the pros of living alone

A.K.A SANNA ON STAGE

Okay, let's make one thing clear first: I've been living on my own for almost a decade now, but I've only lived alone for a month now - before I always lived with flat mates. After this first month (I'm obviously still on a honeymoon with this whole thing!) all I can say is, I LOVE LIVING ALONE!

The last time I was reminded about the pros of living alone, was merely a few hours ago. Fine, I had decided that on Monday (today) I will clean up propelly - do all the dishes (they we're kiii-iiind of piling up), wash the floors and the whole set, you know. The only problem with this awesome plan was that around 6 PM I realized I still hadn't done anything to start cleaning up, and the worst of all - I had absolutely zero interested in doing so. All I wanted to do was to knit & watch The Big Bang Theory!

Well, if there's something I learnt last year, it was this: you must keep the promises you make to yourself. Sure, it's important to keep the promises you make to others as well, but the most important thing is not to let yourself down, never! Because: if you can't trust your own word, how could you ever be confident and in good terms with yourself? You wouldn't like a person who keeps on breaking his/her promises - not even if that person was you, right? ...and this philosophy applies even to the smallest promises, like the one I made to myself last night, that I would clean up on Monday. [ohh, this is turning into one of my philosophy lessons, it wasn't my meaning!] So, I had zero interest in cleaning up, but I was entitled to keep my promise. Here's what I did: (And here comes the it's-so-great-to-live-alone part)

 I put on my finest dress, my favorite high heels, I did my hair, I put make-up on, I put on some Lady Gaga and P!nk on my mp3 player and... had a CLEAN UP PARTY! It was seriously Sanna on Stage, big time! xD Before I knew I was singing my lungs out, literally dancing with the mop and using a soap bottle as a microphone - I got the cleaning up done in record time AND honestly had a great time, too! ;-) So, all you need to have a good time cleaning up, is the right attidute and imagination - I'm not lacking any of those, obviously.

Here's a few more things I've learnt to love while living alone -- of course here someone would say you could do any of these things even if you weren't living alone, but let's face it, I personally wouldn't have guts to do these things if I was living, let's say, with flat mates. But being all on my own... there's nothing to stop me!

• You can go to bed 5AM and sleep till 4PM - and no one gives a rat's ass!
• You can postpone doing dishes as long as you want - and no one gives a rat's ass!
• You can smoke out of kitchen window while having morning coffee - and no one gives a rat's ass!
• If you don't feel like taking rubbish out, you can just leave the bag at the backyard until you feel like actually taking it away - and no one gives a rat's ass!
• You don't have to cook for a week if you don't feel like, just live on ice cream and sandwiches as long as you like - and no one gives a rat's ass!
• You can watch TV with as much volume as you like as late as you like - and no one gives a rat's ass!
• You can stay in your pajamas all day long if you feel like (or clean up in high heels!) or stay inside three days in a row if you don't feel like going out - and no one gives a rat's ass!
• You can make pancakes at 3AM if you get hungry - and no one gives a rat's ass!
• You never need to tiptoe, no matter what time of the day or night it is! 
• You can take a shover whenever you like, even at 2AM - and no one gives a rat's ass!
• You can sing and dance all you like and no one will ever laugh at you and your stupid moves!

...and so on. Long list short: when you live alone, you can practically do whatever you want, and there will never be anyone criticizing you. What a wonderful freedom it is!<3 I understand living alone isn't for everyone, but still I'd hope everyone would get at least a short chance to try it. It IS liberating, after all. Maybe not for a lifetime, but for some time, at least.

And now... since I managed to keep my promise and cleaned up, now it's time to enjoy the night. I made a smoothie out of blueberries I picked up myself, I'm going to continue knitting a sock (I love the yarn!) and watch a few more episodes of The Big Bang Theory... va bene, sounds like a plan, right?

yours truly-

busy, busy, busy

Where did May go? Time for sure flies nowadays! I can't believe I've been back to work for a month already, feels like just a few weeks. I guess that's what happens when all you do is working, housekeeping and sleeping (and the best/worst part, when you're enjoying all of it). I also guess that's the reason I've been such a lazy blogger recently - there's simply not so much interesting material for blogging in my life right now - I'm just quietly enjoying this summer life of mine, and prefetably offline.


Seriously, I don't have anything special to write. I just felt guilty for not logging in in a month, and had to come around and try to write something. I know I will be missing these summer days later, so the least I can do now is write something about them, something to read next winter when I'm most likely freezing my ass off and broke again...

These are the busiest weeks of the summer at work, but in a few weeks it will get easier. Eventhough then we'll start weekend shift rotations again. Well, I don't mind going to work for a few hours on Saturdays and Sundays - it just stands for some extra money and makes my inner Uncle Scrooge happy ;-) I've also had some time for photographing at work, and hopefully some day I manage to put together a photopost of those photos (there's also some absolutely awesome "gag reel" photos we took with Abby!) ...yeah, work is going just fine. LMAO the other day we were kind of playing Treasure Hunt (our own twisted work related version of it, anyway) and I won by finding a whole hipbone! xD ...I still look forward to the day I'll find a skull, that would be cool (that sounded so wrong).

Besides work, I have a few little projects going on on the side. Project number one is saving money for my very own car. I've had a driver's licence for almost a decade now, but this is the first time I actually have an urge to buy my own car. I've always been allowed to borrow my parents' cars, but suddenly... I just want my own. Probably because my idea of a car is quite different than my parents - they're perfectly happy with '04 Fiat Punto, and my dream car would be something like Chevy Impala from 70s or 80s. So, I signed for a new saving account, and I'm aiming to save 20,000 EUR and buy my dream car. Laugh all you want, but I'll be the one laughing when I finally get the money together and buy the coolest car ever! So far I have something like 1,050 EUR. The great thing is that I actually enjoy saving money and think of it as a hobby (one thing to be thankful for my parents - eversince I was a kid, I was taught to work hard and save money if I wanted something). I know 20,000 EUR is a lot of money (25,000 USD, btw) but it doesn't feel impossible. Nothing is impossible, it just takes time & patience!

1959 Chevrolet Impala

And my other project is... losing weight! I was beyond shocked when I realized I've gained around 10KG in the course of the last 12 months. That's just wrong. I used to be around 62KG, but when I first weighted myself in May, I was 72KG. NO NO NO NO NO not funny at all! No wonder all my jeans felt so tight suddenly, L0L. Okay, diet it is, let's see how much I can lose by the end of August (when my Luumäki time ends and it's time to move back to the city). The bright side is that I get a lot of excercise at work, so basically all I need to do is watch what I put into my mouth (goodbye, Apple Pie, for now!) I guess it's working, since I've lost 2KG already. And the reason I'm telling you all this..? Because I'm telling EVERYONE about it! You know like, gathering some pressure to lose weight (not "letting everyone down"), and all that. So, dear Everyone, come and ask me in September how much weight did I lose during the summer, please? ;-)

Also, take a look at my sidebar: there's new gadgets for both gathering money and losing weight - you're more than welcome to follow my projects. Just... don't be too hard on me if I mess up somehow (spending money on DVDs instead of saving or eating a whole cake instead of carrots).

Okay, now I'm off to enjoy the rest of this Sunday. Watching a few episodes of Eureka (my newest TV series discovery) and finishing Agatha Christie's Memoirs. Sounds like a plan... Take care, have fun & see you around! xxo

Yours Truly-

new haircut! ❤

not the best photo but anyway... I love it! ^^

to sooth my aching heart...

Okay, now I'm officially back home. Like, I've been in Finland for a week, but yesterday I finally drove back to my hometown Joensuu, planning to stay here until the job in South Karelia begins in a few weeks.

Yesterday was a perfect day for my little roadtrip, and I truly enjoyed driving alone those 4 hours from South to North Karelia. A tank full of gas, badass music, beautiful weather and open road - what's there not to like?

Also, before I took off from Luumäki, I decorated my car a little:

I bought the dreamcatcher from Cameron Trading Post in the US, and now it hangs there, always reminding me about the best weeks of my life (so far, of course). When you see my roadtrip photos, you'll notice that I stole the idea of our trek leader Art, who had a dreamcatcher hanging from the rearview mirror in his van.

Overall, I'm still confused about being back in Finland, and it's not a pleasant feeling at all. It's like... I feel like I should be constantly doing something, but at the same time it's hard to get started and I cannot concentrate on anything. I seriously look forward going back to work - life will be much simpler when I just get up 6AM, go to work, come home, cook, chill out for a few hours and go to bed 9PM to start it all over again the next day. Routines do good to me, no matter how much I generally despise uneventful and predictable life. Basically I feel like right now I'm stuck in some sort of in-between mental state - my mind is still going over and over again everything in America, but physically I'm in Finland, and it makes me confused (not to mention highly annoyed and annoying). It's surprisingly hard to come home sometimes, you know.

Don't get me wrong though, I'm not whining (or maybe I am, but I shouldn't) - all this just tells us how much I enjoyed my month in the US, and how absolutely fantastic time I had. After travelling, it's always a good thing if you're sad to be back!

Anyway, I'm not feeling too great mentally right now, so I've allowed myself to sooth my aching heart by reminding myself that life isn't over, and there's plenty of great plans in the horizon! Summer is just around the corner, and eventhough I'll be working all summer, there will still be time to do some cool stuff, and then I'll have my autumn vacation...

• Maybe Silje could come to South Karelia for a weekend - we could hang out in Lappeenranta and maybe stay in that famous castle hotel in Imatra! I've wanted to stay there ever since we did a class trip there when I was in the 1st grade in elementary school!
• I've promised to take Miia and her son to MoominWorld this summer... I never had a chance to go there when I was a kid, so I assume all three of us will have a great time! ;-)
• We've been planning to go for a cruise with Sanni & Yenni, maybe to Vyborg (Russia). Everytime I've met Sanni & Yenni in Finland, we've met in Helsinki, but the cruises to Vyborg leave from Lappeenranta, and it would be great to show the girls "my city" as well.
• I miss my roadtrip room mate Caroline so much that I think I need to book flights to Switzerland as soon as we both have some time off! We need to meet so we could plan our Finland roadtrip, not to mention our greatest dream about driving Route 66 in the USA...
• ...and I'm sure I'll come up with some crazy/great/funny plans with Abby as well. Last year we were in Austria, and earlier Abby said that this year she won't have money for travelling, but after seeing my USA photos it seemed she was having second thoughts about not travelling somewhere this year as well... Maybe we'll manage to organize some little holiday with her as well!
• I recently turned 26, which means I only have 4 years left to travel with Work & Travel visa in Australia, which means I really need to start thinking about it...

This kind of stuff I've been thinking recently - simply to make myself feel better, because as it is right now, my life feels so unbelievably lame. Like I've told everyone, my roadtrip didn't cure my wanderlust, it just made it so much worse! So... we'll see.


Today I spent the day running from shop to shop, looking for a new laptop, but didn't find anything I would have liked. I'm pretty specific about what I'm looking for: has to be small, has to be red, has to be Acer - and today all I found was boring black laptops, so no-no for a new laptop today. The old one still works, but it is indeed getting old, and I rather buy a new one while this one is still working. So, basically I'm not in a hurry to get a new laptop, but I bet you know how annoying it is when you're sure you'd get something bought from the first shop you enter, but end up running through 5 stores, and still don't find what you were looking for... yeah, ANNOYING!

To make my day even more annoying, my spring allergies are KILLING me! I didn't remember my allergies get so much worse in North Karelia, so I wasn't taking the meds until this morning (when I woke up with a headache, my eyes nearly swollen shut and my breath wheezing like I was on the edge of an asthma attack)... UGH, not funny at all. It'll pass, but still it's highly annoying. Antihistamines make me groggy, but it cannot be helped right now - it's like New Mexico all over again - I need to choose between breathing problems or feeling like a zombie, and I think I'll go with the zombie.

BUT when I was heading back home from downtown, I saw the most beautiful Chevrolet at the parking lot! You know like, kind of beautiful I felt like I would have liked to sit next to it and wait for the owner just to tell him/her what a beautiful car it is. It was a Camaro, and I think it was from the 70s, dark blue... Yeah, nowadays I'm simply obsessed with Chevrolets. HA, but at least I've changed my mind a little about my dream car (used to be 1967 Chevy Impala, "of course") ...I think what I'd like to have, is a black 1985 Chevy Impala, for the following reasons:

+ 1967 Impalas are rare because they've all been bought by (other) obsessed Supernatural fans
+ I noticed 80s Impalas were still beautiful cars,  they became boring in the 90s
+ I was born in -86, but Impalas weren't manufactured between 1986-1993, so 85 model it is
+  1985 car won't  be that old = maintaining & getting parts etc. wouldn't be so difficult
+ 80s Impalas aren't that expensive because (once again) they aren't so rare.
+ I still want an Impala because, after all, I am an obsessed Supernatural fan

SO - and this is also part of trying-to-make-myself-feel-better operation - I've decided that one day I will be driving something like this...

1985 Chevrolet Impala

...as soon as I'm back in Luumäki, I'll go to my bank and open a new saving account for this beauty! I know people make fun of me and my "crazy" dreams but hey - what ever rocks my boat, right? It might take years to save up enough money, and maybe when I have the money, I don't even want the car anymore, but so what? If saving money for it makes me happy now, I'm going to do it. I'll get a car or a nice pile of cash in the end - it's a win-win situation.

In the end I stopped at S-Market to buy some apple pie to cheer myself up. And... I don't know. Like I said, it feels like my mind is still in America, and I was kind of lost in my thoughts in the shop. So, this lady comes up to me and asks if I'm looking for something. And with bright eyes I said "Yeah, I was wondering if you have any apple pie left" xD ...okay, didn't sound funny at all written down here but the following is the point of this anecdote: I was in Finland, the lady asked me in Finnish, and I answered in English! I was absolutely mortified! xD It was just weird... oh well, then I stuttered in Finnish that I wanted apple pie, and got it. THE END.

ready for some APPLE PIE LIFE!

yours truly-

PS: I just want to let you know that I am working on my USA roadtrip blog, but I want it to be perfect, and it's going to take some time, it's going to be looooooooong and I want to post it all at once to get rid of it... I came up with this brilliant idea of creating a backup blog for myself, writing the roadtrip stories there and then linking them to this official blog of mine - that way I can show you all the photos I want with out messing up this blog! Okay, the explation was messy, but I'm pretty sure my plan about a backup blog is going to work out great, you'll see ;-)

aftermath

Yay, I'm alive..! o/ Okay, first I had bronchitis, then I had migraine for 2 days, and now I have a cold sore on my lip (L0L). Anyway & overall, now I'm finally feeling like a humanbeing again. Still coughing my lungs out (did you know it's perfectly normal that bronchitis symptoms last up to 2 months?), but I can manage. Hopefully I don't get that sick any time soon again, because it really sucked, a big time. Looking for a silver lining? I'm now officially addicted to The Simpsons, I've watched almost 2 seasons in less than a week! The Simpsons has always been my more or less guilty pleasure, and now I've challenged myself to watch all the episodes - that's more than 20 seasons and 500+ episodes! OMG. Erm, well, time to move on, let's say me having bronchitis is now a closed case.

Yesterday was the first day I really felt better, and Emilia made my day even better by dropping by for a coffee. In case you've forgotten / don't know, Emilia is a friend of mine who used to be my flat mate, and after she moved out, we became friends instead of flat mates. We're both pretty busy in general, so even we live in the same city, we only meet maybe once a month or so, but every time we do - even if it's only for a quick cup of coffee - we have a good time together. She's the only one of my friends who's into photographing, so sometimes we go photographing together - eventhough she's a Canonist and I'm a Nikonist ;-) Anyway, yesterday Emilia came over for a nice little C&G (Coffee & Gossip). Damn it was great to have someone around after laying in bed for a week!

I also spent almost on hour on the phone yesterday, taking care of everything that got postponed because of me being sick last week. In the end I was very pleased with myself, this is everything I took care of yesterday:

• cancelled TOEFL (taking the test now doesn't really make sense, hence my changed plans about the next year)
• informed Itella that I want my mail delivered to Luumäki till the end of August (I won't be much in Joensuu from now on, hence the US and then summer job in Luumäki)
• called the boss of my boss and asked if I can come to work at the cemetery again next summer, and he said YES! :-) I'm so happy about this. I mean, I kind of knew I would get the job back, after working there for so long and all, but still it was great to hear it out aloud, you know. So, now my life is sorted out till the end of October.
• booked a hairdresser for tomorrow (my bangs are so long I can barely see!) 
• booked a cosmetologist for tomorrow (eeeeeep, I'm going to get my bikini line and legs waxed, which is pretty damn scary idea, L0L. Already had a nightmare about it last night xD but I'm sure it'll be worth of pain, I mean, ladies... who's up for shaving all the time while being on the road for month?)
• booked a massage for Thursday - it'll do me so good, I'm pretty damn sore after laying in bed for a week... besides, I think I'm addicted to massages.
• (and I also download like 10 albums - I'm building my very own USA road trip soundtrack)

So, things are looking pretty good right now. Now I only need to buy a sleeping bag and a new swimming suit for the US... Oh yes, and do laundry. Then I'll be ready to go! :-) I hope I'll get to leave for Luumäki by the end of this week, then I'd have a week for chilling out there before leaving for Helsinki and the US. I miss Luumäki so much... I just realized it's been over 3 months since my last visit which was in November after I got back to Finland from the Baltics tour. So I guess it's not a wonder I'm missing all my Luumäki people... On the other hand, now that my summer job is confirmed, I'll spend more than 4 months in South Karelia during the summer, and sooner or later I'll be whining how I'm sick of Luumäki and all its nosey people.

One more thing about yesterday - NORTHERN LIGHTS! We don't get to see much northern lights here in North Karelia (lol too much 'north' in that sentence) but last night the sky was lit up by the most beautiful northern lights I've ever seen. Took some photos too, but they aren't too good -- have you ever tried to photograph something that lingers in the sky, is constantly moving, fading away and reappearing somewhere else? Yeah, not too easy, especially because I was too lazy to use the tripod... Anyway, take my word - it was amazing, one of those rare moments which make think "Damn, this is worth of living up here in North - being able to see something like this from my own balcony."

yours truly -

it's a wonderful life ❤

Whee, I had such a great day! :-)

I knew this was going to be a great day as soon as I woke up and saw sun was shining ☼ I've missed the sun so much... I guess Helen was right when she suggested I'm suffering from the lack of sun light. Anyway, as soon as I saw the sun was shining, I knew it was a good day and I was entitled to have fun.

Not even a glance at the termometer slowed me down. Well... -32•C xD That's the crazy thing about winter. If the sun is shining, it means it's insanely cold! Doesn't really make sense, does it? I decided it's only a matter of clothing, and wore the warmest clothes I own:

...I felt like a Michelin Man but I was right - I wasn't even cold when I got out there! :-) L0L and note - I wasn't wearing my glasses (if you don't have glasses, you will never understand how absolutely annoying it is when your glasses fog/freeze up). The thing is that I have so-called refractive error in my eyes, which in plain English means I can actually see pretty clearly but I'm a little cross-eyed, and I wear glasses to fix it. So, I can survive without glasses, but it makes me feel like I've had a few beers and after four or five hours I get a headache (actually I'm starting to feel that headache now, ugh). LMAO it was actually pretty hilarious - I stumbled in stairs, felt like it wasn't so easy to walk straight and even bumped into one door in downtown! xD Oh well... it was worth of it.

First I had a massage, like I do almost every Monday. I started having massages last winter when my back was in such a bad condition it made me dizzy and caused me terrible headaches. Nowadays my back is just fine, and I mainly go to massage therapy just because it feels sooooo good (and because my massagist pretty much doubles as my psychologist too, HA). It was lovely as always.

I didn't feel like going home straight from the massage, so stayed in downtown for a while. I realized Valentine's Day is on the way, so I had some shopping to do. I think Valentine's Day is like Christmas - people hate it or love it. I hate Christmas but love Valentine's Day. In Finland we call Valentine's Day "ystävänpäivä" which translates into Friends' Day. So, for me (or us) it's not so much about lovers, but all about friends. I love my friends, and I love having this special day to celebrate my friendships. This year Abby will come to Joensuu to celebrate Valentine's Day with me, and I have some awesome plans (but not telling any of that here - Abby is reading my blog anyway and I want to surprise her) ^^ Cannot wait. I'm also going to write some letters and send cards to my long-distance friends... yes, like I said, I love Valentine's Day.

Aaaaand in the end I made my typical mistake: visited TopTen. It's a known fact I cannot visit TopTen without buying something... but for once I actually needed something. I love my Nikon D3100, but the thing is it's quite big and heavy to carry around and sometimes a smaller camera would get handy (mainly thinking the US roadtrip here). And surprise surprise, TopTen had some January Sale thing going on, and I found a perfect little Nikon (in Nikon we trust, always)! And look look, it matches my mp3 player and laptop! :D

Awww<3 I'm such a girl sometimes, but at least my electronics aren't pink! ;-)

Well, of course I did not make it out of TopTen without buying some DVDs... I got Studio Ghibli's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Tales from Earthsea for 12€. I simply love Studio Ghibli movies, and I haven't seen these. I bet I'll have a movie night tonight :-)

Now I'm thinking... hot chocolate with marshmallows and chocolate chip cookies. Maybe a few episodes of Supernatural... and getting started with those Valentine's Day letters... Lovely. It seems I was right when I wrote I still have time to have a good time in January -- this day was so great it pretty much paid back those not-so-great earlier days of the month.

Have a nice week & see you around xxo

yours truly-

welcome to my silly life

I'm in such a good mood that I decided to write just a little something-something. I had a wonderful (and lazy!) Wednesday at home, I even had time for five o'clock tea! It is a well-known fact that I'm a coffee person to the bone, but a few years ago when I had a crush on Patrick Jane, I finally learnt to like tea too. So, today I enjoyed a cup of Prince of Wales and spent some time remembering summer -04 which I spent in South England. Back then I hated tea, and those daily (host) family meetings with tea were practically torture to me! Funny how things change.

I also dyed my hair today :-) I didn't really like the previous (red-based) colour eventhough my hairdresser said it brought up the colour of my eyes. Meh, no one sees my eyes anyway because I'm always wearing glasses, so I'm more than happy to be back  in dark brown.

That's it, that's pretty much all I've done today! =D Oh well, and listened to P!nk. Honestly, I had always thought I don't like female singers, and most of all, I had always thought P!nk is something... different than I learnt it actually is. I have a feeling she will be my soundtrack artist this spring. Like all the best music discoveries, this one happened to me accidentally. I was killing time in Youtube last night, and came across some Supernatural fanvids, and... well, I heard this one song, and I immetedly fell in love with its attidute. Another funny thing/confession which has to do with the following video: at first, I didn't like Castiel in Supernatural, not at all, but now I suddenly think... that maybe I'll learn to like him too (I'm halfway through season 5 at the moment). Funny little things. Like the title says, welcome to my silly life. The song is Fucking Perfect by P!nk

 

Now it's around 9pm, and I'll enjoy my lazy Wednesday till the end by watching something and reading. I finished reading Geisha's Memoirs last night, and started Steinbeck's Travels with Charley. I've only read the first 20 pages so far, but already I dare to say I love it! From the first page, when Steinbeck started to explain his wanderlust, I was like "that's exactly how I feel!" Too bad my current (library) copy is in Finnish, if it was in English I would have quoted some of my favorite parts for you. But fear not, the next time I'm shopping in Amazon, I will definitely order a copy of this great travel journal and then you'll see what I'm talking about :-)

This was one random Wednesday in my life. I hope you had a nice day too xxo

Yours truly-

Back to Reality (More or Less)

Ha, I'm writing this entry just to avoid cleaning up for a while. Honestly, I don't understand what's wrong with me -- every time I clean up, I do it propelly, and then a few days later my room looks like a bomb just exploded! Anyway, here I am, trying to postpone depressing Monday clean-up a little.

After Christmas Holiday, New Year shock ("Where did my gap year go?") and the initial "I'm going to the States" hype, it has been time to return to reality and its boring tasks -- university, libraries, doing laundry, paying bills, booking appointments and all that. Well, I'm not complaining (yet). I had so long Christmas vacation that it's actually pretty nice to be back in business. I've also made an effort to meet up with my friends as much as possible, keeping in mind that in 4 months I'll move away and they're most likely staying here. Last week was insanely busy, but I think this week will be a little bit easier -- or at least most of the things I've planned to get done this week can be organized online or by phone (read: no need to go downtown).

I have now booked all my flights for March/April, and this is what I'm going to do:

fly from Helsinki to Boston 12.3.

take a train from Boston to NYC on 15.3.

US road trip from NYC to LA 16.3. - 5.4.

staying in Los Angeles 5. - 7.4.

Reyakjavik (Iceland) 8. - 11.4.

back in Finland 11.4

Reyakjavik? YES! I couldn't resist Icelandic Air's stopover tickets, which allow you to stay in Iceland for one to seven days on your way from/to the States. Besides, stopping in Iceland for a few days also makes the jetlag easier (ohh well, that sounded like an excuse... guilty as charged). Anyway, now I have flights and a hotel in NYC. Next task is to book hotels for Boston, Los Angeles and Reyakjavik, but (LOL) that has to wait until I get my credit card bill, because at the moment I'm already too close to my credit limit x)

You are probably already sick of my travel plans (but this is who I am, and if you're planning to continue reading my blog, you better get used to it, sorry) but I got to share this one more thing with you. A few days ago I was looking for a hotel in Los Angeles, just to know which one I want to book as soon as my credit card works again... I put my information to a search engine, like the dates and how much I can afford to pay for my stay etc. and one of the first results the engine suggested was Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The name sounded familiar, and after a while I realized why I knew the name!

I've been watching Haunted History recently (and I recommend it if you like supernatural stories and history) and... check this out starting from 2:55

OMG!

I'm still not 100% sure if I want to stay in a haunted hotel, since I definitely do believe in all sorts of supernatural things, but I admit I'm tempted... We'll see, but I'm not promising anything. Nonetheless, the idea of staying there sounds pretty cool. Imagine running into Marilyn Monroe by the swimming pool! ;-)

Well, that's about the travel plans for now. Today I decided to be a good girl and visit university and libraries. Finally got a new sticker to my student card, returned tons of books to the libraries (I tend to borrow fiction from City Library and everything else from University Library), made some more or less important phone calls, and right now I'm pretty happy with all these achievements (UGH, I already forgot I'm only writing to avoid cleaning up!)

During the Christmas holiday I watched so damn much TV, that I thought now it's a good time to get into reading again. This is what I currently have on my reading list:

• The Rough Guide to the Grand Canyon
• Cityspots Reykjavik
• Lonely Planet New England
• First Time Around the World
• Culture Wise America
• Henrikson: Route 66 (I've read this at least 5 times and I love it! It's about two guys driving from Chicago to LA)
• Mondo travelguide Iceland
• The Rough Guide to USA
• Steinbeck: Travels with Charley
• Miller: The Air-Conditioned Nightmare
• Outline of U.S. History
• Culture Smart USA
• Stevenson: The Amateur Emigrant
• Ranin: Käsi Otsalla (~biography of Matti Ranin. Ranin is my favorite Finnish actor, and I've wanted to read his biography for years)
• Kuula: Paholaisen Biografia (~The Biography of Devil; it's a study about the devil and demons, and it sounded terribly interesting after all the Supernatural I've watched recently)

And to make sure I'm not running out of books, the mailman brought me these last week:

So yeah, I've got more than enough to read but on the other hand I'm a fast reader (I actually trained it last summer and in the end I was able to read around 200 pages in an hour - doesn't beat Spencer Reid, but still pretty well, I think).

Ohh alas, but now I really need to get up and do something about this mess in my room. I was planning to write something about my latest TV series discovers here too, but I think this entry is long enough already, so I'll have to get back to those. Have a nice week & see you around,

yours truly~