The past couple days I've been taking walks on my lunch break. I work in an area of town called the Strip District which is full of all kinds of little shops, most of them related to food--there are ethnic groceries, bakeries, butchers, fish markets, open air produce markets, specialty candy/fudge, coffee shops, etc as well as a bunch of little restaurants (one of them, an awesome little diner, Obama ate at during the primaries).

So, today, whilst on my little walk (which was one part to walk off lunch and another part to get something warm--coffee, tea, hot chocolate, ANYTHING to take bake to work cos it's freaking Freezing in here, doubly so since the cleaning lady put my sweater...somewhere last week and I haven't been here early enough on the days she comes due to having class in the early AM now to ask her what happened to it) I wandered into a little specialty candy/snacks shop and discovered, on a table of imported cookies....

...Jaffa Cakes.

*cue choirs of angels*

Now, for those who don't know, Jaffa Cakes are these awesome cookies made in the UK. They're a soft cake base with this orange jelly-like part that is then covered in chocolate. And they are possibly one of the yummies cookies I've ever eaten (but then, I adore the orange + chocolate love affair). I learned about them due to a joke in Spaced that Evan and I would quote at random intervals which then led to us aquiring a box (or two or three) when we went to London for Spring Break last year. I've never seen them in a store over here and the idea of ordering food over the internet kind of bugs me (even though, I mean, imported is imported, but still...), so I've just accepted that I would never again taste one of these orangy chocolatey goodness in cookie form.

Until now.

I think I love that store.

Unfortunately, the store doesn't love me as they have a $5 minimum to use a card (I never carry cash anymore) and the cookies were $4.75. So I grabbed a candy bar off the counter and added that to the bunch not realizing that it was raw chocolate which for some reason cost almost ten bucks which I didn't really notice or pay attention to until I was out of the store cos I was so excited over silly cookies. Boo. Though I have discovered that raw chocolate + chai tea (redundant again) = yummy.

So yay snackfood I really shouldn't be eating since I noticed that I've lost a wee bit of weight (though not enough to make my clothes fit again, yet, grr), ha.

Hey look! My other story is up!
Click here to check it out! Yay!

The formatting is still off. Maybe that's just common practice for online journals. Whatever the case, it's up and I never did sign a contact and/or get paid (though that is supposed to happen in the next 60 days--the payment part, that is. I would think I would have signed a contract before publication...) so I need to email the editor about that, but still. Yay! It's up! Hoorah.

YAY!!! My first ever published story is up!!!

http://www.vagabondagepress.com

The story is called "Ugly Things", and it's listed under Short Stories.

I also got mentioned in the Letter from the Editor (as did all the other authors, but still, ha).

This just made my day. :)

PS: I'm kind of not too fond of the layout, if only because they didn't put extra spaces in between scenes which makes it a bit hard to read. Bother. Ah well. :)

Whee! I sold another story--the rewrite request I had last month accepted the revisions. I am full of excitement. It's another online journal, but it's something. It will also be out in June, which is fun--both my stories that are being published out in the same month, ha.

Man oh man am I glad to be home. Vacation was awesome and was definitely needed, but there is nothing better than your own comfy bed.

Back to the grind first thing tomorrow. Work at 8, and then an Algebra exam, then I get to come home and get my term paper finished for Women's Psyche, which is due at midnight, and study for my Human Sexuality exam the next day. Bah. I didn't hear anything from my manager all week so I'm not sure if the auditor came or not....I almost hope she did, just so that I don't have to worry about that on top of all of the back paperwork and things that I'm going to have to deal with, but I also kind of hope she didn't because, well...back paperwork and things. Someone was supposed to be keeping up with everything while I was gone...I really hope they did. I also hope that my manager found some way to talk our district manager into letting me upgrade me phone early so that I have an iPhone waiting for me when I get back. That would be fan-tastic.

I'll put up the rest of our vacation pics up later this week. Right now I'm gonna go snuggle up in my bed with my kitties and boyfriend and get some sleep.