READING

I read 8 books in February, nearly half of what I read in January. But January was a really crazy month in terms of reading, so this is much more my speed. My top three books from the month were:

• Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery, which was a reread for me. This series was my grandma’s favorite and it was almost like she was here with me as I read this book. <3
• They Can’t Kill Us All by Wesley Lowery, which was a heartbreaking account of police violence and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.
• I Let You Go by Claire Mackintosh, which was such an engaging thriller involving a hit-and-run that killed a child. I could not have predicted that first twist for the life of me!

WATCHING

• Mad Men, season 4 – I finally finished season 4 of Mad Men this month! I really don’t know if I’m enjoying this show and yet, I keep watching it. It’s not one that I feel like I *need* to watch to know what happens next. Maybe shows like Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder have ruined me. All the “crazy” things that happen on Mad Men seem like a regular episode of Scandal, ha.
• Grace and Frankie, season 5 – I was so happy to see that the new season of one of my favorite Netflix series dropped! I fiercely adore Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda, and the way their friendship has evolved through each season makes my heart so happy. This season was a delight!

BUYING

• Instant Pot – I bought an Instant Pot in early February when they went on sale, and I haven’t regretted the decision once. I’ve made a couple of meals in it, including one-pot spaghetti that was so damn easy (and delicious!) that I think I may have a new favorite meal.
• HEXBURG Nano Robotic Cat Toy – I bought this toy on Kim’s recommendation, and my cats go crazy for it. The first time I brought it out, they followed it around for 20 minutes. I keep it tucked away and bring it out a few times a week as a special treat for them.
• Girl Scout cookies – Yassssss. Girl Scout cookie season is my favorite. One of my coworkers sells it for his daughter (I realize this is cheating, but please don’t judge me on how I get my GS cookies) and I picked up three boxes of Thin Mints, one box of Savannah Smiles, and one box of Tagalongs, and I am one happy camper.

LISTENING TO

• Boss Ladies on Call Your Girlfriend – I loved this episode where Ann and Amina get real honest about their lives as self-employed boss ladies. They talk about money, how they charge for their work, their career trajectories, etc. I don’t have any desire to be self-employed but I liked hearing about how it works for them.
• Elephants: The Best Animals? on Stuff You Should Know – Oh, my heavens. Elephants have to be some of the sweetest animals alive. I loved this episode from Josh and Chuck, especially the story about two elephants who reunited after decades and went absolutely batshit crazy about seeing each other. Elephants, definitely the best animals.
• No Thanks, We’re Booked – I only recently started listening to this bookish podcast, so I’m currently catching up on their archive. Each episode tackles a different subject through a bookish lens. For example, one of their earliest episodes was about the Enneagram, and they typed different literary characters to explain it. It’s a fun listen and the hosts have such soothing voices. It’s one of those podcasts I can put on and know I’ll be in a better mood when I finish it.

THE HIGHS

• Adopting Lila – No doubt, the biggest part of my year so far has been welcoming a second kitten into my life. Although I have been planning to adopt a second cat, I was surprised how quickly it happened! Lila has now been in my life for a few weeks now, and I can’t imagine it without her. She fits so seamlessly into our little family! There was some jealousy and fighting in the beginning between Eloise and Lila. (The first time I ever heard Eloise hiss was at Lila!) But Eloise now lets me snuggle Lila without getting between us, haha, and I’ve even caught them snuggling together and licking each other’s fur a few times, so I think things will be A-OK. Lila is still a little skittish around me but will also climb right onto my chest and stare at my face until I pet her. It’s the sweetest thing!
• Galentine’s Day – Every year, my friend B. and I meet for a Galentine’s Day celebration of our friendship. This year, we made plans to celebrate on Valentine’s Day and it was everything I could have wanted! Valentine’s Day is always a hard day for me, even though I wish it wasn’t and I wish I could be happy with the other loves I have in my life, but it is. It was nice to spend the evening with B., getting totally and completely spoiled by her. She brought me flowers, chocolate, and a card, even! We ordered pizza, watched episodes of Parks & Rec as well as a comedy special, and snuggled together on the couch. It was the perfect evening.
• A night at the beach bar – My friend, A., and I live super close to a beach bar so we made plans to meet up on a Saturday night to scope it out, order some drinks, and try to flirt with cute guys. (We’re both single and ready to mingle, for sure!) While we didn’t end up leaving with any numbers, we did have fun sipping fruity cocktails, talking about the dating scene, and people-watching.

THE LOWS

• A depressive episode – It was so helpful to have a therapy appointment right as I felt a depressive episode begin because we were able to identify what was causing these feelings (mostly family drama that I wanted to make better but was totally outside my control). We also figured out some things I could put in place to help me make it through this episode, like no longer listening to depressing, heavy podcasts. While the depressive episode didn’t last as long as the one I experienced last year, it was still so damn awful to be in the middle of it and not know how long it would last. I’m happy to report, though, that I’m out of the depression and feeling so much more like myself.
• A fender bender – Ugh, this was so annoying. Thankfully, it was mostly a side swipe that happened in my apartment complex as I was pulling out onto a busy main road. This dude decided I was taking too long to turn so he tried to go around me and as he did, he swiped right across my bumper. Thankfully, the most damage my car sustained was a few scratches. I just hope this dude learned his lesson. Wait your goddamn turn!
• Bug bites – I’m particularly prone to allergic reactions to mosquito bites, especially ones on my feet, so I spent the last week of the month with swollen feet and so much itchiness. I swear, though, is there anything more euphoric than scratching a mosquito bite? I THINK NOT.

ANTICIPATING

• Daylight Saving Time!!! Hold tight, everyone. We only have a few more days left and then we get our BRIGHT EVENINGS back. I look forward to DST every year (and wish we could do away with going off it for the winter) so I have this date circled and marked on all my calendars.
• An author signing – A few friends and I are going to Taylor Jenkins Reid’s signing this month, and I can’t wait! It’s my first author signing! Authors never come to my area, so this is a treat and the fact that it’s one of my favorite authors is even better.
• Paying off my credit card – Hopefully! I think I should be able to make this happen since I’m doing a no-spend month and will get three paychecks over the course of March. Fingers crossed!

Tell me a highlight from February for you!

New year, new recap style! I like to keep everyone on their toes when it comes to how I’m going to recap my month. 🙂 In this recap, I’ll be talking about what I read, watched, bought, and listened to, as well as talk about the highs and lows of the month. At the end, I’ll detail a few things I’m looking forward to in the following month. Let’s get to it!

READING

I read 15 books in January, which is the most I’ve ever read in a month. Three of the books were on audio and I participated in a readathon, so I think that had a lot to do with my high number! My top three reads were:

• We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter, a WWII novel that was unlike anything I’ve read in the subgenre and stands out as one of my favorites.
• Act Like It by Lucy Parker, a really fun romance novel that had likable characters, realistic dialogue, and not-too-steamy love scenes (so I’d feel comfortable recommending it to people who aren’t into the romance genre but want a fun, light, easy read).
• The Alice Network by Kate Quinn, a fictionalized account of a real-life women’s spy network that operated during World War I.

WATCHING

• Big Little Lies – I was (lovingly) guilt-tripped into watching Big Little Lies, the HBO miniseries based on the book by Liane Moriarty. And I loved it, aside from a plotline that wasn’t in the book but they put in the series and left me with a bad taste in my mouth. But, other than that, I thought the series was extremely well-produced and the casting was spot-on. I also have all of the heart-eyes for the soundtrack.
• Cheers, season 1 – I don’t know what possessed me to start Cheers, other than never knowing any references to the show that I felt I should understand. Plus, young Ted Danson! Young! Ted! Danson! He’s a damn hottie in Cheers. I finished season one in January and am looking forward to starting season two.

BUYING

• Flights to Ireland – I never expected that I’d be planning a trip to Ireland this year! But the flights were so cheap that it would have been a mistake not to book. This was actually not my biggest expense of January, though, if you can believe that!
• Cat dancer toy – For $2, this is easily the best toy I have ever gotten Eloise. She loves it and I have to hide it from her because if she sees it, she’ll meow at me until I bring it out and use it.
• Car insurance at half the price – This is the most boring adult thing I could add to this list but whatever. I have been using Geico for car insurance since I started driving but their rates were becoming astronomical so when I found out I could get the same coverage for half the price using a different (well-known) company? Hells yeah. I signed up right away and couldn’t be happier.

LISTENING TO

• Unladylike’s two-part series on diet culture was fascinating, especially learning all the ways white supremacy has had a hand in it. I really encourage anyone to give it a listen.
• For episode 69 of Good Christian Fun, the Gilmore Guys reunited! It was so fun to have the Kevin + Demi rapport back on my podcast feed. They just work so well together. I truly enjoyed every minute of this episode.
• Stuff You Should Know’s episode titled The Great Finger in the Wendy’s Chili Caper was so much fun and crazy. Lots of twists and turns I wasn’t expecting!

THE HIGHS

• Having a major breakthrough in therapy and actually crying in her office for the first time! I have been going to her since August and have never cried. I’ve come close a few times but have always held back. I don’t even know why! It’s therapy! You’re supposed to cry in therapy! But it’s just hard for me. I hope this is the first of many breakthroughs.
• Doing the #24in48 readathon. While I didn’t come close to reading for 24 hours, I still had so much fun participating and getting as close as I could.
• Going on a book-buying spree using gift cards! I picked up seven books to add to my bookshelf. It’s so funny how just a few years ago, I never bought books unless they were on Kindle but I recently got the urge to have bookshelves full of books in my home and I’m slowly building up a solid collection. I’m nearly out of space on my tiny, three-shelf bookshelves (I can only really use two of the shelves, though) and it’ll be time to upgrade to something bigger and much nicer.

THE LOWS

• January was a very spendy month – one-off things, like auto insurance and plane tickets and new tires for my car. It’s made me feel a bit anxious, so I hope February is quieter for my bank account.
• My blood work came back with some troubling numbers. The short of it is that I’m on the cusp of pre-diabetes (type 2) and if I don’t get control over my eating habits and start exercising more, things could go downhill fast. My doctor and I worked out a plan and I’m going to work hard to lose weight and eat healthier, and get retested in six months.
• Eloise fell into a pattern this month of waking me up at 4AM to play and sometimes to be fed. And I was getting up with her and feeding her because it was much easier than waiting her out. I’ve started giving her lots of playtime in the evening, filling up her bowl at night (she’s more of a grazer anyway so it works better for her), and not getting up when she meows at me at 4AM. Mama is tired!

ANTICIPATING…

• Potentially attending my first Silent Reading Party in downtown St. Pete. Just have to summon up the courage to go!
• Going on a walk every day in February (five days in and so far, so good!)
• Filing my taxes and crossing my fingers I get a decent return this year

What’s a high and/or low of January for you? What was the best book you read this month?

Books

I read 11 books in December to bring my yearly total to 134. I’m interested to find out if I can even come close to that number again, but I’m also not worried about doing so. Reading is my happy place, but it’s not a competition and I don’t read to fulfill any kind of arbitrary numbers goal.

I started December reading Starry Night, my first Debbie Macomber book, and it was just okay. I like my romances to be steamier and this book was a little too cutesy for my liking. I read Nine Perfect Strangers, Liane Moriarty’s latest, and loved it. Such great characters and a unique plot! I listened to Rest in Power, written by the parents of Trayvon Martin, which was such a hard but necessary read. I read Alyssa Cole’s latest contemporary romance, A Duke by Default, and found it so charming and lovely. Simply Irresistible by Jill Shalvis was a reread for me, but I loved it even more the second time around. I heard mixed reviews about The Great Alone but I ended up really liking the novel. It started off very slow but hit a turning point where I couldn’t put it down. I read my third Christina Lauren novel, Dating You/Hating You, which was so much fun and I had a smile on my face the entire time I was reading it. I finished off my goal of reading four classic novels by reading The Catcher in the Rye, which I did not enjoy one bit. Arrogant white male protagonists are not my cup of tea, I suppose. I listened to What We Were Promised by Lucy Tan on audiobook and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It was really interesting to read about the culture of China, both historically and present day. I read Michelle Obama’s memoir, Becoming, and loved it so damn much that it was my favorite read of the year. That’s a must-read, in my opinion. And, finally, I finished 2018 by reading One Day in December, which I received from Book of the Month. It was a good read, but not a standout.

Movies

The Princess Switch (★★★☆☆) – This movie was really, really cute, if also really, really cheesy. It’s a Netflix original starring Vanessa Hudgens. She plays two characters: down-on-love Stacy who lives in New York and runs a bakery and Lady Margaret, a duchess who must marry a man she doesn’t love in two days. Stacy and Lady Margaret run into each other on the set of a baking competition that Stacy is competing in and discover they look exactly alike, so they decide to switch places for two days. Lady Margaret wants two days to not think about her impending wedding and all the responsibilities that will entail, and Stacy wants a few days to live like royalty. Well, as this is a romantic comedy, Stacy ends up falling in love with Lady Margaret’s fiance and Lady Margaret falls in love with Stacy’s best friend and trouble ensues. It’s completely implausible, but was a cute Christmas movie I watched while wrapping presents.

Podcasts

I loved the episode of How Search and Rescue Dogs Work from Stuff You Should Know. Fascinating!

I found myself enthralled by the Death, Sex & Money episode, When a Banker Was Called to the Convent. What a beautiful, funny soul Sister Josephine is.

On Hysteria, the founder of Moms Demand Action came on to talk about gun control and how much progress has been made in the past few years. It was really interesting!

This American Life just released an episode called The Room of Requirement, which seemed like a love letter to libraries. One of the stories was about the Haskell Free Library and Opera House, which sits right on the border of the US and Canada and is a meeting place for people who aren’t able to leave the US due to Trump’s Muslim ban and their families (who come in via the Canada side). Another story followed a woman connecting with her favorite children’s librarian who brought her hope and inspiration when she needed it. This episode is one of TAL bests, I think, and totally worth a listen.

Posts

I revealed that I’m an Enneagram Nine and what that means for me personally.

I introduced Eloise to the blog!

I made my annual Christmas list as well as talked about my favorite present-day Christmas traditions.

And I completed another round of “Best of…” posts, which is always my favorite series because it allows for such great reflection on my year.

Highlights

> I received the honor of employee of the month at work, which was such a surprise! I mean, I definitely deserved it because I work damn hard at my job, but it was still quite the shock to hear my name (and all the nice things our CEO had to say about me!)

> My mom and I spent an evening together shopping for Christmas presents and then stopped at Steak n Shake for dinner where we enjoyed some very delicious peppermint milkshakes. Best decision!

> I adopted Eloise! Her “gotcha” day is officially December 8th, and my life has not been the same since she came home with me. Life is just so much better now!

> My mom and I had a second Christmas shopping adventure, this time at the mall and this time finishing with an outstanding cannoli cake. We did December right, that’s for sure.

> I finally went to the doctor in mid-December after spending two weeks with a terrible cough that wouldn’t go away and was keeping me up at night. She treated me for bronchitis, sending me home with a z-pack and steroids, which healed me right up! Thank heavens for modern medicine, am I right?

> I upgraded my phone to the iPhone XS and I’m oh-so-happy to make that decision. I’m part of the “iPhone Forever” program through Sprint, which means I can usually upgrade my phone for free whenever I want, so I decided to take the plunge and do it. (What can I say? I desperately wanted Portrait Mode.)

> We had a really fun holiday day at work! We had a cookie bake-off, had a Secret Santa gift exchange, and everyone wore ugly Christmas sweaters. It was so much fun!

> I met up with my mom and Chip at PetSmart for holiday pictures with Santa. Chip was a little apprehensive about everything, but we got a great photo of him with Santa. (And he looked so handsome in his Christmas bow tie!)

> My girlfriends and I had our annual fancy dinner and Secret Santa gift exchange. It was such a great night!

> My mom had me, my brother, and my nephews over to make Christmas cookies and it was so much fun! I ate a good amount of cookie dough and even the littlest nephew was happy to get in on the action. I can’t wait to do it again next year.

> I spent Christmas Eve baking cookies and then went out to dinner with my mom and stepdad at a fancy steakhouse. It was our second year doing that, so I think it might be our new tradition.

> I already talked about Christmas Day in a previous post, so suffice it to say, it was a lovely day and I felt very loved and happy.

> The day after Christmas, a good friend came over to meet Eloise and Eloise actually came over to her and let her pet her. I was so surprised that she was so friendly! We also ate pizza and watched Ellen’s comedy special on Netflix, so it was a solid night.

> I spent New Year’s at a house party with some friends, and actually got a little emotional as we counted down to the new year, champagne in hand. I have such a blessed life and great friends and I was just so grateful to have such a fun start to 2019.

What was a highlight from December for you?