Books

I love reading books. It's so easy to get lost in another world when it comes to books, but I don't actually read all that many. Last night I opened this month's book club book, my pick, The Obituary Writer by Ann Hood and I couldn't put it down and read the whole thing, it was excellent! I won't go into detail about the book, I'll save that for after our meeting on Thursday, but I'm glad I picked this book, you should read it. How did I come across this book you may ask yourself, well Oprah told me I think, and I liked the cover. I'm pretty sure it was maybe on one of the must reads for a month or something.

But back to books in general. Books take up time to read, I appear to only like to read books at night, no clue why, but I always end up staying up way too late, just one more chapter I constantly negotiate with myself, then when I get to the end of that chapter, well, you just can't stop there either. I'm pretty sure it was like 1:30am before I went to bed last night. 

Since I've had my Nook, there have only been a handful of books where I've actually read the physical book. I do feel bad that I'm contributing to the demise of book stores and libraries, but I just love my Nook. I like having several books to choose from, they are usually cheaper and I don't have books collecting dust on book shelves. I think if I really really liked a book I would buy it to have a physical copy too, that should save the bookstores right? 

Anywho, books. I like to read. Anyone read anything good lately that they would like to share with the group?

Opossum Mama

I said I would blog more, I didn't say they'd all be golden.

But on my way to work this morning I saw a waddley looking cat waddle its way across the road. As I approached this "cat" I realized it wasn't a cat at all but a big 'ol mama possum with a litter of little oppossi (plural of opossum?!) bummin a ride on her back. While I totally agree that giant hissing opossums are really the last thing you want to run into in a dark alley or late at night on your back porch, but baby opossum are adorable and even cuter when hitchin' a ride on mama's back. Kudos to mom for haulin like 6 or 7 of your children on your back. They are like the minivans of the animal kingdom. They are kind of hard to see here but please beg my pardon as I literally stopped in the middle of the road rolled down my window and snapped this shot. But google baby opossum they are adorbs. 

actual photo

More, Less and Stop

More: 
- Blogging! I've been slacking, I'm ahead of last year but still need more! :)
- Live in the moment. Be in the now.
- Reading. Seriously, books are fun why don't I already read more.
- Exercise. I've been riding my bicycle, need to start walking/running.
- Focus. 
- Adventure.
- Outside the comfort zone.

Less: 
- Worrying (this could be difficult)
- Facebook- useless to just stare waiting for updates or something to occupy my time isn't it?
- TV. Summer TV isn't that great anyway. I'll save it for the weekends.
- Daydreaming at work, which would help with the more focus.
- Sugar. Having a sister who decorates cakes can be challenging at times. I LOVE CAKE!
- Full Throttles. They've become my crutch for sleeping mornings.
- Clutter. Need to get rid of some clothing taking up space and other general cluttering items.

Stop: 
- Biting my nails. I relapsed and now the urge is back :(
- Texting while driving. I know horrible bad habit, that's why it's a stop!
- Being scared. I freak myself out about trying new things because I'm chicken.
- Trying to convince gma that we need to adopt one of my Uncle's rescue kittens.
- self hate. I need to talk myself up not down.
- Over-analyzing. Like everything, just stop.
- Being lazy. It's so much easier but it needs to stop.

Annoyances

I cannot watch/hear that stupid lifestyle lift commercial one more time... as soon as that " Youuuuu light up my liiiife." comes on MUTE followed by a disgruntled "I HATE THIS COMMERCIAL!" SHUT UP DEBBY BOONE!

... just thought I'd let you know. I'm still working on my Stop, Less, More list, I didn't have time to be distracted today. But guess what!? The new carpet at work finally got to my desk! Yippee!!

Isn't that purty. Makes me want to rush right into work every morning. On the bright side, at least now I know the carpet is semi-clean and it's super cushy since it's new, so I have no problem crawling under my desk and taking a nap. If you see one of those Shhhh! golf signs up, just know it's nap time in the cul-de-sac and you best use your indoor voice.

Is It Wrong?

Is it wrong to want to stick your head in the freezer and just stand there?! Perfectly normal, ok good.

For realz y'all it's hot in here! I'm not ready for summer just yet, well I mean summer can come but could Spring not say goodbye so fast? But alas, it's that  time of year again. The time of year when I feel like an ass complaining about not having central air, total first world problems I know. It seems too soon to get the window units put in, I like to enjoy the fresh breeze through the open windows with the small town sounds coming through the window. Every year I ask myself how did the prairie people survive the summer in their long dresses? I like to think that global warming has made the summers hotter therefore making me slightly less of a whiny wimp for sweating so much. But all of these brings us to the summer bucket list time....

So my dad sometimes, ok almost daily, sends me interesting articles, most of the time I just forward them to my home email "dad" folder and read them later but this once kind of stuck out, and it was short so that's always a plus. Who is Josh Linkner, no clue, he sounds fancy judging from his website. But his blog post was called More, Less, Stop basically the short premise of this blog was we have an limited amount of time in each day and to help us prioritize we can make a list 1. More- what do we want more of? 2. Less- what are some things we could do with less of and 3. What are some things that we need to stop doing altogether. He challenges us to think of seven things for each list and try to do them for 30 days. I think this shall be tomorrow's daily distraction. I'll get back to you with my list and I'll keep thinking about my summer bucket list.

Maybe I could enlist your help for one of my summer bucket list items. I'm looking to take a solo adventure/vacation to someplace with a good mix of things to do/relaxing down time, I was thinking possibly Savannah, or just a straight up beach trip and maybe to go to Hilton Head Island in SC, I'm still brainstorming. Do you have any ideas? 

How is Canada Cooler than the US?

Commander Hadfield, that's how.

Chris Hadfield is a Canadian born astronaut whom I've been slightly stalking for months now on Twitter {@Cmdr_Hadfield} He was the first Canadian in space and has called the International Space Station home for the past five months. He's been tweeting some of the most amazing pictures from space and has been very active on social media... you may have seen his latest YouTube video in which he covers 'Space Oddity' by David Bowie, kind of crazy to listen to the lyrics and see the breathtaking images, that are real, like totally legit, no computer fancy tricks, real space. Definitely check it out if you haven't...

Adding to the list of why I'm obsessed with Commander Hadfield is this quote, that was brought to my attention by a coworker... When asked if he had any advise for a young person looking to get into the astronaut field he replied with this quote.

"Decide in your heart of hearts what really excites and challenges you, and start moving your life in that direction. Every decision you make, from what you eat to what you do with your time tonight, turns you into who you are tomorrow, and the day after that. Look at who you want to be, and start sculpting yourself into that person. You may not get exactly where you thought you’d be, but you will be doing things that suit you in a profession you believe in. Don’t let life randomly kick you into the adult you don’t want to become." - Chris Hadfield

The part that stood out to me in this somewhat lengthy quote was the last line..

"Don’t let life randomly kick you into the adult you don’t want to become."

Please do yourself a favor and check out his twitter and Facebook for the amazing/breathtaking pictures Chris took from space. It will give you a moment of awe I promise....and you're welcome, you will now have space oddity stuck in your head for a few days! :)  Love, Heather!

Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow

Last week I said goodbye to a good friend. We have known each other for these past six years and have had some good times. 144 thousand miles later I said goodbye to Simon, it was a bittersweet moment. My first new car, first grown up purchase. We had some good times, now Simon is off to make some memories with a new family. Goodbye friend.... parting is such sweet sorrow...

Until the new car smell hits your nose and you slide into the drivers seat of a 2013 Ford Escape and get a big ol' car hug from the comfy cloth seats. Simon who?! (I'm just kidding Simon, I do miss you, sorta)

Meet Edgar, my fancy new car. More space and more tech, so much tech I'm still trying to figure it all out. It's nice to treat yourself to something new every once in awhile. I even talked the salesman into giving me the price I wanted for my monthly payments. Holy moly is car shopping exhausting, we ended up being at the dealer for like 3.5 hours, my tummy was rumbling by the end!  So far I'm absolutely loving the new car! 

Dad's Birthday, Chicago Weekend and a Movie!

Whoa folks. I would have blogged sooner but holy moly was I pooped from this weekend! Dad's birthday festivities began with a shiny new bike on Wednesday night (we couldn't wait to give to him on his actual birthday on Friday, and were hoping he could get a ride in before the rain came, and we suck at keeping awesome secrets)

Friday: May 3rd
Happy Official Birthday Dad! Our resident cake decorator put this lovely design together, we all voted on the picture and NiBo came up with the quote from some war movie that dad likes. Mom and dad also spent the day shopping for new things for dad (and much needed) a few of these items included new sneakers, non-black athletic socks and not one but TWO new belts... whoa. That is big.

Saturday: May 4th

We headed up to Chicago via Amtrak to watch the Chicago Cubs take on the Cincinnati Red's. It's been a few years since I'd been able to make it up to a game so I was pretty pumped. The forecast had mentioned cloudy with a chance of rain so we had a backup plan to hit up the museums if it did in fact rain. But luckily the sun was out and it was a beautiful Chicago day, could not have asked for more perfect weather.

We got our obligatory picture in front of the marquee...

...had a footlong hot dog and brat. Yummy! 

... since it was Kentucky derby day, all the ladies got a complimentary derby style hat for the occasion.

... I took a panoramic picture from our seats.

... the Cubs were up then blew the lead with our closing pitchers. An all too familiar loss this season. I was sad.

... then they flew the loser flag and no one sang go cubs go :(

Then we had some time to kill before our train left for the evening. We stopped for some Jimmy Johns, then walked around checking out Grant Park and Millennium Park.

I had seen the fountain from Lake Shore but had never been up close... holy moly that thing is HUGE!

And I'd never been up close to see the bean either. So many firsts! Of course we had to get the reflection picture, our poor dad, we make him do alot of things.

My favorite thing about walking all over the city was seeing all the tulips, they are everywhere! I thought of you OL when I saw so many of them, beautiful! 

Sunday: May 5th

Iron Man 3 in IMAX 3D!!!!

My first IMAX adventure and I will say I was disappointed, the movie was EXCELLENT!! but at 16 bones the IMAX experience was a little rich for my blood. I'd just as soon go to the drive in to see a giant screen for $7, but that's just me. I was amazed my the hugeness of the theater  We had to walk up several flights, yes several, flights of stairs to get to our seats, and there was an elevator! Whoa. Go see the movie though and if you do make sure to stay to the end, there is an extra scene.

Whew, I'm just tired from telling you all about it again. Hope everyone else had a great weekend too! :D