and the anger was so lovely

1. Industrial Magic by Kelley Armstrong
2. Haunted by Kelley Armstrong
3. No Humans Involved by Kelley Armstrong
4. Nefertiti by Michelle Moran
5. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
6. Personal Demon by Kelley Armstrong
7. Living With the Dead by Kelley Armstrong
8. Men of the Otherworld by Kelley Armstrong
9. Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky (audiobook)
10. The Wives of Henry VIII by Antonia Fraser
11. Three Junes by Julia Glass (audiobook)
12. Pope Joan by Donna Cross
13. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
14. Toujours Provence by Peter Mayle
15. The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
16. Encore Provence by Peter Mayle
17. Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
18. The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood
19. The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe
20. A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut
*21. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
22. One for the Money by Janet Evanovich

I was the recipient of an anonymous LJ gift this morning. It's a middle finger sticking straight up with the friendly note of "Up yours". AWESOME. Seeing as I've become more of a lurker around LJ than anything else as of late, it's particularly awesome because I've been involved in absolutely nothing. Thank you anonymous soul for wasting your money to give me a laugh.

It is cold as fuck.

Alright, I did 12 consecutive days of happy - that's enough, right?

I AM SO SICK OF SNOW. Apparently mother nature isn't going to be happy this winter until the snow is up to our rooftops because it is never ending. I am sick of the cold too. It has been Jan/Feb temperatures since November. It is ridiculous.

Pizza makes me happy. I am apparently a perpetual 8-year-old because I could eat pizza every single day and never get tired of it. Ever. (Have never had the stomach for cold pizza for breakfast though.)

My friends make me very happy.

Dogs make me happy. My dogs make me happy most of the time (the exception is when they're misbehaving, which is often), but whenever I see a dog I can't help but smile.

And to piggyback on yesterday's entry, tea makes me happy. I love it nearly as much as coffee (I say *nearly* because I'm a bit pickier about my tea than I am my coffee. I find coffee to be much more versatile for my tastes.) My tea intake increases as soon as the weather turns chilly.

Mmm, coffee. At all times of day (decaf only after about 5pm). In the morning it's primarily about the caffeine-buzz, but I love the way it smells and the way it tastes too. It's a wonderful way to start the day. A fancy-pants coffee is nice once in awhile, but just give me any old cuppa.

Books make me happy. Like yarn, I just love to be surrounded by them, even if I'm not reading one. Since I was very young, my one condition for a "dream house" was that it have a room I can call a library. While I think technology like the Kindle is simply fabulous, I hope that books are never completely replaced by electronic counterparts. For me, half the joy in reading a book is holding its pages between my hands.

After spending most of the day with my brother today, I thought I'd dedicate today's "happy" to him because he never ceases to make me happy.

Yoga makes me SO happy. My body and mind suffer when I'm not able to go.

I would be really remiss in my duties if I didn't show this man and express how very, very happy he has made me this year, especially the last several months, on so many levels.

Yarn


make me stupidly happy (more than I care to admit to some people because they look at you funny). Especially wool. If I could, I would fill my house with yarn (or at least just one room) and roll around in it. Making things with yarn is even better. But I just like to touch yarn. Or look at yarn. Or look at photos of yarn.

Tomorrow is the dreaded jury duty summons day. Wish me luck that I either A. don't get an opportunity to get on a jury or B. if I do, the judge is sympathetic to my not having an available caretaker for my child and dismisses me (I am not holding out much hope for either. I have myself thoroughly convinced that they are going to tell me to stuff it - in not so many words - and be slapped on a jury and will be forced to beg my MIL to watch William for the next several days. Or start crying uncontrollably in front of a crowded courtroom because my anxiety always converts its energy to sobbing. Or will end up in contempt of court or something for calling them and telling them I cannot report for jury duty because I have no babysitter. I searched my form and the website high and low for anything that would benefit my cause and I came up with bupkiss. I'm probably not going to sleep well tonight. Ergh.)

I must share this complete comedy of packaging I just received a gift in via UPS because I have been laughing hysterically for the past hour about it.

( A photo diary of said packaging )

I am high on Election Day! (Erm, I realized that could be taken two ways: not on illegal substances, obv. just high on the elation of it being ED)

I am PUMPED for this election. I do not have (much) jitteriness or worriedness like I had last time around. I don't have to worry about going into work tomorrow and being amongst a group of sad and depressed folks. Story: I worked at the bookstore nights/weekends when the last election took place. While I can't say the same for my "real" 9-5 job, when I walked into the bookstore the Wednesday night for my shift, I was somewhat relieved to see that all of my fellow employees were as mopey as I was. It mollified my thoughts that I wasn't insane to be that morose over Kerry's loss (because really, why the fuck couldn't the Democratic party come up with a better candidate? Jesus.) The depression throughout that store that night was physically palpable. We amused ourselves by making fun of the man who would continue to be ruining running our country for the next four years.

I am contemplating driving around tomorrow all day and honking my horn screaming "Obama" out the window, especially in front of houses and vehicles that tote McCain signs and stickers, gas prices be damned. (OK, not really, but the thought is really there that it would be a helluva good time).

My yoga class this morning was just canceled, which means I can get to the polls ASAP instead of waiting 'til this afternoon, so I am utterly tickled by this.

(I has no election-related icons, so Marie Antoinette is as close to political as I have - it feels somehow appropriate since I feel Bush deserves to be guillotined - y/y?)

ETA: 10:30am and I'm done and voted. Voter #272. I was literally walking down the driveway to leave about two hours ago (it's a beautiful day, so we were going to walk to the precinct) and Jim called and said he'd just got through - an 1 1/2 after he got there. So I walked back inside and decided to delay an hour. :) I was in and out in about 30 mins. William wasn't horribly co-operative, which was to be expected, but I managed. Perseverance.

I keep meaning to post about this, but always forget when I'm on the computer! I'm curious, given how a majority of my f-list is pretty impassioned about politics, if y'all vote for your local elections also?

I make it a point to obtain a voter's guide at the very least to learn about the candidates for various boards, judges, etc. I live in a township and we have a supervisor, a clerk, and a board of trustees that are voted for every four years.

My personal opinion is that it is just as important to vote locally as it is nationally. The first time I voted in an election, I thought you *had* to vote for everything on the ballot, which was why I researched everything. Then I found out you didn't have to and thought, 'Well, why wouldn't you?'. I mean, yes, there are some things on the ballots that I don't really give a fig about, but it's my right to vote, so I do.

This thought came upon me this voting season because my husband was saying how he was only going to vote for president. I went pretty apeshit and told him at the very least he needed to vote for senate and house and probably who was running our town too. He agreed he would.

So how about you folks (obviously I'm curious about all countries, not just the US)?