Book 19: I don't want a dragon tattoo...

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So, while I put this book aside as I read Mockingjay, I finally finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson today. Yes, there were parts that had me glued to "solve the mystery", but I completely forgot there was going to be a "mystery" until 1/3 into the book.  To say that the beginning of the book is slow is an understatement. It took me a really long time to get through it because I didn't want to continue reading it. It wasn't until Anthony Rapp's review on Twitter that made me want to sit down and devote time to complete it. The book made shocking turns and I enjoyed it. I just did not enjoy the fluff around the mystery. I kept wanting to skim by it as I was reading. I intend on reading the next book in the trilogy, but I am hoping that it doesn't contain the same slow-pace that this one had at times.

Mockingjay LOVE

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So, I've officially finished reading Mockingjay. I really don't want to give any spoilers and I don't really have the time to post an insane review, but regardless- I loved it!! I couldn't put it down and thought that the pacing and story line really flowed. I actually thought that a few of the twists were great and found myself emotionally involved. Ahh I can't wait to post more soon!

Mockingjay: The countdown begins!

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So, as I've discussed in previous posts. I love The Hunger Games series. As I've done with other series (Harry Potter/Twilight), I am awaiting the final book in a series. The final book of The Hunger Games entitled Mockingjay comes out tonight at midnight. Obviously, I preordered the book so that it will download on my nook  at midnight. At the moment, I fully intend on reading the book as soon as it is released. My only issue is that I'd like to finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo before I begin Mockingjay. However, I do know that I still have a lot of cleaning to do at home before my full-time teaching job begins again next week. So, I might have to suck it up and put TGWTDT aside while I read Mockingjay. Now, if only I could get some of the nice stuff in the Hot Topic Hunger Games store!

Ok, I'm not that bad

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I am actually impressed with myself. Although I was extremely tired last night, I did all of our dishes that have been piling up in the sink. Luckily, I didn't need to pack anything because I no longer need to sleep at my sister's house. Woohoo! Obviously, this means more time to get stuff done at home. I cleaned our bathroom a few days ago, but unfortunately my purple shampoo has made the bottom of our bathtub purple. It's mostly residue and due to the fact that our bathtub sucks at draining itself. (Yes, I've used Draino multiple times and it still sucks.) So, now I need to clean the purple residue from the bottom of our shower, and figure out what the hell I can do about this stupid drain. Also, I think I might continue cleaning our kitchen out. R and I are planning to go hardcore on our apartment this weekend. We basically want to get the entire apartment clean this weekend, so that we don't have to clean during my last weekend before work starts. We also want to get all of our laundry organized so I can get it done next week at my sister's house.

On another note, I'm contemplating going to a Mockingjay event next Wednesday. It's at 7pm in the next town over from where I babysit, so I'll definitely be able to get there in time. The author, Suzanne Collins, will be there reading the beginning of the book. Unfortunately, due to a hand injury, she won't be signing the books, but instead using a custom handstamp. Yes, it will be nice to meet the author, hear her read, and get the stamped copy. I definitely need to decide this today, so I can go to the store and pre-order the book. We'll see what happens with that!

Self Sabotage: Begin!

So, here is where my self-sabotaging begins. Remember how I had a plan of all the things I wanted to do tonight? Yeah, of course I didn't get it all done. In fact, I haven't done any of it yet. I also have no intention of doing most of it. Instead, I will eat some dinner, gather my laundry for tomorrow (ok that's one thing from my list), pack for sleeping at my sister's tomorrow, and then lay in bed and read.

Speaking of reading, I've somewhat been lacking in that department. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to do any reading this summer. While I have read some books, I haven't read the amount that I thought I would. Obviously this makes my goal of reading 50 books by the end of the year seem somewhat impossible. Yet still, I think I might be able to do it! I do have several books loaded on my nook that I need to get started with! (Not to mention the third book in the Hunger Games trilogy comes out on the 24th and I must read it). So, here's my list of upcoming books that I need to read, in no particular order:

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling (this is a re-read before the movie comes out)


• Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert


• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson


• The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson


• The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson


• Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins


• The rest of the Pretty Little Liars series

Race Against Myself?

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I feel like I'm in a constant race with myself. I'd like to do so many things with my time, but I can never find the time or energy to do it all. As we know, through my self-aware laziness, that I have major issues with both my weight and body image. Yes, I've come to terms with this. However, I wish I did have the will-power to do all that I want to do about it. I am constantly making lists of all of the things that I want to accomplish, but when I get home - I just want to crash. It's actually extremely annoying and self-sabotaging. So, anyway, here is to creating goals and trying to stick to them.

Baby steps:

• Gather laundry tonight to do at my sister's house tomorrow and Friday (I'll be sleeping there and doing extra babysitting)


• Clean our kitchen


• Go food shopping


• Write down everything I eat

2 weeks and counting...

I cannot believe my summer is almost over. With all of the babysitting, I actually feel like I worked harder than when I am at my full-time job! I actually can't wait to go back to work and be on a normal schedule again. This schedule is obviously going to include exercising, cleaning, and laundry. Now... if only I knew what exactly I would be teaching. Unfortunately, I haven't been notified yet, so I'm a little uneasy about this. Oh well, I didn't know last year until the school year had already started a bit so I know I can work through whatever I am given. However, I do know that I will be teaching at least one class of Physics :)

My hair is my canvas..

I have been coloring my hair since probably 7th grade. Of course, back then it was probably just highlights or "streaks". I get extremely bored with my hair and try something new all of the time. Here's a taste:

Just over the last year I have done the following: I had extremely long hair from my wedding, cut it to my chin, put pink streaks in it, went with bangs, bleached my hair, put more pink in, etc, etc. I think part of the reason that I change my hair so often is probably because it's the only part about the way I look that I can change quickly, and actually see the change. [insert low self-esteem here]

So, now I am here today with another hair-do. I decided to go shorter again, because it's easier to take care of. It's hard to tell in the picture but my hair has several different layer colors. The bottom is light brown, then a layer of red (the same that are on my bangs in the front), then a darker blonde, then a light blonde on top. I love love love the cut and color. Luckily, my husband's mom is a hair dresser so she helps me satisfy my hair addiction. Oh and if you didn't believe me - here's my hair senior year of high school:

The Today Show?

I'm currently watching The Today Show, and it is a hot mess. Not only is Ke$ha the worst performer of the decade, but she's obviously drunk. At one point she seemed to be redeeming her performance by going to a keyboard. She propped her mic up, and got me almost excited to see her redeem herself with some amazing piano skills. No, I was completely wrong. She spent the entire time turning a KNOB. Did this knob do anything? No. But it was probably a great texture for someone who is drunk.

As if the train wreck wasn't enough, then comes Dina Lohan for an "interview". Not only did she avoid every question, but she apparently still thinks that she's the number one mother in the world. You can be the judge on that :)

Antoine Dodson is my hero!

I have become extremely obsessed with the Antoine Dodson phenomenom. If you've been living under a rock: Antoine Dodson saved his sister from being sexually assaulted and then blasted the intruder on the news. The amazing guys at Autotunethenews took the footage of Antoine and turned it into an awesome song which is now available on iTunes. As if that wasn't enough, North Carolina A&T's Marching Band went and orchestrated it. I love this!

I am a fatty.

So, I weighed myself this morning and I'm definitely at the highest weight that I've ever been. I actually went and created a weight loss page above which you can look at to see some of my "backstory".

Anyway, as someone who does theatre, I have become familiar with many wonderful people who are in the industry. One of them gave me some tips known as the "Broadway Dancer Diet Secrets". Yes, I know what you're thinking - "Diets don't work!" "Do Weight Watchers because it gives you a new lifestyle" "Blahblah I am holier than thou boohoo" Well, too bad. This "diet" actually makes a lot of sense and I'll be using it as a head-start.

So, there are few rules when it comes down to the diet:

1. No eating after 8pm.


2. Don't eat anything white (that includes rice, bread, pasta, cheese, milk, dairy products) - This leaves you with brown rice


3. Don't eat anything FRIED or with High Fructose Corn Syrup


4. Eat smaller meals per day (3-4 smaller portions)


5. Do some sort of cardio everyday.


6. Drink 5-8 glasses of water with a little cayenne pepper sprinkled in it

So, really this leaves you with a bunch of options. I intend on eating on a schedule/eating a lot of the same things every day. They would include: salmon/tuna/grilled chicken/turkey/veggies/brown rice etc

Obviously there needs to be some food shopping done, but luckily there is a lot of stuff that I can get in bulk at Costco.

Potty Training?

Apparently my niece has her own version of potty training. She found a community newspaper and is currently laying the sheets out on the floor. It looks like she's setting up her own collection of Wee-Wee Pads. If only potty training were this easy! Speaking of potty training, this little girl needs to get potty trained ASAP! She has allergy issues and sometimes her "Number Two's" are just GROSS! When R and I have a baby, it'll come out potty trained. Okay, yes, that's wishful thinking and it won't happen, but wouldn't that be wonderful? On another note, I should hopefully be done babysitting at a somewhat decent time today and tomorrow. Which leaves more time for gathering laundry and cleaning at my apartment, so that we can get a head start. Oh the woes of attempting to be domestic.

My MacBook hates me...

I've noticed lately that my battery hasn't been lasting as long as it did a week ago. By long, I mean more than an hour. The last couple of days, my battery has just kicked out before I even reach an hour... which is a pain in the ass. Especially because it doesn't even save where I am. Instead it just turns completely off and anything I was doing was not saved. Mind you... this Macbook is a year old. It should NOT be acting like this! I'm obviously extremely annoyed by this, but what can you do? I'm obviously not running out and getting a new battery anytime soon because we're trying to save budget-wise... and a new MacBook battery costs around $130. Uh, no thank you. So, instead, I just need to remember to keep the damn thing plugged in at all times. Side note: I DO need to go to Five Below and see if they have any iPod wires for my iPhone. Our wire that we use to charge with at home has turned to crap. My nieces want to get their mom a birthday present today (courtesy of $20 that they're getting from Grandma and Grandpa). So, I'm thinking we'll stop at Five Below first so that they can see if they see any small things there for their mom AND so I can get a charger. Good deal? Yeah, I thought so.

This is my summer

My entire summer has turned into a marathon of children's television. Obviously things will be more "adult" when I finally gather our laundry and bring it to my sister's house. There are only 2.5 more weeks of babysitting and I am counting down the days. I cannot wait to be home at a normal time everyday again. Not only am I babysitting, but I am also going to be rehearsing a show for the next couple of weeks until it opens in September. This will definitely be my last show for awhile... (at least a few months). I can't deal with going from one show to the next one anymore. The next step is for me to finally get paid for acting! Hook it up please.
On another note, I asked R to sit down with me tonight to discuss the cleaning/laundry action plan that I created yesterday. I really want to arrange a schedule for us both to follow over the next week.
Ah I guess that's it for now.

Baby steps...

So, without revealing too much... let's just say that our apartment is in shambles. One of the main reasons we moved out was so that we could begin entertaining and sharing our lives with others. Unfortunately, due to R's injury and our insane schedules we have been lacking in the cleaning and laundry department.

Laundry:

Unfortunately, without thinking about it... our first apartment does not have a washer or dryer. So, with our schedules it has become exceedingly difficult to go to do our laundry. Our laundry is literally ALL OVER the place. From the overflowing hamper, to all over the floor. We literally step on laundry to get into bed. Yes, there is definitely a dose of laziness involved. There are also clean clothes mixed in that were just dropped on the floor instead of being put away!
Laundry Course of Action

• Gather all of our laundry and see what is actually clean and what definitely needs to be washed.


• Create laundry piles/bags to be done.


• While babysitting my nieces, bring the laundry to my sister's and make use of her washer and dryer.


• Fold all of the laundry at my sister's.


• Bring all of the laundry home and put it away as soon as I get home.


• Repeat the above steps until there is no laundry left!

Cleaning:
Our entire apartment needs to be cleaned. It is literally to the point where there is shit everywhere that needs to be thrown away or put away. Our kitchen is unusable at the moment because there are so many dishes to do. (This piled up while R was recovering from surgery, and couldn't wash dishes). Once again, our mistake with choosing this apartment was that it had no dishwasher.
Cleaning Course of Action:

• Clean bathroom surfaces/tub/sink/toilet (Yes! I did this before writing this post!)


• Sweep, dustbust, wash bathroom floor.


• Once bedroom has laundry organized: sweep, dustbust, wash floor.


• Throw out any garbage/put away any items in bedroom


• Clean bedroom surfaces


• Organize the items in our spare room and clean floors


• Throw out any garbage in kitchen


• Clean all dishes/pots/pans in kitchen


• Clean out fridge/freezer


• Clean all surfaces in kitchen


• Sweep/Dustbust/Wash kitchen floor


• Organize dining room


• Sweep/Dustbust/Wash kitchen floor


• Throw out any garbage in living room


• Organize items in living room


• Sweep/Dustbust/Wash living room floor


• Call to have couch cleaned

So, obviously we have a lot on our plate. However, I think that if we stick to our guns and have certain tasks designated for certain days/times... then we can get it all done. Once it's all done, we just need to simply stick to a cleaning routine and schedule. Also, we'll be looking for a new place for next year so that we can have a washer/dryer/dishwasher in our apartment.

Here's to setting goals and hopefully sticking to them!

Reliving my childhood

There are times that I pretend that I had a horrible childhood... My main reasoning is usually that I never went to Disney World. Okay, fine this doesn't make for a horrible childhood, but whatever. One thing I have noticed while being with my nieces and nephew is that I love reliving my childhood and acting like a kid again. This is probably why I want to go to Disney World now, I love kids/teen tv shows and movies, and playing kid games. So when my niece who I babysit received an Easy Bake Oven for her birthday, you know I jumped right on the wagon to help her use it. First of all, this thing is the biggest waste! The mix makes like one cookie. Lol. Not to mention, I'm the kind of person who likes watching things bake and you can't see anything through this thing. I guess I'll stick to conventional baking!

Hello, hello

While this is not my first and only blog, I figured I needed a separate one that was just devoted to my life and what I am going through. If you like you can visit my other blog for reviews on books, technology, movies, and television at MishInNJ.wordpress.com.

This is what I've been doing

I have no idea why I haven't posted on here in forever. It's probably due to the fact that by the time I get home, I end up going to sleep. I've been really busy with babysitting. I've become entirely all too familiar with Phineas and Ferb, Hannah Montana, iCarly, and The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. Phineas and Ferb might be my number one choice at this moment. It's actually very well written, and catchy. I found myself watching it on a Saturday morning with my husband. The story structure is pretty much the same for each episode. Phineas and Ferb are step brothers who are enjoying their summer vacation. Each day they figure out an activity to do. They're "inventors" so they are always creating schemes and gadgets in their backyard. Their sister, Candace, is always trying to get them caught by their mom. She spends the entire episode trying to get their mom to see what they have been doing. Meanwhile, their pet platypus, Perry, is a secret agent on the side. "Agent P" has an arch-nemesis called Dr. Doofenshmirtz. Agent P usually gets trapped by the doctor, then he foils the doctor's evil plan for the episode. As the doctor's plans get destroyed, something usually happens that takes away what Phineas and Ferb have been doing before Candace is able to get their mom to bust them. Dr. Doofenshmirtz is by far my favorite character, and some of his dialogue is hysterical - even for an adult. Anyway, that's about it with children's programming. Now if only I could get back to reading and a normal schedule.