Well, after having some much needed time off, I started a new job on Monday. This is a seven week assignment through the temp agency, and so far I think I will love it. I'm not thrilled with the work itself, although it's not too bad, just boring. I'm having a blast with the people though - they are a lot of fun, and one of the nicest groups of people I've ever met. So even though the work doesn't excite me, I'm going to enjoy seeing this group every day. 
I usually pick my sister up after work, as her office is on my way home. However, with this new position, I am off earlier than normal. I wasn't sure how long it would take me to get home (the location I'm working at is a long way from my house), so I decided to drive to my sister's workplace when I got off yesterday. I was there about half an hour early, but decided to hang around and wait for her. There's a bookstore next to her location, so I opted to wander around in there while I waited.
Now, I should know better than to go in there. I LOVE books, and this store always has several sales tables. You can get brand new books - often in hardcover - for $5.00 - $10.00. Sometimes they are even cheaper than that. So I always head for those tables, and it's very rare that I manage to leave the store without buying something.
Yesterday I found three wonderful books, each for just under $5.00. They are compilations of old horror stories, most of which I haven't run across before. I was quite pleased to get them, but decided to keep poking around to see if there were any other treasures. I came across a sales section that I haven't looked in before. It consists mainly of puzzle books and games, and while I do enjoy those, I can usually get the types I like at the local Dollar Stores, so I never look at that section in the book store.
I don't know what possessed me to go there yesterday, but I am quite pleased that I did. At least, I'm pleased now - I might not be so pleased as I get further into my new purchase. I came across one lone copy of a set of CDs. This set is a language instruction series - for learning Japanese! I've been fascinated with Japan since I was a child, and would love to go there one day. I've often thought it would be fun to learn the language, but never expected to actually attempt it. However, this set of CDs was on sale for $8.99 - how could I pass that up? 
Way back when I studied French for seven years, and I took a year of Ukrainian. Unfortunately since it was so long ago, I've lost a lot of what I learned, due to not using it. However, I loved studying languages, and I'm still very intrigued by it all. So I'm hoping that will help in this case, since I am told that Japanese is not an easy language to learn. I may not ever use it, and may not be overly successful with learning it, but I figure that at the very least it will be very good exercise for my brain, and with mentalpause rearing her ugly head, that's not a bad thing.
So please wish me luck, and hopefully I won't drive myself to new levels of insanity with this new venture! 
Have a wonderful night, all!
