1. I am obsessed with alphabetizing things. Give me a list, a pile of books or CDs or whatever and I will gleefully go to town.
2. I really do love the Twilight series and greatly admire Stephenie Meyer, but if I hadn't started reading them before they became such a cult phenomenon, I doubt I would ever read them.
3. I am a copycat shopper. I have to see things on other people to like them, especially with shoes and purses. I can walk right past a purse on a rack that I will LOVE when I see it on someone's shoulder.
4. I've loved potatoes since I was a kid, and my dad always told me I should marry an Idaho potato farmer when I grew up. Then I ended up going to college in Idaho.
5. Ever since I took a Children's Literature class in college, I've read just as much YA literature as adult, if not more.
6. I love grammar and editing and all that. And while I know what's right and wrong, I can't explain the rules at all. I know when to use who and when to use whom, but couldn't give you the technical jargon behind it to save my life. By technical jargon I mean an explanation involving words like subject and object.
7. I have not been paying attention to my grammar as I have written this, so nobody else is allowed to either.
8. I always say I like guys who are a bit bigger, but when it comes to immediate attraction, I always tend to like bean poles. Why is that?
9. I am the biggest klutz ever, and lack grace in any form. I can't go an hour without bumping into something or knocking something over.
1o. I am currently hooked on crab rangoon. I still enjoy the rest of my Chinese food, but it's now my favorite part.
11. I sing all the time. But I HATE performing. And the one place I never sing is in the shower.
12. I am completely obsessed with Broadway musicals. I love discovering new ones. And my personal idea of heaven is night after night of Broadway shows, with the original cast members of course.
13. I often feel I was born in the wrong decade because all my favorite movies and actors are from the '40s and '50s. Most of my leading men are now dead.
14. I love laughter and I never feel better than when I've made someone else laugh.
15. I don't know if I will ever get married, but if I do I plan on keeping my own name. I love it and have no desire to ever part with it.
16. The fact that people my age are having kids, plural, really freaks me out because I am at such a different place in my life.
17. I have never worn make-up and doubt I ever will. People always pull out crap like I don't need it, but there's no way I'm the only "natural beauty" out there. Honestly, I'm just lazy and past the point where I'm willing to learn.
18. I have no desire to ever have kids of my own. I wish my nieces and nephews lived closer so I could get to know them and be a decent aunt, but that's it.
19. I love it when old people are still in love with each other. It melts me like nothing else. I either want to get married in my 30s or wait until I'm a senior citizen.
20. I truly hate PDA. Anything beyond hand holding and quick pecks in public really irks me.
21. When I watch TV or movies, I yell at guys who are crying to suck it up. It bugs me.
22. I don't chew gum and am turned off by anyone who does; it grosses me out. I especially hate when people chew it likes cows or when receptionists and servers, etc. chew it while working.
23. I tend to be either loud bordering on obnoxious or really really quiet. There isn't really a middle ground.
24. I love books and anything related to them. I think they are beautiful, and have to admit that I often do pick out books based on their covers.
25. I have two people I consider my best friends. One is on the east coast, one is on the west coast. I am stuck in the middle.

So last week I got some bad news: My restaurant is closing.

I had heard rumors for a few days, but having it confirmed still hit me a lot harder than I was expecting it to. I am pretty upset about this.

I have been working for Chili's for nearly two years now. I started at a franchise location in Idaho Falls, Idaho, in April 2007. Then when I moved to Omaha that December I got hired on at a Brinker (the main company) location here in Omaha. Then I moved to Pennsylvania this past summer and transferred to the one in Hanover. Then I transferred back to the same Omaha one in December.

I've had quite a history there. And I know it's just Chili's, they are one among many in their genre, but I have truly enjoyed working there. And Brinker really is a decent company that makes a real effort to give back. (Oh and the one in the photo is actually the location in Idaho Falls where I started.)

Now I guess I should clarify that the company itself isn't going under; Brinker is just closing about 30 of its locations nation wide. Nobody can fully escape the current economic situation. There is one other location in Omaha and one in La Vista that is fairly close too. Right now our managers are trying to get as many of us transferred as they can, but a lot of people want to and each store can only take on so many.

So I am still in limbo waiting to hear my fate. I have a few ideas about what I will do if I can't get a transfer, but I still feel sad. I haven't worked at another restaurant in so long. I know nearly all there is to know about Chili's and its menu. I know all the answers. I don't want to have to start over.

I guess I just have to wait and see whether or not my days as a Chili-head have come to an end.

As many of you know, my car, Murdock, has been through a lot in the 2 1/2 years we've been together. I've replaced the engine, tires, brakes, thermostat and more. There has been one thing though that I have all but refused to get fixed. Until now ...

About a month after I got my car, I got irritated in a Wal-Mart parking lot stuck just behind a man who decided to wait ten minutes for someone to pack up their groceries, put their cart away, get in their car and go. It was a thin aisle, and there was a whole line behind me.

I guess I could have just honked my car horn, but it didn't occur to me. I wanted this guy to see that I was irritated, so I tapped on my front windshield with my fist. Not hard, but I think my watch hit it just right or something, because it cracked, in quite a lovely spiderweb pattern. I don't have a picture of it though.

So I have been driving around like that for over two years. I would even say I've grown accustomed and attached to it as it is. I can still see just fine. But then this past week, two other windows broke, seemingly of their own accord.

I went out to my car last Thursday and two of the windows on the drivers side had just completely shattered, but within the frame. There was no empty space where a hand could have reached in, so it wasn't theft. It didn't even look like vandalism; I don't know what someone could have done to create that effect without part of the window falling in. And it had been FREEZING. So the only thing I can figure, as little sense as it makes, is that the cold was the culprit. (The hole in the picture was where I accidentally knocked part of the window in later.)

Fun right?!

Well I decided since I had to fix two windows, I might as well get it over with and get my front windshield fixed too. I called around and found a pretty good deal on all three. So as I write this my car is getting a bit of a face (and side) lift. I have mixed feelings about getting a new windshield. As I said I've grown almost attached to the front crack. I only drove the car with a clean windshield for a month or so. What if I don't recognize my car? What if it changes him?

OK, I am fully aware that this is a random thing to blog about, but I wanted to have said this somewhere. I watched the movie The Holiday last night, which is a really sweet movie with quite a few big-named actors in it.

And I have to say that as sexy as Jude Law is and as adorable as Jack Black's character is, the man who steals my heart every single time is Eli Wallach's character, Arthur Abbott. The man is beyond adorable and just so sassy. That feels like such a female trait, but I can't really think of a male component just now. Cheeky?

Now obviously, as I am only 24, I don't have a crush on the man in the everyday sense of the word. But that is exactly the kind of man I want to find myself in love with in 50 years. I want to be the wrinkled old lady by his side with a walker in my hands. The trick now is to find a way to spot what kind of man today is most likely to age into an Arthur Abbott-type man. THAT is the man who more than anyone could change my opinion on marriage.

Those close to me know already that for several years now I have been keeping a reading log. It is a very OCD thing to do I guess, and who knows where I got the idea, but I love it. I keep track of every new book I read, when I started it, when I finished it, and how many pages it was.

Here are the stats for 2008:

I read 36 books I hadn't read before, that doesn't include re-reading books.
I read a total of 13,643 pages.

Began 2008 with: Nefertiti by Michelle Moran
Ended 2008 with: Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

Shortest book: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson - 198 pages
Longest book: The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray - 819 pages

Oldest book: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens - 1859
Newest book: Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer - 2008 (Though I read five books that were so freshly published.)

I am starting off 2009 by reading Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, which was recommended to me by the sexy librarian herself, Stephanie E.J. Long. I am looking forward to a fun year where I will endeavor to read more books than I read in 2008.

Cell phones: a fine example of technology that changes our lives in both great and terrible ways. I fought the trend until my sophomore year of college; then I finally broke down and got one. Mostly I did it because I never answered the house phone, and it drove my best friend crazy.

I don't use my phone all that much now, but I fully admit that I feel slightly emptier inside when I don't have it with me. And it really does make life more convenient in many ways.

But someone PLEASE explain to me how convenience translated into it being acceptable for people to talk on their cell phones in public restrooms. Or any bathroom truth be told. If nature's calling, you should not be trying to have two phone conversations at once!

I was in a restaurant bathroom a month or so ago, and the woman in the next stall was talking real estate on the phone to a client while she did her thing. I guess she wanted to take care of all her business at once. WHY!? WHY!? WHY!?!?!?

When I was in college I worked at the campus library for three years. It being a library, no cell phones were allowed except in the stairwells. I can't vouch for the guys, but many a girl found the most convenient door to slip through when her phone rang was the one with the little stick figure in a dress on it.

So on the plus side there, they weren't trying to multi-task, but it made it very awkward for those in there for more obvious reasons. I'm sorry but I don't think Suzie Q should allow her boyfriend, Jim Bob, to listen in.

Honestly, the whole situation brings out the minx in me every single time. Without being crass, let's just say that it makes me want to make every single step of the bathroom process as loud as I possibly can. An audience deserves a performance right?

Besides, it's either that or jump out of the stall, snatch the phone and flush it.

I am prone to unconventional crushes. I think I always have been, but I just pieced it all together tonight. I don't know why, but it appears I am not capable of having a normal crush. I can't really remember any. I do have a few specific examples of the strange ones though.

I blogged about one of them before. Some of you may vaguely remember my vocal soul mate: James Barbour. I had a crush just on the man's voice. I still really really do. Chills! James is good looking, but I don't even care. His voice just ... sends me. Talking or singing - it makes no difference. I am in love with that man's vocals.

I am also prone to crushes that disregard time itself. I can think of a number of movie actors I have developed crushes on when they were in the height of their careers. Now they're all either much older or dead.

My biggest crush was always Donald O'Connor. He is probably most well known for Singin' in the Rain, in which he played Gene Kelly's best friend. That was in '50s. And I adored THAT Donald. He died five years ago when I was in college. My dad called and told me about it.

And now my latest and greatest crush. According to my friends, I have a girl crush. This is a new term to me, but I guess it applies. I think it means I still like men, but I have a non-romantic crush on another female. This is very much the case now.

Ingrid Michaelson.

One of my best friends is a fan of hers. She has been introducing me to her music over the past couple of months, which I have liked a lot. Then Saturday night pushed me over the edge. Ingrid did a concert at Messiah College in Pennsylvania, and I went with said friend and my roommate.

And holy hell! I was blown away. Aside from being ridiculously talented, she is so down to earth and just plain hilarious. There was an improv rap, a little Vanilla Ice, a little Fresh Prince and more.

We even waited in line after the show to meet her, which is something I've never done. She is the first "famous" person I've met. Now I'm back home with a more intense love of her music and a fresh little girl crush.

So there you go. So far I've managed to avoid anything truly bizarre. I have no crushes on animals or inanimate objects, at least that I can remember. But who knows what little twist I'll put on my next crush. For now, I'm sticking with Ingrid.

So it is officially my birthday. I am now 24, and will never be 23 again. How can something sound so old and so young at the same time? To me it does, even though I am quite content at this point to get older.

I was thinking about my actual birth the other day, and technically, all these years I have been living on the West Coast, I could have gotten away with celebrating August 28 instead.

I was born on a Wednesday, August 29 at 1:14 a.m. EST (EDT?) in Tennessee. I believe I was my mother's fastest and most painful birth, at four hours. She didn't even have time to yell for drugs and there I was.

I have at some point lived in all four time zones that cover the continental United States. And in half of them my birthday is August 29 and in the other half it is August 28. In Nebraska it would be 12:14 a.m. Central Time, which allows me to keep my birth date by a mere quarter of an hour.

In Idaho, where I went to college, my birthday would be August 28 at 11:14 p.m. Mountain Time. And in California and Washington, where I lived as a kid, it would be August 28 at 10:14 p.m. Pacific Time.

I think to really milk the situation, I should live on the border between the Central and Mountain time zones. That way I would be able to shift back and forth and have two birthdays. But in all honestly, I don't think I want to celebrate twice a year. Once is usually more than enough for me.

I have never been fully sold on the idea of marriage and me together. I have nothing against marriage as an institution. I have no problem with all my friends getting married; I have issues with Autumn Lee Hill getting married. But at 23, I am so young that I have plenty of time to see if I ever meet someone who will change my mind.

However, for now, I feel that the video accompanying this post is an accurate portrayal of how I imagine I would be feeling if I did get that close to matrimony right now. Plus it's hilarious and worth watching.

This is from my latest musical discovery, Stephen Sondheim's Company, this particular version was at a concert/tribute for him, and the main part is performed by the very talented Madeline Kahn. Enjoy.