104. Gothic Art Now, edited by Jasmine Becket-Griffith

105. She: Poems by Saul Williams (re)

106. Carnet de Voyage by Craig Thompson (Author of Blankets. Awesome! Thank you to the Interlibrary Loan dept.)

107. Serenity: Vol. 1-Those Left Behind by Joss Whedon, Brett Matthews & Will Conrad

108. Serenity: Vol. 2-Better Days

109. Amulet: Vol. 1- The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi

110. The Tree Show by Mark Ryden

111. Flight: Vol 1. edited by Kazu Kibuishi

112. A Wind in the Door by Madeline L'Engle (re)

83. The Ultimate Tea Diet by Mark "Dr. Tea" Ukra

84. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

85. Slim: A Fantasy Memoir by Cynthia Rowley

86. Fables: Vol 10- The Good Prince by Bill Willingham (Probably my favorite volume in the series thus far.)

87. Flash Fiction Forward: 80 Very Short Stories, edited by James Thomas & Robert SHepard

88. The Vile Village by Lemony Snicket

89. The Sexual Life of Catherine M.

90. It sucked and then I cried: how I had a baby, a breakdown, and a much needed margarita by Heather B. Armstrong creator of dooce.com

91. Free-Range Chickens by Simon Rich (hilarious)

92. Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall (sort of prequel to the series chronologically, could be read entirely seperately or at any point in the series) (re)

93. Fables: Vol 11- War & Pieces (and with that I am unfortunately caught up and much wait patiently for the next volume release.)

94. A Poem Travelled Down My Arm: Poems & Drawings by Alice Walker

95. Bittersweet Journey: a modestly erotic novel of love, longingn and chocolate by Enid Futterman

96. The Hostile Hospital by Lemony Snicket

97. Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters

98. Blankets: an illustrated novel by Craig Thompson (re)

99. Carmine: a little more red by Melissa Sweet

100. Twilight: the complete illustrated movie companion by Mark Cotto Vaz

101. Moonheart by Charles De Lint

102. Stories for an Enchanted Afternoon by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

103. A Year of Mornings: 3191 Miles Apart: a photocollaboration by Maria Alexandra Vettese & Stephenie Congdon Barnes

dream: elephants, running, stairs, nuns, pain, anger

Dream: I am between 12 and 15. I'm on the Island and there's a general store, but it's really quite large but on main street. The back half of it is a exibit that is changed seasonally or twice a year. This time there are elephants (!) three or four adults and a similar number of babies. I take the bus and see them everyday. There is a rail around them, you can't touch them, but it looks like maybe the adult trunks could reach if the wanted to but they don't they try to pretend people aren't there and play with their babies. Other people that come to see them yell at them and children run and scream about. I am very quite and always go alone. One day the babies are gone and the adults are paceing around their small space very quickly. The workers tell the people the babies must all be napping in the cave space.

One of the adult elephants puts its trunk out at they never have before. I'm gasping it is so close and so beautiful. It's trunk is coming toward me! And I put my hand in the air to reach towards it back. I think it's going to be an E.T. type moment and the tip of it's trunk will touch the palm of my hand, but the tip of the trunk dips past my hand and the trunk wraps around my arm and lifts me into the air!

I'm on their side now and I can see that the babies are gone! The workers hustle me out, hitting the elephants with sticks to get by. They tell the crowd the babies must have been stolen by people from the city. If feels like they're lying.I run out into the street.

Then it's later and I'm running farther down the same street with my best guy friend and my lover (even though we didn't know him them he looks like he looked in pictures from then). In an alley way we run up some stair that just keep going, three or four stories of stairs. At the top there is a door with light around the edges. I open it and there is another. There are maybe seven door, all right togeter with light always coming through to make you feel like you're almost there. Then there is a gauze curtain instead of a door it is red, like burgundy, but a slightly bloodier shade of red. All the doors have been this color too, but not identical.

Through the curtain we can see a whole bunch of nuns on a platform and on stair that go down outside mirroring the ones behind us. Between in the nuns and curtin there is a woman in a broad rimmed hat standing with a little girl they look like they're dressed in 1940's clothes for church. I motion to E & J that we should just go. But as I turn my movement makes the curtain move. they're all coming after us. I feel like no one was supposed to see this. We try to close the doors behind us put they're all turned into door-sized pieces of red parchment with paste on the side toward the curtain like we had peeled them off. I'm trying to press them over, but there are always fingers tearing through from the other side.

We're running down the stairs, but when there are only ten or fifteen left I fall because I'm clumbsy. The fall is like being inside a wave except the sharp corner of each step. pain. pain. pain.

It's years later. There were never anymore live animal in the exibit area. SO I don't feel all heartbroken about their cramped captivity, but the taxidermy animals make my stomach roll. I'm buying something and the guy behind me is tapping my shoulder and saying, 'hey, you're that girl...' His voice is laughing meaness and as I'm turning I can see the wallet in his hand made of elephant-hide leather. I punch him right in the nose and walk out the door. No one is chasing me.



I don't know what this dream means, I had it in the morning between 5:23AM and 7:00AM on 6/24. The previous day I'd put an elephant photo on the wallpaper of a computer at work and answered a coworker that I love them when she asked. I do not have fear of nuns, but I am clumbsy, and taxidermy does make me uncomfortable. I have never punched anyone in the face.

Les miserables is worth it, really.

Or, how to read a monster-length book and still have room in your bag.

This is absolutely wonderful and engaging, laugh, cry, growl, the works. You may find yourself bringing it up in extremely unrelated conversations, "Thats like when in Les Miz. [insert approprite anedote]."



To avoid carrying a brick around, I recommend buying a cheap paperback copy like the one shown. Find the start of the four or five books that make up the volume. Carefully break the spine at the start of each books and carefully take an exacto knife to the seam between pages.



(If you care about rereading or think you might pass it on to a friend, make new covers for each section with cardstock and packing or duct tape.)



Enjoy your newly carriable volumes of Les Miserables!

Book List still lives, really.

56. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke



57. Ant Farm and Other Desperate Situations by Simon Rich



58. Willful Creatures: Stories by Aimee Bender



59. Green Angel by Alice Hoffman



60. The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket



61. Eternal by Cynthia Leitich Smith



62. Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoir by Writers Famous & Obscure, edited by Smith Magazine



63. Enchanted Again by Nancy Madore



64. The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty by Anne Rice writing as A.N. Roquelaure



65. Beauty' Punishment by Anne Rice writing as A. N. Roquelaure

66. Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket

67. The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket

68. The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket

69. The Comopolitan: Poems by Donna Stonecipher

70. Beauty's Release by Anne Rice writing as A. N. Roquelaure

71. The Garden of Eye Candy

72. Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid by Lemony Snicket

73. Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life (Vol. 1) by Bryan Lee O'Malley

74. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (Vol. 2) by Bryan O'Malley

75. All You Need to Be Impossibly French by Helena Firth Powell (re)

76. Matilda Bone by Karen Cushman

77. The Secret of Lost Things by Sheridan Hays (re)

78. Fables: Vol. 9- Sons of Empire by Bill Willingham, etc.

79. Welcome to To Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys but Never Forget How to Drive and Other Puzzles of Every day Life by Sandra Aamodt Ph. D. & Sam Wang Ph. D. , 2008 edition

80. Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Saddness (vol. 3) by Bryan O'Malley

81. Ersatz Elevator by Lemony Snicket

82. Scott Pilgrim Gets it Together (Vol. 4) by Bryan O'Malley

sundries that travel with me

cell phone
So family member can text me for library materials or grocceries.

hankerchief
for allergies, mostly pollen & book dust.

planner
o I can pretend to be in control of my life and so that I can be inspired by the bird & goldfish I pated on the cover.

journal
so that when I feel like laughing or crying at inappropriate times I don't.

Chai Rose lip balm
My lips get chapped otherwise & the smell make me happy, also sort of energizing.

Orange Lavender lip balm
Chapped lips and the smell is very calming.

Creative Zen mp3 player
life soundtracking

knitting
to keep my hands busy in waiting rooms and conversations.

bottle of bubbles
for joy.

mini sharpie
things come up...

pill box
ibprofen, caffeine, and a days worth of vitamins.

novel

massive keyring.

black & silver wallet

fish coin purse

"If You Give A Mouse A Cookie" brings me back to bedtime storytime.

"If You Give A Mouse A Cookie" reminds me of bedtime when I was little. Before I could read I would memorize my favorite picture books. Adults who didn't know me thought I knew how to read until they gave me a book that wasn't mine. I can almost still recite this though not nessesarily in the order in which it occurs.
I get really excited whenever a little kid comes to check this out at the library.