Rows of Bliss

My grandmother is watching 'The OC', and one of the girl's names is Raquel. It's freaking me out. I'm in the zone, writing, and all the sudden I hear "... but Raquel doesn't always get what she wants."

Tell me about it. ;-)

Although in her case they were referring to some huge posh party costing upwards of twenty five hundred dollars that this Raquel wanted to throw.
And the only thing I want right now is contentment and a map.
Hm. Make that contentment, a map, and some Tylenol P.M. I've got a lingering headache. You know the ones that sit at the edge of consciousness, just uncomfortable enough to bother you but not bad enough to justify the drugs?

I discovered a little piece of heaven today. It's funny how you stumble upon those things randomly.
Awhile ago my mom told me about this store called 'Half Price Books'. She kept raving about it until pretty much everyone in my family was converted. I didn't really pay attention. I mean, I'm a Barnes and Noble slash Amazon.com junkie. I know those stores inside and out. No mystery there.
But she was determined. So she got me a gift card for twenty bucks to Half Price Books for christmas.

And today... today I ran out of books to read.
Plus I wanted to visit Jackie at work.

But the store. It's a little disorganized, a little too crowded and by no means an exhaustive supply of books.
It's lovely.
Every new row of books presents mystery and challenge. What will I find in this row? Sure, it's labeled 'Fiction' but who knows if that's true?

Needless to say my twenty dollar gift card went quickly. But it was money well spent. I got two books; Twelve Days of Terror, about the New Jersey shark attacks in 1916 (talk about a specialized subject!) and The Queen's Secret, about Katherine of Valois who was the mother of the first king of the Tudor dynasty. I also got two movies; Chocolat, my favorite Johnny Depp Film and Crazy/Beautiful, a guilty pleasure starring Kirsten Dunst.

I will definitely be going back.

I spent tonight hanging out with my family. It was low-stress, actually. Danny, Mercedes and I played Guitar Hero, mom made potato soup and we ended up watching some sports bloopers show.

Plans are in motion for New Year's Eve. It should be a good time.

Much love,

'Quel