Yup, I'm an Addict

My mom and I wrapped a bunch of Christmas presents yesterday.  When I opened a new roll of wrapping paper, I said, "This is nice looking paper, and it smells good too.  Some wrapping paper has an odd smell, but some smells really good."

When she was done listening to me, my mom said, "You're a paper addict.  After listening to you talk about the way each book's paper has a unique smell that makes you love to read, and now this, you're definitely an addict."

Really, I'll never be able to fully switch over to electronic reading sources, because I miss the book smell when I read on an electronic device.  There's something about a library that just brings out the reading spirit in me.  And then I think about the Vashta Nerada (means the Shadows that melt the flesh), and then I have to stay out of the shadows.  I try to forget about the Vashta Nerada when I think about them, because that kind of just destroys the great thought of the library.  Doctor Who thing, Vashta Nerada.

If anyone's gone shopping for paper or pens with me, or been in a book store or library with me, then you know what I mean.  I'm pretty sure I've scared people.  So, I generally try to do my shopping for paper products by myself, and then only shop in book stores with friends sparingly.  You can't really avoid running into people you know at libraries.

Computer Savvy Cat

My cat Butterfly is able to make my computer do things I didn't even know it was capable of.  I certainly don't know how she does it.  Somehow, laying on the warm keyboard at different angles, hitting multiple keys at the same time, makes my computer go wacky.

Sure, she's done it before to my brother's HP computer.  She made the desktop screen display everything upside down.  Yes, this even changed the mouse settings.  Everything was upside down.  It took my mom a few days to even figure out how to change it.  And it was lucky she did, because my cat just kept laying on the computer and turning the desktop screen display between 90 and a full 180 degrees either way.

Lately, however, she has been laying on my macintosh whenever I leave it open.  My internet screen will show all sorts of facts about the websites where I've been, my music player will be on with a screensaver up that goes to the beat of the music, or applications I didn't even know I had will be up on the screen.  And today, once again, when I returned home from buying myself a couple more of Terry Pratchett's Discworld books*, I found her on my computer.  While I was reading a blog post, I kept hearing a noise that sounded somewhere between a cell phone ringtone and a commercial on TV for an upcoming episode.  Finally, thinking I was going insane, I hit my volume button on my computer.  Sure enough, my cat Butterfly had successfully turned on itunes and was listening to my music while she slept on the comfy, warm keyboard.

*Thanks so much for that gift card to Hastings, Megs!  I wouldn't have gone searching for more books to read if I hadn't had that.  :D