question

Okay. Who the heck is still coming to this blog from the blogspot version? I closed it down in 2008 and there are exactly two posts left, one that says “so long and thanks for all the fish” and one about Jason Lezak, which I left in place because there are not enough blog posts about Jason Lezak. How are people still ending up there? If one of these people is YOU, let me know because it’s very confusing.

That video still gives me chills.

And since I’m on the subject, in the past month people have gotten here by searching for:  “neil gaiman amanda palmer,” “gay smackdown,” and “the 11th doctor’s hair.”

I think that’s a pretty good summary of gracetopia, really.

end of rambly post

currently writing

Lookame go!

*typetypetype*

Anyway.

I desperately need to clean my room, but I know I would just use that as an excuse later for not having written, so I am leaving my room a disaster and writing instead. I am the queen of excuses, so I’m trying to turn over a new leaf. Yeah we’ll see how that goes.

Yesterday was an office outing/retreat thing, we went to an island and did a scavenger hunt thing and sports and lounging around. I played softball, and everyone was impressed by my mad softball skillz. (It was almost insulting, actually, how many people were like, “what grace can play softball? wow!” Almost. I decided to be honored instead. haha.)

But anyway that was fun, and the sun has finally come out in Boston, and I’m sitting here writing, and all is well in the world.

I have decided to eat Mango Sorbet for lunch. Good idea yes/no?

/random grace rambling

boxes and books

It’s been a pretty eventful weekend here in Gracetopia. Well, really  just one major event. I unpacked my final box! I’m finally moved in!

The astute among you might remember that I moved here in December. So this is six months after I moved that I finally unpacked the final box. Hey, I’m not speedy but I get it done. Tortoise and hare, people. Tortoise and hare.

I mean, granted, there are three piles of stuff from this final box sitting on my floor, just piles because I don’t know where to put anything. But the box is gone, and that’s what’s important.

This final burst of unpacking was brought upon by a sudden desire to get my spring-cleaning done (okay, so maybe it’s summer by now, whatever I procrastinate). This process necessitated the purchase of a 2nd bookcase. Part of my cleaning yesterday was trying to get all my books on my bookcase, and I quickly came to realize that I had twice as many books as bookspace. So, 2nd bookcase! Which then led to one of my favorite activites: organizing my books. Seriously, I love organizing my books.

I may be a slight nerd.

I don’t organize by author, in case anyone was wondering. I organize by category. Within categories an author’s books are grouped together but the authors are not in alphabetical order. Mostly they’re grouped by size—my shelves must be pretty.

My categories, in descending order of size, are:

• mysteries/true crime (4x larger than next category—this always surprises me)
• sci-fi/fantasy
• 19th-century lit
• children’s books
• books on writing/writers
• graphic novels/comics (most of these could be incorporated into sci-fi/fantasy, above, but they look better if they get their own shelf)
• 1900-1950 books (mostly Waugh and Wodehouse)
• pre-1900 British lit (mostly Shakespeare)
• Oscar Wilde (this was larger before the post office lost a box of my books)
• “modern” fiction (anything after 1950 that I somehow ended up with… a complete hodgepodge)
• non-fiction (mostly Victorian history)
• my friends’ books (too small! get on it, guys)
• miscellaneous (On Bullshit, something-or-other guide to London, 100 Greatest Hockey Players of All Time)

Any books that could go in more than one category go wherever they look the best or whichever category is more specific.

And there you have it, more than you ever wanted to know about how I organize my life.

Speaking of books, there’s still a free book available. Somebody must want it!

commuting in gracetopia

Commuting isn’t fun for anybody. Day in, day out, go this way, go that way. But my last few days have been particularly horrific.

1. Yesterday morning, I am on the bus, on my way to my T stop. It is a usual crowded morning bus, and I am standing near the windshield.

And the bus approaches a stoplight. At this stoplight, like many of its brethren stoplights, Direction North/South goes, then Direction East/West goes, and then the pedestrians go. We are Direction N/S, and the light just turns red as we approach. So then Direction E/W goes. And then it is time for the pedestrians to go, but the bus driver apparently doesn’t know this and starts going. Not just that inch you do when the light is about to turn, he actively begins moving. BUT WAIT there are pedestrians! BRAKE BRAKE!

So the bus driver brakes hard, and everyone goes flying forward. Including me. And I am basically at the front. I am off balance and I go flying and but for the huge bearded hippie dude who is much sturdier than I am, I would have gone through the windshield. So thank you huge bearded hippie dude.

2. Today on my subway ride home, someone threw up in my car. Like, just threw up and left.

I hate vomit. I hate it hate it hate it whether it comes from me or someone else.

I almost threw up as well. God the smell. It was horrible.

I can only wait to see what fun tomorrow will bring.

lazy day of summer

Wow it’s hot.

I have accomplished approximately nothing this weekend. I’m currently in Providence, RI, lazing on my friend’s deck in this 87-degree weather. Trying to balance the beer intake with the water intake and stay under the umbrella’s shade. Had some thoughts of writing, but the sun broiled my brain to mush.

So I’m going to tidy up some things around Gracetopia (going to update the Rogues’ Gallery, for one) and go back to doing nothing on the internet.

More updates as events warrant.

sunday sunday

Good evening, everyone.

Currently listening to: the Sharks game. Gooooo Sharks! I wish I didn’t have to listen to it on the radio, b/c the radio announcers are even more annoying than the normal announcers. Oh well. Someday I’ll own the Sharks, so they’ll save me box seats for every game. (hey, a girl can dream, right?)

Anyway, I’m spending the weekend taking the kid brother to colleges. Tomorrow we’re going to have the fun experience of trying to drive in Boston on the day of the marathon. Luckily we’re closer to the freeway than to the race, so maybe we can just make a quick escape. Maybe…

The fact that I can take tomorrow off is weird to me. Like, I saw on my work schedule that April 20 was an optional holiday, and I was like, “what? we get 4/20 off?” Then I figured it out. But still. You silly New Englanders and your silly holidays. :)

Anaheim just scored. Damn it. This is not going well.

weekend accomplishments: zero

uggghhh I’m such a bad person. I totally bailed on Habitat for Humanity yesterday. I could feel myself getting sick on Friday, and then I woke up on Saturday and I was like, oh god exhaustion and I can tell I’m about to be really ill. So I stayed home and slept. And now I feel like the scum of the earth.

But I am feeling slightly better? So that’s good. I’m still like ridiculously tired, but better.

Except–

So far this weekend I have watched The Last King of Scotland, La Haine (still one of my favorite movies of all time), Law and Order: SVU, The Avengers, and Paris Hilton’s New BFF.*

And eaten a pint of sorbet.

So basically, this weekend was a total loss. Ughhh.

I did write like 200 words in my WIP, but I don’t like them very much.

.

*Contrary to how it may be appearing, I often do other things besides watch television. Really. I swear.

writing update II

Okay, so I’m over myself now. I’m continuing on from the 40k I already have and we’ll see what happens. I think I was just going through my bi-weekly “ohmygod I can’t write why do I think I can write wtf grace go get a life” stage. I mean, it’s not quite gone yet, but I got in 500 good words today and I think I know what to do with my MC so she’s not an annoying little brat.

*kicks MC*

So yeah, here I go. I’m going to try to get in another 1k before I head home tomorrow.

/grace rambling about her half-finished novel that nobody is really interested in anyway

More interesting post tomorrow. Promise.

hot and cold

I am home sick, so I am taking this opportunity to post to my sadly-neglected blog.

I was trying to remember the last time I took a sick day, and I don’t. Remember, that is. I usually just work until I’m about to fall over (this is what happened yesterday). Then I fall over and lie in bed sick for a few days sleeping and watching TV (this is what is happening today).

Oh wait. Let me tell you about yesterday.

I’m at work. Lalala. I could tell when I woke up that I was getting sick, but I went to work, and I worked, and I got a lot done, and then around 1pm I’m like, “whoooaaaa I need to go home.” I don’t actually leave until a little after 2pm because I’m waiting for something that doesn’t happen. But then I leave, and I get home around 3pm and I’m like, “OH GOD YES I’M HOME” and then I’m locked out.

See, I lost my keys last week sometime, but since there’s always at least one roommate home when I get home I’ve been fine.

But yesterday, no such luck.

So there I was, on my porch with no keys and feeling dizzy and awful and feverish and about to cry.

It was a horrible moment in the life of Grace.

It ended up okay. I went to the library for a bit (slowest computers IN THE WORLD) and then got in and it was all fine.

So now I’m watching West Wing.

why hello there

Can I get a big HIP HIP for the Boston Public Library and their free wireless? HUZZAH! HUZZAH! I mean, I do have to walk like 4 whole minutes to get to the library from my house (uphill in a blizzard both ways), but will you just LOOK AT ALL THIS INTERNET!!! Heaven. I’m in heaven. And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak; and I seem to find the happiness I seeeeek…

Anyway.

Wow I don’t even know where to begin. I’ve been away from blogging/internet so long I’m just kind of in shock, stunned into inactivity by the treasure now open to me. Where to go? What to do? What to say?

I think this is a good time for bullet points. Here we go.

• The blizzard.  A big huge blizzard hit Boston this weekend, tho I don’t think it ended up as big and huge as everyone expected. So now everything is a winter wonderland and ready for Christmas.
• I have finally realized without a doubt that the US Postal Service lost one of my boxes when I shipped everything from Minnesota. I wasn’t sure before, see, because I had been living with my sister temporarily and never really unpacked because I knew I’d be moving again fairly quickly. But there were some DVDs that I could not locate, and I began to suspect that a box was missing, but since I wasn’t fully unpacked I thought maybe I just couldn’t find my DVDs. But now that I’ve moved into my new place and unpacked everything, it’s absolutely certain. A box is gone. And not just any box. The box that contained some of my precious books and almost all of my DVDs. Yes, that’s right, most of my DVD collection is gone. Green Wing–gone. Shrek–gone. Yes, Minister–gone. Someone hold me. At least I still have the Star Wars trilogy. (And since the box was mailed in late August, it’s almost certainly in the Dead Letter Office by now–which is in Oklahoma, in case you were wondering. I am still investigating but hold out little hope.)
• I fail at holidays. For those of you who were unaware. But I know this, and I keep trying to improve, so this year I bought my presents early, like the first week of December, and wrapped them. And now they are still sitting on my kitchen table even though they need to be mailed by… probably last week sometime. Oh well. New Year’s Presents! This is of course not including the presents I still haven’t purchased because some of the people on my list are impossible to shop for. Also–my ability to write and mail Christmas cards is a lot lower than I had expected. So far I have gotten 2 in the mail. My list has approximately 20 people on it. Maybe I should mail out Christmas postcards, that might be easier…
• I am going to get a cat after Christmas. Excited, yes I am.

Okay that’s about it. I feel like for the amount of time I’ve been away, I should have more bullet points, but really I just don’t. Sorry. So now to wander around the library looking for DVDs since mine are, yanno, in Oklahoma. Or something. Sighhhh…