Reunited and it feels so good...

Well, well, well... look who I ran into. My old blog. Which I haven't touched in years. Case in point- I describe myself in my bio as "a typical twenty-something girl," and I haven't been in my twenties in quite some time. That twenty-something girl is now 34 and happily married! I'd forgotten about this blog, just like many other pieces of my past. But in my quest to rejuvenate my writing career, I figured I'd dust it off and get back up.

I remember when I stopped writing in my blog. It was right after my father died. The loss was insurmountable to me, and I blamed myself for a lot of things that I shouldn't have. I was not handling my grief well. I was drowning in it. It's like I just shut down completely and never have fully restored myself since. It took me a long, long time to come out of it, and truthfully, I came back as a different person.

Now, that's a crockpot of lies that time heals all wounds. No, what it does is cushion them ever so slightly. The pain becomes easier to live with. But I'm ready to get back into blogging, especially as I'm toying with the idea of going "rogue"- freelance! The corporate life is killing me, one paper clip at a time. I've been unhappy in my role and with my company for a long time, and I'm starting to realize just how short and precious life is to really waste it on a job that brings you constant stress and anxiety. I want to be my own boss and navigate my own career. Live my own life. And to do that, I need to write and write and write!

As mentioned before, I'm an old married woman now. I actually reconnected, and eventually married, an old flame.  It's only fitting we met and fell in love while we were both working in a bookstore. :) (Side note: RIP, Borders). It's an amazing feeling, getting to spend every day of your life with your best friend, biggest cheerleader, and partner-in-crime. Every day of my life, I count my husband as one of my biggest blessings! I don't know what I did to deserve such a sweet, loving husband. Though I DID kiss a lot of frogs on my way down the path to marital bliss. We are dorky bookworm homebodies and extremely proud of it. Staying In is the new Getting Out!

In February 2016, I will officially be starting Yoga Teacher Training! I'm so excited. I've tossed the idea around in my pretty little head here and there over the years, but figured it was a pipe dream. I'm not flexible! My balance is questionable on its VERY best day! I am the biggest stress monkey ever- I can't teach people to get all zen and backbendy! I'm not vegan! All these reasons and many others were reasons I shied away from it. I'd tell myself if everyone who loved yoga became a teacher, then the world would be full of yoga teachers, but no students to teach. But going back to that whole "life is too short" mantra... my 21-year-old niece died of an accidental drug overdose three months ago. She was young, brilliant, gorgeous, funny, and intelligent. I feel like she died before she got a chance to live. And I don't want that to be me one day. I held myself back and didn't go for my dreams, didn't take risks or try to believe in myself. So I said, screw it, we goin' to yoga school! I can't wait!!!

And now what kind of update to a book blog be without a few lines about what I'm reading? I'm still a total book fanatic with no intentions of slowing down. Since my blog hiatus, I've become a big fan of Goodreads, so let me know if anyone wants to be friends! Right now I'm reading Moonlight Mile, by Dennis Lehane (author of Mystic River). It's a sequel to his first book, Gone Baby Gone, which was adapted into a movie starring Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan. I enjoyed Gone Baby Gone  very much, though it's been a long time since I read it. So far I'm feeling ambivalent about the book. It seems to be dragging to me, with not too much excitement or, well, suspense.  But there's still quite a way to go in the book, so I'm keeping an open mind.

Now that I've resurrected my buried blog, I'm hoping to become a more frequent visitor. Just stay patient and bear with me.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

Happy Memorial Day!

Hello good fine people of the world wide web... how is your Memorial Day going? Mine started off crazy busy, and has slowly segued into nice and relaxing... everything a Memorial Day weekend should be! And the weather is G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S. Warm, sunny, clear skies... perfect Memorial Day weekend weather!

Well, we got our new carpet installed on Friday, and let me tell you, it was an ORDEAL. We had to essentially pack up our entire apartment and move everything either onto the balcony or our bathrooms. It was not easy, and it was not fun. I slept very little on Thursday and Friday night, because I was so busy frantically packing and unpacking my entire room and all of my stuff in the other rooms in the apartment. The carpeting guys were kind of jerks and seemed agitated that we had not moved everything out of the way before they got there, but there was just some stuff that we could not physically lift ourselves, and they copped a bit of an attitude about that. Most guys would be honored to help two fine ladies move furniture and heavy boxes, but not these guys. It took a lot longer than we expected- they didn't leave until about 2:30- and the rest of Friday and Saturday was devoted to piecing our apartment back together, unpacking everything, multiple trips to storage and trash bins, etc. On a really hot day at that. It wasn't fun!!! I was more than happy for it to be over! And I will say this- it is a very nice carpet. It's very soft and comfy! I don't know if it was quite worth all the hassle my poor roommate and I had to go through, but it is nice.

We took advantage of the fact that all of our stuff was in disarray and rearranged the apartment a little- we moved furniture around to make the apartment look more spacious, and we set up a "Reading Corner"! We took an armchair and angled it at a corner of our apartment, and it's right next to all of our bookcases, but still in view of the TV. It's not finished yet because we haven't organized our books yet- my roommate and I are both out of shelf space, and need new bookshelves- but once we have it all set up and organized, I'll post a pic! Needless to say, I am very excited for Reading Corner. :-D

I also cleaned out and reorganized my room, threw away a ton of old stuff that I'd been hanging onto for years, organized stuff like photos and cards, etc. My room looks amazing! I can't remember the last time I had such a clean and well-organized bedroom. Want to take bets on how long it lasts? ;-) Nah, kidding. I'm really going to try to keep it this way.

While I was going through a bunch of old stuff, I came across a birthday card that my dad had given me about five years ago. It's beautiful. It's black and white with a flower on it (not sure what kind- an orchid maybe? I'm florally deficient), and on the front it says, "Savor each day for the gift that it is." I read it and immediately started to cry. It made me thank God that I'm a pack rat who holds on to everything. And in light of everything that's happened this year, that sentence couldn't be more true.

I had my room all finished up by Saturday night, and I've spent the rest of the weekend thoroughly exhausted!!! I did manage to make it to the gym today- first time since Wednesday, and I'm glad I went, I was itching to get there!- but my legs were definitely sore after my workout, and the rest of the afternoon consisted of sitting on the couch and watching the Phillies beat the Yankees (in a nail-biter game.... they won by one run in extra innings!!!). It felt so glorious just to park my ass on the couch and be completely lazy. :-) Okay, not completely lazy... I did do laundry and change the cat's litter. But it took effort!!!! I had no idea how physically exhausting and mentally taxing the whole carpet ordeal would be. It was basically like moving, only I didn't go anywhere- I moved into the same damn apartment! I hadn't thought there would be so much involved, honestly. I definitely underestimated the work that would need to go into this- the apartment complex had given us a checklist of things to do before the carpeting company got there, but it was extremely vague, like "clear off bookshelves", "unplug stuff from walls", etc. Nowhere did it say, "Put everything you own into boxes and move them into bathrooms or the balcony." It did say we had to get our stuff off the floor, but where are you supposed to put an entire apartments' worth of boxes if you cannot use your floor? Should I have waved my magic wand and had all the boxes suspended in the air, a la Harry Potter? Seriously! I'm either seriously lazy or a serious baby, because I feel like at this point, I should be recovered from it all by now. What's wrong with me??? :-D

I've really gotten into The Feminine Mystique, as much as I could this weekend, anyway. Last night I climbed into bed with every full intention of reading, opened my book, and realized that I was too mentally and physically exhausted to concentrate on processing words. :-D Oh. My. God. This book is SOOOO good! I'm still a little too worn out to get into the details right now, so look for a more thorough and competent review tomorrow. Right now, I'm still feeling tuckered out from the weekend, and am just ready to park my booty in bed! ;-D

Crazy busy week= slacker blog

Hello, friends! Just wanted to let you know that posting will be even MORE sporadic than usual, because it's a bust week at work, and I'm in the midst of organizing/clearing stuff off shelves and floors to get ready for our carpet installation on Friday. But here's a quick update on my week so far:

*I finished up A Deadly Game, which was really good. I started a new book, The Feminine Mystique. So far, it's flipping awesome. This should be required reading for all women. More details to follow. Here's the book:

  I got this baby for thirty-three cents at a paperback book sale... BOO-YA!!!   :-D

*I'm working hard at maintaining a positive attitude/looking on the bright side of life, and I think it's really working- I'm feeling much better these days, about work and life in general!   :-)

*I found a piece of glass in my applesauce today!!!! NOT cool.

*I'm still eating awesome sweet potato combos. I do have pics, but it's all stuff you've seen before. Use your imagination! Like tonight's will be a Gardenburger Savory Portabella Mushroom veggie burger, organic ketchup, broccoli, and the main star, the sweet potato. Ya'll know what this looks like! This isn't even a new one. Busy week= less time to get creative. Don't worry... I'm not running out of ideas!  ;-)

*We're having BEAUTIFUL weather here in PA! Finally!!!!! I can't believe it's Memorial Day weekend already... believe me, I'm not complaining at all! Summer is my absolute most favorite time of year. What's yours?

I hope you're all having a great week! I'll try to post before Friday, but no promises!   :-)

18 books for 18 bucks

Can't get THAT at a bookstore or amazon, now can you?   :-P

I went to an awesome book sale today at a nearby library. And, in case you missed my post title, I got 18 books for $18!!!  All books- hardcover, paperbacks, whatever- were $1 each. How sweet is that??? Everything I got is in fairly decent condition, but for a buck a book, I can only expect so much.  :-D

I KNOW you want to know what I got, and you KNOW I'm gonna tell you!!!  :-)    I ended up with eleven hardbacks and seven paperbacks (I'm including an amazon link for each book, so you can get a better plot synopsis of each book- I wouldn't be able to do the same justice, lol!):

 

HARDBACK BOOKS:

*Brightness Falls, by Jay McInerney: A fiction novel about a very successful married couple living in Manhattan in the 1980s (I love anything and everything 1980s-related), and how the 1987 stock market crash turns their lives and their marriage upside down.

*The Chocolate Lovers Club, by Carole Matthews: A fiction novel about a group of four girlfriends who bond over life, love, and chocolate. Think Sex and the City with a lot more calories.  ;-D

*Never Too Thin: Why Women are at War With Their Bodies, by Roberta Pollack Seid: I think it's pretty self-explanatory what this one's about!

*Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany, by Bill Buford: An autobiography/memoir of a man's rise to the culinary top while working for Mario Batali.

*You're Wearing That? Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation, by Deborah Tannen: A sociology book about how to improve communication and the relationship between mothers and daughters. Not that I expect to really do this anytime soon, but it can't hurt to be informed. Plus, I LOVE Deborah Tannen. I think she's an excellent observer of interpersonal communication and a fantastic writer. I love her books. She uses lots of real-life examples, which I always love to read about.

*Echoes in the Darkness, by Joseph Wambaugh: A true-crime book about a murder that actually took place in my area in the late 1970s of a woman and her two children, and it's recently been in the news again because the accused killer (who was convicted but later released due to a legal or trial technicality, I'm not really sure of the details, but I know he was released), recently died of old age. This happened before I was born, but I vaguely remember hearing about it in the news here and there, and it was a Lifetime movie in the '80s.

*Not Much Just Chillin: The Hidden Lives of Middle Schoolers, by Linda Perlstein: A sociological look into the behavior and psyche of middle schoolers. The author spends a year with a group of middle school students in suburban Baltimore and observes their mannerisms, attitudes, thoughts, feelings, etc. I love all things sociological, so this interested me. Although I don't think anyone will EVER be able to understand ANY middle school... God, middle school was ROUGH! :-D

*Wolves in Chic Clothing, by Carrie Karasyov and Jill Kargman: A typical NYC chick-lit book about a jewelry store assistant who is befriended by a gaggle of rich Upper East Side socialistas, and she gets all caught up in their world and their lifestyle, and then a misunderstanding causes them to drop her like a hot potato. I've been watching a lot of Real Housewives of New York City lately, and it reminded me of that!  :-)

*Asking for Love, by Roxana Robinson: A collection of short stories about the lives of East Coast WASPs. Most of them are focused on family dynamics, from marriages to divorce to blended families and adolescence. I have another book by this author, This is My Daughter, and I liked it a lot, so I figured I'd give this a go.

*Rise and Shine, by Anna Quindlen: A fiction novel about two sisters trying to mend fences after one sister inadvertently wrongs the other.

*Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea, by Chelsea Handler: Chelsea's autobiography. I love Chelsea Handler, so I figured, for $1, why not?   ;-P

 

PAPERBACKS:

*Luncheon of the Boating Party, by Susan Vreeland: A historical fiction novel about the people who are captured in the infamous Renoir painting.

*Summer of '49, by David Halberstam: A nonfiction chronicle of the Yankees (particularly Joe DiMaggio) and the Red Sox (focusing on Ted Williams) in the summer of 1949. I'm guessing that was a big year for those two.  :-)

*Paris to the Moon, by Adam Gopnik: A memoir/autobiography about a writer from The New Yorker who moves to Paris for a year with his wife and infant son, and chronicles his experiences as life as an American in Paris.

*Among Schoolchildren, by Tracy Kidder: Similar to the middle school book by Linda Perlstein, the author spends a year observing a fourth grade classroom in Holyoke, Massachusetts.

*Thinking of You, by Jill Mansell: An Irish chick-lit author that is new to me! This is a book about how a woman's daughter going off to college (or as they say abroad, "university"), and how she copes with Empty Nest Syndrome (oh, and she happens to be single, so insert complicated love triangle here).

*Last Chance Saloon, by Marian Keyes: A novel about three friends in their twenties in Dublin. Marian Keyes is one of my faves- this is actually the first book of hers I've ever read, but I didn't have my own copy. And now I do!  :-)

*We'll Always Have Paris: Sex and Love in the City of Light, by John Baxter: Memoir/autobiography of a man who falls in love with a French woman in the early 1990s, marries her, and moves to Paris to begin a new life with her, and the story is about his acclimation to Paris, focusing on some particularly, um, interesting historical facts and themes, as the subtitle of the book suggests. Apparently the book gets a little tawdry here and there. I hope my innocent eyes can handle it.  :-D   Apparently I was on some sort of Parisian kick subconsciously yesterday! I'd love to visit Paris at one point in my life. And I wouldn't mind learning more about French culture in general. I've always thought French was such a pretty language. I've taken a little bit here and there in middle school and college, but I barely remember a word of it.

 

So yeah... I think I done good yesterday!!!   :-)   How are your weekends going? I had a crazy-busy day yesterday- besides the book sale, I ran a bunch of errands, hit up the gym, washed and changed my bedsheets, watched American Dreams on Netflix, etc. I was like Wonder Woman yesterday!  I have some stuff I need to get done today too- we're getting new carpeting in our apartment on Friday, so we need to have all of our books cleared off shelves, all knickknacks, DVDs, anything on a shelf, needs to be removed. The carpeting company with move the furniture for us, we just have to empty the shelves. Suffice it to say, my roommate and I have a LOT of books. To the point where we no longer have shelf room, and I have taken to stacking them along the wall (although I do want to get a new bookcase and plan on looking for one soon). While it's exciting and fun to get a new carpet (it's a totally different color and everything), it's going to be such a pain in the ass to pack all that stuff up, and then put everything back! Ugh! My roommate and I both took Friday off, and we have off Monday b/c of Memorial Day, so at least we have a four-day weekend to get everything back in order. Plus, this gives me a good excuse to get my spring cleaning on! But I want to get a good start on it today so I won't be stressing out about it all week.

But first I need to share my latest potato combo off, because I'm proud of it, and it brought me immense joy and happiness last night for dinner:

There was just so much love going on on this plate: grilled chicken, reduced-fat melted Provolone cheese, chopped spinach, sweet potato, oregano, Italian seasoning, pepper, crushed red pepper, organic ketchup on the side. Yum!  :-) Can you believe that's only three chicken breast tenderloins (which is the serving size, per the nutrition facts on Trader Joe's Frozen Chicken Breast tenderloins, which is what I buy)??? I shredded it to put it on the top, but still- it was LOT of chicken!!!! I enjoyed every bite. I love that these potato concoctions always look like they should be, like, a million calories, because they look so massive, but they're really not... this whole thing comes out to 300 calories! (Okay, 315 with the ketchup, but really!)   More importantly, it was absolutely delicious and healthy and satisfying.

Speaking of food, I'm off to make myself lunch and watch the ball game... GO PHILS!!!! Have a great rest of your weekend!  :-)

Stressball

I have no excuse for not blogging other than the fact that I have been a massive ball of stress all week. All due to work. And I was already dwelling on it so much (TOO much) in real life, I didn't want to dwell on it on my blog too and feel even worse, and bring y'all down with me. While the situation itself is not improving, I've decided simply to rise above it and try to keep a positive attitude. One of my biggest flaws (one of many, LOL!!!) is that I am a very hypersensitive person (I have been since I was a child- even in elementary school, teachers would tell my parents I seemed a lot more sensitive than other kids- neither of my parents are like that, so I don't know where I got it from!), and I definitely tend to overreact and overstress and make something out of nothing. It's something that I definitely don't like about myself and desperately want to change, but WANTING to change it and ACTUALLY changing it are two very different things! I'm really trying to work on it though, in small little easy steps- yoga, writing, deep breathing, trying to think positively, etc. I'm more than open to any suggestions and advice!!!

Let's move on to more positive things about the week. I'm digging the Scott Peterson investigation book that I'm reading right now. It's extremely detailed! I followed this case pretty closely when it was big in the news, and there's lots of info in there that not even I knew about. If you like well-written true crime, this one's for you. I'm about halfway through it right now, so I'll keep you posted (no pun intended!)

Yesterday was my sister's 17th birthday. I can't believe she's 17 already!!! It seems like she was just a teeny tiny baby (and, might I add, a tad bratty- sorry, Nicole, but you were, and you know it!!! ;-P) and now here she is, about to end her junior year of high school. It seems like she grew up so fast! Or maybe it just feels that way to me- since we're eleven years apart, I left for college when she was only seven years old. So she did most of her growing up when I was entering adulthood, and since my mother and I have never been close, I stayed away as much as possible. Unfortunately, in doing that, I didn't get to be as much a part of my sister's life as I would have liked to have been. I'm glad that we're making up for that now. Once she's out of the house herself, and after college (college!!!!), hopefully we'll live near each other and I'll get to see her a lot. I've really grown to value and appreciate and treasure her over the years. Of course, her outgoing her brattiness definitely helped. :-D She had a great birthday- her friends decorated her locker (something that I never got to have, since I have a June birthday- although I'd rather have the day off!), and she had some Cake Batter ice cream at Coldstone Creamery, and she told me it was worth every calorie. :-) I can't wait to see her in a few weeks! Our favorite book sale is in just two weeks, so I'll be seeing her for that. This is seriously our Christmas morning. We LOVE this book sale!!! :-D

My roommate and I are hitting a pretty good used book sale at a local library this weekend. I'm excited- after the week I had, I feel that I deserve to treat myself to some cheap, gently worn and used books!!! I went to this sale once before, and I remember that it was pretty good, so I'm optimistic. I'll let you know what I got! ;-D

In tater news, I managed to come up with a new one for dinner tonight:

I hereby dub thee Pizza Burger Potato: sweet potato, reduced-fat Provolone, chopped spinach, oregano, crushed red pepper, crumbled Boca Tomato Bruschetta veggie burger with organic ketchup (which I didn't really need b/c there was so much flava-flav going on in the potato). Crazy good.

I hope you're all having a wonderful week. Friday will be here before we know it! I've been trying to catch up on blogs like crazy, but I've fallen way behind, so I hope to catch up on your lives either tonight or tomorrow! Right now, my bed and my journal and my book look awfully tempting... I got to bed later than usual (stress + anxiety= difficulty sleeping), so I'm hoping to sleep like a baby tonight!

WHO WATCHED THE OFFICE SEASON FINALE JUST NOW??? OMG!!!!! IT WAS SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Race for the Cure

We couldn't have asked for better weather for the Race for the Cure yesterday.

The turnout for the race was amazingly overwhelming, as usual. I got a bit choked up and emotional a few times- like when I saw survivors, and women currently going through the disease who'd lost their hair to chemo, and all the names and pictures and faces of those who lost their lives... one girl couldn't have been more than seven or eight years old, and she had a sign on the back of her shirt that read she was walking in memory of her mother. That one hit me the hardest, I think. Seeing those names and those faces are what brings me back to the race every year and what will keep me going every year until WE FIND A CURE. It's too late for so many women, but we can keep looking and keep fighting and NEVER give up hope that one day, we will find a cure.

I hope you all had great weekends and a wonderful Mother's Day, no matter how you spent it. This is something that I have never mentioned on my blog, but I want to be honest with anyone who reads this. I don't know if people have noticed that I don't mention my mother on my blog. There is a reason for that. My mother and I have been estranged for the past three years- we have not spoken, and the only time we have seen each other is when my father passed away recently, and we had to really put all of our differences aside for the sake of tragedy. I would have to start a whole new blog to explain all the reasons we don't have a relationship, but simply put, my mother has been extremely verbally and emotionally abusive to me (as well as my sister and my father, when they were married) for most of my life. On a few but rare occasions, physically abusive, but for the most part, all verbal and emotional. She has said things to and about me and my sister that no mother should ever say to her child... she once told me that she wished she'd had an abortion instead of having me. She is the also the type of person who not only says these things, but refuses to apologize, acknowledge, or take responsibility for how her words and actions affect her children. If you try to talk to her about a certain incident, she simply changes the subject as if it never happened. And I can't have a relationship with someone who denies saying and doing things that have brought me such immense pain and partially shaped me into the person that I am today. I can't have a "real" relationship with someone like that, whether it's my mother, a significant other, a friend, etc. It's a damaging, toxic, and unhealthy relationship. It's obviously more complicated than that, but it would be impossible to get into on the blog. But I can honestly tell you that I am a happier person not having this person in my life at all than to have her in my life, maintaining an unhealthy, toxic relationship that brings me emotional pain. I feel like that's a half-assed explanation, but just wanted to be honest. I don't get upset or sad about it often, and I do wish things were different sometimes- that I was close with my mom like so many other girls are fortunate enough to be- but honestly, my mother and I were never close, our relationship has been like this for almost my whole life, and so I can't really miss something that I never had and never will, you know? It's impossible to fix a broken relationship if someone will not admit their role in it. Will she change one day? Anything's possible, but I'm not holding my breath or wishing on a star. Even if we tried to start over today, I don't think I'd ever to fully be able to trust her. When I was younger, I'd talk to her and confide in her on occasion, and every time I did, I'd have it thrown back at me or hurled as an insult during a fight or an attack. She has also read my diary, as well as my sister's. There is no trust or respect in the relationship, and as sad as it is, it also it what it is, and I think I still managed to turn out okay, and so did my sister. ;-) But to all you peeps out there with awesome mamas, I hope you were good to her yesterday. I'm sure you were. If you're blessed enough to have a great mother, I hope you take the time to show her how much you appreciate it. Not everyone gets that kind of mother. But I think it's awesome if you do. I don't hate. ;-)

Anyway, sorry for that weird tangent/sob story. That wasn't the intent. I just figured with Mother's Day being yesterday, and reading all the posts from everyone else's blogs about what they did with their moms, I figured I needed to give at least some sort of explanation. And I've wanted to. This is my blog and I want to be able to talk about anything I want. The power of freedom of speech!!!! Gotta love those First Amendments!!!! :-)

Whew, I'm tired. I ran around all weekend on about five hours of sleep each night- my biological alarm clock is getting earlier and earlier as I get older, haha. As a teenager, I'd sleep until ten or eleven no problem. Now I wake up around 8 on the weekends... sometimes even earlier! Which I actually prefer- I like getting up early in the morning, sleeping that late would make me feel like I've wasted my morning- but my problem is that I'm totally nocturnal and can stay up until 2 AM easily- even 3 AM on occasion! And I'm not even doing anything cool- it's normally just watching TV or reading! I'm working on it though. And I've noticed that sometimes on the weekends, I'll find myself getting tired earlier, like around 11 or midnight, but rather than call it a night and go to bed, I push myself to stay up a little later, not even because I want to, but simply because I feel like, well, it's the weekend, so I CAN. I realize that's stupid, I'm not sure why I do it, and it's something I'm trying to work on. We'll try it out next weekend and see how it flies. :-D

I'm glad I took today off of work. I needed a day just to be a lazy cat. :-D I did go to the gym though, but hey, I wanted to! I'm one of those weird people who like the gym. That's right... I'm a total gym bunny! :-D But I could see how people could hate it. My theory is, hey, exercise should be fun, so go do it in a way that makes you happy- the gym, yoga, running, dancing, walking with friends, tennis, whateva. If you force yourself to work out, you'll hate it and never do it. Not that these are really deep thoughts here... they're pretty obvious! But most of my thoughts aren't deep, but very bright and shiny. :-)

Plus, getting in a good workout at the gym makes me feel like I've earned the right to park my booty on the couch and read, which is what I'm off to do now. The season finales of The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother are on tonight- yay! And then it's back to the daily grind tomorrow... smaller yay (want to start off the week on a bright note- it's already pretty good since it's a shorter week for me!).

Happy Monday!!!! :-)

Super Saturday

Hey hey party people! How is your weekend going thus far? I've had quite a productive day myself. I have to get up bright and early for the Breast Cancer Walk tomorrow (and I mean EARLY... earlier than I get up even for work!), so I wanted to get all my errands done today and out of the way, so I'm tuckered out, which is a good thing, because I need to try to go to bed early! I'm a night owl by nature- especially on weekends- so it won't be easy. I did not get much sleep last night, and so I'm hoping that will help ease me into slumber easier tonight, although I doubt it. I'm so glad I took Monday off, not because I thought I'd be worn out or anything like that (I mean, it's just a 5K WALK, for crying out loud!), but that way I can catch up on my sleep and just have a lazy day like I like to have on the weekend. I hate weekends where I'm just rushing, rushing, rushing around doing a million different things. Weekends are supposed to be relaxation time, you know?  ;-)   At least on ONE of those days!

Sorry I've been MIA for a few days... Thursday turned into an emotional evening (I was fine all day long at work, and came home and did yoga, and then at some point in the evening, I just felt sad and started crying and letting it all go), and then yesterday I was just sheer lazy.  :-)   I came home from the gym and made myself dinner and watched a Mystery Science Theater 3000  DVD. Did anyone else watch that show? It was on the Comedy Channel and Sci-Fi for a while, a very low-budget TV show from the '90s. The premise was that a guy and three "robots" that were stuck in outer space were forced to watch really, REALLY bad B-movies from the '50s and '60s (stuff like Attack of the Killer Leeches, Teenagers from Outer Space, etc.) and they'd make fun of them. It's hysterical. My dad got me into them when I was younger, and we'd watch them together. Anyway, some of my coworkers were talking about it at work yesterday, and I realized that I hadn't watched one in forever, so that's what I did last night. It reminded me of my dad, and made me feel close to him, which didn't make me feel sad, but rather, it made me happy.  :-)

And honestly, I just don't think I really need to blog every day. I'm not cool like other bloggers, haha. I live a really quiet, low-key life, and unlike a lot of the foodie bloggers, I tend to eat the same things over and over (although with a spin on them, like my awesome sweet potato combos). I just feel like on some days, nothing really happens to me that's worth mentioning on my blog- work, gym, dinner, whatever- so I'll probably just blog when I feel like it, which will probably still be often, just not EVERY day. Hope you all don't mind.   ;-)    Plus, I love so many other blogs out there, and sometimes I just want to come home and read all of yours!   :-)

But I DO have something new and exciting to share with the class... I picked a new book on Thursday night! I finished Falcon Crest before I went to bed. It was trashy good, LOL. Like a really stupid beach read from the disco era. I probably overpaid for it- I paid $2 and probably should have paid more, like, fifty cents for it- and I doubt I'll ever read it again, but I did like it. Not bad for a book based off a cheesy soap opera... although not superbly well-written either. Although you can't expect much from these kinds of books!

Anyway, my next random book pick was, I felt, extremely appropriate:

A Deadly Game: The Untold Story of the Scott Peterson Investigation, by Catherine Crier. Here's what this book is such an appropriate pick:

*I picked this book on my Dad's birthday, and my Dad liked true crime books. He's the one that got me into true crime. We'd read some true crime books and follow some cases on TV. We actually discussed the Laci and Scott Peterson case a lot.

*This is book #57 on my list of unread books that I've started to read (yes, I keep track of them numerically.... I never claimed to be cool!). My dad's birthday was May 7, which is the date I picked this book.

I'm actually already like 100 pages into it, and it's really good! It's very well-written, and it's jam-packed with information about the case, the people, the investigation, etc. This was such a tragic story in the news- I remember it so vividly like it was just yesterday, so it's hard to believe it happened seven years ago. Even now, when I see a picture of Laci Peterson, my heart just breaks. She was so young and so beautiful and she looked so happy and excited to be expecting her first baby... to murder your pregnant wife on Christmas Eve... that takes some kind of evil monster. Her poor family... I cannot even imagine the heartbreak and heartache that they must continue to feel on a daily basis. It's sheer evil. But this is an excellent, excellent book. Not extraordinarily well- EDITED, though- I've definitely seen a few mistakes. Grrrr! Is it THAT hard to remember a hyphen or see an extra space between words? LOL.

I'm off to go make myself a snack of STRAWBERRIES!!!!! I picked some up at Wegmans today. I have not bought strawberries all year because they've been overpriced and out of season, but they were FINALLY 2 for $3 today, and they're beautiful. I can't wait to tear into those babies. I could seriously eat a pint in one sitting... it's going to be really hard not to!

I'll probably pop in at some point tomorrow with a recap of the Breast Cancer Walk. I can't believe it's here already!

Hope you're all having a wonderful weekend!   :-)