Recurring Series

Currently…

Loving: Writing. This is the most successful I have ever been at NaNoWriMo and it feels so, so good. Although I toyed with changing my story completely starting on day two, I forged ahead and continued writing the story I decided on previously. I am having such a fun time writing, though, and enjoying the process of it so much. I reached the halfway point on Sunday and now I know I will finish before Thanksgiving, which is an awesome, awesome feeling.

Reading: The Casual Vacancy. I can’t say that I love it. And if it weren’t for being the book club pick for my two book clubs, I would have abandoned this book altogether. The first 100 pages were boring for me, as I was introduced to the plethora of characters and didn’t quite understand the story yet. Luckily, it has picked up a lot and I’m interested to see how everything turns out (and we’re chatting about it on Sunday night with #twookclub!). Still, the story is quite dark (to me) and it’s not really a page-turner so I’ll be relieved once I finish it.

Watching: Let’s go down the list of all the shows I watch during the week. Ready? The Amazing Race, Revenge, The Voice, X Factor, Guys with Kids, Ben & Kate, Parks and Rec, Up All Night, Last Man Standing, Parenthood, Happy Endings, New Girl, The Mindy Project, and Modern Family. I also have Elementary and Nashville taping weekly but haven’t gotten around to watching a single episode (save for the pilot of Elementary which was good, but not in an omg-I-must-watch-weekly way) of either. Let’s also add in all the NFL pregame shows I watch regularly and football itself. Yeah. I have an addiction and its name is TV. (But hey! I still managed to read over 75 books so far this year so… I just have a lot of free time. Too much?)

Anticipating: Thanksgiving and my weekend in Orlando right afterward. My mom and I are hosting Thanksgiving this year and we’re going to end up having 10 people in total (plus a baby!) so it’ll be pretty crazy and I’m not sure we’re quite ready for it. We’ve only ever hosted my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew so it’s definitely going to take a lot of planning and hard work to pull off our very first Thanksgiving dinner with a big crowd! But it will be so worth it and Orlando sits on the other side of it. Wheeeeeee!

Listening to: Is it okay to admit that I am totally, 100% on the One Direction bandwagon? Like, it’s serious, people. Their songs are so catchy and fun and make me car dance. Confession over.

Planning: Our Thanksgiving meal. Well, the baking part. I’m already planning to bake my world-famous chocolate chip cookies, but also want to try my hand at something else. Any ideas? I need something without chocolate in it. I’m scouring Pinterest (yes, I am slowly succumbing, it seems) and baking blogs but don’t want anything too difficult or with too many ingredients.

Working on: NaNoWriMo! This project has completely taken over my life in the best way. I am enjoying it so much more than I thought I would. I’m not sure why I thought writing a novel wouldn’t be as fun as planning one but I always had this fear that I would write and it would be harder than I imagined and I would give into the fear that it’s too much for me to handle. The writing has actually come pretty easy and NaNoWriMo has given me the fire back in my belly that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.

Wishing: For the next 7 days to fly by. I am so ready for Thanksgiving and to start my birthday vacation! This week has already been a really tough one and I need a break from it all. Waking up with knots in my stomach and lashing out at people who care because of anxiety is not fun and I need it to all go away soon.

What are you reading right now? Do you think I watch too much TV? Any yummy chocolate-free baking recipes to share that I can make for Thanksgiving? Have you ever hosted a holiday meal?

Categories: Recurring Series

Everyday Moments: October 2012

After taking 3 months off from these posts, I felt the need to start composing them again because they really help me focus on the positives – plus, it’s a great way to look back and reflect on the month!

1 – Waking up to a new month (and a Monday!) feeling more hopeful and happy than I have in a very long time. The sad cloud is lifting and it feels amazing.

2 – My mom winning tickets from her work to see a Rays game from a suite. So posh, we are!

3 – Working through a long journaling portion (20 soul-searching questions of who I am in different settings) in Twenty-Something, Twenty-Everything. I was stuck on that section for 2 months!

4 – 10 hours of Benedryl-induced sleep. Felt great!

5 – My one-year review going much better than I expected and a pedicure to celebrate after work

6 – A quiet morning and afternoon at home to catch up on writing and chores, game night

7 – The Dolphins beating the Bengals! They played so hard and the win was so sweet! So proud of my boys!

8 – A long walk with Dutch after work.

9 – My cousin had her baby! And she is all sorts of precious.

10 – A lazy evening at home, doing nothing but reading, watching TV, & having Chipotle for dinner.

11 – A great “meet and greet” dinner with girls from a book club I’m going to start attending. I had a lot of fun and felt so comfortable with them!

12 – A fabulous call with Ashley of Your Super Awesome Life. The call was SO eye-opening and revealing and I talked WAY more than I thought I would!

13 – Spending a few hours in Orlando, introducing my brother to Ben & Kate. (My new favorite fall TV show!)

14 – My brother and nephew coming over for the day to watch football. And the Dolphins winning their second game in a row! Woo!

15 – A great workout at the gym, sitting in on a conference call and leading most of it.

16 – A tears-streaming-down-my-cheeks, belly-hurting-from-laughter episode of Guys With Kids. I adore that show.

17 – An easy day at work & a quiet night at home.

18 – Being able to completely pay off all I owed my mom, thanks to a sweet bonus in my check. Felt so good!

19 – A really fun, relaxing lunch with my coworkers. We’ve started going out to lunch every Friday afternoon and it is SO needed. It just lets us relax away from the office and we always end up having the best time!

20 – A really awesome day out with my mom, including a pet walk, baby snuggles, shopping, and a great movie.

21 – Getting lots of reading done & carving a pumpkin that turned out great!

22 – A fabulous Crock Pot recipe that will quickly be making its way into my meal rotation. (Santa Fe chicken by Skinny Taste. So, so good!)

23 – Babysitting Tootsie for the day while my boss was away on a one-day business trip.

24 – Skyping with Lauren! Oh my heavens, I love that girl. She’s hilarious and adorable and I am figuring out a way to smoosh our cities together… Somehow!

25 – $1 subs at Jimmy John’s! Yum, yum!

26 – Finishing up a big analysis project for my bosses that will hopefully yield to great negotiation results for some of the publications we advertise in!

27 – A fabulous workout that left my legs feeling like jelly, a pedicure, a delicious afternoon nap, and finishing Gone Girl (hella crazy book).

28 – Sleeping in, brunch with a new friend, and Miami embarrassing the Jets. (Three wins in a row! Hollllla.)

29 – Getting some background information written for my NaNoWriMo story

30 – Halloween candy, my first book club meeting (really, really fun!)

31 – Leaving work early, my first therapy appointment where I felt SO comfortable with my therapist (and she laid out a plan of how she thinks she can help me and it sounds great!), dinner at BJ’s

Categories: Recurring Series

A Day in the Life: October 30, 2012

Happy Halloween! Like always, I have no plans for this holiday. I am leaving work early (3:30) to attend my first therapy appointment (nervous doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel…) and then probably going out for dinner to avoid trick-or-treaters as much as possible.

It has been on my mind to do a day in the life post, like I’ve seen other bloggers do from time to time but man, it takes a lot of work! Still, this was fun to do and I thought it would be a fun glimpse into my life and what I do. Enjoy! (And try not to cringe too much as I switch around my tenses…)

5:46 a.m.: Alarm wakes me up.

6:08 a.m.: Finally force myself out of bed, after spending 20 minutes pondering about the last dream I remember having.

6:20 a.m.: After a short morning walk with Dutch and getting dressed, I am at the apartment gym for a short workout. I’m still taking it easy with exercise but shooting to get 4 days a week for now. After 30 minutes on the stationary bike, I head back home to do a short weights workout.

7:30 a.m.: In the shower and getting ready for the workday.

7:45 a.m.: After hearing strange noises in the living room while I’m in my room getting dressed, I go out to investigate and see that Dutch has gotten into the trash that was sitting on the ground. He is usually SO good about this so I was surprised and then upset with him. I put the trash up on the counter, quickly blow my hair dry, and then leave to take the trash out.

8:00 a.m.: Back to the apartment to finish getting ready.

8:30 a.m.: Leave for work. My morning commute isn’t too terrible, thankfully. It takes me about 20 minutes on average. Not too bad!

9:00 a.m.: Arrive at work, check email, and get set up for the day.

9:15 a.m.: Make breakfast. A simple meal of two pieces of cinnamon toast. This tends to keep me full for 2-3 hours, surprisingly!

9:40 a.m.: After some chit-chat, settling in, and answering emails, I can finally get started on my to-do list. First up: checking in on my advertising reps about media we want to place early next year. With a bunch of new giveaways starting soon, I’ve been researching new media. It’s the first project I’ve really gotten to “own” and take the lead on, and I’m really loving it!

10:00 a.m.: Start on a new analysis project I was given yesterday, reporting on the profitability of the various marketing tools we use in each of our giveaways. One of my main jobs here is analysis. I do a lot of analyzing results of past giveaways and reporting on the trends to help my director make decisions on what we should and shouldn’t do in the future. I actually love this, even if it involves a lot of number crunching and spreadsheets. It’s pretty interesting!

12:00 p.m.: Analysis is done! Whew. I answer some emails and update a spreadsheet related to the media research emails I sent earlier.

12:15 p.m.: Lunchtime! When I bring lunch to work (usually 3-4 days a week), I eat with my coworkers in our tiny little breakroom. Lots of chit-chat and giggles abound. It took me a while to warm up to everyone and I’m still not the most talkative one at the table (and I will never be) but it’s fun. Today, I had a Barilla meal that I learned about from Tina’s blog (these are seriously yummy!) with a side of applesauce. I do notice that these meals don’t really fill me up because I was hungry about an hour later. Bleh.

1:30 p.m.: After lunch, I get to work on updating our print run spreadsheet for December. The print runs are another big part of my job and I’m gradually taking these over, which is slightly scary (it’s a big job!) but also really fun. I mainly updated the spreadsheet to make sure it was reflecting any changes made in our media plans.

2:10 p.m.: Created a spreadsheet to guide me as I start inputting final costs into our data tracking system. I do this at the end of each giveaway, making sure it’s accurate and up-to-date for when we want to analyze the information.

3:45 p.m.: Quick break to open up a package from one of our printers: a Halloween basket filled with candy! Oh, so good yet very, very bad. I took a Butterfinger and a Reese’s back to my desk. Oops.

4:10 p.m.: I finish up with the spreadsheet (are you keeping track here? My life is one big spreadsheet. I’m surprised I don’t dream about dancing spreadsheets and AutoSum buttons. Sigh.) and cross it off my list! Onto the next thing…

4:15 p.m.: Begin generating a report on the number of impressions for one of our giveaways for the month of November. We send these out monthly to various contacts and it’s a project I’ll have to finish tomorrow.

4:45 p.m.: Make a to-do list for tomorrow, take a quick bathroom break, gather all my stuff, and shut down for the day!

5:00 p.m.: Leave work and commute home. My commute home takes anywhere from 25 minutes to 45 minutes, depending on how long I have to wait to get out of my office park. Today, it’s a 45-minute ride. Fun times.

5:45 p.m.: Arrive home, give Dutch hugs and kisses, and quickly start a bubble bath. (Side note: bubble baths are one of my obsessions. I take them at least 4 times a week. Usually 5 or 6. I love them.) While soaking in the tub, I read this book. I am loving it so far and can’t wait to review it on this blog in a few weeks!

6:05 p.m.: Get dressed and ready to leave for book club!

6:15 p.m.: Leave for book club, get totally lost because my GPS took me the opposite way, but end up pulling into a shopping center where – gasp! – the restaurant is. Score!

6:30 p.m.: Arrive for book club and yay, I’m only the fourth person there! (And one girl ends up being someone I went to high school with. Small world, eh?) This is actually the first book club I’ve attended. I went to a meet-and-greet last month and had brunch with the leader on Sunday, so I felt more comfortable than I usually would. We discussed The Heretic’s Daughter, ate tacos, and chit-chatted about all kinds of things. It was fun! And I’m excited to do more with this group. Take THAT, social anxiety!

8:30 p.m.: Get back home. Time for tonight’s episode of The Voice, some cookies (my dinner totally did not fill me up! So, necessary?), and snuggles with Dutch. And writing this post!

10:15 p.m.: Another walk with Dutch, bedtime routine, and then settling in bed with my book!

10:45 p.m.: Lights out! Snuggling with my blankets, pillow, and snuggly sausage and being very thankful that tomorrow my alarm won’t go off until 7:30. Yeeeees.

Categories: Recurring Series

Five For Friday: Why I’m Doing NaNoWriMo This Year

1. Because I want to write a book. NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) involves writing 50,000 words in one month. It equals out to about 1,667 words a day. I’ve tried to complete NaNoWriMo two times, once when I was in school full-time while working part-time and the other last year when I fell behind early and just gave up since I didn’t have a clear idea of my novel. And while there are some criticisms of NaNo, I think the positives far outweigh them. If I want to be an author, if I want to write a book, I think this is a great test to see if I have what it takes. To write a novel you have to have more than just a passion for writing and the skill to do it – you also have to be willing to work hard and put in lots of hours.

2. Because I want to say I did it. This is one of those goals I constantly want to achieve. Writing 50,000 words! In one month! So crazy! I’ve had two failing attempts at it and it makes me think I don’t have the fire in me to write a novel. I think completing NaNo will be the first stepping stone I need to get the process of writing, editing, and hopefully publishing my first novel a reality.

3. Because I want to get into a habit of writing every day. I have really fallen out of the habit of writing daily. When I was younger, writing was such a part of me that I couldn’t imagine going a day without writing. Then came college and I started this blog and got wrapped up in academic writing and blog writing and actual fiction writing fell to the wayside. I would still daydream about stories I wanted to write someday, that need and passion for writing fiction was still alive and blooming inside me, but I never set aside dedicated time every day (or even every week) to write. At first, I blamed school so I told myself when I finished school, then I would have time to write. I would have so much more free time! Oh, that “When…then” syndrome. Such a devious little liar! Once you fall out of practice with writing every day, it becomes so hard to get back into it. I think the practice of sitting down at my laptop and churning out 1,667 words a day for 30 days straight is something that will help me get back into the habit of writing fiction on a daily basis. (And also help me see that I do have time for writing.)

4. Because I want to bring my characters to life. Writing fiction is a funny process. At any point in time, I have dozens and dozens of characters I’ve created and plots I’ve brainstormed and settings I’ve pictured floating around inside my head. It’s my favorite way to escape when I’m in the middle of a boring meeting or in the car or when I’m trying to fall asleep. I have characters who have voices and thoughts and ideas and stories that are aching to break free from the confines of my mind. I want to bring them to life. I want to write their words and discover how they truly are. I’m realizing how crazy this sounds to someone who doesn’t write fiction, but these characters are a part of me and I just want to get their story written.

5. Because I’m crazy. Obvs. You have to be pretty crazy to decide to take on NaNo. As exciting as it is in the beginning, as you begin to outline your story and brainstorm characters… the reality is that it’s hard to write 1,667 words every single day – especially with a full-time job that tends to take a lot out of me. Writer’s block happens. You begin to doubt your story. And sometimes? Sometimes you just don’t want to write or you actually have absolutely no time to breathe, let alone spend an hour or two in front of a screen to write. It’s a crazy challenge to take on, but I’m in the excited phase right now and I’m ready to be a little crazy in the name of writing.

Any other NaNoWriMo crazies out there? I’m stephanywrites, if you want to connect!

Categories: Recurring Series

A Weekend in Pictures: October

This weekend was a busy one. It was full of fun fall events, spending lots of money, and just trying to soak in all the weekend hours I could before another work week begins. Busy weekends and slow, relaxing weekends are equally my favorite, but I know I couldn’t do weekends like this every weekend! It can be exhausting! Fun as heck, but exhausting all the same.

Saturday, was the SPCA 3K Pet Walk event with Dutch. The last time I went was years ago with Minnie and it has definitely grown enormously since then. Dutch did amazing in the walk! For a 10-year-old dachshund (i.e., his little legs are SHORT!), he was weaving in and out of the crowd like he was in a big race, running past the bigger dogs, and being the little competitive spitfire that he is! The race went in a loop around Straub Park and near the Vinoy, but there wasn’t an actual end to the race, so I’m basically saying Dutch came in first. We were also interviewed during the race, which was interesting.

My mom and I left around 11:00, dropped Dutch off at home so he could take a long nap, and then went over to my grandparent’s house to drop off a strawberry shake for my grandpa and hopefully see Baby Mia. She was sleeping but then woke up and we got some snuggle time in with her. Newborns are the sweetest. Of course, hearing she stays up from 10pm – 4am? Ehhh… I am so not ready for that anytime soon! No clocks are ticking for me! Cuddle sessions, yes. Zombie exhaustion, no.

After our snuggle session with Mia, we headed over to the mall for lunch, a hardcore spending spree, and froyo. Thanks to some good sales and coupons, I spent less than I budgeted for and didn’t feel this pressing need to buy, buy, buy. I had a few “necessities” in mind and ended up buying a few things I probably don’t need, but there was a different vibe to my shopping this time around and it’s pretty refreshing. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been really thinking about my clothing and spending habits with them and I’m planning on starting a fun series about it soon. I’m excited to further minimalize my wardrobe and discover my style better.

We weren’t done yet, though! We came home to drop off all our purchases (which included a new comforter set for my bed. I’ve been waiting on getting one because they’re all so pricey, but found one for $27 at Target!) and I took a quick 30-minute power nap before we headed out to the movies. I’ve been wanting to see Pitch Perfect forever and it didn’t disappoint. It was funny and sweet and had some really good singing moments. I was a fan of Rebel Wilson before this movie but even more so now. She’s just amazing. Plain and simple.

After my crazy Saturday, I was ready for a low-key Sunday to watch football, do some reading, and cross a few items off my to-do list. I slept in, went out to brunch, and the rest of the day was spent being lazy but also slightly productive. I also carved a pumpkin and he turned out pretty cute! His smile is a bit lopsided but it’s all good. It adds character!

This was one of those perfect fall weekends where I was able to partake in some fun fall traditions and the weather cooperated for the most part (it reached the low 80s, but it was nice compared to the miserable heat we’ve been experiencing for months). It’s actually starting to feel more like fall and there’s a crispness to the air in the morning and evenings. I am so excited for cooler temps and for the holiday season to kick into gear!

What is your favorite fall tradition? When was the last time you carved a pumpkin?