How Forever Feels by Laura Drewry

Sometimes you just need a sweet romance that doesn’t put your hormones in overdrive. NetGalley suggested I read this one since I’d read and liked its predecessor, and I think it’s safe to say that Laura Drewry is definitely a go-to for a mild contemporary that still delivers on the feels.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

One-Sentence Synopsis
A game developer reunites with his ex-sister-in-law only to discover he still has feelings for her, despite the fact that he’ll have to choose between her and his family. For a full synopsis, see this book’s Goodreads page.

The Good Stuff
I love an awkward hero, and Jack is awkward, not only because he has long held feelings for Maya, but because he knows his family wouldn’t approve. While this type of family dynamic annoys me, I thought Jack’s reasons for being loyal to his family were solid, and his backstory only made him that more likeable.

The catty woman in me liked how Maya unwaveringly and unapologetically referred to her ex’s new fiance as Skank through the entire book. It cracked me up and felt all too real.

Things That Made Me Go Hmmm
I hated Will (the ex) and I didn’t like Stella (Skank), and I think that speaks to just how well the author put me into Jack and Maya’s mindsets. There are moments when both have a redeeming quality, and other than being Will’s other woman, Stella wasn’t a bad person. But I appreciated that the author didn’t try to make me like either one of them.

There’s a huge amount of exposition at the beginning in the form of Maya telling her friends the backstory of her and Jack. I prefer stories to unfold over time, as scenes like this often feel forced as a way to bring the reader up-to-date.

The Romance Factor
Not only is this a sweet, slow burn romance, but it’s one that has to overcome a lot of obstacles. Even though the two admit their feelings early on, there’s a lot more at play than the “Does he/she love me” conflict. 5/5

The Steam Factor
As I said before, sometimes you just want romance. While there are a few sexy times, the scenes aren’t detailed or scandalous. 2/5

Final Thoughts
This series is cute, and while sometimes fun, it doesn’t shy away from some of life’s real challenges when it comes to romance.

Minnesota Yarn Shop Hop

The yarn diet is over and I blame the Minnesota Yarn Shop Hop for knocking me off the wagon. But seriously, there was no way I was getting out of this event without indulging.

My friend and I started planning this a year ago, so I was prepared with a yarn budget. After making the drive up, we started out on the Hop, tentatively planning on hitting all 17 stores but prepared not to be sad if we didn’t. Because let’s face it…17 stores is a lot of yarn shopping. One of our first stops, however, was the local tea shop, where I picked up some loose leaf tea that tastes delightful and makes me happy.

Tea – the preferred drink of many a knitter.

On the first day, we hit 4 stores, and considering we didn’t start until the afternoon, that was pretty good. Especially because it was snowing. Snow in Kansas makes me want to hide and avoid the roads. Snow in Minnesota felt normal, and I think I went into Michigan driver mode.

What size do we think these are?

Over the course of the weekend, we hit all 17 stores, which scored us a set of 17 stitch markers and a cute holder. We saw some beautiful scenery and petted some delightful yarn. To give you an idea of how the hop works, you buy either an EZ pass or a VIP pass with the proceeds going to the local food pantry. This passport is stamped at each store, where you’re given your marker. At the end, if you fill out the whole thing, you turn it in for a chance at a drawing.

At each store, you can also enter a drawing, and along with the stitch marker, you get a free pattern that uses the store’s specialty Hop yarn. You can buy the yarn if you want.

I picked up quite a few of the specialty yarns. I also found some other delicious yarn that I have to relegate to patterns, but it’s nice to already have some of my yarn paired with patterns. I’ve already wound one of the specialty skeins, so if I can get through the frustrating hat I’m currently working, I’ll be casting on for that.

We had a blast yarn shopping and hanging in the hotel room and eating at new places. By Saturday we were pretty tired and ready to get back to reality, but it was a great time. Now to work on using up this yarn and more stash yarn in preparation for next year.

A.

Friendsgiving and Firefighters

This the first year we’ve done an actual “Friendsgiving.” The event for other people seems to be a large gathering and a huge dinner. That was mostly true for us, too, except we decided just to have a small thing with our friends from upstairs with the idea of just being low key and hanging out.

E and I decided we’d spend the day cooking for the husbands, so we went shopping this morning and managed to get everything. A few things were found scavenger hunt style (puff pastry and pumpkin spice were hiding). We were surprised that our haul was kind of small and inexpensive compared to what we thought we were going to spend, but we rolled with it.

Things started out well. We made a pumpkin pie cheesecake thing that didn’t look too pretty and almost suffered from a missing ingredient, but that was alright. We figured it would still taste good (spoiler: it did).

Pumpkin pie!

We also made green bean casserole in the crockpot, a bacon and corn casserole, and garlic mashed potatoes as sides, and sausage and cheese crescents for an appetizer. Everything was going pretty good, right? Then…things got interesting.

First of all, I’m going to disclaimer this by saying neither E nor myself are really adventurous cooks, but we wanted to try something new. Also, recipes are to be followed, right? Right! So we decided to make Beef Wellington, because she found a seemingly easy recipe and it seemed like something cool and different.

Apparently, sometimes even following the directions leads to crazy things happening. Like when you try to sear meat, and you get smoke. A lot of it. Smoke that starts out as just a little cloud and then suddenly fills the apartment. And sometimes the windows in the apartment won’t open to ventilate the place, so you have to open the door to the hallway, and then the smoke goes into the hallway.

And every freakin’ alarm in the apartment building goes off.

Yep. That happened. The fact that we smoked out the first floor was bad enough. The fact that people were standing in the lobby wondering what the heck was going on, also not great.

And then we heard the sirens. Yes, our friendsgiving dinner brought all the firemen to the yard, and they were like “Hey. Where’s the fire?” Luckily, there was no actual fire, but they had to air the building out and turn off the fire alarms. I may have cried and laughed at the same time because the situation was kind of hilariously awful. My favorite part was when the fireman asked for the name of the person on the lease. My next favorite part (really) was when they said I wouldn’t be fined and that “these things happen.”

Shout out to the Manhattan Fire Department for being quick to respond and super nice about the whole thing.

I’m going to assume our awesome landlords aren’t going to fine us for this, as it really was an accident and there was no damage to anything (that I’m aware of). E and I did learn that neither of us are likely to do anything experimental in the kitchen anytime soon. Even after all that, though, the Beef Wellington was delicious, and dinner overall was pretty darn good…even the weird looking pumpkin pie.

The rest of the night was pretty uneventful around our place. We ate, visited, and watched a few hours of Epic Rap Battles of History. Overall, it was a good day, and at least we know our first Friendsgiving will be memorable. Who knows? Maybe next time we’ll invite more people and make it a real bonfire!

Just kidding. I’m going to avoid that if at all possible.

A.

Shaking Off Some Dust

I’m brushing a little bit of dust of this blog, at least for purposes of getting some words down and possibly getting my online presence back up and running. I’ve been derailed over the few months by an increase in social activity and continued nesting in our apartment (which I still love).

I’m still not sure what the main focus of this blog is going to be, but honestly? Maybe I don’t really need a focus. I’m not sure if being internet famous is important to me, and I kind of just want to chronicle the things I do, the movies I watch, the books I read…all that stuff.

I’ve been trying to balance a busy schedule against taking care of my mental self and giving my introversion the chance to recover after days of being around people. I rebounded after we moved from Wamego. After two years of not doing much of anything because of the drive, once we got to Manhattan, I decided to do everything. I joined a writer’s group, attended knitting group (which I haven’t gone to in awhile, but mostly because I haven’t had the knitting bug), got involved with some new gaming groups, and started planning more social get-togethers.

It’s been awesome.

There are also some big changes about to happen, but I’m not going to talk about them in this blog post, at least not the specific ones. Let’s just say that 2014 has been an interesting year. With the start of 2015, it’ll be time to get back into some of the things I need to get back into, like a consistent activity schedule and taking stock of spending and budgeting, which I’m still doing okay at, but which I feel can be improved upon greatly.

That’s enough dust shaking for now.

A.

Gifts and Prizes

Today was rainy and cold and it made me sleepy. I’d like to propose an employee nap time at the day job, but I’m pretty sure that’ll get tossed out the window. Still, I can dream, right?

 

I was feeling well enough to go to work today. Things weren’t too crazy, so I kept a handle on the to-do list. One of my friends, a field bee, knows of my geekiness and brought me a gift from a con she was recently at.

Admittedly, this reminds me that I really need to catch up on Doctor Who. Now that we have ChromeCast, I don’t think I have an excuse not to. I’m not ready to say goodbye to Matt Smith, so maybe that’s why I’m procrastinating. As long as I don’t see his regeneration, he’s still my Doctor, right?!

Remember that post where I talked about the Twitter chat that lit a blogging fire under my butt (last night)? What I failed to mention was that these chats often come with giveaways, and the giveaway for last night was the book Everything But the Posts by Becca Ludlum, who also took part in the chat.

I won! I was one of 5 winners, and I sent FitFluential my mailing address. Whenever I win something, I pretty much tell the whole world. I’ll be doing a review on the book as soon as I read it, so stay tuned.

It was Jon’s turn to feel under the weather, so it was an early night at home. We ended up watching Zack and Miri again, and I caught up on some internet things. It’ll be another early night and then…

…tomorrow’s Friday!

Until then…

A.

Good News and the Concept of “Home”

Jon got a job! The place he’d interviewed with called and offered him the position, and he starts in about a week and a half. Insert huge sigh of relief and happiness here. Besides knowing we’ll be able to pay the bills, having a solid plan and knowing that I can start planning for things feels good. I feel like I’ve been putting life on hold, and now I can let go and just “be” for awhile.

What’s interesting about the situation is that several months ago, we wanted to get out of this area. We wanted to live in a different state or at least a different city. We were disillusioned with MHK and had started feeling detached. We even told people we had no intentions of staying. I don’t know if it ever came across as insulting (in hindsight, it probably did). I didn’t mean for it to be. But I’d never embraced this town. I didn’t like it when I first moved here, and I often forgot about the good things because I was so annoyed by the not-so-good things.

Which is why it was kind of strange when Jon and I started talking about how much we’d miss the area. We started thinking that staying here wouldn’t be bad at all. Eventually, we realized we didn’t want to leave at all. There were pros to leaving: a new place, a new adventure, possibly a cheaper venture depending on where we ended up. But something big had shifted for us. We wanted to stay here…not just in Kansas, but in Manhattan (which is misleading, since we live in Wamego, but I’m referring to the area in general).

I’ve never called Kansas “home” because it felt like a pit stop on the road to somewhere else. Maybe it still is. Maybe in a few years, we’ll end up making the big move we expected this time. At this moment, though, I get to plant my feet in Kansas. I can plan and commit to things. I can hike the Flint Hills and find all the area geocaches and continue supporting the local museums, arts, and zoo. I can finally relax and let myself love the area and let some roots settle in. They may or may not grow deep, but they can take hold for a little while and flourish.

While I’ve managed to make this post all about me, I am truly proud of Jon and nervous for him since I know starting a new job can be kind of terrifying. Staying in the area also means we don’t have to make a huge move, but we are going to make a small one. We’ll be looking for an apartment in Manhattan and moving back there probably sometime this summer. We know exactly where we want to live and it looks like we’ll meet all the requirements, so fingers crossed we’re not missing something and our application gets accepted.

The excitement came on the tail of a little bit of sadness, as one of my good friends moved on to her own new adventure today. The good part is she’ll still be a co-worker, and now I can plan to visit her and my other friends who have moved away in the last few years.

One last note before I go to bed, related to the rest of the post because it involves being able to actually plan for something again: I got tickets to see Tori Amos in August!

On that note, I need sleep.

A.

 

Kiss Lashes Review and a Mini Makeover

It’s another post! I know, not really that exciting, but I like reviewing products from Influenster, so it’s exciting for me. And let’s face it…I have a habit of making it all about me. This post is going to do triple duty: a review of Kiss Lashes, a mention of John Frieda Three Day Straight, and a tale of girly shenanigans on a Friday night. The two products were received complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes. All opinions…and shenanigans…are my own.

I enlisted the help of my friend to help me try out some of my products and she was on board (she’s moving away next week, so girly things kept me from getting emotional and crying all over her and begging her to stay). The wine may have also helped with avoiding being weepy. I’m actually really happy for her, but good-byes are always sad.

The first thing we did was use the John Frieda Three Day Straight Spray and her flat iron to straighten my hair.

I haven’t had straight hair in a really long time, and I wasn’t sure if I’d actually like it, but the end result was actually cute…and more dramatic than I was expecting.

Before..and my regular look (no hair products, no curling…my hair just does this)

The left half has been flat ironed. The right half has been washed and sprayed, but not ironed yet.

After. All straight! And kind of cool looking!

I really liked the straight look, but I honestly don’t know if I’d have the time to flat iron it consistently. Also, I don’t have a flat iron, so that poses a problem. I’m tempted to look into a more permanent means of keeping it straight, but I don’t know if I’m ready to part with the curl…even temporarily (because even a permanent method would grow out eventually, right?). Still, it’s something to think about for a new look.

Next, we tried out the Kiss Lashes. I was originally going to let my friend try these. I have sensitive eyes, and I was afraid the glue would bother them. However, in the end, curiosity got the best of me, and I wanted to see how I’d look with eye falsies.

In hindsight, it would have been fun to take a video of the process of applying these, as I have a feeling we looked ridiculous. My friend did the application, and I focused on keeping my eyes from freaking out. Once they were on, they felt heavy and strange. It took us a couple tries to get them on so that they didn’t look super uneven, but once we did, the results were kind of cool.

Still a little uneven. Had a tough time getting them to adhere to the curve of my eyelid.

Good lash angle and a show off of the straight hair.

Getting a little goofy. Blame it on the moscato!

As much fun as we had with them, I’m not sure if they’re for me, at least not all the time. Maybe for a special occasion now and then if I can get them to stay on. The glue didn’t bother my eyes nearly as bad as I thought it would, but anytime something gets around my eye I tear up.

Also, they didn’t work so well with my glasses. They weren’t horrible, but they definitely felt a bit crowded behind the lenses.

Trying out the Kiss lashes made me want to try some things with mascara and possibly even give contacts a try again. The mascara might happen soon. I’m thinking of making a makeup run to Walgreens soon. The contacts? That will all depend on Jon’s work situation. But with my cafeteria plan, it’s definitely something I’m considering. It will take some practice, though, re: my eyes tear up when weird things come in contact with them.

I rarely end my posts with a question, but if anyone feels inclined to answer, does anyone out there use false lashes on a regular basis? If so, do they get easier and more natural to use with time?

A.

 

Work, Homework, and Working Out

After blogging fairly regularly for the last several months, it definitely felt weird to go a week without putting down a post. At the same time, most nights I was too brain tired to formulate a complete sentence by the time I got to the bloggy part of the night. I was using my words for book reviews I guess. Which I enjoyed doing, but I figured it was time to do an actual update.

Sadly, I’m a little hazy on singular events that happened over the past week. The weekend was fun. Jon went out of town, so I did some self pampering: walking, gym, art opening with wine, ears pierced, manicure, and quality time with friends. I introduced one crew to the movie Secretary and hung out with Forsh and Baby Forsh for some Bubble Guppy/social time.

Manicures are one of my favorite things that I don’t get often enough.

I missed Jon, but I definitely needed the pampering, and though I’d planned to do some work over the weekend to get caught up, I ended up giving my brain the rest it deserved.

Work has been pretty whoa. Remember when I mentioned I was transitioning to a new position? Well, the transition has happened, but the position itself has changed a bit, at least temporarily. I’m doing several different things, including coordinating some projects and diving into some marketing type stuff.

It’s a little overwhelming.

I’m hanging on and trying to focus and manage my time, and I think I’m doing okay for the most part. There are a few things I’m trying to get a handle on, but I think I just have to roll with it at this point. Some of it is fun. I never thought I’d enjoy doing html updates, nor did I think I’d be attempting to head up a social media campaign. But I’m doing both, along with a bunch of other things, and I’m pretty excited.

Outside of work, I’ve been finishing up a Coursera course and trying to maintain a regular schedule with finishing the lectures, quizzes, and assignments. Writing has taken a backseat to everything, as has editing, though I think I’ll be able to work on those things a little this week.

I’ve managed to hold on to an exercise routine, though I haven’t fully met my gym goals, nor have I taken the steps I initially wanted in training for a 5k. Still, I’m not going to beat myself up over it. As long as I’m staying active, I’m on the right track. Tonight we walked from our house to Subway and back. It was a pretty decent walk. There was a hill that kicked my butt, but I made it without too much trauma. As far as goals go, I’m keeping my current ones in my head, but in March, Jon and I are going to try to get back to doing some strength training.

I’m a little sore tonight, so I’m going to shower and lay down with a book for awhile. The plan for tomorrow is to be wide eyed enough to tackle some of the projects on my to-do list and put out some more fires. Fingers crossed.

A.

Valentines and Palentines

Jon and I are super non-traditional about Valentine’s Day. I’ve never been a big fan of V-Day, though this year I was a lot less cynical about it. Since Jon and I are always doing stuff together, Valentine’s Day just seems like any other day to us. Of course, that’s a personal thing, and I hope other people had fun doing whatever they do on Valentine’s Day.

We decided to ignore the commercials that said we were horrible people if we didn’t buy our significant other flowers/jewelry/a giant teddy bear. Instead, we chose things we actually wanted. Jon got some gaming supplies (play mat and sleeves for MtG) and I’m going to treat myself next weekend to some spa type things while he’s out of town (manicure time).

We did the whole Palentine’s Day thing. Jon went the game store, and I got together with the normal crew for some hang time and a Twitter party, which also included a fun Twitter conversation with my brother-in-law.

On Saturday, Jon and I chilled, then hijacked Terry’s boys and took them to see The LEGO Movie with us. All four of us liked it. It was a really fun movie, and the kids are always well behaved, so no worries there. There were so many kids in the theater, but we knew that going in, so it wasn’t obnoxious. We didn’t mind the child chatter during the movie.

Today we hit the gym, went out to eat at Longhorn’s, and went to gaming. I shared it on Twitter, but not FB or the blog – I logged a half hour on the elliptical machine last week. It’s been several years since I’ve been able to do that, so I felt super accomplished. I only logged 20 today before shifting to one of the other machines, but logging anything more than a few minutes on the elliptical is a pretty big thing for me.

The weekend was relaxing, but as always, I’m sad that Sunday night means returning to the work week. Going to shower and read myself to sleep in preparation for whatever Monday’s going to through at me.

A.

 

Anxiety and Accomplishments

I’ve talked about dealing with depression and how this winter has been rough on the psyche. Recently, I’ve started experiencing anxiety again. Yesterday, I woke up feeling sick, so I took a sick day from work. Instead of my body resting and using the time to heal, it went into full on panic attack mode thinking of all the things I needed to get done that weren’t getting done.

I finally simmered down and talked myself off the anxiety ledge, but I’m considering seeing a counselor until things settle down and even getting back on some medication.  I’ve avoided medication due to the side effects I had when I took Zoloft a few years ago, and I’ve been lucky enough to stave off most depression and anxiety with regular exercise. But if things continue as they are, I’m going to have to go back on something, at least temporarily Side note: the side effects of Zoloft aren’t something I think everyone gets, and I had other health issues at the time.  I’m a huge advocate for doing what you have to do to stay as mentally healthy as possible…within legal limits of course.

I’m likely to try some talk therapy first. Besides seasonal depression, I also suffer from situation depression, and right now, there are a lot of situations that are weighing on me, the main one being Jon’s work status and not having a full income. Then there’s my own job and the reorganization that is testing me in many ways, not to mention the staffing changes and friends moving away. Being in limbo about where we’re going and what we’re doing is starting to chip away at my optimism. I can’t plan for things, can’t buy tickets to future events, can’t do much of anything, not only because of the tightened budget, but also because we don’t even know if we’re going to be geographically located to be able to go to these events.

It’s all kind of hitting at once, and I’m hoping that maybe venting to an uninvolved third party might help.

Between the sickness and the anxiety, I spent most of yesterday trying to accomplish small things and sleeping. I probably slept too much, but I did wake up this morning feeling much better, so I guess it helped.

Today was a busy one. We were up early to drive to Fort Riley to help some fellow geocachers move to a new house. I overestimated my physical capabilities and my recovery from yesterday’s illness. After a few trips up the stairs, I thought I was going to throw up or pass out. I was still able to help by picking up trash and moving small things, but I felt kind of useless for the most part. Jon did a ton of work, going up and down the stairs and moving heavy stuff.  Still, when it comes to moving, I know every little bit helps, so even though I feel bad…I also still feel like I contributed. If that makes sense.

Also, with as tired and sick as I got, I still did way more than I could do when we moved into our apartment, so the opportunity to once again see how far I’ve come was good. And even though we were tired and sore afterwards, I’m not completely out of commission. It was also a chance to pay forward some of the good things that have come our way, which was one of the things I wanted to aim for in 2014.

We had to leave after a few hours to head back to Wamego to get our car fixed. One of our friends is mechanically inclined and was able to help fix the crunchy sounds our steering system has been making (not giving him name credit ONLY because I’m not sure if he wants the world to know about his mad skills with automotives).  It was nice to drive and not have the car sound like it was going to implode at every turn. Awesome friends are another reason we’re trying to pay things forward and back…even when I’m super down and life seems difficult, I realize how truly lucky/blessed/fortunate we are to have such great people in our life (yeah…getting sappy for a moment…just roll with it).

I finished the third Iron Druid book while the car was being worked on, and after we got home I finished the first week’s videos, assignment, and quiz for my current Coursera class. No clue what tomorrow will bring. I don’t think it’s been one hundred percent decided if gaming is happening. I do know that with the car being fixed, Jon and I would like to go out and get some geocaches and enjoy the day. It’s supposed to be another warm Sunday, and I want to soak up some natural Vitamin D before starting the week again.

Off for some more reading and more sleep.

A.