Back in the groove?

Miss me?

So here's the deal: Work has been killing me the past few months. I mean seriously, I feel like I've been to hell and back, which hasn't left much time for anything extra, blogging included. At the moment it's sort of a calm between the two storms though because I'm gearing up to get super busy again. Let's hope I can get through this busy period with a little more grace than I did the last one!

So here's an update on my life: I am now at 52 new books for the year, and I'm currently working on my ninth reread. I'm not going to do a blog post on every book I've read since Wake, but I can give you a quick summary here (and I just listed them, I think I have them all...):

Fade by Lisa McMann (Dream Catcher #2) - Good, but majorly awkward to read.
Gone by Lisa McMann (Dream Catcher #3) - Good ending to the series.
City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare (The Mortal Instruments #2) - Good, once I got into it.
City of Glass by Cassandra Clare (The Mortal Instruments #3) - Best of the series, I think!
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games #3) - Uh-may-zing, but no shocker there!
Columbine by Dave Cullen - Wonderful book about a horrific event. Definitely recommend!
A Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare (The Infernal Devices #1) - I went all fangirl. Loved.
The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory (Cousins' War #2) - Good, but not her best.
While We're Far Apart by Lynn Austin - Beautiful! I loved it, like I love all her books.
The Exile by Diana Gabaldon (Outlander Graphic Novel) - First graphic novel I've read, and not bad!

Out of all those, I would have to say my favorites were: Mockingjay, Columbine, A Clockwork Angel, and While We're Far Apart.

Let's see... what else. Since my last blog update, I went on a business trip to California that I was NOT looking forward to, but shockingly I ended up having a great time! My dad flew in for a meeting the evening my meetings wrapped up, and so we were able to spend a couple days hanging out on the west coast. Kinda fun that this summer he and I spent time on the east coast and the west!

In September I made an impromptu visit to Maryland/Washington DC for my best friend's birthday. I've never been to DC (or Maryland), so that was great to not only see her, but have her show me around somewhere I've never been. It was wonderful! The weekend after that, the hubs and I went to St. Lucia for a few days. It was g.o.r.g.e.o.u.s. Even though it rained most of the time we were there, it was so beautiful and relaxing. I don't know if he agrees, but I wouldn't mind going back someday! We went ziplining while we were there too, and let me tell you: If you have never ziplined, you NEED to. Even Hubs, who is scared of heights, had an absolutely amazing time doing it.

After we were back from St. Lucia, I then took a road trip up to Chicago with my mom for her 30th high school reunion. It was fun to visit my hometown, and I was able to visit my grandpa's grave a few times as well (it was somewhat cathartic). My only regret about the whole thing is that by that time I was TIRED of traveling! I wish we had gone at a time when I wasn't so busy and tired and stressed out because I would've appreciated it even more.

In between travel and excessive work, I've been keeping up with horseback riding and LOVING it. It's hard, and my muscles are certainly not in the shape they used to be (or my lungs!). But I'm working on it. Just last night I rode a new horse named Buckie. Buckie is a (formerly wild) mustang, and I have to say that was a first! I've never ridden a mustang before. He was a lot of fun though, even though he was a bit difficult to ride. My instructor brought up the idea of possibly leasing him since his owner has several other horses and doesn't ride him often. Leasing wouldn't cost much more per month than my lessons, and it would give me the opportunity to ride a LOT more often. While I love the idea of riding more than once a week, I admit I was on the fence about the idea last night. I brought it up to hubs, and he said I should do it. This morning I woke up thinking about it, and all day I've been thinking about it and getting a bit giddy at the same time. In other words, I think I knew what I wanted long before my mind officially made itself up to the idea. Hopefully it will be something that can be worked out!

Upcoming for me? Work and NaNoWriMo in December. I don't know how successful I will be this year because I'm just as busy this year as I was last year. But I'm going to give it a shot! It always is fun!

I guess that's about it. You're caught up on my life. :) I'll try to get to updating the blog a bit more frequently now. I promise.

My Father-Daughter Trip to New York City

I have a few book posts to write, but I'm not in the mood right now. So instead I'm going to tell you this: My dad rocks. Seriously, he's the best dad ever, and he even took me on a weekend trip to New York City this weekend! It was excellent. I took a bunch of pictures on my phone, but unfortunately my phone and I don't get along when I'm trying to pull photos off it. So for now, this post will be photo-less. If I feel like waging an epic battle, then they will appear at a later date.

My weekend started off Friday morning when I went to the airport and ran into OKC's Most Epic Jerk in the security line. I won't go into details because it was NOT good, but if you know me feel free to ask and I'll tell you the story! Let's just say it wasn't a pretty scene. After a short flight, I arrived in Dallas, and my mom met me at the airport and took me to breakfast since I had a three hour layover. We headed back to the airport, where I met up with my dad, and together he and I flew to LaGuardia.

Our hotel was just south of Times Square and about a block away from Bryant Park. It was really a wonderful location. So after getting a cab to the hotel and dropping off our stuff, we then hopped on the subway and headed up to the Bronx for a Yankees game. Neither of us are Yankees fans, but we were really excited to see the new ballpark. And it is HUGE! It was really impressive.

The next morning Dad and I headed over to Times Square to grab some bagels for breakfast. Now I know it's sooooo touristy, but we ended up eating our breakfast in one of the little sitting areas in the middle of Times Square. Once we finished we walked around the area and just tried to absorb some of it. That place is pretty much sensory overload!

After we decided our presence was no longer necessary in Times Square, we took the subway down to Ground Zero. I saw it about three years ago, but Dad had not been there. We ended up walking around the perimeter of it before finding a pizza place a few blocks away. The pizza was decent, but nothing spectacular. However, I did appreciate the garlic salt they placed in shakers on the table. That was pretty cool! :)

Full from pizza, we then headed back to the hotel, and from there we walked (mistake) to the Intrepid, a former aircraft carrier-turned-museum. It was pretty impressive, but man was it hot! We had expected to get away from some of the heat and humidity from back home. Uhh, wrong. We ended up not spending too much time on the Intrepid because we decided some showers were definitely in order before dinner!

So dinner was at this little Italian place called Ralph's. It was fabulous, and I was so glad we were recommended it! After dinner was the highlight of the trip though: Wicked! Our seats were pretty far to the left of the stage, but we were super close (row B), so that was cool! And it was excellent! I only wish I could've seen it when the stars were Idina Menzel, Kristen Chenoweth, and Rue McClanahan. I can't imagine how incredible it was back then! At any rate, I can't wait to see it again someday.

Sunday morning Dad and I had breakfast before heading up to Central Park. We stopped briefly at the Dakota (where John Lennon was shot), and then we wandered a bit around Central Park. After that we headed back to the hotel, stopped off at Bryant Park, and went to the library. Unfortunately, despite saying it was open, the library's doors were all locked. Lame. So we went back to Bryant Park and had lunch at a nice outdoor cafe. And then it was time to go to the hotel and for me to pack up and get ready to go home. :( Dad stayed since he had a business meeting the following morning.

Unfortunately, getting home was pretty much a giant hassle. My flight out of LaGuardia was delayed by over an hour due to heavy rains there, and they said I was going to miss my connecting flight home out of Dallas. However, when we got on the plane they said they'd be taking a shorter flight path that would get us in about 25 minutes before my flight home! I had a chance! ...Oh, wait, no I didn't. Because American Airlines decided to cancel my ticket and rebook me on the 9:05 AM flight to OKC that left the following morning. And they didn't even tell me! I found out because my mom had called to check my flight status and discovered this. Annoying! Because had they not done this, I could have made my flight. How do I know this? Because my BAG made my flight!

At any rate, Mom came and picked me up so I could spend 5 hours crashed on her couch. On Monday morning I was back at Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport, and at 9:05 I was on my plane waiting to take off. And at about 9:15 the pilot got on the intercom and told us to get out: the flight was canceled due to heavy rain in Oklahoma City. Argh!

American ended up putting me on standby for the next flight that left at 12:55, but naturally there were well over 100 other people all on standby, so needless to say my chances of getting on that flight were zero. And the next, and the one after that, and so on. I was officially booked for the 10:30 flight that evening (the one I was supposed to be on the night before!), but who wants to sit around an airport for over twelve hours?

Lucky for me, my mom decided she would drive me back home instead of leaving me to sit in an uncomfortable airport chair all day. So she picked me up, and we drove up to OKC. She spent the night with me and headed back home to Dallas Tuesday morning. It was an ordeal, but on the plus side it was cool getting to not only hang with my dad all weekend, but also getting to hang with my mom for a while too.

So that's about it. Sorry there aren't photos, and sorry this isn't exactly the best-written blog in the world! I was just word vomiting my trip. :)

My short trip to Dallas

I made a trip to Dallas this weekend, and I had a great time! Despite a horrible drive down there in pouring rain nearly the whole way, it turned out to be a very successful trip!

Mom and I headed up to Dover Saddlery so I could stock up on some horseback riding gear since I have none anymore (rather, I have none that fits me!). I had done some research and considered buying everything online, but I decided a while back that I really just had to go try things on. And I am SO glad I did! Everything I was planning on ordering online fit like crap in person, helmet included.

So, I left Dover Saddlery with two (way expensive) items:

Ariat Boots (with a round toe because they're just better)

Charles Owen Riding Helmet

After that, Mom and I headed to Penzey's Spices (if you've never been to one of these stores, you are SO missing out). I didn't go crazy like I usually do, which is shocking! I think I was still in a money-spending coma from the trip to Dover Saddlery a little bit before. I walked out of there with a few bags of course ground black pepper and a free bottle of Northwood Seasoning (can't wait to try it!).

After that was North Park Mall (why can't we have a mall like this here?!). This wasn't an expected visit, but unfortunately before I left for Dallas I realized that my dry cleaner had ruined BOTH of my dress shirts. Seriously? The tag clearly says "dry clean only," and yet they washed them. And they're toast. The dry cleaners are going to try to fix them, but I have a feeling that when I stop by on Tuesday they're going to be forking over some money to cover the cost of those two ruined shirts. And I will be finding somewhere that actually reads the labels on clothing to start bringing my dry cleaning to. Anyway, I need a dress shirt next week, which meant I had to go find one. I ended up finding a decent enough one at The Limited on sale for 20 bucks, and surprisingly I found another shirt I really liked there. I used a coupon I had, so that one ended up being less than 20 bucks too. Yay me!

And the final highlight of my Dallas trip this weekend was this amazing restaurant. My parents recently discovered it and couldn't wait to show it to me as well. Four Winds Steakhouse is in the middle of freaking Nowhere, Texas, in a former residence in the middle of a field. Supposedly the house was once owned by a Dallas Cowboys player, but I don't know who it was. Regardless, umm, holy crap was the food amazing. We shared a goat cheese appetizer and a tomato & mozzarella salad. I'm a sucker for a good tomato & mozzarella salad, and boy did this not disappoint! My entree was a filet mignon, and I think this is the first time I've had a steak that I didn't even have to season with salt. It was perfect. I was stuffed, but I had to finish that darn steak. I couldn't let myself leave any of it.

That's about it for the excitement! Otherwise, I pretty much chilled down there. It felt good to relax a little bit.

Sometimes you just need a break..

No book updates today. I'm contemplating rereading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets for the umpteenth time, but I'm not sure yet. I did put Honolulu by Alan Brennert on hold at the library earlier today, so hopefully it will come in sometime this week.

I'm really, really annoyed today though. I've had it rough the past few weeks, and it's been wearing me down quite a bit. I don't know when exactly things will get better, but one thing I've been looking forward to is vacation. The hubs and I have tried making it a September tradition to take a trip for the two of us to have some fun and just enjoy ourselves. Unfortunately, it looks like that's not happening this year. We have way too many other financial obligations, and so today was the official cancellation day. I got our deposit back, and just like that we're no longer going on vacation (and considering we live extremely close to the airport, driving by it on the way home today is going to be a major bummer).

I know to some people it may not seem like a big deal, but I'm a big believer in taking vacations. Sometimes we all need a little R&R, and I think the memories are also extremely important. So to be not doing it this year is a little bit heartbreaking. And while theoretically I could just throw the cost of the trip on a credit card and call it good, I can't bring myself to do that. It's not a financially wise decision, and honestly since finances was the reason we chose to cancel.. well, why make the situation even worse? Hopefully this is just a temporary thing though. I have faith that we can maybe rebook this same trip or a similar one for a few months later once some of the money strain goes away.

Thanks for hearing me out on my little whine party. I'll post something a bit more fun and optimistic soon, I promise!