Ready for the weekend / Current thoughts

The last few days have been pretty lazy for me, and I've been loving it.  After the craziness of this past weekend (that came out of NOWHERE - in a good way, of course), I needed some relaxing time.  

John and I have been watching the Olympics in amazement, and snuggling with Fudge a bunch (much to his dismay).  He purrs even when he is upset.  Silly kitty!

I have also been spending a lot of time catching up on books I've been wanting to read.  Lately I've been snuggling up with Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.  I know, I know - I'm like 5 years late.  But so far I'm really enjoying it, and I'm glad I picked it up!  

She's a really great writer, and I really feel like I can relate to her.  Well, I've never been through a divorce, but I can understand where she is in her life - feeling like she's lost, trying to find out who she is and what she wants, trying to grow and be a better person, and dealing with all of the things that you start thinking about after you hit 30 (should I have children? what am I doing with my life?), etc.

I think it's a lot of fun, clever, and heartwarming.  I heard the movie isn't great, but I'm still going to watch it when I've finished reading the book. 

Since I've been walking to work lately, I also just finished listening to another book - Outliers by Malcom Gladwell.  It was FASCINATING, and really well written.  I can't imagine reading it in book-form (it may have been difficult for me to stay focused), but it was great in audio-book-form.  

It really makes you think about how circumstances, luck, when you were born, your background, where you grew up, who your parents were - ALL of that - really plays into who you are and what you become.  He talks about how these extraordinary people may have great minds (the ones we call "geniuses"), but in reality, we aren't as far away from them as we thought.  

If you're ready to have your mind blown, and many "a-HA! that makes sense!" moments - definitely check out this book.  It was for our book club last month, and I totally slacked on reading it - haha!  But it was awesome! 

Last night I had the night to myself (John was bowling), so I ate some Ben & Jerry's, had a beer and some leftover perogis, and watched Underworld: Awakening.  I really enjoyed the other Underworld movies - the stories are great, the action is fun, and hey, it's vampires & werewolves!  Can't beat that! 

I was wondering if they would slack off on the story since this is the 3rd Underworld movie in the series (technically "Underworld: Rise of the Lycans" that came out after the 2nd film was a prequel to the first film).  Yes, I'm a nerd.  I love these movies.  But they didn't slack - and it was actually pretty good!  Some interesting twists, fun action, and lots of vampire / werewolf goodness.  

They (of course) left it open-ended, so I'm sure we'll be getting a 4th installment soon.  But I'm sure I'll be more than happy to watch that one too! 

And lastly, I've been watching Felicity all over again on Netflix! 
Kendra totally reminded me of the wonderfulness of this show - I loved it when I was in High School, and I'm kind of loving it all over again now!  I've only watched probably the first 5 episodes for now, but it is making me so darn happy, it's kind of ridiculous.  I love seeing all the late-90's fashions again (just as I did when I re-watched "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"), and it's so fun to get to know the characters again.  

I love how at the end of every episode there's a slow-motion-walking-through-new-york sequence too.  Never noticed it before, but it cracks me up every time!  Ha! 


I've also had some other things on my mind lately... 

Hiking & camping!  We have 2 more camping trips coming up very soon, and I'm SO excited for them.
We're planning to do two 14ers over the two weekends we go, so that should be quite the challenge.  I really hope we can have a fire this time, but with all the rain we have been getting in the evenings I'm thinking we should be okay.  I would hate to go the whole summer without having a campfire!

  
NYC!  My cousin Cody and his girlfriend Danielle are getting married in October, which means I FINALLY get to take a real vacation!  WOOHOO!  John is coming with me, and we get to stay with my sister Amber which I'm totally thrilled about of course.  I got my tickets booked, and I CAN'T WAIT!

And, of course....
BOOKS, BOOKS BOOKS!

I stopped by the library on my way home from work this week, and I got a little carried away (especially since I'm still reading Eat, Pray, Love)!

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is our next book club book, and I'm really excited to read it.  I actually can't believe I haven't read it YET!  But it's gonna be a good one I'm sure.

I also picked up The Gates by John Connoly.  He wrote The Book of Lost Things - one of my most favorite book club reads!  I don't know where I'll find the time... but I'm reading it!

I can't leave the library without browsing through the cookbooks, so I picked up At My Grandmother's Knee - a cookbook with hand-me-down classic Southern-style recipes.  So far everything looks amazing!

 
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! 

All images (that are not my personal photos), are from Pinterest.