Northern Travels

Earlier this week I went to Canada. It was the first time I'd been up there in at least 10 years, but probably more. It was great, don't get me wrong, but I was ready to come back down to the States (mostly because I was roaming and can't live or work without my cell phone). Here are some awesome qualities our neighbors to the north possess that I wish we would embrace:

• Kilometers: I don't know why we insisted on creating our own system, but we did. Metric system=much better, much more universal, and more logical.
• Beautiful hotel rooms: I stayed at a Super 8 and a Travelodge, both of which were HIGHLY impressive. Granted, I paid about double what I would in the States, but they were really, really nice. Also, my room at the Travelodge had a 50" plasma LCD tv.
• Continuing the "grading" system: when we're kids, we grow up with a logical grade to describe our year in school ie 1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, etc. For whatever reason, when we get to high school, we switch to calling them freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior. In Canada, they are simply grade 9, grade 10, grade 11, or grade 12. What is a sophomore anyway? What does that actually mean?
• Friendly border patrol: I seriously thought for a moment I might not be allowed back into the States. It was highly suspicious that I was only in Canada for 2 days for work. No worries, though, I made it back.
• Tolerance of distance: driving 4 hours appears to be no big deal. Sometimes when I tell people we're 4 hours away, the look on their face is as though I told them we only accept students with a bright green mohawk that stands at least 16 inches tall. Yeah, their eyes get THAT big.

I put in a lot of hours this week (a 14 hour day yesterday alone) and am ready for a night off. The good news is that I was able to finish 2 audiobooks and make it about halfway through another one.

One of the books was Something Blue by Emily Griffin. It's a decent novel: predictable, but not too bad. The most fascinating part of it was that I was able to despise the main character throughout the entire book, which I don't think was Griffin's intention. I found the main character to be self-absorbed, egotistical, and narcissistic. Originally, this is the impression the author wants readers to get. However, by the end of the novel, their opinion is supposed to change to find the main character to have undergone complete change from the inside out.
My rating: 5/10

The other book I completed was the second novel in Steig Larsson's short-lived series, The Girl Who Played with Fire. It was just as good as the first one in the series, but I am definitely left craving more. I just hope I don't feel this way after the next one in the series, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. Steig Larsson, who had intended for the series to extend to 10 novels, died after these 3. I'll be so upset if the next one leaves me hanging! I think I'll be purchasing the next one in the series through my audible.com account, since I'm sure I'll be getting 22 more hours in on the road!
My rating: 10/10

Also, as far as page goals go, I figured out how to put a poll on my blog, so you can vote for my 2011 page goal simply by scrolling down and clicking whichever goal you think would be best! It doesn't make you log in or give any information, either, for you creepers out there :P

On a random note, on Saturday I finished painting all the main areas of my apartment in a streak of motivation. I finished it all on Sunday, and now I feel pretty satisfied coming home to a semi-finished apartment. Now all I need to do is clean it. Too bad I can't find where I left last week's motivation...