Five on Fridays #18

Posted January 15, 2016 / Five on Fridays, Weekly Memes / 8 Comments

fof

Five on Friday displays the the top five things that have been on my mind this week! It could be book-related, but it may be music, movies, TV, personal life, food, etc. Previous posts can be found here!

As usual, it’s been a hot minute since I’ve had anything worthy of sharing for Five on Friday. I’ve also been on a big blogging kick lately where I have so many posts and nowhere to put them. I don’t even give myself a chance to fit in a Five on Friday! I’m hoping to start combining review posts a little better to free up my weeks, because I have a lot of more fun ideas. ANYWAYS, here’s what’s been going on in my life!1 ala2016-01-09 21.07.25YES. The biggest reason for this post is that I had the pleasure of heading to ALA Midwinter up in Boston last weekend. Because I live only about an hour and a half away from the city, I was able to take a quick day trip to meet up with everyone there. It was a lot of fun. The day started at 9:00 when I got into the city and to the convention center. I met up with Brittany, Amy, and Alyssa and we killed it on the exhibit floor for about an hour and a half. We got so many books in a very short time period! We were hot and exhausted so we sat outside for a bit, then hung around in their hotel room. We went down and had lunch at the pub in the hotel/convention center and I had a pretty delicious buffalo chicken dip. (Not a lot of dip for the money, but the taste made up for it!) We headed back on the floor after lunch and got a few more books before retiring to the room again. I had to head home for family things at night (plus I wasn’t feeling well), so it was a fairly short trip. It was really easy to get to the convention center from the T and I’m glad I know my way around Boston’s subway system pretty well. It was a lot of fun to see SO many people I don’t get to see very often. And obviously, all the books make it pretty great too! I got SO many upcoming releases that I’m anxious for. The one I pretty much died over was WHEN WE COLLIDED by Emery Lord. Her books are always in my top five favorites each year. Luckily going around with Brittany, Amy, and Alyssa meant that I picked up more fantasy books than I usually might. I’ve been itching to get more into the genre, so I’m excited! Also, please enjoy the picture of me and my favorite character, Curious George.

2016-01-09 09.06.542016-01-09 13.51.362016-01-09 13.13.452016-01-09 14.40.23

2 nyNew Year, new things around the blogosphere! As you know, I love reading challenges and took a very analytical approach to them this year. I wanted to have some achievable, specific, and somewhat challenging goals. I also made my own casual reading challenge that you are more than welcome to join in on! The end of one year and beginning of another always mean bookish statistics, surveys, and wrap-up posts. They’re some of my favorite things to read, so this is always a great time of year on my Bloglovin feed. I also have some different goals in general for my blog this year. I hope to have less review posts (not necessarily less reviews, but less individual review posts). They take up a lot of space each week and I know they don’t get much interaction. I plan to showcase all the books I read in new ways. I would also love to collaborate with a blogger who has similar interests to me for a week-long event this year. I’m not sure who or what, but I will figure it out!

3 planningChris and I have been on a major cleaning kick in our apartment. We’re trying to have less clutter around, and we’ve been doing really well so far this year! I think within the next few weeks we’ll be cl2015-12-17 08.46.02eaning off some books from my shelves and getting rid of clothes. Chris has been into the idea of tiny houses lately, so we are considering thatat the moment. That means we have to be REALLY minimalist! Anyways, aside from real live organization in the apartment, I’ve been planning and organizing my reading and life better this year! I recently shared about my issues with planners and how I’m using one now, and that is still going well. I love the Happy Planner and sooo many sticker shops on Etsy right now. I spend a little time on Sunday making a very minimalistic design for the week, and then fill in more things as they come up. I also have a new planner that I’m using at work, so that helps too. I also continue to organize my books in the Excel sheet Crini makes each year. I’m using it even better than last year and have been tracking books I acquire too. I’m eager to see (for the first time ever) how much money I spend on books.

2015-12-19 09.30.582015-12-14 20.10.42

4 playoffs2016-01-03 21.28.30EEK. The Panthers fucking killed it this year, obviously, so they had a bye week during Wild Card weekend. The games didn’t go as I hoped that weekend and I really didn’t want them to play the Seahawks, but it is what it is. This was such an amazing season of football for me and I’ve never been prouder to be a Panthers fan. I mean this in SO many ways. The whole organization has done so much this year both on and off the field. Watching Cam have an MVP season was lifechanging. It is still baffling to me how little respect the Panthers get still, but I’m happy to just be a surprise to all of the haters.  I love watching the playoffs because the stakes are so much higher than regular season. But, of course, it’s incredibly bittersweet – I hate knowing that football is going to be over in less than a month. UGH. What will I do with my time?!5 currentlySo, I occasionally write a Currently post, which highlights more personal thoughts, feelings, activities, etc. that I’m doing at that very moment. I thought it would be fun to do that as a part of Five on Friday this week! Without further ado, here’s what I’m up to at the time of writing this post – oddly enough, it’s Monday 1/11 right now. This will be a throwback 😉

Adding books to my TBR that I got from ALA! (and plenty that other people got that I missed)

Anticipating the end of the work day. I really just hate being here.

Buying alllll the stickers! I’ve been addicted to Etsy lately and really shouldn’t be. I’ve been loving The Happy Doodle and MareBear Crafts the most lately.

Debating on whether or not I should start THE IMPOSTER QUEEN tonight or just finish off LIARS AND LOSERS LIKE US (because it’s so darn short!) beforehand.

Drinking Snapple Apple! Chris got one the other day after work and I always forget how much I love this flavor until I have a sip. So I just had to go out and get one for my lunch today.

Eating French onion soup at the moment. I also had a siracha chicken salad sandwich for lunch. It’s a weird combo, but it happened to be what looked good at the grocery store.

Feeling tired, bored, drained. Everything. I just was not ready to be back at work today.

Loving my newly organized apartment. I know I said it already, but I’m so happy and relaxed every time I walk inside now. It helps so much, mentally, to have relatively clutter-free home.

Obsessing over Star Wars theories! Chris and I have a few interesting ones that seem to have support elsewhere on the internet. It’s been fun thinking about the movie and where they all may be headed next.

Photographing not much lately, actually. I’m not sure why, but Instagram hasn’t been a priority lately. I hope this changes soon.

Planning …everything. I can’t stop using my planner and referencing it when I don’t even need to. Whatever, it’s fun!

Reading LIARS AND LOSERS LIKE US, which is out in March. I’m also still listening to and reading HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS. My feels aren’t ready for the ending.

Starting to put together my Bookmark Lit Bulletin for January. I have an addiction to these wrap-up posts where I start working on them waaaay earlier than I should. I just end up having to edit later!

Swooning over new Kate Spade purses. It’s bad. I need to not spend money on these things!

Thinking that I should really get some work done today…

Trying to figure out a TBR plan for the rest of the week, maybe even the month. I’ve been wanting to come up with a somewhat more structured method but it’s failed in the past.

Watching so many Panthers videos. I can’t stop this year. It’s an addiction and I don’t plan on stopping until I have to.

Wearing a silky navy blue shirt with little anchors on it, big silver necklace, khaki pants, and blue flats. Pretty standard work outfit for me!

8 responses to “Five on Fridays #18

  1. Aw ALA sounds like it was AMAZING! All the books! And getting to see so many people! Sorry that you didn’t feel well. The buffalo chicken dip sounds amazing, and now I have a craving 😉 Glad that you have started working on your new year goals- and have a lovely planner. I bought one, which sits unopened on my bed. Poor thing 😉

  2. I’m so glad I got to see you at ALA Midwinter, even if it was ever so brief! Looks like you had an amazing haul in spite of being there for only so short a time 😉 I also am with you on organization. I love having a clean apartment. I love planning ahead for things, and using a paper planner!

Leave a Reply

(Enter your URL then click here to include a link to one of your blog posts.)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.