Book #11

Ask the Passengers by A.S. King

304 pages

I really, really liked this one.

I've always been a fan of YA fiction. I claim Sarah Dessen as one of my all-time favorite authors (don't worry, John Steinbeck, you're still my top favorite). I once thought my destiny was to write YA fiction (maybe one day it still might be!)

But it's been awhile since I've dove into the world of new YA fiction for myself, instead of education classes, etc. This one was on a best-of list recently, and I'm glad I added it to my to-read list. It was a great, quick read.

Astrid is a high school senior who is on the fringe of fitting in at her small-town school. She is covering for her two best friends, who are both gay, and trying to establish her own identity as well, especially in her dysfunctional family. She is seeing Dee, a co-worker, and as her feelings become deeper for her, so does the trouble that surrounds Astrid.

This novel evoked a lot of memories and emotions about my own small town -- the gossip, the intolerance, the confusion. It could have been set in my hometown, honestly.

The great thing about this book is it's not "just" about a girl coming to terms with her homosexuality -- the story is told in a way that it's really about a girl coming to terms about her sexuality just like everyone else does -- she just happens to be falling for a girl. I like how Astrid isn't appointed the "gay" character in her own story. She reads like a real-life girl with real-life struggles.

I loved this book. It was quick-paced and had great supporting characters who felt like real people.

Next up: The Girls from Ames: A Story of Women and Forty-Year Friendship by Jeffery Zaslow

Healthy

It's taken me a long time to realize healthy doesn't equal skinny. I mean, I've always known that on a surface level, but it took me a long time to realize that thinking doesn't just apply to everyone else, it has to apply to me as well.

In the last six months or so, I have made a conscious effort to kick the "weight-losing" to the bucket and focus on the healthy. This was jumpstarted at a training I attended for school, as I am a representative of a program about healthy initiatives in early education settings. One of the things that one of the trainers said that resonated with me is that you don't always have to make huge lifestyle changes to be healthier. A few "easy" changes can add up.

That night, I went home and brainstormed some "easy" changes to make myself healthier. I have stuck to almost all of them.

1. No more soda during the week. I only allow myself soda on the weekends and ONLY when we go out to eat (this is actually a stair step from a previous goal when I just stopped buying Diet Coke at the grocery store. Trouble is, I can still buy it at school in the vending machine, in the McDonald's drive-thru, etc. So no more soda AT ALL during the week)

2. Plan out every dinner before I go to the grocery store. I allow Friday and Saturdays as free days as we usually meet up with friends for dinner.

3. Count my miles. This does not mean I carry around a pedometer all day. I know I walk a lot during the day -- I'm a preschool teacher! But I count all extra walking I do on mapmyrun.com -- especially my dog's walks (PS she's lost some weight!)

4. Eat breakfast every day, no exceptions (I still struggle with this one sometimes).

5. I bought smaller plates -- seems too easy! It really does make a difference on how you perceive your food.

6.  Adding more vegetables each week to our diet. I don't really like vegetables, so sometimes I have to even trick myself (tonight, we're having baked bread-crumbed-covered asparagus -- I never would have said yum a year ago but now I do!)

7. Switching to 1% milk. This was a hard step -- I grew up as a Vitamin D girl, and I moved to 2% in college. 1% is hard even for me!

8. Switching out chips in my lunch for yogurt at least 3 days a week.

9. Stop weighing myself daily -- easier said than done. This is mostly to stay mentally healthy :)

As the summer approaches, I plan to add a few more "small" changes into my daily life. This includes salads as sides more times during the week, taking salads to work in lieu of a sandwich, drinking more water during the day (my schedule during the summer allows this much more easily than my time at school).

Book #10

Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman
298 pages

 

 

Piper is finally happily in a relationship and has her career in order. When she gets convicted of a 10-years-past drug offense, her life is put on hold until her sentencing. She is finally sentenced to 15 months in a women's prison.

 

 

The characters she meets in prison came alive in this book. Her stories of the humors and unpleasant situations were both light-hearted and truthful. Kerman kept her stories of her friends doing time meaningful but positive.

 

 

Kerman was able to see prison with the lens of someone who wouldn't need to worry about what will happen to her after her release -- she is set with her plan of continuing life with her fiancé once she gets out and has plans for a job afterward. Because of this, she is very mindful of everyone else's unique situation, and what a difficult journey it will be for each of them once their time on the inside is done.

 

 

I really enjoyed this book. I am interested in catching up with the show now that I've read it. Toward the end, it dragged on a little bit, but maybe that was by design. Her time in prison probably felt like it dragged on toward the end, too!

 

Next up: Ask the Passengers by A.S. King



 

Spring Break to-dos

It's officially Spring Break (the first weekend doesn't count, I'd have that off anyway!!)! I am staying in bed on a Monday morning; it's official!

Now, getting strep throat a mere 12 hours after school was let out on Friday was NOT on my spring break to-do list, but I am going to put it on there anyway so I feel like I've accomplished something.

• Spend 2 hours at Minute-Clinic while crying because of strep throat symptoms
• See Veronica Mars movie
• Get oil changed
• Get Suzy Q groomed
• Call dentist to schedule an appointment for after break since obviously I was too lazy to do it beforehand so I could have an appointment during break
• Walk Suzy along the canal downtown (hoping weather cooperates next week)
• Have a sleepover with my cousin Brooke
• Read 3 books
• Watching the 3rd season of GIRLS since I've completely neglected it thus far
• Organize my new positive behavior system for my classroom I am putting in place after break (it involves clouds and rainbows --- AKA cotton balls and colored puff balls)
• Make a few new meals since I'll have the time to do so

With love

I've started my journey to this today.

While talking to a man at my bank about my credit score, and about other grown-up things, I blurted out "How do I start saving money to take a trip to Paris?" And it came out without me thinking about it.

I mean, I know HOW to start saving. It starts with not spending money on other stuff and to start putting it toward this. But I wanted to know the best way.

And I mean, it's not like I've never thought about it -- it's really the one place I've ever consistently thought about. The one place in the world I have to visit before I die. I had a poster of Paris up in my college bedroom to remind myself every day of my long-term goals. I have an Eiffel Tower locket that has "2017" written inside it for years because that's my goal date. (Now that I'm closer to 2017, I wonder if 2019 is more attainable or better as a celebration for my 30th ... but maybe not!)

I've always said I need to visit before I have kids or I never will go. And that means starting to save for it today, I think.

This was a goal I had for 2014. To begin. And so today, it begins.

Book #9

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

272 pages

 

 

 

 

I'd previously read Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl last spring and loved and hated it at the same time. This one, I pretty much just hated.

 

Camille is a Chicago-based reporter who has to travel back home to investigate two strange murders in her small town. The murder victims were both two young girls, and the town is still reeling with gossip over whether the murderer is an out-of-towner or it was an inside job.

 

While Camille is back in town, she stays at her mother's house, where she starts to get to know her much-younger sister Amma, and come to terms with her other sister's death decades before. She also has to endure the suffering of living again under the same roof as her frigid mother.

 

Every character in this story is unlikeable. The police officers, the lawyers, the murder victim's families, Camille's family --- everyone. I began thinking the only likeable characters were the murder victims, whom we never met alive! It really turns me off from a book when the main character is so unlikeable, and that's exactly how Sharp Objects was.

 

That being said, I am a fan of Flynn's fast-paced writing and will probably read Dark Places eventually as well.

 

Next up: Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman