In which I Ramble on the Topic of Books

Since most of my friends have gone off to college, back to school, or just away, I've been at home bored a lot. Most of this time I've spent watching anime and reading. But mostly reading. I read a lot as it is, but I've really been burning through them since August. I started up the Wheel of Time series last month, and I'm about to finish book eleven. I'm sort of racing myself to see how fast I can get through the series. I've been reading them so much I've often gone to sleep and dreamed that I was still reading the book. I usually wake up right after that dream, fumbling around for the book in the dark. Then I realize it was a dream and I go back to sleep.

My boss from the hospital job lent me an interesting book last week, that I finished today. (Gotta have some light reading to take your mind of the heavier stuff. :D) The book was Mustang Man. Normally I'm not one for westerns, but I was actually named for the main character of this book, Nolan Sackett. My brother was even named after his brother, Logan Sackett. This is the first time I've gotten a chance to read it and I rather enjoyed it. I doubt that I'll read any other L'Amour books, but this was sort of a necessity. What's funny is that Jim (My boss) accidentally called me Logan once, because he got my name mixed up with my brother's. The funny part is that he didn't even know I had a brother. It just kind of snuck in there because he liked the Sackett books. So far he's the only one I've met who's known about them.

I'm kind of bummed. I've been a big fan of R. A. Salvatore's Drizzt series for a good many years now. I've read one of the books so many times the cover has fallen off. Others I've had to replace entirely from the amount of wear. The thing that's driving me crazy, is that the next book in the current series comes out in October. Just a week or two after I leave for China. The idea of leaving a series unfinished is quite atrocious to me. I can't do it. I wont. Either I'm going to have to find a good foreign book store in Xi'an, or my mom is going to have to mail me a copy. I'm not waiting till next summer to read that book. I've already waited a year. Another is too much.

Once I start packing I'm going to have to think of what to do with all my books. I've got entire bookcase for my manga (Japanese comics/graphic novels) alone. I need to start getting some boxes. Big ones.

Finally

Five months after I got my certification, things are finally coming together. I just got an email saying that the school received my Z Visa (Chinese working visa) and they'll be sending it to me right away. This is good timing because my temp work at the hospital ends tomorrow. Now if I can sell my car soon, everything will be just peachy.

This picture most acurately describes how I feel right now.

Soon Soon Soon

So here's what's been going on for me in the whole visa thing.

It seems that the main office of the school kept having trouble reaching me. Now the branch school in Xi'an is working on it themselves. They've been great about it, and I've been getting emails from them about every other day. They always seem to need me to scan a new paper or send them another one of my documents. But this is good. It means they're doing things. Today I got a message saying that they should have my visa within 10-15 days. That's farther away than I expected, but it's still pretty close. Now I can give my two weeks notice and maybe sell my car too. One of my friends has already offered to buy it, so that makes it a lot easier for me.