Sponsored Post: The Longest Date- Life as a Wife

Disclaimer #1: The nice folks at Penguin sent me a review copy for an honest opinion.

Disclaimer #2: I don't typically read books like this, but the author, Cindy Chupack wrote for (I think) five years on Sex and the City and now works on Modern Family, both shows I adore. Plus the lady at Penguin assured me it would be a short read, which it was. 

The Longest Date- Life as a Wife by Cindy Chupack chronicles her first five years married, after forty years of being a single woman. The book is set up into quick little chapters that describe an event, period, or issue that has been some sort of marker, milestone, or metaphor for her time thus far in marriage (elaborate dinner parties help her relax more and work with her husband, getting a dog symbolizes her need to realize her home is no longer just hers, the straight-up heartache of miscarriage, and so on and so forth). 

The writing itself was witty and often humorous, Chupack sharing honest flaws in herself and marriage. Let's face it- I could hear a little Carrie Bradshaw in there, and I liked it. The end was a bit too sentimental for my liking, though, and I thought the tone strayed a bit from the one that she had maintained previously.

A large portion related to her and her husband's quest to have a baby- she was older and they tried pretty much everything from acupuncture to IVF to HGC shots (I'm very glad that I'm reading this book now and not twelve or eighteen months ago...). Eventually the couple to pursue alternate methods, chronicled by both Chupack and her husband. 

On one hand, I finished the book appreciating the message that marriage is hard and requires work, compromise, honesty, and love. But on the other, I wasn't sure if her story really warranted a book. Her story isn't that unique- thousands of women marry late in life and struggle to get pregnant. I wasn't particularly moved, inspired, or enlightened either. Somewhat entertained, yes, but never moved to laughter or tears.

I've been wracking my head trying to find the right audience for this book. Bridal showers or weddings? So they can start worrying about their fertility? Women who are in their mid-thirties tired of dating? So they can worry about never getting married and having kids? Women who are married and have kids? So they're forced to be thankful they were able to. Perhaps fans of the shows she's worked on? SJP was a fan, after all...

My 2013 Photo Book

Growing up one of my favorite things to do was look at our family photo albums that may mom did a decent job of keeping up-to-date. Starting when I was fifteen or sixteen I started to keep my own, back in the day where you actually had to take film in and get it developed. I continued this habit up until the end of last year- religiously having my photos printed from my digital camera and filling them in albums along with written blurbs. I loved having a record of what I did, but it had gotten to the point where it was a bit of a pain in the ass. 

[While I do love white space, there are some busier pages]

This year I decided to go an alternate route and use Mixbook, my preferred photo book company of choice. I've used Kodak, Shutterfly, and Snapfish before, but I really prefer the freedom that Mixbook provides in terms of changing fonts, colors, backgrounds, layouts (or not even using one of theirs), and sizes (it's incredibly similar to the yearbook company's program at school). They're product is high quality and their prices competitive (and they always have coupon codes). Their customer service is great, they deliver on time, and the program is user-friendly. Unfortunately, they do not pay me to say this.

[a bit more simple]

I started the project several months ago, with the hope that I would catch up and then stay on track every month. It didn't happen. Instead, I got through April and then stopped. So this month while on Christmas break I've spent hours downloading pictures off my phone and computer onto the site and creating pages for months May-December. I'm happy to say that today I finished December and the many necessary edits. 

[I try to let the pictures do the talking, but sometimes you need words!]

While everyone has their own style and technique, here are a few things that worked for me:

- I didn't create rules in terms of how many pages each month could or could not be; some months were slow and only needed three pages, while some were jam-packed with fun and needed eight or ten.

- I tried to include smaller, more ordinary moments in addition to the more obvious events and milestones.

- I utilized my yearbook adviser training and aimed for consistency and plenty of white space. The consistency came in terms of things like font type and size, a loose font color scheme for each month, and the style of the picture formatting. White space is personal preference- I like pages to be clean and crisp, rather than heavy with digital stickers and colored backgrounds (this is one of my issues with scrapbooking, besides the time and money- so many spreads are so busy). 

- I put cost aside, which is very difficult for me. I knew that this was not going to be cheap; I wanted a 12x12 book, which start at $49 for 20 pages. After all was said and done, my book ended up being 73 pages, with each additional page after 20 costing $1.25. Luckily they were running a 40% off coupon when I submitted, so my $116 dollar book was reduced to $69 (plus shipping and tax). On the bright side, I didn't have to spend any money printing photos or buying albums this year, so things come close to evening out in the end.

- I used their templates (and changed them as needed) and created my own as well. 

- I wrote some copy, but tried not to go overboard (I do love me some words, though).

- I accept the fact that when it arrives there are going to be a few errors. I probably could have asked my editor/writer husband to go over it, but was too impatient to order it. 

So now, since I of course chose the cheapest shipping, have to wait a few weeks to see the finished outcome. I'm so excited and hope that this ends up being great enough to take the place of my old method of photo-keeping. 

Life According to Literature

This is an end-of-the-year meme brought to us by the Catherine Pope- Victorian Geek (by way of Rory) that I thought looked like fun. She provides a list of questions and we have to use the book titles from what we read in 2013 to answer them (I'm bending it a bit and using nonfiction as well).

Describe yourself: Sweet Tooth (Ian McEwan)

How do you feel: Let the Great World Spin (Colum McCann)

Describe where you currently live: The Night Circus (Erin Morgenstern)

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Italian Ways (Tim Parks)

Your favorite form of transportation: TransAtlantic (Colum McCann)

Your best friend is: Ways of Going Home (Alejandro Zambra)

You and you friends are: The Interestings (Meg Wolitzer)

What's the weather like: The Burning Air (Erin Kelly)

You fear: The Antagonist (Lynn Coady)

What is the best advice you have to give: Everything is Perfect When You're a Liar (Kelly Oxford)

Thought for the day: Me Before You (JoJo Moyes)

How I would like to die: Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore (Robin Sloan)

My soul's present condition: Changing My Mind (Zadie Smith) 

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts

Hello friends! Take a minute to link up below! For those of you who are new, Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts is simply just that- make a list of whatever has been on your mind this week, bookish and not so bookish!

1. I have to admit to being really excited to starting on the second year of my Question a Day book (and the first year of Cook's Line a Day). I'm excited to go back and see what life was like a year ago.

2. Tuesday night was my first New Year's Eve sober in... a long time. We never do much, but there are usually a few cocktails involved. Instead we got ice cream, played Scrabble, and watched a ton of The League episodes.

3. Speaking of doing things sober, we went to Vegas last weekend for a super quick trip. We drove up with the dogs Saturday morning and then spent the evening on the strip walking around, making an impromptu stop at Serendipity III (I had my first Frozzzzen Hot Chocolate- it was so good I could give two fucks about touristy the place is), and, the highlight of the evening, dinner at Thomas Keller's Bouchon in The Venetian. I had the French gnocchi and then this wonderful brownie dish for dessert. It was definitely one of the best meals I've ever had in my whole little life- completely worth the bill. Sunday we visited with my husband's best friend and girlfriend and then decided to drive back that evening instead of wait until morning.  Oh, and as a side note, I think Vegas is one of the tackiest cities in the world. But I do appreciate the fact that they still don't charge for parking (and have some amazing restaurants).

4. My husband and I had a serious talk this morning... about what type of music the dogs would listen to if they had an actual choice. Chomsky would definitely listen to gangster rap- probably Tupac. And Cordie would be more of a Sarah Maclachlan/Lillith Fair sort of "get in touch with your anxious emotions" listener.

[It's not my fault I always look stoned]

 

5. We saw American Hustle on New Years Eve (before the Scrabble playing and ice cream eating) and it was really good! Jennifer Lawrence was great and Christian Bale was gross (the comb-over was seriously intense).

6. I need to get back into cooking new recipes again; the last few weeks have been so hectic that while I'm still cooking 4-5 times a week, it's just the normal tried and true dishes. I hate feeling boring in the  bedroom kitchen. I've gotten a few new cookbooks lately and every food blogger I read is posting best-of lists, so  have plenty of resources for some creativity.

7. I've been reading The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson and I must say it's much better than The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Granted the writing isn't anything amazing, but the story itself is a lot more interesting to me than the first book.

8. Does anyone have any genius ideas about getting dog hair off stairs? My dust buster is dying a slow painful death, the vacuum is too cumbersome to drag up step-by-step, and I really don't want a runner right now. There has to be some sort of incredible secret I don't know about, right?

9. I've been furiously working at finishing my 2013 photobook on Mixbook over vacation in hopes they'll offer a good deal on printing it (because if they don't it's going to end up costing nearly $100 with all the extra pages). It's been so much fun looking at what I did each month- I have so many great friends and have made an effort to take advantage of different things in my area this year. I'll write more about my "method" when I finish.

10. Ever wonder what your spirit animal was? Take this quiz! Mine is a tiny turtle riding a skateboard.

[source]

2013: A Year in Review, By the Numbers

This is the post where I brag about how this year was so much better than last year. 

Make it so.

62 books read

21,213 pages read

60 pages read a day (average)

2 boats traveled on [cruise + brother's Navy ship]

1 horribly awesome book wreath made

3 concerts attended [Lady Gaga, Matchbox 20, Legends of the Summer]

1 bike bought [and a few hundred miles ridden]

11 trips made into LA [readings, UCLA, friends, etc...]

4 hikes hiked

1 baby conceived 

9 audiobooks listened to

2 plays/performances attended [Pageant of the Masters and Wicked]

1 time trapezing 

60 (+/-) yoga classes attended

22 books purchased

1,000s of ranunculus seen [Carlsbad Flower Fields]

8 readings attended

2,600 hours reading essays [fine, I made that up]

231 blog posts posted 

2 recipes created and posted [pie and rice krispy squares]

22 people cooked for on Thanksgiving 

1 trip to Hogwarts  

Hope your 2013 was great and your 2014 even better! 

I promise I wrote this before I saw Julie's, but apparently great minds think alike! Check our her post as well!