It's (Almost) The Weekend !

To say that this has been a long week would be an understatement. As I try to maintain what little positivity I have left, and instead of being a Debbie Downer, I'd rather focus on fun stuff ! Here are some favorites from this week along with a linkup:

Favorite song:

"I'm No Good" by New Year's Day.  This song has been stuck in my head all week. Enjoy !

Favorite Internet Meme:

Bad Pun Dog is my go to for smiles this week.

Favorite Pet Moment:

I don't think I've introduced you to Loki yet ! My little sir !  Before anyone freaks out, yes, he's a rat and yes, I loves his little ratty face and his whisker kisses.  (If you want me to, I can give you the spiel about how rats are better pets than hamsters, but email me for that and I'll be happy to convert you !)  In his 3 story house, he has a water bottle AND a water bowl.  He uses the bottle to get drinks and the bowl to give himself baths (usually at weird hours of the night).  When he gets a drink, he does what I call "drinking fancy" or "fancy hands".  I usually try and catch him doing this but he always stops when I go and try to take a picture of it and I FINALLY was able to get it.

(Look at his little paws !)

Favorite Gifs or An accurate portrayal of my week (in no particular order):

Stress eating.

When someone tries to talk to me at work.

Self explanatory.

And finally, how I feel about the office since it's Friday:

Favorite "dawn of realization" moment:

Favorite Movie Scene I will watch over and over and can't stop laughing at:

If you haven't seen 22 Jump Street, you need to.  I did not stop laughing the ENTIRE movie. When I found that someone put this on YouTube, I almost screamed out loud.

I take my leave now, to anxiously watch the clock until I can escape and enjoy my weekend of no work !

Hope everyone has a great Friday and an even better weekend !

I Like Big Books and I Cannot Lie

I dedicate today's post to my fellow bookworms.  The question of "What book are you reading !?" came up so often after yesterday's post, that I wanted to give you all a bunch of book recommendations ! I'm not going to go into insane amounts of detail about why I'm recommending them because I can rant and rave about it all day, but you might hate it...I'm just putting these out there and letting you decide.  *All covers and descriptions are pulled from Goodreads*

What I'm currently reading: Something From The Nightside by Simon R. Green

"John Taylor is not a private detective per se, but he has a knack for finding lost things. That's why he's been hired to descend into the Nightside, an otherworldly realm in the center of London where fantasy and reality share renting space and the sun never shines."

-This is like Dick Tracy meets Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman.  I have less than 100 pages left and this will probably be finished during lunch today. I Cannot. Put. It. Down !  If you've read Neverwhere (and liked it) read this one.

My Go-To books for recommendations:

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

"The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night. 

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway: a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them both, this is a game in which only one can be left standing. Despite the high stakes, Celia and Marco soon tumble headfirst into love, setting off a domino effect of dangerous consequences, and leaving the lives of everyone, from the performers to the patrons, hanging in the balance."

-I can't put into words my love for this book.  My only suggestion is to pay attention to the chapter titles and more importantly, the dates, so you don't get confused. Amazing.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

"Ray Bradbury’s internationally acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 is a masterwork of twentieth-century literature set in a bleak, dystopian future.

Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden.

Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television "family." But then he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear, and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television.

When Mildred attempts suicide, and Clarisse suddenly disappears, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known. He starts hiding books in his home, and when his pilfering is discovered, the fireman has to run for his life.

First published in 1953, Fahrenheit 451 is a classic novel set in the future when books forbidden by a totalitarian regime are burned. The hero, a book burner, suddenly discovers that books are flesh and blood ideas that cry out silently when put to the torch"

-I'm sure many of you had to read this in high school but I actually reread this once a year. I love it. It makes you think and question things and by the end you look at the world in a whole new light.

Looking for Alaska by John Green

"Before. Miles "Pudge" Halter's whole existence has been one big nonevent, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave the "Great Perhaps" (François Rabelais, poet) even more. He heads off to the sometimes crazy, possibly unstable, and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed-up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young, who is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart.

After. Nothing is ever the same"

-I know that right now TFiOS is the big John Green book of the moment.  But if you only ever read one John Green book...let it be this one.

Room by Emma Donoghue

"To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it's not enough...not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son's bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work.

Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, ROOM is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another."

-This book is mildly slow starting but once you get used to the way it's written you won't want to put it down. It's very Plato's Allegory of the Cave if you're into that sort of thing. 

Anything by Neil Gaiman

Seriously.  Anything.  I'm still working my way through his books, but I've yet to read one I didn't fall in love with.  

More Recommendations:

• The Mortal Engine Series by Phillip Reeve
• If I Stay by Gayle Forman
• Where She Went by Gayle Forman
• Divergent Series by Veronica Roth
• The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• The Thief of Always by Clive Barker
• The Memory Keepers Daughter by Kim Edwards
• Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
• The Fuck Up by Arthur Nersesian 
• This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper
• Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

There are so many more ! I'm sure I'll keep adding to the list.  If you have recommendations, let me know ! I'd love to add them.

My head is loud.

We all know what day it is. Let's get to it !

• I have a love/hate relationship with my hair during the summer: I hate it but love that everyone else loves it.  Personally I feel like it'll never look good no matter what I do. Thanks humidity !
• I started an awesome book last night and now I don't want to do anything but sit at Cup A Joe and read it until I'm done.  Stupid work getting in the way of my bookworm-ness.
• My stress level is reaching critical.  I know I'm crazy stressed when I don't have any music playing in my car - and don't even notice until I get out of the car and realize I never even opened spotify.  This is a bad thing. It means a mental breakdown is imminent because my head has WAY too much going on. Let's hope I can sort some things out before I spiral into a sea of crazy.

• I wish I had a nice savings account so I could just quit my job and chill while I look for a new one.  I could use a good 2 week break.
• Tonight is the last spin class before instructor Matt leaves for like a month.  But Amy from Adidas is doing another wear test of my favorite shoes tonight. (I went on and on about them here)  Conflicted !
• I'm getting super lazy (more so than normal).  Not "I haven't showered in a week because I'm too lazy to" kind of lazy.  I will purposely do nothing when I'm in my apartment so that things don't get messed up and so I don't have to clean them.  I went and bought an outfit for like $10 from Target because I was too lazy to do laundry. I get made fun of constantly for ripping and dipping my bagel into the cream cheese container just so I don't have to use the knife. 

• Since I can't just up and leave my job, I want a week (outside of PTO) of "mental health days" AKA Netflix binge watching days.
• I'm internally freaking out about going to the chiropractor on Saturday because I've never been.
• Currently, the only thing I want to do is go crawl back into bed and sleep.

I'm going to go hunt down some cinnamon rolls now.  While I do that, you can tell me all your secrets :)

Well, There's That.

I had a really cool idea for a post yesterday.  It ever so delightfully popped into my head as I was getting ready to fall sleep and I figured I would remember it when I woke up.  So I got up this morning, went about my morning routine, opened up a fresh page to write down the awesome idea I had and ....

Ummm...not a freaking clue.  I couldn't even begin to tell you what I was going to write about.  I thought about getting up and making notes to myself last night but the bed was comfy and the blankets had claimed me as one of their own.

So there's that.  

In lieu of anything deep and meaningful or heartfelt and inspirational, I figured what better time to tell you about one of my favorite parts of blogging: the gifs.

My obsession with gifs started about 4 years ago when I found (and have been a slave to ever since) Tumblr.  Post after post were these little 3 second animated pictures of happiness that made me giggle.  I had only hoped that one day, I too would be able to use these to emphasize my points to people.  And here we are !

I sometimes find myself rephrasing what I'm saying or changing posts entirely because I stumbled on a gif I just HAD to use. They just make things better.  I mean, I could have just said "Guys I forgot what I was going to write today, come back tomorrow for Wednesday's linkup confessions post !" like last week's and you all could have gone on with your lives.  But tell me Dumbledore doesn't sum that all up quite nicely for you and just adds awesomeness to the whole thing. 

And let me tell you, I have gifs for EVERYTHING. Like this one of Ryan Gossling to convey how you're all probably looking at this post, questioning why you're still readying and waiting for the point of this post to happen:

This one for showing you how I feel bad that I don't have anything better prepared for you:

Or this one when you realized that you're still reading a post about, well...nothing:

But you feel better about it, don't you ? Like you've been given a little nugget of joy, a small present for being awesome and reading.  So to those of you who've stuck it out and who put up with my useless rambling because my brain has decided to take a vacation today,

You're awesome and I thank you.  Now please excuse me while I head to Gigi's cupcakes for $2 Tuesdays. 

Weekending -NO NO NO ! Version.

It's Monday.  Again.  Every week.  At least I have the Nog social run tonight.   Knowing I get to run when I get out of work is about the only thing that keeps me sane enough to get through work. Because mostly all day my answer to everything is "No."  No, I don't want to get up.  No, I don't want to put on pants.  No, I don't want to sit in an office and be nice to people.  

But enough about Mondays and their eternal suckiness.  Let's talk about this weekend (because it was AWESOME !) and this way I can drag my feet a little more and avoid dealing with the fact that the weekend is indeed over.  And I've got lots of pictures for you too !

The 4th was a day spent at the SPCA where I got to spend some quality time with my favorite low rider, Amy:

She's a 3 year old pit mix and adorable doesn't begin to describe her.  Can we talk about those ears ?! I would adopt her in a heartbeat, but she's an alpha female and I already have one at home that would disown me if I brought her another alpha female.  But I love going to visit her and hope one day soon I won't be able to because some awesome family came to scoop her up.

Then it was off to a pool party at a friend's place.  As per the usual with this particular group, there was a lot of laughing, a lot of delicious food (veggie burgers FTW !), and conversation that has provided inside jokes for the next few months...or at least until someone says something more outrageous than the phrase "concrete bikinis".

Since neither Brian nor I are fans of people (especially in large groups with explosions) and I worry about the dogs reaction to fireworks, it was back to my place to watch a very patriotic movie: Team America.  

Apparently Team America is 10 years old already.  Now that we're sad about how old we're all getting, I'll move on.

Saturday started as it usually starts: with a bunch of goofballs at the coffee shop.  The super awesome Rita managed to grab a pic of most of us that morning:

(We're missing Brian and Ed)

Then I headed BACK to the SPCA because an alum was coming back to say hi to the crew and to see about getting a sister ! Also more hangs with Amy.  I then managed to become slightly lobster-ish by not paying attention to my melting sunscreen while I read at the pool.  Oops !

Since life happened back when the movie was in normal theaters, I was super pumped to find out that Mr. Peabody and Sherman was playing at the $2.25 theater that night.  That movie was a great way to end Saturday !  If you haven't seen it, try and find one of those dollar theaters since it doesn't come out on DVD until October !  It was absolutely adorable.

Sunday was by far my favorite day of the weekend.  For the first time in probably about a year, Brian and I have actually had a day off at the same time.  It started, as usual, at the coffee shop.  Basically, in case you haven't figured it out yet, my life is this:

(And it's awesome !)

Then, we went to the flea market down the street.  We were smart and left our wallets in the car.  Which of course means that we found a million awesome things.  But we managed to leave and head to Krispy Kreme without buying a thing ! Go us !

(Top row from the flea market, bottom row from walk)

That night after dinner, we did one of my favorite things and went on a neighborhood walk.  I took a few pictures, but my favorite part was this hidden beach area.  There were people fishing, so we went down a little bit and found the "Money: you're doing it right" house.

(Basically one part of the house is entirely glass...and they have a spiral staircase)

There was also fun art that someone had on their lawn.  Not to mention a ton of "OMG" moments and "I need to live in their guest house".  

Overall, the weekend was EXACTLY what I needed.  Being surrounded by people that I love, not stressing about anything, and having way too much fun (actually that last part isn't possible).  So even though I'm not exactly a super fan of the work week, I feel like I have enough awesome from the weekend to hold me over until this coming weekend.  Who knows what will happen !

How was your holiday weekend ? Everyone still alive and with all their limbs ? Tel me !