Bits

i raise my glass to you.

last week, we were informed that one of the guys I work with, Haja, passed away sometimes thursday night/friday morning. it was a strange realization. it was an odd feeling. a hole where he once was. mind, i didn't know him really. he was quiet, reserved, but i always greeted him in passing. he was a staple of the warehouse, i have been used to seeing him. now he's gone. HR and people were upstairs frantically trying to deal with what happens next and when they talked to us about grief and how to deal, all i could think was.. you don't understand warehouse. and i wouldn't be able to describe what it means.. a couple other guys were from the same village in africa, so they were related somehow. such a sad loss to his family.

after they told of his passing, we all went back to work. all i could think about was my first couple weeks of work. i would zip around corners while picking items. it was the height of my spy faze. i zipped around one particular corner, scanner in the ready to take down my foe... Haja had come around the corner at that exact moment. i-was-horrified. he just looked at me. i started to laugh and a smile crept up his face as we passed and went on our way. it became a goal at times to just make him smile. at me.. with me. whatever.

i almost felt disrespectful while chuckling to myself, but it's a better way of remembering. i would never pretend to say i knew him, there is no need for closure. what i have are silly memories of me being an idiot and hearing him chuckle as i walked away. that's enough for me.

My thoughts constantly revert back

We have semi's come every once in a while to deliver our product, to which we unload onto pallets and it's moved to various places in the warehouse to be scanned in. We're all called in to unload the container. Today I was getting so exasperated because I like to take a few extra seconds to make sure the bottom is solid. As anyone would tell you, if the foundation is faulty, it just won't work. I was frantically running in circles to make sure that we didn't have a leaning tower or boxes jetting out at awkward angles- but making sure that foundation is solid. It makes things difficult for the forklift to move them if they could tumble at any given moment.

And then words came flooding into my mind, about having a sure foundation in Christ. And I just remembered that the scripture that was really coming to mind, the one that I was attempting to remember... And that scripture that repeated in my mind again and again was from Helaman 5:12

"And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty story shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." (emphasis added)

It was an interesting thought at work and my brain had it on a loop. Then I started associating other things to the foundation, and seeing what I was leaning on- the core values I have that make up my very being. I look around me and see the things I have gained by my faith in my Savior and what I will never have to deal with because of my belief and standards. We all have the ability to choose. I choose this.

Mormon 9:25

"And whosoever shall believe in my name, doubting nothing, unto him will I confirm all my words, even unto the ends of the earth."

Time for shleeep.

Slow at work! Buy more stuff!

I was asked to make a bunch of these boxes at work. With limited space it turned into the two towers from lord of the rings. If you look reeeeeley close, there's a wizard on one waiting for an eagle to rescue him. I've been on a kick lately.

This one belongs to Lucas. 

BTW- Reading this book. It's awesome. I am really enjoying it so far. FYI .

In other news!! I'm going to San Francisco next month!! Happy birthday to me!!! As I enter my 28th year, I have decided it'll be epic. This involves an awesome trip, meeting up with Christine and Liza- possibly Becky and if the stars align- Brittany Bly! (haha) I get to hang out or a few solid days with friends. No work, no school, no weddings. (this is when I have generally seen them)
GSC gave me an awesome list of places to go, which has furthered my excitement.

February is just gonna be awesome.

Book List 2012- ish. Lost track a lot..

1. Hex Hall

2. Flipped (I love this book..)

3. Green Angel: Alice Hoffman

4. Midnight in Austenland: Shannon Hale (luf)

5. Lost Hero : Rick Riordan

6. Son of Neptune: Rick Riordan

7. Colorado Kid: Stephen King

8. Hunger Games: Suzanne Collins

9. Catching Fire:Suzanne Collins

10. Mockingjay:Suzanne Collins

11. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies- Seth Grahame-Smith & Jane Austen ( surprisingly humorous..) 

12. The Red Pyramid: Rick Riordan

13. The Dark Mirror: Juliet Marillier (sorry jules, no go)

14. ??

15. Final Empire: Brandon Sanderson

16: Mistborn: Brandon Sanderson

17. Delicious Conversations: Jennifer Stewart Griffith (Furthered my love of Persuasion by Austen) 

18. Half Moon Investigations: Eoin Colfer

19. Fury: ? (don't know dont care)

20. Getting Caught

(Sunshine: Robin McKinley.. didnt finish. dont care to)

21. Secret Circle 1/2

22. Secret Circle 3/4

23. The Book Thief- Markus __ (SO GOOD, MUST READ)

24. Only the Good Spy Young: Ally Carter (Fun series!) 

25: Airman: Eoin Colfer

26. Heir of Sevenwaters-Juliet Marillier

27. Seer of Sevenwaters-Juliet Marillier (noooooo!!!!)

28. Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: Alan Bradley (FIND AND READ! really.. go.. ) 

29. I am Not a Serial Killer: Dan Wells (I enjoyed creeping people out.. good series) 

30. I Don't Want to Kill You: Dan Wells

31... Missing something.,,.,,

32. Red Herring without Mustard: Alan Bradley

33. The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag: Alan Bradley

34. Mr. Monster: Dan Wells

35. Avalon High: Meg Cabot

36. Ice Cold: Tess Gerritsen

37. Confessions of a Shopaholic: Sophie

38. The Knife of Never Letting Go-

39. Silent Girl: Tess Gerritsen

40. The Keepsake: Tess Gerritsen

41. The Apprentice: Tess Gerritsen

42. Pathfinder: OSC

43. Leviathan: Scott Westerfeld

44. Beauty: Robin McKinley

45. Partials: Dan Wells

46. The Surgeon: Tess Gerritsen

47. The Bone Garden: Tess Gerritsen

Craaap I lost track....

48. After the Sky Fell Down- Megan Isbell

49. Alfred Kropp- SO BAD It'S NOT FUNNY!

50. I am Half-Sick of Shadows: Alan Bradley (Brilliant)

51. Book Thief (again, spectacular)

52. Till We Have Faces: CS Lewis

53. The Bell at Sealey Head- Patricia McPhillip (beautiful writing) 

54. The Woman Who Died a Lot- Jasper Fforde

55. The Eyre Affair; Mr Fforde (luf him)

56. Lost in a Good Book

57. The Well of Lost Plots:

58. Something Rotten

59. The Halloween Tree: Ray Bradbury

60. Chime: (Christine book rec)

61-63 Hunger Games Series again (draining..) 

64. Cinder (fun fun fun)

65. The Art of Racing in the Rain

66. First Among Sequels: Jasper Fforde

67. Juliet: Anne Fortier (Romeo and Juliet REDEEMED) 

68. Hollowcity: Dan Wells

Seriously, I swear there must be a couple more. But lots of repeaters.. 

I-love-Thursday!

There's a book series I LOVE- The Thursday Next series. I highly recommend them. 

High-ly. 

It's a book for people who like books. It's been a while since I've been this impressed with a series, but let me tell you, this CHARACTER knocks my socks off. 

I've been having conversations with various people about character- staying true to a character in writing and their moral code. I read a book as of late that changes her own supposed moral code of conduct that it gave me whiplash. What I like about the Thursday Next series is that you can always rest assure that Thursday will always do the right thing. Not always legal thing, but always the RIGHT thing. That never changes. 

Besides the fact it's an excellent STORY. Adventure, wit, and the characters that you love! I can't get enough. 

I went to a book signing in October? November? of Jasper Fforde and he made some comment about how she could have been, but he opted to take the road less traveled. She's married and has two/three kids. She has a seemingly normal job, besides jumping in and out of the bookworld on the side to save them from rogue minotaurs and grammersites. (It all makes sense, I swear.. just don't ask me to explain)

She's just a good person and has a good head on her shoulders. 

And it's because I have a sensible head on my shoulders that I won't torture my future daughter by naming her Thursday. But I would. 

Facts about Thursday Next: 

1.  Thursday Next is the unlikely-monikered heroine of a series of novels by British writer Jasper Fforde. 

2.  The novels are set on an alternate Earth in which time travel is very much possible, cloning has brought back extinct species, Wales is a communist nation, and, most surprising of all, books and literary figures are as popular as movies and movie stars in our world.  As a result, Thursday’s occupation is Literary Detective, working for the government on book-related crimes. 

3.  The novels are also set in an alternate world within the alternate Earth, a “BookWorld” in which figures from books are alive, acting in their own stories when their books are being read and living their own lives in the down time between reads. 

4.  In the first Thursday Next book, The Eyre Affair, a despicable villain threatens to cause chaos and social upheaval by altering the texts of beloved books unless his demands are met.  (Thursday defeats him, natch.)

5.  Spoiler!  – Also in the first book, Jane Eyre, which is wildly popular with modern audiences, ends with Jane not marrying Rochester but going to India with her cousin.  Thursday manages to change the ending to the one with which  readers in our world are familiar.  (No offense, Jane, but really that cousin was a bit of a stick.)

6.  Spoiler! – In a later book, Thursday watches a much-needed anger management session for the characters in Wuthering Heights (a book which author Fforde seems to feel is perhaps a bit overrated.)

7.  Spoiler! – Also in later books, Thursday has two children (Friday and Tuesday) but, due to a recurring hallucination implanted in her mind by an enemy, continually believes she has a third (Jenny).  (Hate it when that happens!)

8.   Spoiler! – At one point, Thursday’s husband keeps getting erased from (and added back into) existence, which is rather inconvenient.  (I’m sure we’ve all had a similar experience.)

9.  Miss Havisham from Great Expectations appears in some of the books and surprisingly turns out to be a pretty kick-ass, action-oriented detective.