Only Time for Bullet Points

It's another one of those crazy busy times around here, a time when I have not been visiting the blogosphere too much. Just so everyone knows I'm still alive and well, though, I thought I'd present you with some random bullet points. I'd write full posts on almost all of these if I could, but I just can't right now (something's gotta give, and I would rather it be my blog than meeting up with Zoe's Mom and Ms. Musings in Philly tomorrow).

• If you are planning on walking into my local Starbucks one day with a gun hooked to your belt, while I am there trying to relax with a latte and a book, please don't expect me to have any thoughts other than these two, "Man, you must be really tiny. Hope this compensation thing is working for you," and "You must be fucking nuts. Only a lunatic would care about doing such things." I'll keep my thoughts to myself, though, because, well, after all, you'll be carrying a gun, which is, I suppose, what you really want: to scare people into leaving you alone (see second thought). Note how sexist I am, because I am assuming it will be a man walking in with a gun and not a woman.
• Man, I feel so sorry for those people at Blue Cross/Blue Shield who are only making a mere $1.5M a year salary, like the woman I heard testifying on NPR. And, yes, you read that right, I said "salary," not "bonus." There's a bonus on top of that. I can see why they must raise their monthly health insurance premiums for those slobs out there who are merely making $40K (I mean, those people just don't have any gumption. They should pull themselves up by their broken bootstraps and make something of themselves). I can also see why it is necessary to refuse to pay for whatever care those slobs might need that the company decides it's in its best interest not to pay. I mean, she needs that $1.5M to support the lifestyle to which she has become accustomed, and she certainly deserves it. How can she possibly keep that salary if rates don't go up and the company actually reimburses people for their healthcare? We wouldn't want her to have to suffer, she who works so hard, unlike that woman who is holding down two jobs and trying to raise two kids on her own. After all, that woman got herself into such a predicament, didn't she? She could have jumped on the opportunity to work for a bunch of power-hungry, greedy bastards who make their money off other people's fears and miseries. We just can't have healthcare reform in this country. We can't let poor Ms. $1.5M down.
• One thing I have realized I really do not like about living in PA is entering parking lots for huge shopping centers and immediately having all entrances and exits from them disappear, so that once in them, you can never get out of them. This phenomenon becomes even worse when there are mountains of plowed snow left over from two 15+-inch snow storms.
• Speaking of phenomena, I've recently noticed an interesting nighttime phenomenon. I don't know what it is about the setting of the sun and the darkness of the night, but somehow it turns a tiny,11-pound cat into a monstrous lion, who when he jumps up on the bed for his nighttime slumbers, becomes a dead weight of about 250 pounds, almost all long legs and huge paws and feet, that takes up 3/4 of the bed, leaving mere inches for the two human occupants.
• You know how months ago, I was surprised that one of the characters in The Novel announced that she wanted to go to boarding school? Well, she's not. I think she's going to get a horse instead. How did she fenagle this? I don't know. I think she's got me wrapped around her little finger. Or, it may just be that I decided it was funnier for her to get a horse.
• (This one actually will become a full blog post, over on my alter-ego blog where I review books for my local library.) Am I the last person on earth to have discovered the fabulous Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick? There I was, doing my volunteer gig at the library last weekend, and it sprung out at me from its display in the children's section. I couldn't resist it. I also couldn't resist going online and looking it up once I was at home, something I wish I hadn't done. It gets nothing but high praise, but all those who write about it seem to be determined to ruin the magic for those who have not yet read it. It's a book best approached knowing absolutely nothing about it. One shouldn't even read the jacket copy. It's also a book that shouts, "No matter what you might be able to accomplish electronically, there is no substitute for the magic of a beautiful book." But 'nuff said. If I was not the last one on the planet to discover it, go find a copy and read it (especially if you are both a book and an old movie fan).
• In more reading news: I'm moving along with my TBR challenge. Expect posts soon on both Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Hilary Mantel's The Giant, O'Brien. After reading the gruesome latter, I definitely needed something sweet and turned to an old standby, Miss Pettegrew Lives for a Day. I'm also in the middle of The Talented Mr. Ripley for our detective book club. Read Franny and Zooey for my other book club, and now I am J.D. Salinger (and the Glass family) obsessed and am waiting for my friend Dianne to finish her copy of his daughter's memoir, so I can borrow it from her. I read The Help and was completely surprised by how much I liked it and by how much it made me think, having been born when the book takes place, into a Southern family that had that sort of hired help. And also, I am very excited to have just got from the library Marilyn Johnson's This Book is Overdue. Anyone heard about that one, the subtitle of which is: "How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All"? Thanks goes to my friend Linda for telling me about this one just before a bunch of people at work started talking about it, and then it ended up in the NYT Book Review.
• So, has this been random enough for you?