reading nook

Weekly Therapy: 51 weeks left in my 30s

- Mel

the week:
I had two full days of training at work, so my week just FLEW by!

And, YAY! I got a new bike — 600+ miles of Iowa trails, here we come! We also signed up for our first group trail fun ride in June — the BACooN Ride (where BACON meets the Raccoon River Trail) — so I am fully outfitted and ready to explore.

weekend:
We live in a front license plate state, so I need to take my car in this morning to get my front plate mounted. The dealership is also charging us an OUTRAGEOUS amount of money to update the maps on my GPS (like, holy shit, they’re sticking in an SD card WHY CAN’T A SATELLITE DO THIS). All I’m saying is that it sure as shit better locate my house when it’s uploaded.

ANYWAYS.

Otherwise, we have a pretty laid back weekend. Last night we got to hang out with our neighbors for a bit because it was SUCH a beautiful night. I’m pretty jazzed about the weather report in general this weekend, and we’ll probably go for a bike ride.

seven things, seven days:
1. My workplace has a corporate library, which we can reserve from a great selection of business-themed and popular book titles. And they deliver it right to my desk!
2. Everything is SO GREEN right now, including the farm crops around us. Daily, I just feel so happy with where I live.
3. I finished Leah Remini’s Troublemaker — it was a really engaging story, with all the gossipy celebrity juice you’d expect from someone who attended Tom Cruise’s wedding. I’m obsessed with the Scientology survival stories, and it’s a pretty incredible read from someone who went into the church so young.
4. Man, I just had another awful online shopping experience with a furniture company that I love and have shopped with for over a decade (AND have their dumb store credit card). Needless to say, I have to now find another living room side table somewhere else. #grumpy
5. Oh, HEY! Roller derby article in Shape magazine: How Roller Derby Helped Me Finally See Myself As An Athlete
6. The unhealthy truth behind “wellness” and “clean eating” {via Vice}
7. Spinning: You’re doing it wrong {via Indoor Cycling Association}

Sunday Lately for this 30-Something: Week 66

- Mel 4 Comments

Blogger Tribe_Sunday Lately It’s Sunday morning and the Blogger Tribe is collectively sharing their Sunday Lately posts — part of my weekly Group Therapy. The prompts for today, April 3 (Week 66), are: Planning, Loving, Reading, Wishing, Feeling. Read my past Sunday Lately posts and join camp with the Tribe!

Planning: I have plans to meet up with a running group this week! I need to find a new Runners Friends Tribe to help motivate me during my half marathon training and learn some new routes around my area in the process. Planning this into my weekly workout schedule makes it a non-negotiable. I’ve also incorporated into my monthly goals, which I plan to put into a post this week!

Loving: Absolutely loving that I spent nearly 12 hours in bed last night! I was positively exhausted after spending an entire day eating, drinking and shopping in downtown Des Moines. My body needed the rest, and rest I let it.

Reading: “All the Single Ladies” by Rebecca Traister, thanks to Net Galley. Considering the course of this election season and the impact of unmarried women (and being one myself), I thought it would be an appropriate and necessary read. It’s been a little difficult to get into, given its “exhaustive research” (emphasis: publisher), but I think I’ve finally found my pacing with her writing style. This will take me a while to finish though, no doubt.

Wishing: Because I’m currently working from home, I am doing chores CONSTANTLY. Well, mid-week, I decided that I didn’t want to do another day of dishes, and apparently, the boyfriend hasn’t felt like doing them either. So, they’ve been sitting there, piling up since. I wish someone would get all these dang dishes out of the sink already (and I hope that someone is this other person who shares my household).

Feeling: I’m feeling little stressed out just thinking about my upcoming week, to be honest. But reality and “thinking about” are two different things, of which I need to remind myself. Anticipation is not anxiety (repeat).

Weekend Reading

- Mel

GAH, I didn’t hit publish on this post on Saturday!

I haven’t yet started a new book (only 4 left to go!), and I’m also not feeling any of my own creativity — so I’ve been catching up blogs and articles around the web. I decided to share a few things that have left an impression on me this week:

1. A clash of two of my favorite run bloggers, Natrunsfar guest blogging on This Mama Runs for Cupcakes! Natalie writes about her Boston Qualifying training and gives tips for those considering the achievement. I don’t know if a BQ is *ever* in my future (I laughed when I looked at the difference in finishing times for after I turn 40, because LOLZNEVER), but this post is great advice for anyone just looking to step up their run game a bit.

2. Toys Were Us: The Tragic End of F.A.O. Schwarz. Man, this story makes me so sad. I didn’t visit New York or FAO Schwartz for the first time until my mid-30s but we all know about its legacy from childhood. And anyone in her 30s fell in love with that piano scene in BIG, right?

3. Stressed at work? ME TOO. A friend and coworker sent me this one: 7 Yoga Poses You Can at Your Desk to Relieve Stress. Side question: do you sit “Indian Style” in your office chair?

Every 30-something needs: A Quiet Space

- Mel

Reading, meditation, yoga, napping: all 30-somethings need a space in our home — indoor or out — that is a designated Quiet Space.

To unwind, recharge, be creative, learn something new, be crafty, get away from husbands/kids/pets.

This space can change, depending on weather and circumstances, of course. I used to like our living room… until a TV was put into it. I like our outdoor patio area… but it’s a bit too cold in my neck-of-the-woods. The bedroom is super comfortable… but being an insomniac, I have to use it as JUST a sleeping space to curb any extraneous distractions.

My preferred area is a little nook in my attic-slash-third-bedroom. After turning our second, conjoined bedroom into our sitting/media room, we freed the upstairs finished attic space into a reading and sleeping area. While it could certainly use some temperature regulation (and probably some new carpet), it’s cozy and peaceful.

Perfect for my 52 books in 52 weeks project.

Total hilarious side note: those IKEA chairs? They had to be taken apart to fit up the attic stairwell. We have a helluva time finding furniture to fit into our small rowhouse. Originally, the boyfriend’s “bachelor” apartment living set was to be there — wouldn’t fit. My work desk? Wouldn’t fit. When we purchased a new mattress set, the delivery person had to return the box spring because IT WOULDN’T FIT. But happy ending small space bonus: queen-sized mattress sets can be purchased with a two-piece box spring! I’m still holding onto hope that a papasan chair will fit up here.

What type of Quiet Space do you prefer?

30s Life List: 52 Books in 52 Weeks

- Mel

Do you have a Life List or Bucket List?

I have a few items on mine.

One, is a goal to get back to reading. I love reading — or, at least I did at one point in my life — but I haven’t made the time to do so. In fact, I spend WAY too much time mindlessly trolling the internet instead. This, a shutdown mode of my multi-tasking brain in overdrive, which doesn’t allow me to watch a television show or movie OR sleep like a normal person. Ultimately, with my intent to return to school next Fall, I need to get my brain in shape.

Goal setting promotes motivation and focus. By setting clearly-defined goals, you can take pride in the achievement of tasks that initially may seem lengthy or impossible. As you progress through the steps of “goal work,” you embrace challenges and overcome obstacles, ultimately succeeding at something that makes you very happy.

I attempted the 52 books challenge last year, but derby responsibilities got in the way. I need to make time to unwind though even from that, and reading helps me do that. By this time next year, I want to have 52 books — of all topics, lengths and genres — completed.

I’ll be keeping a weekly log here (I also created a Google Doc) to help me track. I’ve completed my first book since Thanksgiving week (via Kindle), and halfway into my second (checked out from the local library). I read two books at one time; it’s weird, but I’m always getting ready to finish one while I’m already started into another. Remember that aforementioned multitasking brain? It’s a blessing and a curse. I like the convenience of bringing my Kindle everywhere, yet still enjoy the page turning of real books (book stacks and shelves make me happy). I can love and appreciate both.

Week 1, Book 1:
1. “My Mother Was Nuts” by Penny Marshall

I’m also in the middle of “Nixon’s Darkest Secrets” and starting Kelly Cultrone’s “If You Have to Cry, Go Outside” (should be a quick-and-easy read) and have two others that go back to the library next week on my “to finish” list. And another two just received from Amazon (I suppose these two from Malcolm Gladwell could wait a bit though).

Ambitious? There’s no other way.

51 books left to go!

More about Goals from a Psych perspective: The Paradox of Goal Setting from Psychology World — takeaway: don’t fear failure, and do your best without focusing on the results.

Please recommend a good book in the comments!