Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts

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1. Funny, frustrating story: I use Mixbook to do my year-in-review photo books and they were offering a 50% off coupon, valid through Monday night. Considering I do a 12 x 12 hardcover book and add about 125 extra pages, I need that 50% off coupon! So, I stayed up wayyyy past my bedtime to finish and somewhere around 11:30 their site and my computer got in a fight and by 12 I still needed another half an hour to finish December and edit. So, despite it being so late (for me) I decided to just finish the damn thing and wait for another coupon in the future. And so, I did, and it turned out beautiful and wonderful. I went to save and exit and another 50% code popped up and was good for two additional days, meaning I didn't need to stay up after two nights of shitty sleep. Womp womp womp.

That was long. And maybe not that interesting. 

2. Sorry, but can chokers go back out of style where they belong?

3. I am sixty or seventy pages into The Nix and am totally loving it. So much so I can already see it possibly being in my top ten of 2017. I'm glad that it's long- I want it all. 

4. I don't think I posted this because it was a gift, but I made a close friend of mine this Gilmore Girls cross stitch for Christmas and am pretty proud of how cute it turned out (and how fun it was to do, despite the million color changes):

5. Today my mom, Sawer, and I went to The Living Desert in Palm Desert for the first time. Basically, it's a small-ish zoo featuring desert animals that they are given or that they find in need of rehabilitation. The absolute best part? WE GOT TO FEED THE GIRAFFES. It was the best- Sawyer and I were equally in love. Their tongues are really long and slimy. 

6. Christmas break is coming to a close and I have had such a good time. But one thing is super clear to me: I have to make some changes when I get back to work to keep my sanity when it comes to grading. My grading calendar was great when I overloaded, so I am thinking that if I start using it at the start of the semester when I have nothing it will be a lifesaver (I keep one master list of all the assignments I need to grade, and then I write what needs to be graded on a blank calendar and try to really hold myself accountable to stick with it). 

7. I don't want to end on a depressing note, but I didn't want to start on one either. I have followed Pinch of Yum, the cooking blog, for a few years and love their recipes and their overall tone and personality. Lindsey does the food writing and her husband, Bjork, does the back-end stuff and jumps on once a month to disclose their financial stats. They just seem like really, really good people. People I'd want to be friends with, and in a way, I almost feel like I am because of their conversational style of writing and general warmth. So, the other night when I learned that she went into pre-term labor at 24 weeks and lost their baby a day later I was so very, very sad for them. They followed up the news with some extremely emotional instagram and blog posts that made me admire them even more. To be so graceful and thankful in such a devastating moment is so rare. It made me realize how poorly equipped I am to handle such a loss, and thus strengthened my growing gut feeling that I may not be cut out to have another child. 

I know, heavy stuff. But, that's life, right?