List #fail

I'm super bad at completing projects.** Like really, really bad. Even when it's something I love. Take scrapbooking for instance. I can spend days on end working on a scrapbook and be a very happy girl. Aside from reading, it's one of my favorite solitary activies (that can turn into a group activity in awesomness :)). But I have a couple of older scrapbooks that still aren't complete. One stands out as being completely unfinished. A few more lack some finishing touches - and rarely do they feel done.

I'm also super bad at completing lists. I love making lists - almost to the point of being ridiculous. Yes, I'm one of those who starts a list and adds things I've already done to it - just so I can cross them off. And typically I end up losing the list before I finish all of the items on it. Unless it's a packing list... those are pretty straightforward.

Unfortunately, when you put a list online for all who care to rad it, you seem to be more of a failure for not completing it. And that's where I stand with this whole 30X30 list that I put up here almost a year ago. Barf.

Of course, I did complete a few items on the list. Uhm... but see explanation for adding things because I already knew I would complete them. So yeah. #fail.

Honestly, I really like all of the items on the list. I think it would be a fun one for anyone to attempt. I'm wondering if I should bother making it more of a life goals list. I mean, I could add a few things on there that I knew would never happen in a year (as though any of it did). I'm not gonna commit to that here online... as we know how well that went the first time.

I almost forgot. I have excuses prepared for my noncompletion of said list!
Well... one big excuse, really.
Starts with a "wed" and ends in a "ding." :)
Seriously, who knew that would be such a time and brain drain?! Everyone, I suppose. I was just hoping that it wouldn't consume me. And it did.

Speaking of the big event, I'm gonna have pictures to show off! I've seen the proofs and we're waiting on the CD. So I can pretty much promise that the next update is going to be all wedding related. And picture-fied.

Until then, my little chickadees. :)


**I will say that this doesn't seem to carry over to my work life. I always seem super successful at completing stuff at work. Odd.

Lobster Time!

If you all remember, number three on my "30 by 30" list was to have lobster in New England. That's what you do in the summer in New England, right? Right. Luckily, I have connections up there - since my fiance is from Rhode Island and all that.

This past weekend, we went up to visit his family and thought it would be the perfect time to get my lobster. So on Monday, we headed to one of the many local seafood joints for lunch. It was a place near the beach called Cap'n Jacks. Pretty original, huh? Well, apparently it's known around town, so I was up for an adventure.

So.... Here's my lobster.

I'm just gonna say this... It was very, very stinky. Like, eww gross - I'm supposed to eat that smell?? Nasty. Uhm, also... I had a bit of an issue with the little beady eyes still on it. I made Jimmy pull them off for me before I could do anything. He thought it was hilarious. The nerd.

Luckily, the lobster didn't taste like it smelled - like steamed arm pit. :) I was suuuper relieved to realize that the meat of the lobster was very tasty. It was much tougher than I thought it would be. I think I was expecting a shrimp consistency. I guess that's a question - is it like steak like that? Is the quality determined in the toughness?

Anyway, it was yummy. I liked it a lot more with the butter stuff. That made it much more tasty. I may or may not have had way too much fun playing with the claws. I was tempted to take one with me to scare people later, but Jimmy reminded me that they would get really stinky. Only I wouldn't think about that. Sigh.

So this place was a lot of fun. They even had lobster cupcakes!! How cute is that?!? Luckily they weren't lobster flavored. That would be gah-ross. But they were massive. that body of the lobster? Yeah, that's a Twinkie. As fun as that was, it was humongus. And really, really messy. My fingers were really red for the rest of the day. There was a shark one too, but I'm glad I didn't get that one (the icing was dark gray - could you imagine how black my mouth would get?!?)

All in all, the lobster experience was a fun one. I was happy to spend it with people who knew what to do - like instructing me that the claw meat is the best. See? What would I do without them??

One thing down... 29 to go!

Journaling

I should have examined my list of thirty things a little better. I had kinda forgotten that a couple of them are ongoing things - to be started, well, immediately. It's not like I didn't know they were immediate things when I made the list... I just didn't realize they immediately started then. :)

Yesterday I was wandering through Target (as I tend to do more than I should), and I spotted the journals and had a flash of the "uh oh!" I had completely forgotten to start my journal that I was going to write in weekly.

So I hurriedly looked through their journals and purchased one that looks sorta 30-year-old sophisticated. I had to put down one that had sparkly stars all over it... that probably wouldn't have been appropriate.

I have spent a lot of my life journaling - it's one of the things that got my brain through college. It's been disappointing to realize that I've pretty much given it up (unless you count blogging, and I really don't). So this is an attempt to get that ball rolling again. It's very therapeutic and I always love looking back on my old journals.

So... thus it begins. A week late. But it begins, nonetheless. You probably noticed that I set my standards pretty low (ie "write once a week"). This is because I'm not sure how well I'd do with daily or something like that. Then I'd just get irritated, probably :). So, less irritation, more making it work!

A few of the other items are immediate as well - things like budgeting and all that. But I'll probably seriously start those in a couple of weeks. I'm trying to make it through the summer at work - only two more big programs and I'm done! Anyway, stay tuned for more 30 by 30 stuff :).

30 by 30

I have one year until I turn 30. There are things I would like to have accomplished before then. Here is my bucketlist:

1. Get Married
2. Go on a Hot Air Balloon Ride
3. Have lobster in New England
4. Get another tattoo
5. Begin learning another language
6. Buy a lottery ticket
7. Pay off my credit card
8. Learn to drive a manual car
9. Write a short story or novel. Submit it and frame the rejection letter.
10. Go snorkeling or scuba diving
11. Visit Disney Harry Potter
12. Go on a Day Cruise
13. Take an art/craft/cooking class
14. Go Bungee Jumping
15. Start journaling again - weekly
16. Watch IMDB's Top 100 Movies
17. Visit a Psychic/Palm Reader
18. See Wicked on Broadway
19. Visit a Primary Care doctor when I'm not sick
20. Go to a taping of a T.V. Show
21. Learn a new recipe monthly
22. Go on a carriage ride through Central Park
23. Go whale watching
24. Ride a Motorcycle
25. Create a budget and stick to it
26. Volunteer for 30 hours
27. Swim with dolphins
28. Create a weight goal and get there
29. Go up the Empire State Building & Top of the Rock
30. Get a professional massage

Bonus: Dye hair a fun color

I know some of these things seem really easy, but I only have one year, people! Hopefully I can get it all done. My intention is to blog about each of these things as I check them off.

Do you have anything I should add? Nothing terribly expensive, of course. Gotta budget! :)

The Big 2-9

I am one of those people who believes in taking days off of work for your birthday. So, of course, I took off the entire week last week. I think I planned it pretty well, if I do say so myself. I had a few days to detox from work... then a few days in Nashville with the family... then a few days to detox from that... and then back to work! Ta da! I think it works out smashingly :).

So on Tuesday, Jimmy and I flew down to Nashville with wedding planning on the brain. One of the reasons we went down was to have a few wedding-related appointments and get some things done. Always practical. His mom came with us as well - but she was on an earlier flight, so we met up with her in the airport. But both of our flights were in the morning, so our afternoon was pretty well planned out.

After changing an unfortunate flat tire, we went to Southern Bred for lunch. We have always loved that restaurant and if you haven't gone, you need to immediately. The woman that owns it, Sharon Johnson, is our caterer for the wedding. So it was sort of a working lunch :). We spent the afternoon getting me a new phone (Jimmy's birthday gift to me - a iphone 3g s) and mom a replacement for her dinosaur. Then we went out to Two Rivers Mansion (our ceremony/reception site) to do our follow up look around. Top the day off with dinner at Big River Grill and silly stores on 2nd ave. A great first day.

Wednesday was full of appointments. Actually, the day was pretty set in stone. Morning appt at a bridal place, lunch, another appt at another bridal place, then a later afternoon appt with a cake person... then birthday dinner :). I knew what dress I wanted by about 11am. It was the third one I tried on. Didn't need to go to the other appt, but I did anyway just to make sure. So... dress acquired! The cake appt went wonderfully. Delish! And birthday dinner? Well:

There were crazy birthday glasses and extremely wonderful crepes! My faves :).

Thursday was my actual birthday. I celebrated by spending my day with my wonderful group of girls at Puffy Muffin. Yummm. I love those girls - I wish we lived closer together! Alas. While I was playing, Jimmy and his mom had a meeting with a possible rehearsal dinner place. Such a good fiance, he is.

Thursday night we went out to dinner with Grant and Megan at O'Charlies. I'm addicted to one of their salads, so that was totally my choice. The waitress was.... weird. She decided to become part of the family for the night. But whatev. We had a good time and I got a free dessert:

The waitress said there would be no singing, but Grant couldn't help himself. So that was that.

Friday was our open day to get anything else done that we needed. This turned out to include shoe shopping, dropping my dress at Blake and Mo's house, lunch at Calypso... and heading to the airport to sit around with delays.

All in all, I thought it was a really fun time with the family. I don't think we got everything done that we wanted to, but there was still a lot of stuff that got accomplished. I'm feelin good about it.

Now I have a few more days before heading back to work (oh, I say that and I realize I only have two more. Drat.). But it's been a nice vacation. I suppose it's time to go back and put out whatever fires have happened at work. :)

I know this post was boring - but I just wanted to get all that out there. There will be a much more interesting post soon. Promise promise.

Excuses, Excuses

The time of making excuses has finally arrived. It's been.... a few months since I posted anything. Which would beg the question, "what exactly have you been doing that you couldn't simply update a little blog?!" The answer is nothing and everything. That doesn't make sense, does it?

I'm just gonna go ahead and list my excuses and hope for better things in the future. Here are the numerous reasons I've been lame lately:

Reason #1:

The Rough Winter

Yes, this is a real reason. Sort of. Spring is finally here and now I can "look back" on the winter and think, "Thank God that's over!" Did the winter keep me from blogging? Sure, yeah. Why not. Okay, no. Why don't I blame the winter for being depressing and that is what kept me from blogging. Ta da! See how well that works out?! Ahem.

Reason #2:

Wedding Planning

This one is real! w000t! I'm pumped to have a real reason. See, now. Wedding planning has taken over my life. For realz. Okay, maybe it didn't warrent the "z," but I have spent a lot of brain power on it. I even have made one of those "The Knot" websites... because apparently that's what you're supposed to do. Ours needs to be updated, actually. see? Something to do! We've made a few decisions, so things are progressing nicely. Location? Check. Date? Check. It's actually one year from today. Convenient, huh?? I sure thought so.

Reason #3:

Erm. Neighborhood Drama?

Yeah, this isn't a reason. I just wanted to put this picture up. One day a couple of Saturdays ago, there was some big fire in one of the buildings on my street. All of the residents were outside and we kinda, maybe had a front row seat from our window. I don't think there was tons of damage or anything. Everything seemed to work out okay. This picture was when they were putting everything away and it took more people than I would imagine to put away the fire hoses. So yeah. That's what that is. Again, not a reason.

Reason #4

Family Visits

This is another one of those semi-legitimate reasons. It's legit because we have had to take trips to visit people - a few times to Rhode Island and once to Tennessee. Those didn't take up so much time that it made a difference, but I'm listing them anyway. Picture on the left is me on the train to RI (I think it was freezing)... picture on the right is of our insane, impulsive roadtrip to TN. All of which included wedding conversations, so technically these could be included in reason #2. But I'm going to move right along...

Reason #5:

We've Done Stuff

I know this is going to come as a shock to some of you, but we've actually gone out and done some stuff in the last few months. This includes awesome things like seeing comics like John Caparulo, going to Knicks games, etc. See? Awesome NYC-ish stuff :). The plan is to continue doing said things - there's lots of stuff we need to do before we move away (in a few years (assuming the economy cooperates)).

Reason #6:

Work!!

This is a pretty good excuse, if I do say so myself. It's been crazy around the library lately. A good crazy, I think... but most definitely time consuming and constant (a good thing that I don't want to change!!). Oh, and this picture is from the subway station I get off at every day to go to work. I wouldn't recommend going to the station... it always seems to smell like pee. Very, very gross. Again, not recommended.

Reason #7:

Uhm. Videogames?

Okay, so I may or may not have gotten addicted to the latest Super Mario Bros. for the Wii. And by that, I mean, "I definitely got addicted." My poor little thumb can attest to that. I couldn't feel the end of my thumb (or it was all crazy-tingly) for about 48 hours. Children, this is the risk you run when you game for more than a few hours at a time! Ahem, I don't even know how long I worked on it. But I beat the game! At least, I saved the princess. Now I have all these other things I gotta do, but I'm not so obsessed with doing that asap. But yes, I spent hours and hours on this game. Hours I could have been blogging. Shame on me. shame.

Reason #8:

BOOKS!
Another SUPER-LEGIT reason! Seriously. I've read... what, 32 books so far this year? Something like that. Which is averaging about 10 books a month. Not too bad, I'd say. At this rate I'll have 120 before it's all said and done. But the point is that reading all of these books takes a LOT of time. My "to be read" pile hasn't gone beneath 10-15 books at a time. I guess that's a good thing - gives me lots of options for things to read! Note: the picture here is not one of my piles of books. I got it online. But my stack of books feels like that sometimes! It's a good thing I don't spend my own money buying them - I'd be broker than I am already! :)

I think 8 reasons is good enough, right? I'm just going to go with it. I suppose this is sort of "Our Spring in a Nutshell." It's a big nutshell, but nonetheless.

Best Books of 2009

As most of you know, I have a serious book problem habit. In 2009 I read something like 115 books (which isn't as many as some people, but still). Any time I that, it's inevitable that someone will ask me my favorites from those. It's a logical question, but it's kinda hard to answer - which is probably the librarian in me.

I tend to like just about everything that I read. It's very rare that I'll find a book that I just loathe (it's happened... just not often). I like to find their redeeming qualities :). But I always can think of favorites, so I've decided to make a top ten list. It's a little different because I split it into five series and five stand alones. Hopefully this will all make sense for y'all... so here it is:
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Top 5 Series

These are the latest book in a series that I read in 2009 - generally it's a love of the series that gets it listed here.

Splendor: a Luxe Novel

by Anna Godbersen
This is a historical fiction series that is set in the late 1800s in New York City. You can kinda think historical Gossip Girl for this series - it's very much about propriety, status, class, and those sorts of things. Very cool story. Not to mention how pretty the covers are! I just love them.

Splendor was the last book in this series (of four)... so now that it's a complete series, you should pick it up! The rest are: 1. Luxe 2. Rumors 3. Envy 4. Splendor

The Van Alen Legacy: a Blue Bloods Novel

by Melissa de la Cruz

This is just one of the many vampire series' that I read whenever a new one comes out. I think one of the things that I love in this series is that it's set in New York City too. This one really uses the city as almost a character - it's wonderful. And it's one of the best vampire series out there. Promise!

The rest of the series: 1. Blue Bloods 2. Masquerade 3. Revelations 4. Van Alen Legacy

Blood Promise: A Vampire Academy Novel

by Richelle Mead

This series is fantastic - again one of the vampire series that have been around lately. It has a bit more of the romance aspect in it, but I think the twist on the whole vampire stuff is very interesting. It's more about the guardians of the vampires than the vampires themselves and all the drama they go through. I love it - it's one of my favorite series ever. Check it out!

The rest of the books: 1. Vampire Academy 2. Frostbite 3. Shadow Kiss 4. Blood Promise

Death By Bikini by Linda Gerber

I added pictures of all the books in this series (so far) because I had them pretty accessible :). Death by Latte and Death by Denim are the second and third books in the series. They are one of the few mystery series written for teens - and it's written wonderfully. It's a very fun story that will keep you guessing till the end. I read them all in 2009, so that's why they're all here :).

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

If you haven't heard of Hunger Games, you need to go to your local library immediately and check it out. It's fantastic! It's one of those books that everyone needs to read in their lives. It's a science fiction series (There are the two books so far), but it's almost so realistic that it's spooky. Realistic as in... it could happen, maybe. I don't think a sentance of explanation could cover it, so I'll leave it to you to look up. It's great though - and even adults will love it. I promise!

Other series to look out for:

House of Night by P.C. and Kristin Cast

Maximum Ride by James Patterson

Darkest Powers by Kelley Armstrong
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Top 5 Stand-Alones

These are all books that aren't part of a series, but they're ones that I loved this year. I'd recommend any one of these!

Going Bovine by Libba Bray

I don't know if anyone has read the other series by Libba Bray (Great and Terrible Beauty and all...), but this is completely different. This one is about a boy who has mad cow disease and his adventures while looking for the guy with the cure. You never know whether the story is real or taking place in his head, so it's very interesting - a little trippy. Actually, a lot trippy. It's well written and I'd recommend it.

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

I will read pretty much anything by Scott Westerfeld - after Uglies, I'm pretty much a fangirl. I could be wrong about this not being a part of a series... but I'm going to go with it for now. This book fits pretty firmly in the genre of steampunk. Or maybe... a metal science fiction story. All very technical and a little hard to follow. It's high adventure, so you end up devouring each page. I'd recommend it to anyone who loves technical things - or just loves Westerfeld as much as I do.

Tyrell by Coe Booth

This one is completely different from stuff I'm used to reading. It's very much urban fiction - takes place in NYC, but it's a really hard story (not as hard as Push, if any of you read that one). It's one of those books where you feel sort of hopeless through it, but it's really well written and you really end up caring about the characters. If you're looking to get into any urban fiction, I'd definitely recommend this one.

Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway

This book is hilarious - through and through. I seriously laughed my way through this one. It's a bit of a love story, but it's more about this girl and how she deals with things. Basically, the girl broke up with her boyfriend and the guy ended up writing a song about it - and became famous because of it. I'd definitely give this one to anyone wanting something light and chick lit-ish. It's great!

Same Difference by Sibhan Vivian

I don't think this book is going to make any official top ten lists or anything. It's almost pretty basic, but there was something about this story that I really loved. Perhaps it was just written well, but I really cared about the characters after the story was over. It's about a girl who goes to art camp over a summer and realizes shes a totally different person than she thought. It's really all self discovery and friendship. Try this one out!

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Well, those are my top ten books I read this year. Even if you didn't want to know.

Also, I'm a book blogger... as in, I blog about every book I read - giving it reviews and such online. It's mostly for my information, but it's kinda fun to look back at those blogs and see what I'll I've read. And I've got the whole list of books that I read this year, if you want to see.

Here is that url: The Ninja Librarian

Have fun!