2013 book report

Last year, I wrote in my 2012 book report:

In all I read 40 books this year. Short of my goal, but more than last year. … I shall strive to best this goal in 2013… if I can ever finish the two books I’ve started.

Well, 2013 has come and gone and I failed. Miserably. My book count was only 30 for the past year, and six of those were gorgeous picture books (in my defense, they were for adults). For some reason, between August and December, I simply… stopped reading.

My favorite book of 2013.

I have no idea why! It wasn’t for lack of good books. I had seven new releases of series I follow come out in October alone. I can’t even blame the television, as I stopped watching several of my “regular” (read: crappy) shows. So why I stopped reading for 3+ months remains a mystery.

Therefore, I am determined — determined — to read more than 30 books in 2014. I set my goal at a modest 32, so I don’t disappoint myself as badly as I did this year, should I fail for some reason.

With that goal in mind, I take a look back at what I read last year, and choose, in no particular order, the top 5 reads of 2013.

1. Jumper by Steven Gould

I think I’ve read this one about 100 times now. OK, maybe not quite that many, but my copy is old and worn. I discovered it when I was a teenager and have devoured it many, many times in the long years since. Forget the movie. The movie has little in common with this marvelous book about a teenager who finds he can somehow teleport, or “jump.” It’s a wonderful coming of age tale with a sci-fi twist.

2. The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

My only 5-star book of the year, I couldn’t put this one down. I don’t know what it is about young adult dystopian novels that have so captured my interest, but this is right up there with my favorite, The Hunger Games. The book follows teenage survivors of an alien invasion. But who can you trust? Can’t wait for the sequel!

3. If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Told from the unique perspective of a girl in a coma, the story centers around 17-year-old Mia who must decide whether to stay or let go after she loses everything in one fateful, tragic accident. Made me tear up a time or two.

4. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Sad, yet beautiful

I found this one when Amazon recommended it after I purchases If I Stay. I hadn’t heard of it before, and was therefore unaware of the big following it had when I started reading it. Hoo-boy. This one was… difficult to get through, though not in a bad way. I would have given it 5 stars if it hadn’t been so damn sad. Although what else did I expect when I picked up a book about two teenagers with cancer? Heartbreaking and beautiful at the same time.

5. Bastion by Mercedes Lackey

The fifth and final book of Lackey’s Collegium Chronicles was really hard to put down. Finally, all was answered in this long-awaited sequel to last year’s Redoubt. I’ve heard rumors that Mags’ story will continue on in a new series perhaps (or maybe this wasn’t the final book after all), so I’m really hoping it will. I’m not ready to say goodbye to these characters yet.

Speaking of saying goodbye, I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about this year’s honorable mention, Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris. It was the final book in the Sookie Stackhouse series. And while it didn’t end the way I hoped it would, it was a good sendoff for one of my favorite heroines of all time. Farewell, Sookie. It was great getting to know you.

 

Arachnophobia

I don’t like bugs. But there’s just something about spiders that give me an extra dose of the willies. Logically I know that there’s a place for them on this earth. My parents are constantly preaching to me, as I’m shrieking down the house, that blah, blah, food chain, blah, blah, ecosystem, blah. But that is no comfort when I’m paralyzed by fear at a spider on the wall.

The worst arachnid, in my opinion, has to be the shower spider. There is nothing worse than disrobing in the morning, when you’re still half asleep, and draw back the shower curtain to find one (or more!) of the little vermin waiting for you in the shower. My coworker says car spiders are worse, but I maintain that at least in the car, you have a layer of protection between you and the spider… your clothes. Getting ready to step into the shower? No such protection. I always have to put on a towel before attempting to kill it, because I’m always afraid it’ll jump at me and then it will be on my skin. Ewwww.

Though a case can be made for the above-the-bed spider being the worst. You know you have to kill it because it might fall into your bed. But if you try to swat it, you might kill it, but it’ll still fall into your bed. However, I am too short to be able to reach it with a tissue, even standing on said bed. So swatting is the only option, followed by an hours-long search to either find its corpse or kill the survivor.

I confronted one of the dreaded shower spiders the other morning, and in my zeal to kill it, I apparently made too much noise. My dad came up to make sure I was OK. Apparently, it sounded like I had fallen in the shower. No, Dad. I’m OK. Just spider-killin’.

I’m not dead. (Not yet.)

So, I haven’t updated this in…. months. I haven’t even been busy. I’ve just been boring. Story of my life.

The Christmas season is upon us. When did that happen? Though I think I frittered away August, September and October waiting for my doll convention to arrive. (You can find the recaps of that over on Shelf Life.) As my nephew would say, it seemed like it was “taking for-ever” for the Wilde Halloween Convention to arrive. But it did and Dad and I went and it was a blast. But that’s really the only news I have since my last post at the end of July.

I haven’t even read any good books lately! It seems like, after I gorged myself on young adult dystopian and fantasy novels over the summer, I lost my appetite for reading. Since August, I’ve read exactly one book. ONE! I AM SO ASHAMED. I had a goal of reading 42 books this year, but I’m not even going to come close. I did, however, finally buy Veronica Roth’s Allegiant, and am about a quarter of the way through it at the mo’. I did pick up some new reads during Amazon’s Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale, so maybe I’ll stop being a lazy ass and pick up a book this month.

I’ve been selling a lot of dolls on eBay and other places, but I still seem to collect more than I sell. I have half a dozen dolls still in their boxes because I’ve nowhere to put them at the moment. However, I did have a rather rotten experience today on eBay. I have a doll up for a Buy It Now/Best Offer. Now, I suppose my mistake was not putting in an automatic decline for low-ball offers. I got one such today and made a counter offer… something that’s been done to me many times. Sometimes I accept, sometimes I don’t. It’s all good. But after I countered, the potential buyer sent me a rather rude little email saying how I must not want to sell the doll. No… I want to sell the doll, but not at an unacceptably low offer. Instead of arguing with the little upstart, I just blocked her from bidding altogether. Wouldn’t want to do business with someone like that anyway.

And that’s it for my update. Buying/selling dolls, not-reading and trying to get ready for Christmas. So… how y’all been? 🙂

Boys have a penis; girls have vaginas

My 5-year-old nephew is staying with us this week. Last night, we were having a tickle fight on the bed when he kneed me in the stomach. It was an accident of course, but damn, did it hurt. When I told him I needed a minute, he asked me, in all seriousness, “Did I hurt your wee-wee?”

Cue the groan.

“No, Ben. Girls don’t have wee-wees.”

“They don’t?”

So that’s how I got drawn in to explaining how girls and boys are different. Not in graphic detail. That’s not my job. But I could tell he wasn’t quite following along, so I got one of my more-anatomically-correct dolls and showed him that girls did not, in fact, have wee-wees.

He looked at it for a moment before announcing, “I don’t like girl butts.”

And that was that.

Until this morning. if there was any doubt in his mind that girls and boys had different parts, it was put to rest when the little squirt walked in on me getting dressed for work this morning.

*sigh*

SIM card saga

I had a little bit of a shock this week when I was trying to get my iPad ready for travel to Lombard, IL, next week for the Tonner doll convention. I tried to sign up for cellular service (through Verizon) and received an error message saying my SIM card was no longer supported.

According to the Apple iPad website:

When you decide to activate data service, you can choose the amount of data per month you want to buy — with no long-term contract. So if you have a business trip or vacation approaching, just sign up for the month you’ll be traveling and cancel when you get back.

What they don’t tell you is, if you cancel your cellular service and don’t sign up again for five months, your SIM card is essentially “burned.” Meaning deactivated. Meaning it ain’t gonna work no more.

So yesterday, I left work early and took myself and my iPad to the local Verizon store here in town to see if they could help me fix the problem. From having researched the problem on Google beforehand, I warned my coworkers I might not be back, as it could take a while.

It took an hour and 45 minutes.

Now, to be fair, the folks at Verizon were some of the nicest people I’ve met in a while. They didn’t try to sell me a phone. They didn’t try to get me to upgrade any services. They were only concerned with my SIM card problem. At one point, I had six Verizon employees trying to figure out how to fix my iPad cellular service.

The problem, it turned out, was they couldn’t just give me a new SIM card without activating it first. But they couldn’t activate it with a prepaid plan. But they tried. They tried for an hour and a half. In the end, I just had to sign up to a monthly plan with a promise that I could cancel it when I got back from my trip. No contracts, no deactivation fee. Not what I wanted, but at least I’ll have cellular service on my trip. And I won’t have to go through all this again next time I travel. I’ll just have to go in and resign up for a monthly plan. A little bit of a hassle, but one I can live with.

I would like to thank the Verizon folks for putting me at ease. My social anxiety was going through the roof for the first half hour, but by the time I left, I felt like I had made new friends.

Getting ready for convention

Tonner’s Antoinette in spring time.

Next week, my dad and I will be attending the 2013 Tonner Doll Convention in Lombard, IL. I signed up for it in January, and the time has gone quickly by until the convention is almost upon us.

I am way beyond excited, but at the same time, very anxious about it at the same time. We’re driving from our house in Tennessee, all the way up to Chicago, IL. That’s at least a 10-hour drive. We’ll be leaving at 4 a.m. next Wednesday.

There’s always so much to do to get ready for trips like this. What to wear, what to take… I’m a nervous wreck just trying to get ready. I don’t even have my suitcase out… am not even sure where they are (probably in the attic). I am sure I will be spending the majority of next weekend just getting ready to go.

This isn’t my first doll convention. I’ve been to one other, this past October, but it will be the first time I enter a competition piece. Not in any of the doll categories… can’t sew to save my life, but in the craft category. I did a cross stitch piece I designed myself. It’s approximately 8×6 and took over a month to complete. I have no illusions of winning anything, I just wanted to participate.

I wanted to enter the photography category, but the weather has not been cooperative this month. Hopefully I can squeeze in a quick shoot sometime this week in between rain showers. Otherwise, I’ll have to forego entering. I waited so late because I wanted spring to arrive to take some outdoor shots. Indoor shots never look as good.

Wish us luck in traveling… that’s something else I have to do, print out driving directions! Maybe I should start making a list of everything that needs to be done before we leave. 😀

Ode to a website

The last layout I did for my blog, Epiphany. *sigh*

I miss my old website. Sometimes I’ll visit the Way Back Machine and type in my old URL, just to revisit the past. And to see my old layouts. I think I made some damn good layouts for anime fan sites back in the early ’00s.

I would make a new layout for my main site every few months or so. Same with my blog, back when I used Blogger. And I used Blogger a LOT back then. It seems weird, looking back on some of those old entries, how much head garbage I used to pour out into my blog. Nowadays, I’m lucky if I can think of anything to write about. Take today for instance. I’ve been scouring Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter and HuffPost looking for a topic until I remembered my old blog.

I can revisit the pages I made at home, on my computer where all my files are. Unfortunately, over the years and the newer computers we’ve had, I’ve lost some. I don’t think I even have my old blogger archives anymore. How sad.

I finally gave my website up a few years ago when my domain name, yanagi.nu, just got to expensive to maintain, not to mention the monthly site hosting fees. I do miss the designing though, and wish I knew more about how WordPress worked so I could design my own layout, but when I think of the time and effort I put into it, it makes me tired just thinking of it. I don’t think I have the energy anymore.

Alas, my poor website of yore.

Learning how to dine solo

Dinners are a family affair for me. Unless it’s an extremely rare occasion where I eat out with friends, I eat dinner with my parents every night, whether we go out or stay in for one of Dad’s delicious, home-cooked meals. But ever since my nephew was born five years ago, my parents have been traveling to Chattanooga once or twice a month to stay with my brother and his family, leaving me to my own devices when it comes to dinner.

Usually I would dig into the fridge for leftovers or pop something in the microwave to eat, as I am too dangerous to be let loose with the stove. Other times I would pick something up from a local restaurant and take it home. But lately, I’ve taken to eating out alone, something I would have been horrified to do just months ago.

The very thought of eating out alone, especially in a sit-down restaurant, used to cause my rotten social anxiety to soar. What would people think if they saw me eating solo? Would they pity me for not having anyone to eat with? Would they think I was some spinster who couldn’t get a date? Well, why that last one may have a ring of truth to it, I decided one night that I really didn’t care what people thought of seeing me alone in a restaurant, so I picked up a magazine and took myself on a date to a local eatery.

Talk about a nerve-racking experience. The first time I ate out alone, I was so nervous, I sat myself in the very back of the restaurant, hoping no one would notice me. I kept my eyes glued to the magazine I had brought, not daring to look up, afraid of people staring at me. Despite the fact that I had told myself I didn’t care what people thought, I lacked the confidence of believing it. I ate as quickly as I could and left as soon as possible.

I didn’t think I would be able to do that again, but the next time my parents went to Chattanooga, I decided to try.

The second time was easier. The hostess just gave me a friendly smile when I told her, “It’s just me tonight.” I went armed with a book again, but found myself so engrossed in my delicious dinner, I barely looked at. This time I raised my eyes and did a little “people watching” of my own. Nobody seemed to notice me all by myself, aside from my waitress who was extremely friendly and charming. Success!

This past weekend, I ventured out by myself for the third time, this time to a fast-food joint. I took my tray to a table, deliberately not choosing one in the back. I had a magazine with me again, but I didn’t touch it. Instead, I just sat by myself, by the window, and watched the world outside while I ate. I was halfway through my meal when I noticed a man sitting two tables away eating by himself. And not long after, another lone woman entered the restaurant, taking her food to the back of the dining area. I had to smile. I was not alone in being alone.

A Google search yielded some helpful hints on dining alone.

1. If you’re in the mood for conversation, ask to be seated at the bar or counter if available. If there’s not one available, go at off-peak times and spark a conversation with your server.

2. If talking to strangers isn’t your thing, bring a book or magazine.

3. Take along your social network. You’re never really alone if your online friends are along for the ride.

4. Ask for the check even if you aren’t finished eating. This will cut down on the time you must sit alone at the table after you are through.

5. Have confidence in yourself. Eating alone should be enjoyable, not something to be afraid of.

While I will probably always have that burst of social jitters before stepping into a restaurant alone, I know now that it is something I can do. And if you happen to see me out and about myself, stop by and say hi. Even if I have a book or magazine with me, I always enjoy a friendly conversation.

What’s in a name?

A few weeks ago, the new lady at work called me “Beth.” This is not the first time I’ve been called “Beth.” The mother of a friend of mine from high school always insisted on calling me “Beth” and not once in 3 years did she ever learn that my name was Caroline.

I don’t know what it is about me that screams “Beth.” I don’t think I look like a Beth. Beth isn’t even close to Caroline. Usually, people will mispronounce my name as Carolyn. My boss has my name spelled Carolyn on her email list (and I’ve worked here for 10 years, mind.) Sometimes I’ll get Catherine. I remember back in middle school, when giving our names for class pictures, the guy wrote down “Catherine Shelby,” neither of which is correct.

Once I got a Mary. I think it was a bad phone connection that time. Still, Mary from Caroline? Well, it’s closer than Beth.

Things I’ve learned from ‘Doctor Who’

With filming for the highly-anticipated 50th anniversary special under way, fans of the BBC television show Doctor Who have taken to social media to scrutinize every little detail of production stills being released. I confess, I’m one of them. A Whovian, as we call ourselves. And I will be waiting in breathless anticipation when the BBC celebrates the golden anniversary of the longest-running science fiction show on television.

Doctor Who premiered Nov. 23, 1963 on the BBC network in Great Britain. It chronicles the adventures of a space- and time-traveling alien, a Time Lord named simply “the Doctor,” and his (usually) human companions. He explores space and time in his sentient, bigger-on-the-inside ship called the TARDIS. With his companions, the Doctor faces a variety of foes while working to help ordinary people, save civilizations and right wrongs.

The show ran continuously from 1963 until the late 80s, with one television film in 1996, with eight different actors playing the Doctor. (Time Lords “regenerate” into new bodies when mortally wounded, a handy plot device used to pass the torch between actors.) In 2005, the show was rebooted and added three new actors playing the title role.

I was a late bloomer to the show. Though it played on PBS here in America in the ’70s and ’80s, I did not get hooked into this fantastical world of the Doctor until 2008, after several of my friends had recommended it to me. It only took two episodes for me to become a devoted fan, gobbling up both “classic” episodes and the newer reincarnation of the series. Along the way I learned some valuable lessons about life, the universe and everything.

1. There’s no point in growing up if you can’t be childish sometimes. Too often, as adults, we let the real world turns us cynical and pessimistic. Sometimes we just need to let the grown up slip away and regain some of that childish innocence we had when we were children. Run through the grass barefoot. Play with dolls. Have a tea party with friends.

2. Everyone is important. This is one I struggle with, especially when it comes to myself. I battle depression every day, and sometimes, when it feels like the world is caving in on me, I have to remind myself I am important, too.

3. Time can be rewritten. Of course, we don’t have a fancy time machine like the Doctor, but we can rewrite the past in other ways. A heartfelt apology for a past wrong can be offered. Forgiveness can be given. A fresh start can be had.

4. Not all victories are about saving the world. Even the smallest victories, such as achieving a personal goal, is every bit as important as the world-saving victories.

5. Nothing is impossible, just highly unlikely. Even then, those highly unlikely things can become likely if you just persevere.

6. Stand up for what is right, no matter the odds. Don’t ever give up on your personal convictions.

7. The bad things in life don’t spoil the good things. Learn from the bad memories and cherish the good ones. When life throws you for a loop, take out a good memory and relive it. Don’t give in to the bad things in life.

8. The most ordinary person can change the world. You could change someone else’s world for the better and never know it. Be a positive force in the lives of those around you.

9. The best weapons in the world are books. The knowledge within books are the best arsenal you could hope to have.

10. Be proud of your beliefs… and your fashion sense. Your beliefs make you who you are, not what kind of clothes you wear. But it’s OK to be proud of both. After all, bow ties are cool.

Of course, there are many other lessons to be learned from Doctor Who, such as angel statues are things to be feared, the adipose diet isn’t a good idea and despite their appearance, Daleks can climb stairs, but it’s the ones you can apply to real life that have stuck with me. And in 50 years of traveling through time and space with the Doctor, I know I’m not the only one whose life has been affected for the better by Doctor Who.