I Just Can't Walk Away

You win, Torrid. You win. Normally I don't bother with my haute cash because well, I just don't. But for some reason this go round I rustled mine up at the last minute and went to see if anything other than the really awesome Villains cloak/coat that's too much was calling my name. Just as I'd given up on anything being worth the hassle, I ran across a Daria shirt. Fine. You win. Threw in another shirt to wear under my NBC shirt and called it an order. Should've done this Friday when they had free shipping, but I think you had to hit $75 and I most definitely didn't so I guess it doesn't matter.


Read the third Gabby book and it was really good except ( Spoilers. )

Which makes it sound like I didn't like the book. I did. I teared up a bit because I'm a sucker. Also, the day I read it, we wound up with enchiladas for dinner and I cackled to myself because there's a minor plot point involving the Enchilada Princess.

That's Paperbackswap not the channel. A few days ago I got another ping of "hey, this book you wanted is available!" so I bought a credit and ordered it. And waited.

And waited. You know where this is going, right? Yesterday morning I get an email from the site telling me that my request has been cancelled and that I've got a message from the would be sender. Once more I hear that they ran out of money after sending out 15 books and "maybe next time."

What are the odds of two different people using the same excuse back to back?

I log in and look at the transaction archive (which is something I keep forgetting exists) and sure enough, it's the same asshole as before. And as I scroll through my archive I realize that almost every flake that I've requested a book from and not gotten since August has been this jackass.

And there's no way to block someone so you either have to accept everything and then just nope the hell out of there when you see the name or take your chances. Unacceptable.

So I poked around the site again (double checking the blocking thing) and couldn't easily find a Report Douchebag function, so I sent the Helper on Duty a PM. And a little less than an hour later I get a reply that you can totally report someone for doing this, and here's how, and also the system is still set up to flag people if they cancel too often. Alas, this was all yesterday and I was too tired then (it was way past my I should be asleep time) and I'm too tired now, but after I wake up I'm definitely going to report this wretch. Once was annoying but I could sort of understand, especially if someone happened to be new (when you're super encouraged to post a bunch of books all at once, y'know?) but multiple times, always screwing me over no matter the book? Uh, no. Fuck you, sweetheart.


Let's shift gears to happier topics, shall we? I gave Powerless a whirl and despite my meh feelings towards Vanessa Hudgens the pilot was cute. We'll see how it goes. I also caught up on The Good Place and I'm going to need someone else to watch and then geek out with me, k?

Annnnnnnd let's end on a really good note. Finally made it to Walmart today and I was looking for three things: something to eat because I completely forgot to stop at the grocery store, the new basic Harley DC Super Hero Girls doll, and MH minis I don't have. I found all of that and so much more.

First, I didn't pick up Harley yet because I'd rather spend a little more and get special Wondy (and Super Girl whenever she comes out) but mostly because I hit the clearance section first and found...
Funko Keychains for a buck! I snagged Sadness, Eve (from Wall-E), and Spider Gwen. :D I've been eying Spider Gwen at work (the full size, not keychain) and for a buck? Oh yes. They also had Neon Lights Ball Evie who is lovely, and I snagged six more minis. They were stocking the toy section and I didn't feel like going digging through the big side panel display so I just went through the stuff on the aisle and chose six I really wanted from those.

Stupidly happy about my finds. :D

I've finally finished struggling with 13 Ways Of Looking At A Fat Girl. I won, book. You lose! I knew when I put it on my Goodreads list that it was going to be a struggle. Sometimes you just know. But still, the review I read made it sound like one of those books that isn't easy, but that you enjoy on some level, or that you should read. I don't fully remember which, and also I was promised some humor and the ability to identify.

Self, you've gotta stop adding books to read at 4am on your lunch break at work. That version of you is an idiot. She chooses bad books because magazine reviews are damn lies.

13 Ways is a painful read if you are or have ever been a fat girl. At first it starts out in a cringy but relatable way and you think to yourself that maybe the reviews were right. Maybe!
And no. As the short stories continue, Elizabeth (or Lizzie, Liz, or Beth, she keeps changing her name) becomes more and more miserable. She eventually loses a lot of the weight and then obsesses over not gaining it back and naturally this is just the most fun ride ever. You see her cycle through a series of relationships until she finds a keeper, only to lose him, though I'm not entirely sure what brings about the end. I mean, I know it's because she's so wrapped up in her destructive eating that there's no room for a husband or even herself but it's handled very... strangely. Elizabeth seems to basically hate everyone except maybe, maybe her husband, and even then you don't really see too much feeling for him so it's hard to say. But she's especially harsh on other women, particularly anyone she works with. Yet we go from her judging the shit out of her manicurist to moving out and living with a coworker she seems to despise as she runs away from her marriage.

The whole book feels off kilter somehow and I didn't enjoy it beyond a few things in the first story. There are moments in that one where you connect and it's nice to have someone else share an opinion/thought/feeling you've had. But as the stories continue, things get more difficult to relate to. Either because you can't or because it's painful to do so.
And then I just stopped being able to connect at all. By about halfway through the book, she's just miserable all the time, and in sort of denial about it. No one really says anything to her, and I suspect that it's because they've tried off page to do so and she's just gone on the attack. She's a miserable person who becomes pretty horrible to other people, if only in her head, and I'm left wondering why. Why the book was written the way it was, why it's getting all this amazing press, why, why, why.
There's a story towards the end that would almost be funny if it hadn't followed endless stories that were so damn miserable so that by the time you reached it, you'd forgotten what funny could be. The final story is odd and I don't blame people who've said that this book ends without hope for Elizabeth. I kind of see some light about to go off above her head, but it could honestly have just been my relief that the book was about to be done. So maybe the light was all in my head.

Tl;dr: hyped book fails to live up to the hype, gives me something new to be paranoid about instead.



I cheated on 13 Ways with Truth or Hair and it was cute. I'd like to see more Poppy, please. Which isn't really a phrase I thought I'd ever say but there you are. And Sparrow's a redhead if the O'Hairs are so there's a little nitpick. I wasn't too fond of the ending because it felt pretty tacked on, but for something that gave the twins some damn characterization, I'll be kind.


Now, apparently today is a kitten visitation day so I've got some time to kill. Maybe I'll resume my MH blather? Saw two or three bunnies out on my walk with the dog, which has nothing to do with anything other than bunnies!

*hums* GUYS. Guess who got a comment on one of their reviews from the author in question? This chick, that's who.

Eeeee!

Tomorrow my Amazon package should arrive. Which... probably won't help you if you're avoiding the song of the day from me. :P But you'll deal. I think. Probably? You will. It's true. Much like I will one day get over the fact that I have no one to squee with, so... y'know. Stuff.

What else?

Oh, work was robbed on Sunday! I wasn't there, obviously, since Sunday is one of my days off. When I found out about it yesterday, I might've cackled once I realized everyone was okay. Why? Because we switched security guards because of safety concerns (as in people didn't necessarily feel safe with the two we had. I personally felt safe enough with the one who napped because anyone who dismisses being shot as "not a big deal" is obviously the person you want between you and a gun, k?) and a little over a week later we get robbed for the first time in years. Dying here. I'm dying on the inside from the irony levels.


I was apparently just so hopped up on that little bit that I looked up ExR a few minutes ago. (I know.) I don't know why other than yesterday's look back and an upcoming one had me thinking. ( I come across like a stalker, right? )

Now, to find someone who thinks I'm pretty awesome and that I feel the same way about. That'd be fun.


Just in case you think I might be too happy despite any number of reasons to not be, my right wrist is trying to kill me. I've no idea what I did nor do I know how to fix it. It's not fun.

Still, all in all I'm sittin' pretty. Anyone want to join me? Or maybe write me a story to read when I'm at work or get home from work? That'd be the most awesome thing ever. I've got cookies.

   Let's talk about books, shall we? I blew the last of my fun money (without realizing it, mwerp) on Caroline's (the new AG, remember?), book set. Since the money was already gone, I dove right in and only kicked myself a few times over the error. I'd been a little cautious since the last new Historicals' had some awful artwork (I still feel horrible saying this since art is subjective and the artist's other work seems to be nice but whatever was done to the pieces used for the book series is just criminal) and I have no desire to have the doll... but everyone kept going on and on and ON about how good this series was.

  And I do love a good American Girl book. Then Amazon had it on sale for a little over $20 and my Amazon Prime trial is still good so...




Holy cow, that's a lot of pink. A LOT of pink.

( Not a lot of spoilers but hey. I'm considerate. )

Anyway, if you do pick them up, do yourself a favor and do not read the back cover for any of the books. Spoilers like WHOA, man.

Ooh, Cass says my order will be in tomorrow. :D *dances* Halloween glee will be upon us all!

Book meme ganked from she_who_dares:
( It's long. )

Which is actually not the book rambling I intended to do, but of course now I can't remember what I'd originally set out to blather on about. Isn't that just the way? Though this did remind me that it's getting time to go through my books and reorganize them again. When I go on a comfort book reading binge, I don't tend to put them away. Which creates problems on the bookshelf and problems in my room when the books pile and then fall. My babies!

  I realized yesterday that I have completed my Sweet Valley High collection. It's not complete-complete in that I'm done with it forever and a day, but complete in that for the main SVH series, I own a copy of every book. Every book. I have a few that I want to upgrade (#41 for instance), and I fully intend to acquire the various re-issues and original covers for the books that came that way. But for now, and it's actually been this way for awhile, I have every SVH book.
   I am also only one book away from having the entirety of SVU, and I would have had that done already except the book that's standing between me and completion is a really awful book. (Chloe's Love Diary.) I'm not sure if I 'need'/want any upgrades for SVU. Something to look into when my room is cleaner and I have space to put them all down on the floor and compare. Yes. I'm that kind of book nerd.
  In large part, this is thanks to ithinkitisayit and especially luxken27. *throws confetti*

In other news, my brother owes me $37. Do not let me forget this. Also, my credit limit went up. Huzzah! Now, I should probably straighten up in here a little, then a smidge in my room, and then take a shower.

I have a million things I want to do, and probably should do, but sadly I am exhausted so they will have to wait. I'm hoping that I'll wake up sometime mid-afternoon and have time to work on my to-do list, but until then, have a mini-rant and some useless trivia. Huzzah!

  Work would have been pretty much perfect except that around 5:30 this morning, the guy who used to deliver our newspapers came by for the third time and he went off because the store was still closed. Dude, they were doing the floor. It takes time to dry. The first time we were outside because we couldn't get back in until one of the aisles dried. The second time the floor was still wet and the registers were down because hello, thunderstorm. Third time he just starts screaming what bullshit this is and he's directing his anger my way. And no one fucking said anything. Fuck you, floor cleaning dudes. But majorly fuck you, Syd Wilson, paper-douche. Really, you seemed to be under the impression that bitching at me with the fun words would somehow magically make it so that I would risk fucking up the floors just to sell you your cigarettes. Uh, no.

And had I thought about the fact that I could have probably reached them without needing to go behind the counter, I still wouldn't have because by this point I was ready to tell you to fuck off and never come back to the store when I was around.

Had you been nice and understanding, I would have called you back when I realized I could probably reach the cigs, or get someone who could, and then rung you up on a different register. But your screaming? Yeah. It rattled me. So the next time I see you, you'd better apologize. Or else I'm not ringing you up then, either.

Self: the next time you go looking for books Susan Wittig Albert wrote for Sweet Valley, just look here:
* Standing Out, Sweet Valley Twins #25, Bantam, 1989
* April Fool, Sweet Valley Twins #28, Bantam, 1989
* Princess Elizabeth, Sweet Valley Twins #30, Bantam, 1989
* Jessica On Stage, Sweet Valley Twins #32, Bantam, 1990
* Mary is Missing, Sweet Valley Twins #36, Bantam, 1990
* War Between the Twins, Sweet Valley Twins #37, Bantam, 1990
* The Twins Get Caught, Sweet Valley Twins #41, Bantam, 1990
* Elizabeth's First Kiss, Sweet Valley Twins #43, Bantam, 1990
* Mademoiselle Jessica, Sweet Valley Twins #46, Bantam, 1990
* Mandy Miller Fights Back, Sweet Valley Twins #48, Bantam, 1990
* The Twins' Little Sister, Sweet Valley Twins #49, Bantam, 1991
* Elizabeth the Impossible, Sweet Valley Twins #51, Bantam, 1991
* The Slime that Ate Sweet Valley, Sweet Valley Twins #53, Bantam, 1991
* Coco Crazy, Sweet Valley Twins #55, Bantam, 1991 (Actually: Brooke and her Rock Star Mom)
* Giovanna's Secret, Sweet Valley Twins #60, Bantam, 1991 (Ciao, Sweet Valley)

Some of those are pretty awesome. (Why yes. I am looking at you, Mary is Missing and Mandy Miller Fights Back) Now. If you'll excuse me, I have to go pass out as I attempt to finish Mourning Gloria.

There were two things I loved about SVC. Only one is keeping me from setting the book ablaze.
( Pics or it didn't happen. )
  The other has to do with cake and the Wakefield parents. :P

You know what we haven't done lately? We haven't had me cram a book down your throat.

Let's remedy that, shall we?



  If you read the back of the book, ignore it. I can't really see how it ties into Evie's story at all, really. It's selling you a book that it does not deliver. That said, Paranormalcy is a really good read if you like your heroines funny and equipped with a sense of self-preservation. I can't tell you how many books I read where our star is an absolute idiot when it comes to keeping themselves alive without divine intervention. And we're not talking about the ones who are supposed to risk their lives in big, epic showdowns on a regular basis, okay? We're talking the little battles that could be avoided if our hero/heroine had the extra braincells to rub together to not run full stop towards danger for funsies.

  Evie lives and works at the International Paranormal Containment Agency, or IPCA, where she helps tag vampires, werewolves, and other things that go bump in the night. Not kill them, merely help IPCA keep tabs on them. Usually by slapping an ankle monitoring device on them. Of course, there are a few tweaks to this device, like holy water for the vampires to keep them from biting people or blowing off their assignment. Whatever.
   It doesn't take long to realize that all Evie knows about 'normal' kids her age she's learned about from watching television. As such, she's got a skewed basis for normal, which should either strike you as endearing or annoying. If it's the latter, odds are good you're going to check out now. What else doesn't take long? For Evie's world to be turned upside down. A paranormal no one can identify breaks into IPCA and refuses to talk to anyone other than Evie, and even then he doesn't say anything helpful. Until Evie goes out to tag a vampire and is nearly killed by an angry mob of vamps. When IPCA returns after Evie's escape, which has serious consequences, all the vampires are dead, but there's no visible reason as to why.

  Mystery guy confirms that paranormals all over the world are being hunted but no one seems to know anything. Instead of working with Mystery Guy, IPCA ignores the warning signs that are piling up. Remember Evie's rescue? Yeah. She was forced to call her psychotic sort of ex boyfriend, Reth, to rescue her. He's a faerie but he's one of the more frightening types that have been showing up more and more over the years. Evie isn't nearly careful enough with her commands with him and, well... I can't ruin it all. But suffice it to say, Evie is pretty sure that IPCA's reliance on faeries is a Very Bad Thing. And I doubt you'll disagree before it's all over.

And then the mystery paranormal killer hits a little too close to home and all hell breaks loose.

( Say what you will, but the idea of a woman ablaze is frightening enough for me even before... )

Oh. And ignore the quote from Aprilynne Pike who is all swoonage over Reth. Reading that quote makes me doubt her braincell capacity. And usually I like the third wheel in any given love triangle, but... No.

The bad.
I'm awake. I should have gone to bed already. The truck is going to be in the shop for awhile. Hopefully the boy is mistaken about this (this is where one of you is magical, k?) b ut even if he isn't, paying for the fix is going to be difficult. Ari still hasn't gotten back to me on the whole being able to give me a ride to/from work tomorrow. Normally I wouldn't mind another night off work, I just feel weird about calling out. Again. Mostly that's because the past two weeks my paychecks have been wrong and I don't really want to have to go through a third week of them being wrong. (Which bugs me. The first week is understandable, but I was there when the second week was being put into the computer. If you felt weird about using a vacation day for the Worst Vacation Ever, why didn't you just ask if that's what I wanted done? Also, apparently it wasn't even that. It was not paying me for a night when I was definitely at work. WTF. Payroll. You're doing it wrong. Bonus because the night in question was a night the person doing payroll worked.)

The good.
  My blanket is warm and toasty. It's like being hugged without having to worry about my breath or my hair getting in someone's face. Just mine. Sweet Valley Confidential has shipped. :D I'm so excited for something that I'm pretty sure is going to kill my brain cells en masse, but good lord, I'm practically bouncing at the thought.
Before learning of the truck, I put in my order for doll crack (nothing major) and with it, I have completed my AG Molly collection until it comes time to order Molly/Emily and their accessories. This could mean that AG will throw me a curveball and take out Josefina or Addy first, but I'm betting pretty hard on the Molly retirements and the fact that she was expected by most of the fandom (who keep up on these things anyway) to be archived last year as indicators that she's toast this year. Whatever. Point is, all the stuff currently available that I want? I've got. Or will be getting when they ship off backorder. I do so love doing backorders with free shipping, even if you do have to spend a certain amount to qualify. The only time I didn't like doing it was for Kit's desk and that's because it was a semi-expensive purchase looming overhead with little warning as to when it would swoop down and nail my bank account. Little ones though, those I can live with.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to decide whether to do my Ella pic-spam or watch the third season of The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Yes. Seriously. Mmhmm. It's so over the top and insane that I lack the words to properly describe it.