write like you're running out of time

In about two and a half hours 2011 will be over, and 2012 will be upon us. And it's been something of a year, at least from my standpoint.

( No meme this year, just reflections of an Internet lady. )

Well, in roughly 3 hours and twenty minutes we say goodbye to 2005 and hello to 2006.

The past year has had its high points and its good points. About this time last year, I was preparing myself for the fact that my grandmother might not be around much longer - I had no idea just how long "much longer" was going to last.

This past April marked a full year of employment by the Byron Library. Despite some things (bratty kids, stupid city and equally stupid city council), I really do enjoy working there. I'm looking forward to marking two years of employment this coming April, and hopefully also picking up some more hours regularly. At one point during high school I was thinking of going for a major in library science, but ultimately went for my degree in English. Now I'm slightly pondering the notion of maybe doing grad school on some level to get my Masters in library science, if it's at all possible.

In May I had the honor of standing up with my best friend when she got married. Summer after next my other best friend will be tying the knot. Meanwhile of the three of us I'm the only one who remains unattached. There's a guy who at one point I may have considered to be my boyfriend, but it's a little difficult to do that when you don't see each other or don't even communicate with each other.

I made my first foray into the online world of theatrical_muse this year. It's quite fun trying to get into the head of a fictional character and to answer the drabble prompts. I've also become somewhat addicted to sages_of_chaos (and if the muses come up with one more persona for me to RP there, I'm-a scream).

As far as regular fic writing goes, all I've been able to finish and publish are one more chapter for my Paris Diaries series, and the first chapter of my Shanghai Diaries series. I wanted to attempt NaNoWriMo this year, but...other things happened, and those plans got sidetracked. Maybe next year. New fandoms for this year include The Life and Times of Juniper Lee, T*Witches and Avatar: The Last Airbender. The latter really has me wanting to attempt fanfic.

And I've just recently come to this decision (as in, about five minutes ago), but Asian fiction is now one of my favorite genres of fiction. I've always been fascinated by anything Oriental (Chinese, Japanese, Thai). Right now I'm reading the novel Empress Orchid by Anchee Min; it's kind of like Memoirs of a Geisha Lite, and kind of not. So far I'm enjoying it, but then I've only gotten up to page 47.

ETA: Mom wound the cuckoo clock today, and it cuckoos on the hour and on the half-hour. And everytime it cuckoos, the dog barks at it. I know it's wrong, but I can't help crack up every time that happens.

Snagged from yen_san

( See under cut for details )

In other news, my car went up to the local mechanic last night for it's scheduled oil change. When the guy working on my car unscrewed the cap to drain the oil, said oil was "milky". Why?

BECAUSE THERE WAS FUCKING FLUID IN THE OIL!!!

I cannot believe this! This was the exact same problem I had with the GrandAm, only then we knew for sure that it was coolant that was leaking into the oil. Dan and Brian don't even know what got into the oil in the Saturn. And of course they don't know why this is happening, especially since Dan reccommended getting a Saturn for my next car because there was a lesser chance of the coolant and oil mixing from the way the engine is built.

So the car goes back to Hanlin's next week to see if there is more fluid getting into the oil from somewhere or if this was just a one time fluke thing (pray for fluke, people! pray for fluke!). My dad is having me lock my car whenever I drive it and park it somewhere, just in case there's "foul play" involved (his theory, not mine).