Librarian-girl goes fashion blog

Best investment ever! I've always wanted these kind of mittens, they're so practical! Not to mention supercute when you colour co-ordinate with your nail-polish. Got them at Accessorize in London last fall, and they made the longest, wintriest winter ever more bearable. Colour really does that! Also, bright pink may seem odd for winter but my hands are in my peripheral vision all day long so I really think it improves your mood.
(yes, it's late May, but believe it or not I wore these up until last week and anticipate needing them again tomorrow - weather forecast says a high of 11 degrees and rain....)



Now, this is... colour co-ordination librarian-style
(aka Overkill)

Still undecided if I can actually wear this colour to work. It's not like they're going to fire me now that I've already resigned. Still, I don't like to appear unprofessional. Mind you, someone in my office occasionally wears a pair of silver boots. Another one wears purple lipstick.

Hmm. Maybe if I team it with lots and lots of black polyester...

Well darn

All this snow does negate the fact that I forgot my umbrella again. I don't actually think it's acceptable for people in countries that are part arctic to use umbrellas against snow. It's silly, silly, silly and I would never do it. If snow falls somewhere like the UK or Germany and they use umbrellas, that's forgivable. They don't know any better! Sleet, on the other hand, is of course tricky. How wet must the sleet be for people not to stare at you funny when you use an umbrella? Can be tricky, especially for Danes. They're kind of borderline there. But if you're Swedish, you just know.

In other news, I managed to somehow pick a chic-lit book that takes place in North Carolina. This is not helping travel-yearnings, I'm trying to remember where I've been, everything sounds so familiar! I should perhaps note that the book is in German - I wouldn't borrow chic-lit or at least not own up to reading any kind of chic-lit other than Ms Keyes. But I find reading proper books in German, at least before and after work, is just too difficult and instead I fall asleep. So my compromise is: chic-lit!
Right, I've just installed Google-Earth, and apparently the book does take place in a town where I've been several times, as I was suspecting. Darn. As soon as I've finished the book, I'm going to start a US-detox. No CNN, no Starbucks, although I can't avoid Facebook no looking at pics taking by any friends living there and... OK, bound to fail, crap.

End of an era

So. Apparently Sidney Sheldon was... a man? Did you know this? I never had a clue. I just assumed it was woman. This realisation has really shaken me up. It's like someone hit 'tilt left' or something.

OK no, maybe not, but I was very surprised!

So, update: apparently I can eat broccoli, cabbage, brassica family plants all I want as long as they are cooked. Phew! However... All kinds of tea have huge amounts of fluoride in them. Red, black, green, not much difference (slightly less in green, which I only make myself drink because it's supposed to be healthy anyway). I've already binned all my fluoride chewing gum and pills.

Some would say I could just up my levothyroxine levels to make up for the fact that I'm suppressing my thyroid with fluoride all day long, but instinctively that feels... wrong. I know tea is supposed to be good for you, flavonoids and antioxidants and what have you, but they also make your teeth very yellow and I'm thinking that my incessant tea-drinking might be a substitute for my desire to eat, and thus maybe I should try to veen myself off of it.

Incidentally, tea also inhibits the body's ability to take up iron, so if I now have to space out tea-drinking so as to not interfere with either medicine it actually gets a tad complicated. In addition, iron is one of the very very few things that interferes with levothyroxine. So I can't drink tea before or after levothyroxine or iron, and I can't take levothyroxine with my iron. Seriously, they recommend six hours in between the medicines, and at least two between tea and either medicine.
I suppose I could make a schedule and figure out when I can drink tea, but as I'm not supposed to take my iron if I've eaten lots of dairy for my meal I never know when I'm going to take it...
Complicated!!

Oh, speaking of that. When I went to the pharmacy to pick up my levothyroxine she had to ask me which of my medications it was I wanted to take out. That felt very odd.

And then...

...when you get over yourself, you can finally read "The curious incident of the dog in the night-time" - in 4hours, including walking-reading and crying on the train (3 times, plus later at home) and become, somehow, convinced that all is right with the world, at least right now.

The urge to re-school and spend the rest of my life caring for autistic children is probably not going to be that long-lasting, methinks... Still, just the ability to seed those thoughts in my mind should be enough for anyone who knows me to want the read the book - it must be pretty mind-blowing, right?!

It really is. Read it!!

Seriously, someone needs to get a life

Today is a struggle. Pondering, pondering, pondering. Life seems to lack purpose and direction. If anyone has any tips on how to stop thinking about these things, I welcome them (not organized forms of religions or anything illegal though).

I blame the subject of a recent post. One thing I have found which separates fantasy from sci-fi is that sci-fi tends to be dystopian to an alarmingly high degree. I don't nesseccarily mean that they all have unhappy endings, but they're certainly not Hollywood happy-endings. Someone gets revenge, or the girl, or the order of things is restored/justice is upheld (even though this may involve death of whole species, or main characters, or fairly depressing conclusions on mankind (and other kinds)). But certainly society is usually dystopian: corporations rule, police are usually the bad guys, there is in general no respect between human beings, the world is polluted and/or in ruins, etc etc. So when you leave a sci-fi novel, modern day life seems - not so bad. Police can usually be trusted, corporations can still successfully be sued on occasion when behaving badly, some people do have respect for other beings, only a few species are extinct etc etc. Your life is your own to spend as you like, huzzah!

Fantasy, on the other hand, is exactly what it sounds like. Happy endings. Justice means justice for individuals, not just, the world. The evil get what is coming to them. Everything is possible not by means of technology (to which there is always some limit), but by magic (which is also independant of monetary values). Climate - not an issue. Colours are brighter. Everyone has a purpose. The poor but of noble hearts get their reward, if not in money, then in happiness and contentment with this purpose (although quite often it is glory and wealth as well).

So returning to the real world is suddenly not so fun. Why would you want to live in a world without magic if you have to? Seriously, I have renewed understanding for teenagers who spend 18h a day in WoW or people who spend their weekends with roleplay events. Why would you read the news about terrorism and plague and war and work, work, work to sustaince this existance when you can hide in a world of magic? As long as you have something in 'reality' which is of intrinsic value, like family, or a purpose, love of any kind, etc, then returning is obvious. But if you don't? I can see why you would want to stay and hide.

Ehm, so. Maybe I should just turn this into a sci-fi blog? But I don't really like restricting myself that way.

On another important note, it is once again time for that incredibly important bi-yearly decision: is it time to leave the tinted moisturizer behind for foundation, or am I still not pale enough?
I tested yesterday and decided to give it another week or so (the same goes for the important 'Is it time to wear boots yet?' Q).

A confession

Also, with previous post, it is probaby time for me to admit that I have, despite certain resistance on my part, been dragged down into the swamp that is Fantasy.

I've always tried to limit my intake of dragons and warlocks to the 3 staples: LOTR, HP, and Discworld. You cannot call yourself a nerd if you haven't at least tried to read all of them and loved at least two. Or something (there's probably a proper rule for this somewhere, on a forum).

Recently when I was on holiday I reluctantly brought along the first instalment in the Tales of the Otori - one of these lengthy tales that go on and on and you can buy however so many books (or, at least 4, I think). My friend J, not aware of the disctinct scope of my literary nerdiness (hello! I'm a cyberpunk girl, I want it dark!! apocalypse now please! no bloody magic) gave it to me for my birthday. She was also going on the trip. *cough*

But I loved it. L-O-V-E-D it. I'm buying the next one. And probably the next one.

And now I'm bloody well addicted to Merlin. And Paul Gross (aka Due South mountie Benton Fraser) is going to star in the new version of the Witches of Eastwick, so I have to watch that show. Despite my sister owning pretty much every season of Charmed, I've managed to resist the lure of witch-centered shows - until now!!

I can see that this is just the beginning. It's going to escalate. One day in the not distant future I might find myself reading Terry bloody Brooks.

Yes, I know his name. You cannot borrow Sci-Fi/speculative fiction at the library without having to also browse Fantasy, as for whatever bloody reason these two sub-genres are often inappropriately catalogued together. Oh well. Might save me some time now.

Sigh.

Lunes de infierno

Another Monday from hell. I've got too many break-outs to count (OK, 4) and a big dent on one side of my head in my dull and in-desperate-need-of-a-cut mop of hair. I decided to wear a not incredibly long top which after too many cups of decaf and bloating now keeps riding up. I also look incredibly sallow. Yehaa!!
The fact that this top is my bright yellow one aids nada in turning me into a miss Sunshine today (and, note to self, buttercup yellow clashes something ghastly with sallow)

I had the worst morning with major train incidents - only a horrendously expensive soy latte and half an hour with my crime/sci-fi/page-turner Fatherland on the train turned me from 'livid and ready to kill train traffic control centre staff with my bare hands' to 'incredibly grumpy' by the time I got to the office. My colleague and I have been struggling all day with an incomprehensible excel sheet of data someone in London wants done tomorrow and well, she was the one who suggested pilfering the meeting room chocolates which really kind of says it all.

Checking my holiday weather is not exactly bringing me up or down - it's raining and 13 degrees but I'm thinking statistically that this could prove in my favour. Still, I might have to rethink my pack list (just a mental one, promise!).
Me and L finally booked our ticket for our Rome hols though so that's one thing sorted. Now I just have to work up the energy for choire practice, but I think a good train nap should sort that out. Thrilling stuff, no?

I'm also mentally reviewing my Spanish knowledge. Donde estan los llavabos por favor? Que dirección esta un estación de metro? Una clara por favor (or should I perhaps practice 'una paraguas por favor'). Quisiera una semana con mucho sol. Haha. I dunno who's gonna grant that one.
Anyway. Go do something useful with your time and stop idling!! I will. For another 30mins.
Encantada!!

(si, la autora esta un poco loco hoy)