I have a new set of 5 things, this time from jilrani

Books: I love books. I love going into another time or world, being a part of this person's life---even for a while---to see how they live and the trials and experiences they have to endure. It's a lovely way to escape from my boring, horrible life for a while and exalt in a new adventure. I'm really addicted to books, and since I live work in a bookstore, that addiction has grown insanely. I think I still have too many books to read right now, but that doesn't stop me from buying more. I like creating new worlds and characters, so thusly I would love to read about them and get lost in a whole new world and experience. There's really nothing better than the rush of reading a really good book and being pulled into a great story and feeling for the characters, rooting for them, and hoping that everything turns out all right in the end. I'm kinda a sucker when it comes to endings, I like mine kinda predictable and happy: the guy gets the girl, they all live happily ever after, the end. Hehehe. I love books so much, I'm working at Barnes & Noble and have been for almost 3.5 years now. And frankly, I don't see myself stopping that anytime soon. ^_^

Scrapbooking: I'm not quite sure how this hobby of mine started. I know back when I first lived at home after I graduated college, I had a lot of pictures and stuff laying around and I needed something to do with them. I then went to visit my friend/brother down in St. Louis for the first time and came back with lots of pictures I needed to do something with. And also, very coincidentally my church @ the time (I really don't attend services there anymore for various reasons) started a scrapbooking group at that time as well. I went a few times, gathered some stickers and some other advice from the other ladies, but I stopped going after a while (like I tend to do with most things). Now I scrapbook on my own and have been scrapbooking ever since. I have quite a few albums of my adventures around the states, trips, my first year in my apartment, and so on. I'm stuck in working on my California 2005 trip, and need to get my Baltimore 2008 trip into the album I have. I like scrapbooking because I can be creative and artsy while storing memories in such a way that I will want to look back at them from time to time over the years to come.

Drawing: This hobby of mine started in high school. I never really knew I could draw until I was looking at a comic book magazine I used to get way back in the day, and I wanted to copy said picture. At first I started just tracing things, but then I was able to do pretty damn good copies by just looking at the picture and drawing it myself. I loved to just lay on my bedroom floor and draw, and it took my mind away from all the problems in my life. It was very focusing and cleansing to draw. I really didn't acknowledge anything else in the world except the paper, the pencil, and the image in my head that desired to come out. My family was amazed at my drawing abilities and said I should go into drawing for a major in college. Thankfully I never did that---took one drawing class in college and nearly decked my professor. Not really, but I wanted to. Sadly during college, like all things that are fun and awesome, this hobby of mine took a back seat to my learning and studying. I have slightly lost my ability to draw like I used to, since I have gone so many years without doing so, but I'm slowly getting my talent back. I have recently drawn a few sketches I want to use for cover art for the Relic Chosen books I'm working on. Woo!

Faeries: Love faeries. I love them so much, I drew one and had it permanently tattooed onto my back! They are so delicate and beautiful, magical and inspiring. To me, they just show that anything is possible. I mean, really, a small tiny little woman with spiderweb-thin wings can be the master of magic and nature? She can command the animals and be that powerful? Then hell, I can do whatever I want in my life in that case. They just really are so beautiful. Whenever I see faeries in stores in either pictures, statues, etc., I just stop and have to stare. I get a shiver up my spine and I have to study every little detail of the painting/object with said faerie on it. I'm a very artistic/aestetic person, so anything with that level of beauty and care is just cause to be admired.

Humor (i'm totally going to cheat by using my answer I gave meowvatar, cuz I don't know much else I can do to expand on this topic!): Is basically how I live my life. It has been the best thing that's ever happened to me, and also the worst (at least to some people *cough*carl*cough*). I make people smile and laugh, brighten their days---even when I don't mean to, because I'm just being myself. I have a dry sense of humor, which was noticed at a young age by my mom. She thought it was hilarious. But at other times I can be a little wacky and out-in-left-field, and that tends to confuse people. Oh well. I enjoy making others laugh, making myself laugh, and not really taking life too seriously. My motto that I now live my life came to me accidentally a few years ago when I was digging around in the Bible for something about sacred rasin cakes (Hosea 3:1 The LORD said to me, "Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.") when somehow I ended up thumbing through more pages and found myself in Hebrews. I found Hebrews 13:2 which reads: Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. To me it means, be kind to all, because you don't know who they might be, or what they might be going through. Give someone something to laugh about, to smile about, because maybe they are having a bad day. Be kind and groovy to all, because (to kinda through in some of my quasi-Buddhist inclinations) karma comes back around. You do something groovy for some one today, later, you'll get something groovy. And I also take the "entertain" part to a little more of the comic/make 'em laugh side of the spectrum than what Paul had intended, but I think he wouldn't mind.</lj>