Excuses, Excuses

The time of making excuses has finally arrived. It's been.... a few months since I posted anything. Which would beg the question, "what exactly have you been doing that you couldn't simply update a little blog?!" The answer is nothing and everything. That doesn't make sense, does it?

I'm just gonna go ahead and list my excuses and hope for better things in the future. Here are the numerous reasons I've been lame lately:

Reason #1:

The Rough Winter

Yes, this is a real reason. Sort of. Spring is finally here and now I can "look back" on the winter and think, "Thank God that's over!" Did the winter keep me from blogging? Sure, yeah. Why not. Okay, no. Why don't I blame the winter for being depressing and that is what kept me from blogging. Ta da! See how well that works out?! Ahem.

Reason #2:

Wedding Planning

This one is real! w000t! I'm pumped to have a real reason. See, now. Wedding planning has taken over my life. For realz. Okay, maybe it didn't warrent the "z," but I have spent a lot of brain power on it. I even have made one of those "The Knot" websites... because apparently that's what you're supposed to do. Ours needs to be updated, actually. see? Something to do! We've made a few decisions, so things are progressing nicely. Location? Check. Date? Check. It's actually one year from today. Convenient, huh?? I sure thought so.

Reason #3:

Erm. Neighborhood Drama?

Yeah, this isn't a reason. I just wanted to put this picture up. One day a couple of Saturdays ago, there was some big fire in one of the buildings on my street. All of the residents were outside and we kinda, maybe had a front row seat from our window. I don't think there was tons of damage or anything. Everything seemed to work out okay. This picture was when they were putting everything away and it took more people than I would imagine to put away the fire hoses. So yeah. That's what that is. Again, not a reason.

Reason #4

Family Visits

This is another one of those semi-legitimate reasons. It's legit because we have had to take trips to visit people - a few times to Rhode Island and once to Tennessee. Those didn't take up so much time that it made a difference, but I'm listing them anyway. Picture on the left is me on the train to RI (I think it was freezing)... picture on the right is of our insane, impulsive roadtrip to TN. All of which included wedding conversations, so technically these could be included in reason #2. But I'm going to move right along...

Reason #5:

We've Done Stuff

I know this is going to come as a shock to some of you, but we've actually gone out and done some stuff in the last few months. This includes awesome things like seeing comics like John Caparulo, going to Knicks games, etc. See? Awesome NYC-ish stuff :). The plan is to continue doing said things - there's lots of stuff we need to do before we move away (in a few years (assuming the economy cooperates)).

Reason #6:

Work!!

This is a pretty good excuse, if I do say so myself. It's been crazy around the library lately. A good crazy, I think... but most definitely time consuming and constant (a good thing that I don't want to change!!). Oh, and this picture is from the subway station I get off at every day to go to work. I wouldn't recommend going to the station... it always seems to smell like pee. Very, very gross. Again, not recommended.

Reason #7:

Uhm. Videogames?

Okay, so I may or may not have gotten addicted to the latest Super Mario Bros. for the Wii. And by that, I mean, "I definitely got addicted." My poor little thumb can attest to that. I couldn't feel the end of my thumb (or it was all crazy-tingly) for about 48 hours. Children, this is the risk you run when you game for more than a few hours at a time! Ahem, I don't even know how long I worked on it. But I beat the game! At least, I saved the princess. Now I have all these other things I gotta do, but I'm not so obsessed with doing that asap. But yes, I spent hours and hours on this game. Hours I could have been blogging. Shame on me. shame.

Reason #8:

BOOKS!
Another SUPER-LEGIT reason! Seriously. I've read... what, 32 books so far this year? Something like that. Which is averaging about 10 books a month. Not too bad, I'd say. At this rate I'll have 120 before it's all said and done. But the point is that reading all of these books takes a LOT of time. My "to be read" pile hasn't gone beneath 10-15 books at a time. I guess that's a good thing - gives me lots of options for things to read! Note: the picture here is not one of my piles of books. I got it online. But my stack of books feels like that sometimes! It's a good thing I don't spend my own money buying them - I'd be broker than I am already! :)

I think 8 reasons is good enough, right? I'm just going to go with it. I suppose this is sort of "Our Spring in a Nutshell." It's a big nutshell, but nonetheless.

Best Books of 2009

As most of you know, I have a serious book problem habit. In 2009 I read something like 115 books (which isn't as many as some people, but still). Any time I that, it's inevitable that someone will ask me my favorites from those. It's a logical question, but it's kinda hard to answer - which is probably the librarian in me.

I tend to like just about everything that I read. It's very rare that I'll find a book that I just loathe (it's happened... just not often). I like to find their redeeming qualities :). But I always can think of favorites, so I've decided to make a top ten list. It's a little different because I split it into five series and five stand alones. Hopefully this will all make sense for y'all... so here it is:
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Top 5 Series

These are the latest book in a series that I read in 2009 - generally it's a love of the series that gets it listed here.

Splendor: a Luxe Novel

by Anna Godbersen
This is a historical fiction series that is set in the late 1800s in New York City. You can kinda think historical Gossip Girl for this series - it's very much about propriety, status, class, and those sorts of things. Very cool story. Not to mention how pretty the covers are! I just love them.

Splendor was the last book in this series (of four)... so now that it's a complete series, you should pick it up! The rest are: 1. Luxe 2. Rumors 3. Envy 4. Splendor

The Van Alen Legacy: a Blue Bloods Novel

by Melissa de la Cruz

This is just one of the many vampire series' that I read whenever a new one comes out. I think one of the things that I love in this series is that it's set in New York City too. This one really uses the city as almost a character - it's wonderful. And it's one of the best vampire series out there. Promise!

The rest of the series: 1. Blue Bloods 2. Masquerade 3. Revelations 4. Van Alen Legacy

Blood Promise: A Vampire Academy Novel

by Richelle Mead

This series is fantastic - again one of the vampire series that have been around lately. It has a bit more of the romance aspect in it, but I think the twist on the whole vampire stuff is very interesting. It's more about the guardians of the vampires than the vampires themselves and all the drama they go through. I love it - it's one of my favorite series ever. Check it out!

The rest of the books: 1. Vampire Academy 2. Frostbite 3. Shadow Kiss 4. Blood Promise

Death By Bikini by Linda Gerber

I added pictures of all the books in this series (so far) because I had them pretty accessible :). Death by Latte and Death by Denim are the second and third books in the series. They are one of the few mystery series written for teens - and it's written wonderfully. It's a very fun story that will keep you guessing till the end. I read them all in 2009, so that's why they're all here :).

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

If you haven't heard of Hunger Games, you need to go to your local library immediately and check it out. It's fantastic! It's one of those books that everyone needs to read in their lives. It's a science fiction series (There are the two books so far), but it's almost so realistic that it's spooky. Realistic as in... it could happen, maybe. I don't think a sentance of explanation could cover it, so I'll leave it to you to look up. It's great though - and even adults will love it. I promise!

Other series to look out for:

House of Night by P.C. and Kristin Cast

Maximum Ride by James Patterson

Darkest Powers by Kelley Armstrong
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Top 5 Stand-Alones

These are all books that aren't part of a series, but they're ones that I loved this year. I'd recommend any one of these!

Going Bovine by Libba Bray

I don't know if anyone has read the other series by Libba Bray (Great and Terrible Beauty and all...), but this is completely different. This one is about a boy who has mad cow disease and his adventures while looking for the guy with the cure. You never know whether the story is real or taking place in his head, so it's very interesting - a little trippy. Actually, a lot trippy. It's well written and I'd recommend it.

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

I will read pretty much anything by Scott Westerfeld - after Uglies, I'm pretty much a fangirl. I could be wrong about this not being a part of a series... but I'm going to go with it for now. This book fits pretty firmly in the genre of steampunk. Or maybe... a metal science fiction story. All very technical and a little hard to follow. It's high adventure, so you end up devouring each page. I'd recommend it to anyone who loves technical things - or just loves Westerfeld as much as I do.

Tyrell by Coe Booth

This one is completely different from stuff I'm used to reading. It's very much urban fiction - takes place in NYC, but it's a really hard story (not as hard as Push, if any of you read that one). It's one of those books where you feel sort of hopeless through it, but it's really well written and you really end up caring about the characters. If you're looking to get into any urban fiction, I'd definitely recommend this one.

Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway

This book is hilarious - through and through. I seriously laughed my way through this one. It's a bit of a love story, but it's more about this girl and how she deals with things. Basically, the girl broke up with her boyfriend and the guy ended up writing a song about it - and became famous because of it. I'd definitely give this one to anyone wanting something light and chick lit-ish. It's great!

Same Difference by Sibhan Vivian

I don't think this book is going to make any official top ten lists or anything. It's almost pretty basic, but there was something about this story that I really loved. Perhaps it was just written well, but I really cared about the characters after the story was over. It's about a girl who goes to art camp over a summer and realizes shes a totally different person than she thought. It's really all self discovery and friendship. Try this one out!

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Well, those are my top ten books I read this year. Even if you didn't want to know.

Also, I'm a book blogger... as in, I blog about every book I read - giving it reviews and such online. It's mostly for my information, but it's kinda fun to look back at those blogs and see what I'll I've read. And I've got the whole list of books that I read this year, if you want to see.

Here is that url: The Ninja Librarian

Have fun!

Best Christmas Gift Ever!

Once upon a time... life started to feel like a fairy tale.

On Friday, December 25, 2009, my best friend, my love, my one and only asked me to marry him. I, of course, said yes!

The first thing people have asked me lately is to tell the story of the proposal. I'm sorry to disappoint, but I don't have a huge story to tell. But that's perfect for me :). But here's the info I have - which, I suppose - could be considered a story:

Apparently, Jim had known since Thanksgiving that he was going to ask me to marry him. My family was all up here for that holiday, but he said he couldn't get my parents alone to ask them. He did ask my brothers, though... they had a whole guys-moment-thing going on. I suppose they both gave him the thumbs up and he continued to plan.

At Christmas time, he finally got a chance to talk to my parents - or more specifically, my mom. It seems like I was hovering a bit, because (again) he couldn't get them both at the same time. So he talked to mom and she talked to dad - is what I heard. But I suppose it all worked out for the best!

On Christmas day, we did our normal gift opening and then my grandmother (dad's mom) came over for a yummy lunch. After she left, I figured we would be settling in for a quiet afternoon before the Titan's game that night. But Jim pulled me into the room he was staying in and told me to cover my eyes. When he told me to open them, he was in front of me on one knee.

He simply said, "Will you marry me?" I don't remember if I said yes right away, but there was no hesitation in my head. I'm pretty sure Jim was expecting tears, but I was too excited and happy - more smiley than weepy!

He said that he didn't want to make a big production out of proposing to me - because I'm not a fan of being the center of attention and all that. It worked a lot better for me to be just the two of us. Nice and easy! See how well he knows?!

The ring is from his family and is gorgeous. Much more than I would have ever wished for. I am going to have to get it resized, but it's pretty darn near perfect! Apparently it was hidden in our kitchen since Thanksgiving. Shows how observant I am!

A lot of people have asked if I knew it was coming - the official answer is no. But there were hints... and I kinda thought it might be coming. One being that Jim was way too excited about Christmas - like every once in a while doing the "it's almost Christmas!!!" That's not so normal for him. And there were other little things, but I'm gonna go with "no, I had no idea!"

I know that the next questions people have are all about the wedding. And I would just like to say here that no plans have been set yet. As in.... I dunno what date, I dunno where, I dunno how.... nothin. But we're open to suggestions!

Guess that's all I have for now. This has all been the best Christmas gift I've ever gotten (and will ever get, I'm sure). It's still sinking in, but I'm getting more excited the more I realize - even if my "to do" list just grew a lot.

Backtracking to Thanksgiving

Before I get too deep into the Christmas season, I feel like I need to just give the Thanksgiving rundown. This is mostly because we had such a fun time and I'm fairly likely to forget what all we did and where we went. So, this is backtracking a bit, but I thought I would share anyway.

My family all came up for the Thanksgiving holidays. As in, my mom, dad, both of my brothers and their wives. It was quite the crew! Luckily, they weren't all staying with me! I don't have that kinda space :). Helloooo studio! Anyway, they found a great hotel in Chelsea that was a great location and was right next to trains as well. I was impressed :).

They came into town on Tuesday night (the 24th, I believe). Jim and I met them at the airtrain and took them straight to the hotel. I was already wiped out cause I had worked that night - so we just left them there. On Wednesday morning, they all took a stroll through Greenwich Village down to Houston. We met them at Katz Deli - one of our favorite places to get a great sandwich! Then we walked down around Chinatown, but it started raining... so we did a little shopping and headed back to the hotel to get ready for the evening.

Wednesday night we went up to see the parade balloons being blown up. It's such a cool thing to do! I had seen it before, but the fam needed the experience. It was misting quite a bit by then, so we really didn't stay long. We then headed back down to the Theatre District because we were seeing Jersey Boys later. We stopped at Rosie O'Gradys for some warm-me-up foods and headed on to the theatre.

I have to say that Jersey boys was amazing! The music was just spot on and my entire family was pretty much singing along. I'm glad we got to see it! I have to agree with whoever said it wasn't exactly a musical so much as a musical timeline. But it was still wonderful and I'll recommend it on to others.

After the show, we went down a few blocks to Times Square to take a few pictures and things. We decided to go somewhere for dessert - and conveniently there was a place called Roxie's that was perfect! I think some people were itching for some "NY Cheesecake." I know that wasn't me! Anyway, we took lots of pictures and walked ourselves back down to the hotel. Had to get to bed early to be ready for the parade in the morning! :)

On Thursday morning, we were out and about early. We went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I believe we ended up standing around 40th on 6th ave. It was a great spot, really... I think we got really lucky! They had lots of stuff blocked off, so we had to do some maneuvering. But the parade was wonderful and the weather was pretty mild. I'm happy to report that we stayed for the whole thing - even though there was mumbling to the contrary.

Afterward, I had made reservations to have Thanksgiving Dinner at one of the restaurants in Grand Central Station. It's the one in the actual concourse that looks out onto the station- Metrazur. The food was fantastic (a lot better than I was expecting), so I think everyone was satisfied. The only thing missing was leftovers for later!

After dinner, we headed out to Queens so I could show everyone our apartment. We have tons of video games (thanks to boyfriend extraordinaire), so we set up rockband and some wii bowling and everyone went to town. That was a nice, quiet evening. By that point, I think everyone was starting to feel a bit of the tiredness of walking around the city for a few days.

On Friday, everyone sort of split up to do their own thing. Dad and Blake went to the Guggenheim, Grant and Megan went to Battery Park, Mom and Moriah went shopping in the scary Macy's :). Jim and I met up with the later and walked down to SoHo with them - specifically to go to the MoMa Store.

We all met back up in Little Italy to get a late lunch. Jim's mom actually came down from RI to have lunch with us. That was a good time and our parents got to get to know each other. After eating, I took both of our moms to see about getting some fakie purses - I may have shocked my mom though :). It's kind of a crazy area and lots of crazy people to deal with.

Mom and I took Jim and his mom to Penn Station because they were headed back to RI for a memorial service. Then I met up with my brothers, etc to go see Ragtime that night. It was pretty good! I didn't realize it was still in the first stages of being on Broadway and all that, but it kind of makes sense. It was well done (except for a few things), but it's a fairly depressing story. We stopped at a brewery on the way home and had a nice evening of chatting and such :).

On Saturday morning, Grant and Megan left early. They had the early flight that day. Everyone else did a little shopping and Dad went to the Met. We met up for lunch (minus dad) in Hell's Kitchen and went back to a place we had been to before and loved - Five Napkin Burger. Yum! We wandered around a bit more before we had to go to the airport.

It was so nice to have them all around for the holiday! We had such a good time. I wish they could come up more often! Alas. At least I'm headed down to see them at Christmas time. I was going to add pictures to this post, but it's definitely long enough without it. I have pics all over my facebook stuff, so check around to find them. There are definitely some fun ones :).

Anyway, here's to a great Thanksgiving and looking forward to Christmas!

The schedule goes BOOM!

It's kinda crazy how you can have a whole lot of nothing going on for weeks at a time... then bam! Your social calendar explodes! Well, maybe the term "social calendar" is used very loosely here. More like... we had places to go. :).

This last week has turned our normal, low-key lifestyle on it's head. Last Saturday was Halloween. And being good New Yorkers, we decided to go to the Village parade. I went a few years ago, but it's always insane. It's nice to seee the crazies gather and realize how sane you are :). I posted some pics up at Facebook - but those were only a small tasting of what it was like.

I just love that even in a parade of crazies, there is still a crazy person!!! This dude had a dog in a tutu... himself in some sort of gypsy/nomad getup that I'm not convinced was a costume... and a live bird on his head. Ahem. And he kept coming by.

This was Jim's first time at the parade and he loved it. Especially the many superhero characters, the ATHF crew, and a cobra commander. He even got so excited about a zombie Captain America that he took a picture with him.

Perhaps we just need to get out more :).

But our week of fun didn't end there! Oh no. On Wednesday we got to go to our first Knicks game! The tickets were actually free to us, so that made the game even more enjoyable. Even if the Knicks lost. It was a night of intense amounts of cotton candy, pre-torn Knicks hats, and cup columbusing. A good time was had by all!

The very next night was another event - we saw Ricky Gervais LIVE at Carnegie Hall!! That was one of my birthday presents to Jim. He's a huge Gervais fan - as in he listens to all the podcasts and performances multiple times. Not to mention he loves The Office (British version only, natch). It was also our first trip to Carnegie Hall, which was really cool. It's extremely posh and we were extremely underdressed. But our seats were great (in one of the tier boxes) and it was a great show.

The encore was Ricky singing New York, New York with ELMO! I mean, the actual puppet. Isn't that crazy? I was shocked, but they did a great job. From our vantage point, we could actually see the workings of Elmo... which was kinda weird. But it was a lot of fun, and laughs were had by all!

To top it all off, we went up to Rhode Island this weekend to see Jim's family. His birthday is coming up (see early present, aka Gervais), so we headed up so they could celebrate with him. One thing that's great about visiting families is that we end up coming home with lots of yummy leftovers - specifically his aunt's homemade banana pudding. YUM!

Tonight we're headed to a midnight release of the latest COD video game - Modern Warfare 2. Jim's been amped about this for a few weeks, so tonight should be fun. This is the second release I've been to... so I'm expecting lots of nerdy and socially awkward dudes. Pictures? I hope so :).

Inadvertant Design

You wouldn't think it, but being a Librarian has given me way more variety than I ever thought possible. Obviously the whole reference question thing is the basis of it all... but it only blooms from there. One minute I'm a computer tech and the next I'm an event planner.

Our latest event has turned me into something completely different - a fashion show coordinator. This is, of course, something I would have never expected. Particularly as fashion is obviously not my forte. Though, perhaps I can claim craftiness.

But thankfully it's not just the fashion thing (I love Project Runway as much as the next person... but I'm no guru. Obvs). Of course, I didn't realize how much more it would take to plan a fashion show rather than one of our regular programs. It significantly more, actually.

To be specific, the program is going to be BUBBLE WRAP FASHION!!! YAY! What a great idea, huh? I can't claim it - is was one of my coworkers. Genius, I say! (ps i have no idea who this chick is... it was the only non-risque pic of someone wearing bubble wrap.) Anyway, this program is going to be awesome.

That is, if I can get it together. This means picking music, decorations, prizes, etc. so much more than I really wanted to get myself into... but there it is.

It just reminds me so much that being a Librarian (specifically for teens/kids) is just tons more than just answering reference questions. I guess I'm thankful for that - at least, I will be when the stress wears off from doing these programs.

Whew! Fashion design, here I come!! w000t! :)

Fall is Upon Us!

Contrary to what you may believe, I do actually pull my head out of books sometimes. Today I've realized that Fall is upon us. I am, of course, shocked by it... because I'm pretty sure I was thinking about how hot it was days ago. And when I say "days," it's possible that I really mean "weeks." That's how time is moving for me at the moment.

I suppose it hit me mostly this morning when I woke up freezing - and then came to work to hang my Fall-themed sign for a display. Go figure. The taking-out-of-the-AC-unit yesterday only gave me a vague notion that it might not get hot anymore... but it still didn't hit home. I guess I'm unobservant like that.

Of course, Fall means that work is back in the groove of having our after school kids coming in... and then being kicked out. Always fun. I've only been cursed at twice so far - so I'm doing pretty good! And our programs and stuff are about to kick off (which has been stressful, but it will be a nice chance of pace once we get things going).

I'm really not used to needing a coat in the mornings - which has resulted in me being very cold walking to work. Maybe I'll start hanging some sort of coat on the door handle so it's impossible for me to leave without one. Knowing me, that probably won't work... but doesn't hurt to have good intentions.

Speaking of good intentions - I've given up candy. This doesn't sound like that big of a thing... if you don't know me. Lately I've realized exactly how much candy I'm attacking and it's just not good. My teeth are pretty much going to fall out, I'm sure. But yeah. I'm on day four right now - and it hasn't been easy. The darn vending machine at work has decided to be stocked with some of my faves. It's totally against me. But I'm staying strong and hoping I don't die of lack-of-sugar-poisoning :). I'm sure that exists.