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One of the best things about my internship is that I get to spend 6 hours a week on various forms of public transportation. What’s so good about that? I can read again! Oh, how I’ve missed reading. The last book I read, Belinda, was over my winter break. The book I read before that? I can’t even remember.

Therefore, I’ve been devouring books rather passionately — and very quickly. I just finished Time and Again and Flowers for Algernon. Next on my list: The Idiot.

From Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake:

She wishes the curtains were open, so that she could talk to the American women. Perhaps one of them has given birth before, can tell her what to expect. But she has gathered that Americans, in spite of their public declarations of affection, in spite of their miniskirts and bikinis, in spite of their hand-holding on the street and lying on top of each other on the Cambridge Common, prefer their privacy.

“Bingo. Suddenly, fourteen-fifteenths of the boat is full of water, and the other fifteenth is a pocket of compressed air, capable of supporting life briefly. Most of her crew died, she fell fast and settled hard onto the bottom, breaking her back and leaving the bow section pointing upwards, as you see her. If anyone was still alive in the bubble, they died a long, slow death. May God have mercy on their souls.”

In other circumstances, the religious reference would make Randy uncomfortable, but here it seems like the only appropriate thing to say. Think what you will about religious people, they always have something to say at all times. What would an atheist come up with? Yes, the organisms inhabiting that submarine must have lost their higher neural functions over a prolonged period of time and eventually turned into pieces of rotten meat. So what?

— Cryptonomicon

The mail carrier brought me gifts today!

• Thank you, Marina, for finally returning the Empire Records DVD you borrowed a year ago. Also, thank you for the two books which came today: Adventures in Marxism and Mere Christianity. (The ones that were ordered right in front of me — immediately after I had added them to Marina’s virtual shopping cart — and whose titles I had forgotten moments later. The arrival of the package was then a nice surprise… seeing as how it wasn’t supposed to be a surprise at all.)
• I love Trent for scaring me into thinking he sent me Teenage Caveman… when, in reality, Donnie Darko arrived in the mail today.
• From Stephen, I received a B&N gift card… which will probably be spent tomorrow. If I can bring myself to shower and leave my house, that is.
• My sister, Diana, bought me two DVDs off my wish list: Bambi and Pirates of the Caribbean.
• Diana’s boyfriend, Eugene, got me Memento, making me an incredibly happy girl… with a lot of DVDs.
• Lastly, thanks to all the family members and friends of the family who came bearing cash. This has been my most prosperous year ever, haha.

Thanks, everyone! It felt like my birthday all over again ♥