we wandered through a shoe store and I pointed out the exact pair of shoes I bought him and said, SO what do you think of these? (My god, WHY do I do this to myself???)


His answer, "I would never, ever, wear those boots. They are the worst."

Hmmmm, maybe I should rethink this whole steel toed boots gift.

So what does any girl do? I called my mom and she told me to give them to him anyway. She assures me it will be fine.

So I did. I gave them to him.

I have no idea what he really thought when he opened the box and saw those most hideous boots, but he faked it well enough for me to believe he likes them. Then I retold him the story of his comment in the store. Whoops. No really, he didn't remember saying that. Haha jokes on me. I will never forget that little comment.

A week later, he really like the boots. He is shocked that they are not as heavy as he thought. In fact, he doesn't even realize the weight of them. He did have to buy socks that went above the ankle because the first day he rubbed his achilles' raw. It makes me all warm and fuzzy inside to know he is happier and safer at work - even just a little bit. He even added gel insoles to add comfort.

Granted he lives in a different city than I do and could very well be lying. He is an admitted liar. In fact, and I quote, "I am good at it and therefore will continue to do it." But I have a feeling, he likes them, but I am okay with telling myself that he likes them (even if I am lying to myself).

HELOOOOO Christmas Eve

Reverb10 - Everything's Ok - What was the best moment that could serve as proof that everything is going to be alright? And how will you incorporate that discovery into the year ahead?

Woke up feeling a little like a kid on Christmas. Excitement is building.

Need to still make No Bake Cheesecake. Gotta go to the grocery store for milk and eggs. One more work shift. I have company coming over tonight. SAINT IS COMING HERE!!

It is absolutely amazing how hard it is to be away from him. And yet, it makes me realize just how good we will be together - or apart. I know that we can live together. I know that we can live apart. Not that I want to live apart, but sometimes life just gives you curve balls. My father is a sales guy and in the past has been gone most weekdays. I never wanted that in my life, but I realize that when you have that person; that guy that completes you and makes you better, it's okay. It's not great, but it is definitely okay. I hate to use these words, but it does all come back to being a WILLING and ABLE participant in the relationship.

When I am sad, he is able to help ease the pain. When I am gone, so far gone missing him, past reasonable, he knows to let me be. Let me work through the pain. I get the occasional text that says, "Hey I love you!" (go ahead, it's okay say Ahhhhh) He fills me in on how things are going with him. We get out our frustrations. Hell, he communicated more with my mother than I do. He took my 14 year old niece to look at Christmas lights and drink hot cocoa.

He just gets me and allows me to be me. He knows how important my family is to me and he enjoys being with them too.

Course I honestly know it has nothing to do with him. It is all me.

I made the choice awhile back to be who I am with him. It was easier than trying to woo him and then bam! here I am. I did that already and it doesn't work. I wanted to be able to ask for what I need and see how he handles it. I wanted to be able to be frustrated and unreasonable and helpless and see where he landed. And surprisingly, he passed every time. It may take him 10 minutes to process, but he gets it.

I also chose to let him be him. If he is annoying occasionally. Oh well, so am I. (and so on) But I also paid attention to the warning signals. We did have a pretty good argument a long time ago and I told him that what happened was a deal breaker. We talked it through and I realized something, I could set boundaries and he would do his damnest not to cross them. Wow, amazing to date someone who respects me and I respect myself enough to tell him.

So in essence, I never really knew WHEN it happened, but I do know HOW it happened. I chose to just be me and let the chips fall where they may. I have made mistakes in the past trying too hard to be perfect. No more. Saint gave me a quote frame that says, "Just be me. I can't screw it up."

The life lesson here, be me. Just be whoever it is I am.

It's like grooming my hair. If it wants to be crazy one day, let it be. Don't try to tame it because the minute I let my guard down it will pop up like Mary.

Reverb10 - New Name

Reverb10 - New name. Let's meet again, for the first time. If you could introduce yourself to strangers by another name for just one day, what would it be and why?

First thing that came to mind was a foreign name so that people wouldn't know I spoke English.

Sadly, I am a bit tired. Ok very tired. Overworked and I miss Saint and my family like crazy. I lost it two days ago when my landlady called and berrated me. I can't stand her. She makes me crazy. The tone in her voice is enough to turn this nice person (me) into a finger crunching, trying to find a hit man and takes all the good energy out of me.

Two more days of work and I will be off for two days. With Saint. And apparently, with my family, as Saint as worked out that we will be going to town for the day after Christmas. Which is good, yet, I was a bit looking forward to doing nothing, in my PJs with my man. A little cooking. A few movies. A bit of munching. Maybe a walk. Now I feel as if I will be running. But then again, I do get to see my family and I have missed them greatly. So, I am sure it will all be fine.

I can tell you one thing though, this kitty will NOT be getting up at 5am on Christmas morning. No matter how much Saint wants to open his present. (the man is a very early riser, as he works at 3am)

In high school spanish class, I always wanted to be Izabella because only the very pretty, very popular girls got that name. I always ended up choosing Lolita or Veronica. Sigh. I always wanted a really foreign, blessedly cool spanish name.

Honestly though, I love my name. I wouldn't ask for another. I know that sounds odd, but I don't think my mom could have picked a better name for me. Heidi just fits me, in all senses of the word and I gotta say I haven't met very many Heidi's. I like not having a name that is everywhere. But, I feel, it is memorable too. It's easy to say - well unless you are spanish and the H is silent (this is very funny, now that I think about it - you can't say my name in Spanish). It's easy to spell, except apparently no one else has read the book, seen the movie or the play. So honestly, it is just a good name for me and I like it. Fair enough?

PS: Happy Christmas Eve, eve

PPS: If you happen to be out shopping (haha) and run into someone who is working and not so friendly, give them a smile and say thank you (though you may want to yell at them) because maybe they are like me and have been working for the last eight days straight (and still have two more days left of work) and are a bit tired and a bit cranky. I'm just saying . . .

cookie carnage

Looking at this picture of leftover hershey kisses wrappers, I can't help but wonder what Martha Stewart would be able to craft out of the them.


I think it's crap that in order to bake these peanut butter hershey kisses cookies (AKA: peanut butter blossoms), I have to take the time to individually unwrap each of the damn kisses. Especially without my wingman. It takes twice as long because I have to eat every other one unwrapped. Or maybe I forgot to put it in the bowl instead of my mouth. It's unusual to unwrap and not eat.

I scooped the cookies on to the two separate baking sheets before hand to make sure I had enough room and was ready to swap out the cookies.

Sadly, my first baking sheet cookies were WAY TOO BIG and I will have to keep those and eat them. Heaven forbid someone sees that I messed up the first batch.

Luckily, I was able to half the second batch and make smaller, more acceptable looking cookies.

WHOOPS! I dropped this warm, moist, straight out of the oven cookie upside down on the counter. Had to use my finger to wipe up the melted chocolate and then eat the cookie in order to keep the counter clean.

Here are half of the ooey, gooey, wonderfully warm cookie remains.