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Today is my 20th anniversary. Looking back is so odd. Thinking about everything the two of us have done, the places we’ve gone, the children we’ve (almost) raised. It’s also strange that my husband is out of town today. As both of us are retired from the USAF, over the years we spent many special occasions apart. Christmas, Thanksgiving, birthdays, anniversaries, we’ve been apart for all of them at least once if not WAY more often. Maybe those separations are part of the reason we’re still married. Being separated so often, as we were, (separations lasting anywhere from 3 days to 1 1/2 years) gave each of us a chance to really appreciate exactly what the other brings to our marriage. It’s hard to take someone or their help forgranted when they’re not there! I think it also makes it easier to ‘put up with’ each other. After all, having a ‘break’ every so often from each other’s little ideosyncracies can be such a relief! But who knows? Maybe our staying together for 20 years just means we’re each too stubborn to give up? However it happened, I’m glad it did. I just hope I’m around for another 20…maybe he’ll be in town for that one?

I took the pages widget off my sidebar because I couldn’t figure out how to get just the months to show and not every single review…so now you’ll just have to click at the top.

And I added the Authors I enjoy page…
JJ

Being the readaholic that I am, I have lists of lists. If you are interested in checking out what I plan to read and review in the upcoming months, go to Amazon and check out the wishlists of Julie L. Anderson. They are arranged by month (of course) and, if you can see the notes and priority, a couple of months prior to their release I arrange them by day of release in that month. So if you look at the 1008 wishlist (Oct of 2008), then if you look at the priority/notes section under each book, there should be a day (1, 7, 14, 21, 28, or 31). If you didn’t know, media is released on Tuesdays. The majority of books are released either the first or last Tuesday of the month! Some big authors (Roberts, Hooper, Lowell, etc) will have a mid-month Friday release (to separate them from the riffraff?) to make their books stand out. Finally, some publishers just say Oct 2008 so most bookstores will put them on the shelf on the 1st of that month (BAM is good about this, Border’s not so much and B&N varies). Now, wasn’t that more than you ever wanted to know about upcoming books and when to look for them?

All this is assuming I don’t receive an ARC (advance reader copy) to review. These are special early prints of upcoming releases that publishers and publicists pass out to review sites hoping to gin up some buzz on the upcoming release. Sometimes they look NOTHING like the finished product and sometimes the only way you can tell is a circular stamp-looking thing on the front cover of the book. If I get energetic this weekend, I’ll try to take some pics of ARCs for exemplars…

Happy reading!

Are people becoming more selfish or am I just getting too old (and the answer is the first part, NOT the second part)? This morning, I decided to drive through McD’s for a Mcgriddle (love those things). There was a bit of a line, but that’s pretty normal for that time of morning. After about a minute, the car in front of me pulls up to the speaker to order. There’s probably 4 cars in front of her. After about two minutes, the driver decides this is taking too long so she just pulls out of the line and drives off. No biggie right? No…let’s think for a minute. Who do you suppose is going to get ‘her’ order? That’s right, ME. When they tried to give me her order, I explained she had driven off. Of course, I had to explain this to both the cashier AND at the delivery window. So once again let me ask this inconsiderate person “Why are you so much more important than me?” If you knew you only had a couple of minutes, why in the HELL would you pull into a drive-thru behind a LINE of cars? OK, maybe they didn’t have any money? Why in the HELL didn’t you check that BEFORE you ordered? I put these folks on a par with those who park in the handicapped slots, but obviously ARE NOT handicapped. I don’t care if you are driving Grandma’s car that has a sticker…unless Grandma is WITH you NOW and plans to enter the store…you SHOULDN’T park there. Back when I had to drop my kids off at daycare on my way to work, there was a loading zone for the daycare bus at the front of the building. The parking slots were RIGHT BESIDE this loading zone which was clearly marked NO PARKING. Since parents’ were required to walk their child into the building, that obviously means nobody should park their car in the loading zone, right? WRONG!!! It seems like every morning I would have to drive around some inconsiderate a@#hole whose time was apparently SO MUCH more important than mine that they couldn’t spare that extra ONE MINUTE it would take to pull another 10 feet to a parking place. Nope, they were so important, they would put their car in park, leave it running, walk their kid inside, walk them to their room, kiss them bye, and then come out and hop in their car (still running mind you) and take off. The devil that lives on my left shoulder often tempted me to get in their car and park it in a legal slot while they were dropping off their child and put the keys on the front desk. Wouldn’t that have been a scream? But I’m guessing these uber-important people would probably have gotten pissed and sued me or something. And how about the idiots who use the self-pay lane at the grocery/Wal-Mart/etc yet DON’T KNOW HOW TO USE IT? Maybe a better time to LEARN would be sometime other than the freaking BUSIEST RUSH HOUR TIMES of the day? If there’s a long line, and you don’t know what you’re doing…then get the hell over in the cashier line and let those of us who can finish in seconds get through and out of the store since THAT’S WHY WE ARE USING THAT LINE! Ditto for folks in the drive-thru lanes at the bank. Just get the hell out of your car and go in if it’s going to take you 20 minutes at the drive-thru! And could you please have your deposit slips/checks/paperwork filled out BEFORE you get to the window? Those of us who have our Shit together would appreciate that.

Ok, I think I’m done with today’s rant.
JJ

I think the first true novel I read was “The Exorcist” by William Peter Blatty in ‘73 or ‘74. I remember the movie had just come out and people were freaking out. My parents said I was too young to read it, so I begged a teenager at church to loan me a copy just for Sunday afternoon. I sat down and read the whole thing in about 3 1/2 hours. Mom caught me and grounded me (I would have been 11 or so) for a week, but I still think it was worth it.

I also remember getting in trouble alot because Mom or Dad would catch me reading in bed under the covers with a flashlight after bedtime. I got better at hearing them coming before I could hide the flashlight and book, but I still think it was worth it.