The one where Rachel doesn't have any good excuses.
First off, I must say that I am overwhelmed by the level of support I received after sharing this blog to my Facebook page. I know you guys are my friends and kind of have to like it, but still…you all are amazing, thank you. I even have eight whole subscribers, which is a lot more than the two I was expecting.
Ok self, things are getting serious now. I have eight people depending on me for regular content dispersal. Must keep writing.
It occurred to me today that I am actually a whole adult now. It has been a long and slow process. Indeed so slow, that I hardly noticed it was happening, but today I went through a little mental checklist and realized that it was complete.
I have a real apartment, a car, car insurance, health insurance, a divorce (My boyfriend reminded me that I also have a real boyfriend, as opposed to a fake one?). Yep, that settles it, I must be a real adult.
So what do I do now?
No idea.
Yep, I’m just as clueless as I never thought I would be after having such a realization.
I guess the only way to go is forward…
Today was one of my days off for exercise mode. I was just sore enough today to know that I actually did something worthwhile at the gym (besides being a motivational figure to teenagers), but not enough that I was dying. I’m raring to go for round 2 tomorrow.
That takes us to my update in the diet department.
Breakfast – those awesome weekend baked chocolate chip muffins and a banana.
Picture now included to create veins of extreme jealousy in all my lovely readers.
Do you think this is going to my head? I think this is going to my head.
Lunch was a repeat of the Buddha bowl sans avocado and egg, which seemed more lunch appropriate and lighter. I did not take a photo of this as it just seems wrong to photograph a food which shares its likeness? characteristics? something? with a spiritual figure. Still haven’t figured out the whole Buddha thing…
An apple for a snack to keep the doctor at bay.
Dinner was a bit of a hot mess. I learned an invaluable lesson, that if you wish to do a meal plan, you must:
A) Read the directions
Woah! What?
I know, right?
B) Read all of the instructions before starting the experiment, errrr cookery
Crazy! What is this nonsense?
I learned at about noon today that pernil is not a soup to be cooked in the Instapot, but rather a pork roast to be cooked in the slow cooker for 8 hours. The roast in question was hamming it up with my frozen fruits and veggies on this particular day, and so was completely out of commission.
Whatever did you do? Did you starve?
Nah man, its kewl. I’m flexible.
My personality is about as flexible as this cat stuck in the snow.
I hate changing plans, but that’s ok. I made today work. Instead, we had Thursday’s meal of one-sheet Italian sausage and vegetables. I learned today that chicken sausage is absolutely amazing! I’m not sure that I will ever eat pork sausage again. I highly highly recommend.
The pork roast is prepped for a long day at the sauna tomorrow with a few orange and lime friends. Will try to remember to post a picture of the finished product (but I didn't).
Soooo what about your list?
Easy, easy, I’m getting there.
I’m going to skip the Bible thing for now and come back to it later on this week (I promise), and move on to the book thing for now.
Read
I love to read.
That is all.
You may all go home now.
In the year 2020, I read/listened to 50 books, and for anyone who knows me personally, you also know that I won’t shut up about it. I am very proud indeed. You will note on this blog site that I am currently working on a Top 10 of the books that I read last year, but that is still a work in progress, and will let you know when complete.
I owe in part at least some of those 50 to the great gals of the COVID/COREAD Book Club, consisting of five women from diverse backgrounds who meet ehhhhh once everyone finishes the book to discuss and gab. “A little bit of book club and a lot of everything else,” as one member likes to put it.
All-in-all, our club includes one Minnesotan biologist, one Bangladeshi-American physicist, one Russian botanist, one Midwestern librarian, and me, a German literature expert.
Giving yourself the title of expert seems pretty brazen, friend.
Yeah, it is, but I also have a Masters degree in German literature, so I’m going to claim expertise.
We each chose a book to discuss, and we made a random order of the selections through a number generator. Our first round of five consisted of:
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer
I will share my thoughts further on some of these books later on, but we continued into a round 2 which has started and stopped and sputtered a bit, but is now almost to completion:
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Tonight, we gathered virtually to discuss the latter. I must admit that this book is pretty foggy in my brain after so much time, and it got a bit combobbled with the Hulu series by the same name. There were cats going here and there and everywhere, loving the camera as much as you would expect cats might. There were families coming in and out, there were tired arms moving cameras everywhichway, trying to find a comfortable position. Yep, a pretty standard night of book club.
I initially started this group because I worried that during COVID I wouldn’t have as many opportunities to connect with my friends. At least if there was a book club, then they would have to talk to me every once in a while. I had also recently re-watched the Jane Austen Book Club, which made me believe we would all have shiny cinematic lives if I did this book club. Well personally, that hasn’t happened yet, but we also haven’t finished the last two books…
I have wayyyyy too many books, at least 200, and maybe more. I started buying them hot and heavy as a teenager, but once I went to university, I stopped reading stuff from my personal collection and mostly focused on the stuff I had to read for class. One thing I love about being out of school is getting to read whatever book I want at whatever pace I want, although I do sometimes crave the pier discussion time, hence COVID/COREAD.
GoodReads tells me that if I read one book per week, I will achieve my 50 books for another year. I already know I will have to pad this somewhere with some very foolish books, such as T-Rex Trying by Hugh Murphy or The Twelve Cats of Christmas by Kandy Radzinsky.
I am currently reading Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier, but I’m not so sure I will finish it this week, still have 100 pages to go.
I seem to have gotten a little behind in posting this week, but never fear, there is always next week, or the week after, or even the week after that. I know you were all eagerly checking your email inboxes.
When will I get another post from Prairie Dreams? Did the subscription link work properly?
Believe-you-me, I was actually asking myself the same questions.
Although I have yet to write them down, I have thought so much this week about what I want this to be and some of the things I want to share. I am so looking forward to the continuing journey.
That’s all for now.
See you soon, folks.