Day 108

#np - 2011 United States of Pop by DJ Earworm

The CATS play Louisville today.  First big test since IU.  A win would be a great way to end this great year of basketball.

Happy New Years Eve!

Day 107

#np - Wagon Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show

It just makes me rock back and forth.  :)

Day 106

#np - Next Best Thing by Nikki and Rich

Well, this is it.  I've fallen in love. 

No no, not what you're thinking.  Books!  I've fallen in love with books.  Or my Kindle, I guess because it gives me all the books I could want (read: pay for) in under 60 seconds.  With grad school and the general busyness/laziness of my life, I've let my fun reading list fall by the wayside.  While I should have spent the holiday break applying for jobs or developing my capstone, I've been reading.  

If you're a book lover, you understand.  Sometimes you just cannot put a book down.  You're lost in a world that the book and your mind creates.  You come to accept the fact that you simply won't get any work done.  That you can do without the sleep.  That figuring out if you're Team Peeta or Team Gale is as important as Christmas shopping.  And knowing the Watkins' secret is better than Flamingo Row (and if you know me, you know that nothing is better than the Row).  

So, I find myself both needing book suggestions and having a few suggestions for you.  I'll admit, I didn't read enough in middle and high school and am now emotionally/literaturely-stunted and therefore mostly enjoy Young Adult fiction.  

First, I read the Hunger Games trilogy in about 5 days.  Can I be a BAMF like Katniss Everdeen?  Can I have Peeta (and/or Gale, lets be real) for myself.  Do Peetas exist?  I'm not so sure but this book has ignited my love for the dystopian genre.  Love in the midst of a seemingly-perfect world?  Flagrant social injustice threatening to destroy the fabric of a nation? Sign me up.

Second, I bought Flat-Out Love on Amazon for a shockingly low price.  I struggled at first with the purchase.  The reviews of the book were outstanding (and luckily, gave nothing away) but that can be a big red flag.  So I took advantage of Amazon's sample feature and read the first chapter or so.  Honestly, I was hooked from the license notes where the author threatens bodily harm by way of an ammonia-soaked nerd tee beating.  If your AN can make me laugh out loud then that's something indeed.  Jessica Park, we would probably be best friends.  Although I cannot share your love for coffee.  

I recommend all of these books.  You can get the entire trilogy on your Kindle for less than $20 if you buy it as a set.  DO IT.  FOL is wonderful and inexpensive but don't let that fool you.  It's a quality read.  

Let me know if you have suggestions.  I'm counting on the Amazon reviewers for recommendations but their reviews often include spoilers which I cannot stand.  Perhaps I'm completely hypocritical considering I'll take a TV spoiler any day (I need the gossip on GLEE!) but a book is sacred and therefore should not be spoiled.  

Go on, get off the internet and read a book.  Let your imagination take you away.  You weren't watching the republicans square off in Iowa anyway, right?  Right???  Yeah, me either.

Day 105

#np - It's My Life by Bon Jovi

I just wanna live while I'm alive!

Day 104

#np - Good Vibrations by Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch

Feel it, feel it!

Day 103

#np - Home Sweet Home by Carrie Underwood

Today the family heads home.  Last year, December 26th started a nasty case of the post-holiday blues for me.  That's because there was a week-long gap between my family leaving Lexington (Jon for Chicago and my parents for Paducah) and my friends returning.  This year, however, I'm on my way to Paducah to see Becky and Emily before returning to LEX for the UK/Louisville basketball game on New Years Eve.  It's a busy time!

That means I get all my favorite restaurants from home during the holidays, too!  SO HAPPY.

Day 102

#np - I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas by Gayla Peevey

It's my favorite Christmas song!  Sorry that the video is paused at the hippo's butt. 

Happy Holidays!

Day 101

#np - All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey

Come on, you knew it was coming.

Merry Christmas Eve!  We're celebrating in Lexington!!!

ALSO, if you miscontrued yesterday's post as sad, I didn't intend it that way.  I'm actually happy with taking the "long way around" but it is harder around the holidays.  That being said, I wouldn't trade any part of the path I've chosen.  And I think I'll keep taking this way.  :)

Day 100

#np - The Long Way Around by the Dixie Chicks

Christmastime is the easiest time to get depressed about being single.  Seriously, sometimes the holiday cheer makes me want to vomit.  And when you get back to life there's inevitably a friend or two that announces they've gotten engaged or impregnated over the holiday.  

So yeah, my mind goes there sometimes.  Where would I be if I hadn't taken this path.  The long way.  

I graduate in less than 5 months.  Then I'll be back on my own and the pressure to settle down will increase.  But I'm not sure I'm ready to give up the long way.  Or maybe I'm not ready to acknowledge that I will be on the other path.  The one that's earnestly looking for a partner and thinking about a ticking biological clock.  

Twenty-nine years and 100 days isn't too late to keep taking the long way, is it?

Day 99

#np - Proud Mary by Credence Clearwater Revival