The Smell of Leather

You know you're a librarian when: you refer to an item on hold at a retail store as "on reserve." (Boy, did I get an odd look from the saleswoman.)

In happy news, though, I used my portion of scrap metal money to purchase (from Wilson's Leather) a 3/4 length black coat, a pair of black gloves with purple fur cuffs, and a small purple purse for a total of $178 instead of the $550 it would have been originally! I did this while proudly wearing my Santa hat, which earned me a few more odd looks, but which I thoroughly enjoy wearing. It advertises my seasonal goofiness.
When leaving the mall, I had this strangely wicked urge as I passed the Santa photo-op to shout out "Santa's not real!" to all the kids in line. You'd think this wouldn't happen to a person wearing a Santa hat herself, and this was really a particularly authentic and jolly-looking Santa. Perhaps I need to dial down my consumption of hot cocoa to curb such caffeine- and sugar-crazed urges.

I did it: I began reading Knife of Dreams. I've waited for, what, three years for this book now, and so far it's not disappointing. But I do think that RJ's penchant for long prologues is getting wildly out of hand--this one numbered 99 pages. 99! Can't he just get over this notion and call it Chapters 1-3? There's nothing to make the narrative in them different from other chapters, unlike his earlier novels where prologues were special because they took place in the past, or from a villain's point of view. Now they typically span 4-5 locations and character's point of view and just flow into the narrative for Chapter 1.

Ah, well. I guess we're all allowed a few bad habits--his is extremely long and non-prologue-ish prologues. Mine... well, they're too numerous to mention, but I'll just mention unwashed dishes and leave it at that.