My birthday yesterday was mediocre. It might have been awful if it weren't for all the birthday greetings I received from family, friends, Facebook people, etc. The love poured out generously, and that was nice. Okay, but even with all that love...I wasn't too happy. Sorry.
Today though has been fantastic. I think mainly it's because I received the Powell's gift certificates...finally. I'm not a huge believer in retail therapy. But yeah. Sometimes it DOES help. There's not just the thrill of getting something. It's fun to search for things. I went on Wikipedia, and looked up Australian authors. There's still a lot of people out there that are new to me. It makes me think I'll need to be working on this blog forever (literally) before I know enough. I need to get myself bitten by a vampire.
My parents and Tim were both very generous, so I got a TON of books. To be specific, I got 28 books for 154 dollars. And I still have money leftover. I could have gone overboard, and used all of it. But I figured I should save some, and if there are authors I end up liking, then I can order more of their stuff.
Anyway, that's an average of $5.50 per book. That's pretty good.
Almost all of the books are Australian. I no longer limit myself to reading Aussie books only. But I can easily get American (and other) books at the library.
I did get one book by Justin Cronin. He's American. And I got an unschooling book. I'm pretty sure it was written by an American, but it was an Australian that told me about it.
The only rain on my parade is I am running out of bookshelf space. I really need to get rid of some of these books. I guess I need to send some packages out....to American residents only. Sorry. I'm not paying shipping costs to Australia.
I really need to find another American who's obsessed with Australia. OR maybe I'll find a homesick Aussie expat who wants to reunite with his homeland via literature. At a later date, I'll list which books I'm willing to say good-bye to.
Oh. The other good thing about today. I know Tim wanted to make me happy. And he does that a lot by offering food. I wasn't in a huge mood for anything yesterday. But TODAY I suddenly wanted a milk shake. So I kindly asked him to fetch one for me.
AND Jack made some gift coupons. Actually, he has a whole economic system going on. He has a list of services, and then he gave me some toy money. I'm pretty much using all my cash on back scratches. I might also buy a walk together to the library or grocery store.
I feel a little weird/guilty for having a good day today. My friend's two children are having surgery. They're battling that monster named Leukemia. I think I'd rather face Voldemort. Well, maybe not...now that I think of it.
So here I am happy, and my friend is waiting nervous in the hospital. But I'm wishing, hoping, praying that today ends up being a wonderful thing for them. I hope they can look back at it as the day their son's life was saved.
Today though has been fantastic. I think mainly it's because I received the Powell's gift certificates...finally. I'm not a huge believer in retail therapy. But yeah. Sometimes it DOES help. There's not just the thrill of getting something. It's fun to search for things. I went on Wikipedia, and looked up Australian authors. There's still a lot of people out there that are new to me. It makes me think I'll need to be working on this blog forever (literally) before I know enough. I need to get myself bitten by a vampire.
My parents and Tim were both very generous, so I got a TON of books. To be specific, I got 28 books for 154 dollars. And I still have money leftover. I could have gone overboard, and used all of it. But I figured I should save some, and if there are authors I end up liking, then I can order more of their stuff.
Anyway, that's an average of $5.50 per book. That's pretty good.
Almost all of the books are Australian. I no longer limit myself to reading Aussie books only. But I can easily get American (and other) books at the library.
I did get one book by Justin Cronin. He's American. And I got an unschooling book. I'm pretty sure it was written by an American, but it was an Australian that told me about it.
The only rain on my parade is I am running out of bookshelf space. I really need to get rid of some of these books. I guess I need to send some packages out....to American residents only. Sorry. I'm not paying shipping costs to Australia.
I really need to find another American who's obsessed with Australia. OR maybe I'll find a homesick Aussie expat who wants to reunite with his homeland via literature. At a later date, I'll list which books I'm willing to say good-bye to.
Oh. The other good thing about today. I know Tim wanted to make me happy. And he does that a lot by offering food. I wasn't in a huge mood for anything yesterday. But TODAY I suddenly wanted a milk shake. So I kindly asked him to fetch one for me.
AND Jack made some gift coupons. Actually, he has a whole economic system going on. He has a list of services, and then he gave me some toy money. I'm pretty much using all my cash on back scratches. I might also buy a walk together to the library or grocery store.
I feel a little weird/guilty for having a good day today. My friend's two children are having surgery. They're battling that monster named Leukemia. I think I'd rather face Voldemort. Well, maybe not...now that I think of it.
So here I am happy, and my friend is waiting nervous in the hospital. But I'm wishing, hoping, praying that today ends up being a wonderful thing for them. I hope they can look back at it as the day their son's life was saved.