So I was talking to my sister about the injury I got while chasing her dog. And I have to clarify, everyone thinks I'm a total feeb for getting this injury. And while yes, I am highly uncoordinated, and no, if I were more careful it wouldn't have happened. But it wasn't just standing up, it was a standing up while pivoting and trying to keep track of a wily, speedy canine all at the same time. Just so's you know. What kills me is I used to play the same game, running full tilt back and forth through the house after the dog we had when I was little and never hurt myself. But now that I'm all old and tired and barely jog, now's when I injure myself.

Anyway, I was teasing her about it the other day, being all, "Your dog is going to be responsible for the medical bills! He planned it!" and she was immediately all, "Hey, it's not his fault, Mom said!" And that just irritated the crap out of me. Because no, it's not that bad of an injury. And no, I don't blame the dog or my sister for me being a complete ass. But it kills me that my mom is all putting words in my mouth about something she didn't even notice when it happened, and of course defending the dog like anyone was out to get the dog in the first place. Her first indication anything was wrong is me going, "Um, I hit my head pretty hard. Will I be alright?" and she's like, "Oh whatever, you'll be fine." Until 15 minutes later when I show her the massive swelling (it came back down after ice) and she's all, "You're not nauseous, are you? Dizzy?" So I guess she didn't believe me how bad it was when I first told her.

Today I went to the Normal libary. Carey E. Burdette, which I don't know if I've said before, is the public library for the tiny town of Carlock (500 people, I think it said on the sign...), so they don't exactly have a huge selection. But the library card I get at Carey E. Burdette is good in Normal or Bloomington. For some reason involving library district boundaries, we have to pay if we try and get a card at Normal or Bloomington, but if we drive all the way out to Carlock, it's free.

We're just in a weird situation in general. This is probably horribly explicit stalking information, but basically I have a Bloomington address, a Danvers (another small town around here) phone number (which really sucks because calling ANYWHERE costs us long distance, and there's only one ISP for Danvers and it's really crappy), I went to Carlock grade school, and I went to Normal high school.

So I go into the Normal libary, and pick up a ton of books and then... can't get them checked out. I'm not in the system--which is probably my fault, the last time I renewed my card was probably around '98*, so even though I renewed at Carey E. Burdette, the bar code I was using wasn't really in Normal's system anymore.

They have me fill out some "non-resident" card to get a new bar code for my card, but when they notice I live in Bloomington, not Carlock, they are like, "wha?" so I give them the whole spiel I gave you earlier that you are now going to use to stalk me. And so the lady finally gives up and calls Bloomington library and asks them what to do, and they apparently have had several people with my situation, and were just like, "do what you were going to do before you found out she was from Bloomington."

Throughout this whole thing, I felt so guilty, even though I hadn't done anything. They weren't acting suspicious or anything, and even apologized to me several times, but I kept feeling like they were going to turn on me and accuse me of trying to bilk the library out of free books, which is pretty much what a library is all about in the first place, come to think about it. On Tuesday I have the interview at Bloomington libary to become a volunteer, and I was just thinking, "Oh, I hope whoever interviews me isn't at the other end of that phone and all hates me now." Somehow I have Catholic guilt without ever having been Catholic.

Anyway, I got like 4 books, 3 of them I got from browsing the "new arrivals" section. I feel that I'm branching out more, I used to only read Sci Fi/Fantasy, but I only got random stuff this time. The lady wished me good luck, since the new arrivals, I can only have for a week, and that's a lot of reading. And for a second, in my head, I was like, "oh, should I put some back," but then I realized I read 5 books last week without really trying particularly. Which tells you how much time I have on my hands. I'm going to apply for another job tomorrow, though. *crossed fingers*

Anyway, last week I read: A Beautiful Mind, State of Fear, The Ship Who Sang, The Worthing Saga, and 1632. I'd also meant to read this biography of Buzz Aldrin I'd picked up, but it was not very good (I mean, it started AFTER he'd been on the moon!) and it had the normal "musty old book smell" but like... times 100. It was gross.

The books I picked up today were: Heir to the Glimmering World, the curious incident of the dog in the night-time, Colors Insulting to Nature, and The Second Life of Samuel Tyne. ...I've read the first two already.

The curious incident was awesome, actually. It's written from the perspective of an autistic kid, which is really cool. Sometimes I find books written from a perspective of people whose mental states are not like the average person somewhat harder to understand (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest, from the perspective of a schizophrenic is kind of messed up, for instance), but this is actually a really straightforward book--mostly because his brain is more straightforward than most people's. The title refers to the fact that he discovers a dead dog, and trys to solve the mystery Sherlock-Holmes style, only to uncover more and more mysteries. It is a good plot, and the characters are sweet and funny and tragic at times. I really enjoyed it.

Heir to the Glimmering World was horrible. The problem I find with non-genre fiction a lot of times is it's just sad and doesn't go anywhere, which is basically how I'd sum up this book. It started out good, I was intrigued by the characters and the situation, but it just kept... going. But nowhere in particular. I guess you could say the same about one of my favorite authors, Kurt Vonnegut, but he at least gives you the decency of breaking up the depression occaisionally with something funny. I think the author was bogged down in trying to describe human nature, but I was like, "Whatever, man."

Also, what is up with novels that say "a novel" on the cover nowadays? All four of the books I got say that. How stupid are you before you don't know what you're reading is a novel?

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* I lost my wallet, containing my card, my first day at ISU. So instead of bothering to go all the way to carlock to get a new card, I got a Normal libary student card based on my dorm address in Normal and have been using it for the last 4 years or so. Weirdly enough, my wallet showed up 1 year after I lost it, intact except for the cash I had had on me. So I am actually still using the same library card I've had since 4th grade.