Resolutions

How are people's New Year's resolutions goings?? Bet they can't be as bad (or as painful) as these people's!

Laughing,

-Kate

Alarm-ing

Well first of all, good morning. And second of all, I wish I could say good night and crawl right back into bed. Today was one of those dreadful mornings where you curse your alarm for remembering to do its job. Why, oh why couldn't it just malfunction and let me sleep more? Why couldn't it magically add 2 more hours into the night? I found I have a tendency to rush through getting ready in the morning because once I'm totally ready to go, I'll hop back in bed for 20 more minutes and set my alarm for 5 minutes before I'm supposed to be out the door. That way I can get some extra ZZZs but I am ready to walk right out the door when my alarm goes off.

I tried once to make the whole alarm experience more pleasant by choosing a gentle, soothing ring tone for my alarm (I use my phone as my alarm). The tone I choose had a soft melody with water trickles and birds chirping in the background. Peaceful and calming. I was sure this would help me wake up and start my day in a positive way. It worked for about a day. Then even the water trickles and birds pissed me off. Funny how something so nice by itself, when put in the context of an alarm, can become grating.

I found some ways online to help people wake up feeling refreshed.

-Go to bed happy

-Splurge on a quality pillow

-Meditate or pray before bed, generally calm yourself down

-Don't eat right before bed

-Have a glass of water when you wake up

-Exercise in the morning

-Let natural light in

-Have something to look forward to when you wake up

These are just a few suggestions. You can find explanations for these at this website as well as this website. Or you can do your own Internet searches for ways to help you sleep better, wake up feeling refreshed, and generally be a morning person.

Best of luck.

Kate

Reading for a Rainy Day

Perhaps you are not as big of a Harry Potter fan as I am, but when I saw the link to this lil book on my friend's Facebook page, I snapped awake from my half-comatose Internet browsing session. It is called "James Potter and the Hall of Elders' Crossing." It's by G. Norman Lippert. The link to read it online for free is right here.

 Little spin-offs like this make my heart happy because I am one of those people who is never satisfied with an ending. I always want to know what happens beyond. Do Lizzie and Darcy have children? What is life like for Katniss and Peeta? Therefore I was grateful to J.K. Rowling for giving us that blessed epilogue at the end of the seventh book because then at least we knew Harry and Ginny as well as Ron and Hermione made out alright. But then she goes ahead and introduces us to their sweet little children, who I, naturally, wanted to know more about. That is why I am so excited for this piece! Granted it is not written by J.K. Rowling, but I am optimistic that it will be well-written and in a similar style. Time will tell.

Bonus--It's raining here in sad ol' Ripon, Wisconsin (It's January--what the heck?!), so it's the perfect day and time to hunker down with my laptop (after Alex goes down for his second nap), and catch up on the life of young James Potter!

Ahh to be back at Hogwarts again...

Previously On...Keeping Up With the Kardashians

There is one thing that my boyfriend really can't stand (okay, well maybe more than one) and that is the fact that I watch and enjoy Keeping Up With the Kardashians. I recently started watching the show on Netflix and then began to tune into E! to see current episodes. I think it is safe to say it falls under the heading of trashy T.V., but (like most trashy reality shows) it's super addicting.

Andy hates that I watch it because he seems to think I want to be like the Kardashians or live their lifestyle. Newsflash: I have no desire to be a Kardashian or have such a lifestyle. I watch the show because it's a release. It is mind-numbing and therefore fantastic to watch on a study break or late at night when you don't want to think about what's happening. You can just watch.

Despite the fact that I don't want their lifestyle, I find it fascinating because it is so far from my own. Anything that is different or I would go so far as to say polar opposite from the life and world you know is bound to make you curious. I think that is probably one of the reasons why I like the show so much. Their life is so far removed from my own that I want to observe how the other half lives like an anthropologist studying a foreign culture.

Don't worry, Andy. I promise not to wear fake eyelashes, too much mascara, or start saying "Bible" when I am telling the truth. I won't spend absurd amounts of money on clothes, cars, remote-controlled helicopters, or vacations. I am still me. I just like trashy T.V. Is that so wrong?

Excuses, Excuses

It has been 16 days (I think) since my last post and I feel ridiculous, silly, sorry, ambivalent about the whole thing. I know that is a laundry list of random emotions but 9 days ago I moved into a new apartment with my boyfriend (who is, as of 8 days ago, now my fiancee!) and our baby. The whole packing, heavy lifting, moving, loading and unloading, organizing, and cleaning has taken an extreme amount of time from my schedule. So I feel like I have an excuse; however, I am not a big fan of excuses. They almost always sound fake, half-assed, or just dumb. I often wonder why people, myself included, can't just bite the bullet and do whatever it is they are now making excuses for.

In my case I have another pretty good excuse...we don't have Internet in our apartment yet. Never mind that there is a lovely coffee shop right below our apartment with perfectly adequate wifi. Using said coffee shop's wifi means walking down a flight of 20 (or 23 depending on which staircase you use) stairs and entering the coffee shop, finding a supremely comfortable armchair and parking my bahumpus. All this is clearly a lot of work and incredibly taxing on a single human being. Therefore I have use the excuse of not having Internet in the apartment because it just makes life easier and lets me off the hook, right?

Oh well. Excuses or not I am back now and rededicating myself to this blog...at least until classes start in about 15 days and I have another excuse for why I'm too busy.

Cheers,
Kate