I am addicted to...

Audiobooks.


Due to long commute to work (at least 1.85 hours a day) and the endless tasks I’ve been joggling lately I finally signed up with Audible, just to keep up with the novels I could not part too easily. Plus I had been away from Christine’s In Death Series Reading Challenge since the end of the 3rd Quarter last year – I needed to get back on track or “the dead” will continue to haunt me.

In parallel I also attempted to borrow audiobooks from the library but the joy I reaped wasn’t as great as I hoped for. Because they’re in CD format I could only play them in my car (unless I buy a portable cd player and carry several cd) and could not easily store in my phone without going through hours of copying them to my computer in mp3 format. I just don’t have the time and patience at the moment so I just have to deal with my bills later… And to make me feel better I really tried to look for my favorite author (Nora Roberts/ J.D. Robb) and my local library didn’t have her books in audio.

My audible membership started on April 3 -- just about a month ago and I had bought and listened to several books that earned me 5 of 15 badges. I don’t know yet what this badges from the badge collection really meant to me, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out. I currently owned 28 titles in my library (that’s a lot for a slow reader like me in just a month!). I am currently in AppNovice on iPhone Listening Level. I needed about 372 hours to go! to reach the AppProfessional… (Wink…wink). My first month with audible is a bit troubling to my pocket – well I think it definitely managed to entertain my credit card in a rather unexpected way since I have never anticipated the urges of clicking the BUY button. Nevertheless, the digital copies are now mine and safely stored in Amazon’s online library so I say it’s a collection worth keeping. But I opted for the greatest plan upgrade (Platinum) I could get after going through my purchase history. Recently, I’ve bought and listened to a few of Robert's/Robb's novels (or will listen soon):


 

Other audiobooks not shown here were from authors of different genre and few were selected out of curiousity.

I may have professed my addiction to audiobooks lately, but in reality I am a NR fan within.

Kiss of Ian

Sleeping like a Zombie

These past few nights (four nights to be exact) I’ve been having difficulty sleeping. Gone were the restful nights of peace and eagerness to sleep. In my mind there was only one thing to blame for such misery, my workloads. But of course in most circumstances it wasn’t work the biggest culprit here. I have no one and nothing to blame for but myself. I created all the qualms of my life because I imprinted high standards. Now I am drowning.


So at 5 A.M. I decided to take a walk with my iPod and the new earphones I bought from Target. I originally planned of buying Bose’s IE2 headphones with mic, which was perfect for the iPhone. The price however was ridiculously high that I ended up getting a $15 headphones made by a cheap brand. It sounded good and turned out to be a keeper.

The neighborhood was asleep and here I was soaking at the opposite of the entire population. It was a bit cold today and I stupidly left my jacket at home. Right around the block I dragged myself back home, snatched my car keys and pocketbook, and took a drive instead.

It was stuffy inside the SUV. There were marks of spilled coffee around the cup holder and visible white dusts decorated the dashboard. I made a mental note to get a car wash and call the dealer for a service appointment when the maintenance light blinked. Then it stayed on. I rolled the windows down and cold breeze slapped my face and blew my hair away. I had to spit few strands of hair after I rolled the windows back up while waiting for the green light at a neighboring intersection. No one was on the road and the traffic light above swayed along the direction of the wind. I gathered my tangled hair up and tied it with a chocolate-brown rubber band dangling around my wrist, puffed my bangs sticking on my forehead.

Crossing along the quiet residential roads next town was something I haven’t done for a while now. Weekends were spent lately at home working on anything I could think of besides left over projects --from my job. Few minutes went by and giant houses with two and three car garages came in to view.

Wow – the only word came out of my mouth. How can these people afford to pay such high maintenance and a land screaming for higher tax payments? Here I was struggling for monthly utility bills, high mortgage payments, car related bills, credit bills, and more of those crappy bills, and then there they were in a spitting image of wealthy lifestyle. What have I done wrong? It was hard for me to digest the luxury presented before my eyes. There were also new constructions nearby, some were in early stages and few were in their final phases before completion. Luxury cars would soon be parked next to them.

Jealousy may not be the exact word to describe such feeling I went through at that moment. No, it can’t be that word – I prefer pity. Self-pity to be exact! People living in those houses must have nothing much to worry in life. They have everything, or at least almost everything they owned.

The road curved and the scenery flipped a bit differently. There were more trees and the lanes became wider. Aha! More houses – bigger than the previous town I drove by. I sighed and stretched my neck gawking at the height of some of the West Orange mansions. They were almost the same height of the trees. I parked the car next to the entrance of a public park and ogled the surrounding area. I rolled the windows down to smell the rich air from the wealth of the town. Who knows maybe their lifestyle would rub on me and turned me in to…

I suddenly overheard voices. Across the street, I saw a woman wearing pink sweatshirt and sweatpants, a somewhat two or three year old little girl clutched to her side. They were walking fast toward a black car parked in front of the house. A man followed behind wearing a black suit that covered a white shirt inside and a black tie hanging in front, black pants and black business shoes. They were talking – no – they were yelling at each other. I contemplated to roll my windows back up and in the end gave in to my shameless curiosity. I kept the windows wide open.

The man (I assumed to be the husband) grabbed the woman’s arm, but she quickly pushed him away while the kid started to cry. “Let me go, let me go,” she said. The man kept his distance. I wondered if he realized how many of the word “please” came out of his mouth. “Stop following us,” was the last phrase I heard from the woman (the wife, maybe?) before the car screeched out of the drive way leaving the man in a black suite, alone. He balled his fingers to a fist, pounded them against his forehead, merely stood there for a good four minutes, maybe five. Then his eyes switched to my direction. Shh-i-i--!

I quickly turned on the engine and left. I stopped by at the Starbucks to calm down, bought a Grande white chocolate mocha and headed home.

At that very moment, I knew my life wasn’t that bad after all.



~

Drinking Naked while Listening to the Sound of Silence

I was working last night and woke up late this morning. I opened my eyes and realized for the first time I didn’t know what to do on a bright Saturday morning. I dragged myself out of bed, went down stairs, and grabbed the first thing I saw from the fridge – a bottle of green machine called Naked, a blended juice smoothie. I squinted against the light shining bright from my kitchen window. It seemed lovely outside, I thought.


Then without a set of direction I headed to the living room and slumped down the couch. I was never a huge living room type of person because I was more of a bedroom person. I did all my work and leisure time in the privacy of my own room.


The smoothie tasted more like a juice to me, mixed with apples, banana, pineapple, and mango flavors and coupled with a hint of vegetables, I didn’t recognize the specifics. I peaked at the list of ingredients and it elaborated about ten different green vegetables. Some of them I didn’t even know. The expiration date reads Mar 08 11. Good enough for me and I took another gulp from the plastic bottle.


What am I doing here? I should go back upstairs and finish my requirements and test plans for my upcoming project. I shouldn’t be wasting time. But then I stayed unmoved and sucked in a deep breath. I told myself that work will just gonna have to wait.


I really liked the feel of the pillows smooched against my back, eyes closed and breathing controlled. Quiet, I thought at first. But then I started hearing different sounds I never paid much attention in my eight years of residency in this house. The tick-tock-tick-tock sound of the wall clock my cousins gave us last Christmas annoyed me at first. Then I heard the momentary screeching of the tires and the motorbike across the street boomed and roared like a drum intro of a heavy metal song. Another car passed by and this time it felt like the tires just slowly rolled on the asphalt, I couldn’t describe the sound but to me it felt like light strums on a bass guitar. Was the car keeping under speed limit? I didn’t hear any music but the cadence of the venetian blind tapping against the glass window and the once in a while click-clack of the kitchen’s exhaust captured my senses. Once or twice I heard a sound of a plane high above me, like a thunder passing in slow motion. The fan of my computer slightly hummed. Combining these sounds made me feel like someone conducting an orchestra; the rhythmic sound playing in my ear swayed me and moved me to a place I’ve never been before.


Then out of the blue everything else muted except the ringing tone of my phone suddenly k-e-r-r-e-n-g-e-d next to me. Encore, maybe? I forced my eyes to open up so I could check the Caller ID. The incoming call showing an 8YY number was just a disturbance of my peace – Telemarketer!


I better get back to work…