Week in Review: 08.31.2013

Happy weekend, everyone! I'm heading back to my hometown today to spend some time with my family for Labor Day. My sister and her boyfriend are driving up from San Diego, and my fiancé and I are driving down from the Bay Area, so it will be fun to all be together for the first time since Athens. (I'm not really sure if our hometown can live up to Athens, but my dad will be there, too! So it will be a fun little family reunion.) Here's what my week looked like:

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Saying goodbye to guilty (dis)pleasures.

We all have guilty pleasures. Here are some of mine: America's Next Top Model reruns. Statement necklaces. McDonald's sweet tea.

But do you have any guilty displeasures? Whereas guilty pleasures make you feel pleasure despite your guilt, guilty displeasures don't even give you pleasure! They just make you feel plain bad about yourself, but they're so bad you can't look away no matter how hard you try. I have quite a few of these:


Fifty Shades of Grey: Ugh. Don't even get me started on this embarrassment of a series. I swore I wouldn't pick up the second book when I was about halfway through the first, but then I found myself placing a hold at the library for Fifty Shades Darker. I will proudly say that I refused to spend any money on these books, and it took me a good five months to finish the third one. So it was obviously riveting. I wish I could abandon books (and/or series).

The Book Chat: Back to School

This week we are talking about those beloved/dreaded school-assigned books. Love 'em or hate 'em. What are your favorites or least favorites? Are there any books you think should be assigned, or have you ever been assigned something bizarre in school? (Also, special thanks to Jessica for letting me co-host this week with Allie! I'm honored!)

First, let me start by saying I didn't go to the most prestigious high school, so there were a lot of books I was never assigned that most of my peers from other high schools were (e.g. The Great Gatsby, The Catcher in the Rye, any complete play by Shakespeare, etc.). But, there were a few commonly assigned books we did read, including:

Travel Tuesday: Top Travel Apps

Welcome! This is the first topic-based Travel Tuesday I've hosted in a while, so I'm really excited to see what all your favorite travel apps are for your phone and/or tablet. Maybe I'll find some new ones to download for my next trip. :) Here are the six apps I find myself using the most when I travel:

Design by Megan | Images via Google

Weekly Wishes #2

Last week's goals:

1. Revamp my "About Me" page. Done! My new page includes a short biography, recent photograph of me and links to five of my favorite and/or most popular posts.

2. Revamp my "Someday" page. Also done!... Kind of. I decided to transform my "Someday" list into my "Life List," but I also created a "24 Before 24" list to help make my goals more manageable and time-oriented. The new list will go live on my half-birthday: September 5. Be sure to come back and check it out! :) I have to admit, I'm having trouble waiting; I want to put it up now! But I like logical dates, and September 5 isn't that far away.

My goal for this week is simply to enjoy time with my mom, who's visiting from Switzerland. I also finally interviewed for a job on Thursday, which I haven't heard back from yet, but if I don't get that position I want to submit at least four additional resumes this week. What do you want to accomplish this week?

Week in Review: 08.24.2013

This week actually proved to be pretty productive for me! I loaded up a duffel bag with Norts, library books and DVDs to spend a week back at my dad's house recovering from wisdom teeth surgery. After hearing horror stories from some of my friends, I expected to be drooling and sleeping all week long, but instead I got a ton done around the blog! I designed a media kit for my blog, created a Travel Tuesday page for my weekly link-up and worked on my recent Weekly Wishes. I'll provide a full update on those goals on Monday. :) Now, for a quick recap of the past seven days:

I am not a food blogger. This is why.

Last Saturday, Jonathan and I had a lovely picnic at a local park. His mom had given me an adorable picnic basket for my birthday (pictured top right), complete with forks, spoons, knives, plates, wine glasses and a bottle opener. The little zippered pouch in the middle is actually an insulated cooler, which I filled with a bottle of wine, green grapes, pretzel crisps, Hershey's chocolate and almonds for dessert, and a big Tupperware of "Patriot Salad," which I'm going to share to the recipe to below.

The Book Chat: Chick Lit

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My first thought when I saw this week's Book Chat topic was, "But I don't really read chick lit." As usual, Jessica read my mind and wrote this in her newsletter: "You've probably read more than you think." She also included a link to this Goodreads list, which got me thinking about all the chick lit I've read. I was a little surprised to find titles like The Time Traveler's Wife and The Help on the list, as well as some Nicholas Sparks titles, so I did some research on "chick lit." Wikipedia says:

Chick lit is genre fiction which addresses issues of modern womanhood, often humorously and lightheartedly.... Although it sometimes includes romantic elements, chick lit is generally not considered a direct subcategory of the romance novel genre, because the heroine's relationship with her family or friends is often just as important as her romantic relationships.

Makes sense! The first two books I mentioned above are not what I would call lighthearted, which is probably why that threw me off. And Nicholas Sparks is definitely all about the romantic relationships; there aren't enough friends and family relationships in his books for me to call them "chick lit." After this meticulous research on the definition of the genre, I'm reading to give you my list. :)

Literary Junkies: August 2013

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I know, I know: Two posts in one day?! This literary link-up only happens once a month, though, so I don't want to miss it! :) If you're looking for an online book club, come join our Facebook group or Goodreads group and participate in our monthly Twitter chats! Tonight's discussion is Perks of Being a Wallflower, which I read over a year ago, but I'm still excited to participate and see what everyone else thought.

1. What are you currently reading? Tell us about it!

ttyl by Lauren Myracle. I just started reading this book this afternoon, so I don't have any comments yet, but I'm reading it as my "banned book" for my summer book challenge. I ended up getting the whole series from the library for the Banned Books Challenge I'm also participating in (#3 on this list), for which I'm aiming to read five banned books by the start of Banned Book Week next month. If I finish this series, I'll complete the challenge!

Countryscape on Camera: Greece

I've decided to combine all my Greece recaps together into one post so we can have a themed Travel Tuesday link-up next week! This means I'll take a little break from my European Extravaganza posts and ask you all a question to answer for the link-up, like the old days of Travel Tuesday. :) Be sure to check the bottom of the post for next week's topic!

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