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What a long day. Got up, we got all packed, and drove back home. Just in time to have about two hours before heading out for the Santa Run. I, of course, was a fool and read in the car, so I would be nice and queasy. Luckily it had mostly subsided by the time we got to the starting line. My whole family ran it, even my dad! And Scott too. And some friends. We took pictures so those should be on Facebook. The pants of my Santa suit were way too short, so I just cut them off into shorts and wore those running leggings under them and looked way trendy. And I replaced the standard Santa hat we got with my leopard-print-brimmed Santa hat. And I wore gigantic turquoise sunglasses. I was the Posh Spice of the Santa Run.
Now I am home and tired. And I'm excited because tomorrow is Saturday! Usually these athletic events are on Saturdays, and the next day is Sunday, and I have to get up and get dressed up nicely for meetings and church. But now...all that's on the slate tomorrow is pizza day for lunch, and the RootsMagic Christmas party for dinner - at Tucanos. Bliss. I like when the only things scheduled are a delicious lunch and dinner. :D
I think I will spend the remaining hours of tomorrow reading From Far Away, a new favorite manga. :D :D :D I was getting it off Manga Takeout, and after vol. 6 I finally was like "okay I have to buy this." Unfortunately it is like Basara, with random volumes out of print. But I found someone on eBay selling the full run (14 volumes) at a price that ended up being about $11 each, with only $4.50 shipping. Cha-ching! I've been making a lot on Christmas orders lately, so I jumped at it. This is another series I probably wouldn't have tried if I'd had to buy it...Manga Takeout was supposed to be saving me money and it's kind of not. XD
Things I really like about From Far Away include: a realistic but still likeable heroine (I'm looking at you Miaka from Fushigi Yugi, why does anyone even like you), a realistically likeable hero (he's cute and dashing but not in a too-perfect sort of way), a great storyline...it sounded cliche, which is why I wouldn't have tried it - Noriko is a Japanese schoolgirl who ends up transported to a fantasy world. I know, it's been done a million times. But when she got there...she didn't speak the language. (!!!) They didn't speak Japanese there! Surprise! So Izark, who finds her, says something and she's like what is he saying, and then she starts panicking and shouting in Japanese about how she was just with her friends and she doesn't know what happened and he's like "what on earth is she talking about, this chick is crazy" and she actually has to spend volumes learning this language. In vol. 6 she's reached the point where she can piece a sentence together reasonably well, but she still has a limited vocabulary and sometimes has to awkwardly describe things until someone figures out what she means.
So basically...I really like it. The romance is really sweet and believable without being all gooshy, the action/adventure aspect is very intricate and fun to unravel, and I can really see myself revisiting this one. Repeatedly.