Need to Catch Up on Some Reading?

Go to jury duty.

For real. Jury duty is simply an opportunity to get one's books read, in entirety (perhaps even more than one). I've gone through two in my three days of service. Believe me, nothing sucks more than sitting in a deliberation room, trying to read slowly as if you were some child sounding out the letters, so that you can stretch the remaining pages for as long as you can. When I read that last page of It's Not That I'm Bitter, my heart sunk. Looks like the next hour was going to be spent watching the fool next to me play solitaire. If only I had brought one more book. Even a tabloid or the current Target ad would have sufficed.

Jury duty also provides another reason for why that Blackberry would have come in handy. To think, if only I had purchased that adorable little Pearl, I could have been blogging for your entertainment during that whole three hours I sat doing nothing today.

But alas, it's all over. The jury left to deliberate and I, the sole alternate, was cast out of that courtroom as quickly as the judge could hand me my "certificate" (honoring me, of course, for all of my hard work). All that and I didn't even get to hear the verdict. But whatever, I got to leave and revel in the gray, sprinkly day before the rest of them. Take that, judicial system.


But really, onto bigger and better topics, how was your weekend? (Wow, it's already Wednesday and I'm only just now posting about the weekend . . . I've really got to get better at this.) I had an enjoyable one.

Joe and I went tag saling Saturday morning, and I more than converted him. He got home with more things than he knew what to do with and was already asking if we could go again next weekend. Luckily, I didn't walk away empty-handed (or else I would have cried)--I finally found a dresser. When my search for it didn't go very well at the Brimfield Flea Market, I was sure down in the dumps. But East Longmeadow tag sales proved useful and I came home with a cute little oak dresser that just needed a little sanding and paint (or, as Joe put it, a little TLC).

Before:



And after:


In the end, I was pleased. My room is finally coming together! Hey, if I'm stuck living in a closet-sized bedroom in Somers, Connecticut with my entire family and without a Starbucks within a seven mile radius, I might as well tweak it to my liking. I'm getting there.

Here are some other highlights from my weekend. (Warning: there aren't many. I really need to get better at photographing more often, in addition to blogging more often.)










And tonight . . . Rachel's coming home! Sisters back in action, that's right! She's flying in tonight and staying for my fabulous grad party on Saturday, and I think going back on Sunday or Monday. Finally, someone who can relate to the perils of living this post-college life . . . I can't wait! Perhaps we'll have to make a Starbucks date tomorrow morning . . .

And in sad news (aren't I just a ball of excitement?), my poor car is dead. After breaking down for the second time since December, my Volvo wagon is no longer fixable (so Larry the Mechanic says). Personally, I think any amount of money spent fixing my poor baby is worth it, but my parents do not. And they would be the ones paying, so I guess I have to go along with this nonsense.

In the meantime, my dad is letting me drive his old little Toyota that doesn't even have a tape player (how will I play my iPod?!) and lacks an intermittent wiper setting. The only person who should be seen driving that load of crap is an old, smoking, shirtless man. Which I am not.

Unfortunately, working part-time at a daycare and making minimum wage does not allow me to purchase something else.

Boy, this whole surviving-life-after-college gig is tougher than I thought . . .