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.
Reading slump
Okay. I’m going to admit it. I’m officially in a reading slump. The good news is: I know exactly what caused it! I recently developed a more comprehensive Excel sheet to make a reading schedule. It makes it easier to plan when I plan to post reviews and when I should finish books to have everything done in a timely manner. Unfortunately, this makes reading feel like homework. I should be panicking if I can’t finish a book when I’m estimating that I should finish a book! I ended up getting a book in an ARC tour that I just wasn’t in the mood to read, and I kept making myself feel bad and adjusting my schedule to accommodate it. Luckily this ARC tour, On the Same Page, doesn’t require reviews in exchange for the ARCs. I decided to just not read the book and move on. It helped free up my schedule a lot. Last night, I wasn’t in the mood to read at all. So I didn’t! It felt great. I didn’t beat myself up over it. All of my holiday reviews are done except the final two, and I have two weeks to read them. STOP WORRYING.
Christmas decorations
We are officially done decorating for the holidays! We strung some lights up in our bay window and put up a little tinsel tree. We got a light-up glass Christmas present decoration that we have in the corner too. We put up our tree in an empty spot and were forced to use the random purple lights (with one string of pink and blue), since we used the white ones in the window. I think it looks pretty cool though! We also have some snowman gel clings on the front window and some plastic winter/Christmas clings on the sliding glass door out to the porch. We also have a little Charlie Brown Christmas tree on our kitchen table. My grandma sent us a snowman hanger for the front door and a little wreath to put in his arms.
The Daily Show and The Colbert Report
Honestly, I don’t pay a lot of attention to the news. It’s hard to cut through the bullshit and figure out what’s actually going on in the world. I wish that I had the attention span or political knowledge to pay attention to the news regularly, but I don’t. It’s something I’ve struggled with for years and I really need a “politics for dummies” book. I know where my beliefs lie on MANY issues and know where I lean politically, but that’s the extent of it. I’ve always been a fan of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, because they take the news and pick it apart. They call other newscasters on their bullshit and get to the heart of the issue in an entertaining way. They make me understand things a little better. Chris and I have been watching their shows a lot lately because it helps us get the news we want that is aligned with our thinking. I think this kind of political conversation is important in today’s society because there are a lot of people out there like myself who don’t know what’s going on in the world but want to try to. Watching these shows lately and hearing what they have to say about the situations in Ferguson/New York and the torture report from the Bush administration makes me glad that people out there can put these huge issues into the right perspective – in my opinion.
My college on Who Wants to be a Millionaire!
THIS IS SO COOL. During my class’s graduation in 2013, a lot of people stopped on the stage after receiving their diploma… to take a selfie with the president of my university. Our president is actually a very cool, accessible person on campus so it’s not surprising that people felt comfortable with doing that. Our school is pretty small and he would always be around campus, eating lunch with students or just walking around with his wife. Sooo the following year for the 2014 graduation, they actually banned taking selfies during the ceremony (especially if they’re with the president) because it slowed up the processional. This week a contestant on Who Wants to be a Millionaire got this question right about my college. We certainly got a lot of attention for it 😉
Cam Newton
By now I’m hoping you all know that I am a Carolina Panthers fanatic. Football and reading are my two main interests and that pretty much has summed up the entire 23 years of my life. Earlier this week my team’s quarterback, the amazingly gorgeous and talented Cam Newton, was in a serious car accident. Judging by the looks of his truck and the severity of the scene, there’s a huge chance he could have died. He ended up leaving the crash with only two transverse process fractures in his back. This is an injury that is by no means life-threatening and could honestly put him back on the football field after a week and a half. It has been so nice to see all of the support from people in the NFL, his teammates, and the coaches. People are so kind to someone they play against (and often hate during divisional games) when things like this happen. I’m grateful that he’s okay because he’s a great, charitable person, as well as an amazing football player. He is focused on healing up and so happy to be alive that he is, at the moment, not worried about football. He couldn’t stop smiling afterwards because he survived something so serious. Sometimes things like this just put everything into perspective for a person!
When my current read is a physical book, the time I miss my kindle most is in the morning when I don’t wanna turn on the light to read
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