What I'm Reading Now -- Breaking Dawn

It's true, I'm reading the last book. I still haven't finished The Secret Battle, but I have made some progress. It's a slow read, and I just need something to keep me going. So Stephanie Meyer it is.

Anyone hungry for a piece of roasted fan belt?

Sorry, I know it's been a while. It's just that not much of note has happened in the last few days. I've been working a lot at the bookstore in my "free" time, and that is where the one and only interesting thing happened.

But before I get to that interesting thing, get this. In one night - one night! - I was asked two of my favorite bookstore questions:
1. Customer, after taking a long, hard look at my nametag which clearly says Barnes & Noble: "hi, do you work here?" No, sorry, I don't.
2. Customer: "can you tell me where the non-fiction section is?" "Well, ma'am, everything that's not in the fiction section is non-fiction, so could you maybe be a little more specific?"

And now, on to the car fire! We were closing the store one night, when one of my co-workers looked outside and informed us that there was a car on fire in the parking lot! It was crazy. The fire department showed up a few minutes later and took the entire car apart to make sure it wouldn't blow ip in the middle of the night. Sorry, no picture, though :-(

Holy Paperwork

I knew, entering the field of law, that there would be a lot of paper involved. But my (erroneous) assumption was that it would be paper having to do with clients, not with me.

Not true. In the last week or so, I've had to fill out stuff for the Missouri Bar, the US District Court, malpractice insurance, a notary commission, and...I'm forgetting something. And whatever that other thing is. I'm hoping that this is all because I'm new, and I won't have to do this forever. I think I need an assistant :-)

I'm Waiting...

K, it's time for a new question on your blog.

When your link fell off the bottom of the list, I got a special request to put it back on so that people could read it. Now give us something to wonder about!

Good work, Mom!

She finished the puzzle without my expert assistance!

Missouri Bar Enrollment Ceremony

Today, I became a lawyer! K, Dad, and Grandpa were in attendance at the ceremony, and lots of good wishes came in from peeps all over who couldn't make it. Thanks to everybody!

Sadly, there aren't any GOOD pictures of me getting my license, and until K sends me the ones she took (hint, hint), there aren't any! But here's what I have from the day:

The dome atop the Missouri State Capitol building

The Missouri Supreme Court building

Self-explanatory, isn't it?

J and I, after it was all said and done

The Reader -- Take 2

So, the truth is, I wasn't crazy about it. I thought the ending (which I won't spoil) was very appropriate to the story, but my fear that the entire book would be rather self-indulgent unfortunately came true. (Example: the narrator compares himself to the Holocaust victims because he was "betrayed" by the woman he loved, who worked for the SS during WWII.)

But the writing was pretty good, and I liked the way the author pointed out some little things in life that are so true, but don't seem particularly interesting or significant until someone writes about it. (Example: there's a section where the narrator is complaining that he can't sleep, so he sits up at night reading. As his eyes and his book start to close, he realizes what is happening, shuts the book, and turns off the light. As soon as the light is off, though, he's wide awake again. That happens to me all the time!)

Anyway, two good things I can say about the book are (1) that it was a pretty quick listen, and (2) it made my plane rides more entertaining than they otherwise would have been.

North Carolina, Day 4

Sorry for the delay in posting the pictures. I'm very busy and important :-)

Last day in NC :-( Sadness. But we had fun while we could. Mom made fresh biscuits for breakfast, and I had biscuits and gravy. We lazed around most of the morning working on two puzzles: a jigsaw puzzle, and a stereo puzzle (getting all the jigsaw pieces in the right place is way easier than getting everything out of boxes and making sure all the cords are plugged into the right place).
We went to lunch at Guglhupf bakery and had tasty soup, sandwiches, and pastries. It's the best bakery in D-town! After that, we met up with E and her friend G, and the four of us went to the Nasher, an art museum on the Duke campus. They had an exhibit on Picasso which E and G had planned to see, so Mom and I tagged along also. It was interesting, and there was a wider variety of stuff than I expected to see. I've only been to one Picasso exhibit before, and it had mostly cubist, Guernica-esque type works. And there were a lot of those here too, but also there were some more realistic ones, which I prefer.

North Carolina, Day 3

E had to work all day today, so Mom and I hung out. Mom made ebelskiver for breakfast, some of which were filled with raspberry jam and some with lemon curd. They were quite tasty.

We lounged around the house for a while doing not much of anything, then decided we should lounge around the pool. She still has a key to the pool at her old apartment - the new tenants aren't moving in until later this month - so we took advantage.

We did a couple errands after that: Barnes & Noble and Home Depot. We got loads of stuff at HD, and by "we" I mean "mom." I only got some paint samples. I've been wanting to live in a place that had some color on the walls, but I held off painting because I thought I was moving out of my apartment. Since I just signed a lease for another year, though, I'm considering my options. My colors are difficult to match, because the "living room" is brown with some red, olive, and yellow, and the "dining room" is lighter green and blue. But the two rooms aren't really separate, so I either have to find a color which works with both, or find some way to divide the two by using different colors. Choices, choices. And we know how well I do with those.

Anywho, after errands I went to yoga with E again. We did a lot of balancing work, some of which I was good at, and some of which almost made me fall on my face. Then we came back to mom's for another celebration dinner because E got 100% on her orgo exam! E also dug through some boxes of her kitchen stuff that my mom has, because she was inspired by the chocolate exhibit yesterday. She has a copper hot chocolate pot, and she wants to put her new hot chocolate cookbook to good use. And while she was polishing that, we decided to put ourselves to good use and also polish my mom's copper bowls. It was a pretty rockin' party. Too bad you missed it.

North Carolina is going to the Dogs

Some pictures of E's and Mom's dogs, Surya and Molly.