"Let's Pretend This Never Happened" and then some

So I tried my first Zumba class last night. It was awesome! I'm definitely excited to go back next week.

I've been rereading the Blogess' book "Let's Pretend This Never Happened". I love it. Every time I use that phrase to describe a book it reminds me of the movie Red. If you haven't watched it you should- like now. I'll wait. Anyways in the beginning when two the main characters are talking Mary-Louise Parker's character is describing the new book she is reading to Bruce Willis' character. Her description is "It's terrible. I love it." It's cracked me up. Have you ever read anything that you were just thinking the entire time is garbage, but you're so invested in some part of it, you just can't put it down.... and then you read the second one because you can? No? Just me? I hope not, but that's a story for another day. (Probably soon, because I am forever running out of things to write about)

That was a really long rabbit trail to tell you that this book is definitely not terrible, but I love it nonetheless. It's definitely one of the funniest books I've ever read, but the biggest reason that I love it, is that it's real. They're real things, that happened to a real person. It doesn't cover up the ugly stuff that makes life what it is. I love that she talks openly in both the book and her blog about her depression and anxiety and everything else in between right along with the happy stuff like pet raccoons and taxidermied mice. I intrigued you? You should read her book too. (Not a paid endorsement. She has no clue who I am, let alone that I'm writing this.)

Really the whole point of this, is that I value honesty and bluntness, over sugar coating and hand holding. My blogging will be rough at times, as I try to figure out what I want to reveal to a largely anonymous internet crowd and struggle with my ever-companion writer's block. Please bare with me on this journey.

Have you read "Let's Pretend This Never Happened"? What is your favorite book right now?

Welcome to another Monday

How is it already Monday again? I've hit a serious writer's block with both blogging and noveling all of a sudden.

The hubby and I are working on a weekly work out plan so we can work out together, but also get in the individual workouts we need. So far my schedule is Pilates 2 times a week, cardio 2 times a week, weight lifting 1 day a week, and Yoga 1 day a week. We'll see if I can keep it up without getting overwhelmed. I haven't been sleeping very good lately, so it's making it really hard to keep my motivation to get up early and work out every morning.

Have you set up any plans to make your new years' resolutions happen?

Weekly Wrap-up

Sorry the post is kind of late today. It's Friday, and another weekly wrap up. This week felt like a short week because of the holiday, which is always nice. I was obviously good and kept on top of my blogging. For now I'm planning on a Monday/Wednesday/Friday posting schedule, but we'll see how that goes over time.

My noveling was a different story. I worked earlier in the week to upload my Word documents into Scrivner, the writing program the hubby got me for Christmas. As I was uploading though I realized that I had lost 1,000 words from my first chapter. I looked through all my files on all the computers I write on and even looked through the recovery, and couldn't find it anywhere. I was a little disheartened and stressed, so I've been avoiding writing this week, but I'm trying to see the silver lining in that the last scene of that chapter was pretty rough and awkward and was going to need to be rewritten anyways; I just wasn't planning on rewriting it from scratch.

On a more positive note, I will leave you with this story that is probably only funny to me:

Before New Year's Eve, I had stopped at our local specialty beer store on the way home to pick up some fancy alcoholic cider as I much prefer that to beer and most champagne. The hubby called me and asked where I was, as he was getting ready to head out for the evening. I replied that I was at the specialty beer store, and he asked why. I was literally dumbfounded and the first thought that came to mind was "because this is where they keep the alcohol." :)

Did you do anything fun and/or productive this week? I hope you all have a wonderful first weekend of 2013!

The Beginning

So it's officially the new year. I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday. The hubby and I slept in, worked out and then just hung out and watched a movie marathon. It was a lot of fun to spend the day relaxing, just the two of us. We went and worked out again this morning, seeing if our new workout schedule will work for both us, and will adjust as need be.

This year for New Year's Eve I continued a tradition from my childhood, and made cheese fondue for "dinner" by myself for the first time. The problem with French cooking is that I don't follow recipes... like ever. And I couldn't find one online that had exactly what I was looking for, so I mixed a couple together and kind of made it up as I went... I should have just stuck with something closer to my queso dip. The first attempt was terrible. It was too heavy and wouldn't come together and after over an hour of trying to make it work. I gave up and grabbed out a new pan. I used Coors Light instead of the fancy Copperhook, and skipped the flour the second time around and it turned out much better. Still not quite perfect, but I'll have to check my mother's recipe before next year to figure out what else I missed.

What did you do for New Year's? Do you have any childhood traditions you like to keep up?

Happy New Years!

As I sit here typing this Meeko is sitting on the chair across the room staring at me with demon eyes very intently as if I must be up to something no good. The demon eyes are probably from the glow of the laptop in the dark, but considering that my cat is crazy I wouldn't put anything past him.

Anyways... I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend and is ready to ring in the New Year. It's coming whether you like it or not (I'm not quite sure what camp I'm in as I'm still trying to figure out what happened to twenty-twelve....). Currently though I am planning on staying home with fancy appetizers and fancy wine to ring in the new year low key. While I'm sure that going out and partying the night away is great fun, large groups of people freak me out and New Years Eve is definitely one of the worst nights for large groups of people to gather.

Not to mention the fact that Christmas is always right before New Years and always involves atleast 4 large family gatherings (this year it was 6), so by the time I get to New Years, I'm pretty much done with people.

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by people? What are your New Years plans, and the ever encouraging (at least for the first three months :) ) resolutions?

Friday Check-in

I've decided on Fridays I'm going to start doing a weekly wrap-up and check-in to help keep myself accountable and to give myself a place to talk about random things that happened during the week that don't necessarily need their own post.

This week I started strong on Wednesday getting a blog up and then working on my novel in the evening. I was able to write another 150 words. Something surprising I found was that I slept a lot better than I had in a while after spending the last part of my evening writing instead of watching television, which is something I may have to think about more.

Thursday I slacked off a little because my inlaws came into town and we spent both my lunch hour and then the entire evening with them. After getting up and going into work early yesterday, I just didn't have it in me to work on either when we got home last night. I still followed through this morning though, so I'll forgive myself for missing day 2. :)

Today the hubby and I are heading downtown to hang with the inlaws so I'm getting my post and writing done this morning. Hope everyone enjoys their day.

A New Year, A New Beginning

I don't know how 2012 is already almost at a close, but I feel like time is just flying by. I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays. I also enjoyed celebrating our anniversary with my hubby. We are 1 yr married, 9 yrs together this December.

Now that we are coming to the end of December has everyone started thinking about New Year's resolutions? I'm not normally a resolution person, but this year have decided that I will give in a make a small list.

# 1: To work out a new exercise routine. I've and sick and burnout for the last few months so my work outs have kind of been all over the place.
#2: To spend at least 15 minutes a day working on this blog and on the novel that was the whole reason for this blog in the first place.  The hubby was awesome and bought me this cool writing book and Scrivner (like Word from writers) for Christmas.
#3: To work on my etsy/retail stores weekly, by either updating products, evaluating pricing or whatever else needs to be done. If I want to be able to run a soap making business I need to really devote some time to it.

Anyways, that is all I have for today. I hope every one is enjoying themselves this holiday season and I will be back on Friday. :)