Hour 14

Title of book(s) read since last update: The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
Number of books read since you started: One
Pages read since last update: 54
Running total of pages read since you started: 453
Amount of time spent reading since last update: 40 minutes
Running total of time spent reading since you started: 365 minutes

Hoo boy. Off to my sister’s competition now, bringing along: The Subtle Knife, The Importance of Being Earnest, and The Giver. Hopefully I’ll take a decent chunk out of something there.

Must. . . read. . . more!! 😀

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Mid-Event Survey

1. What are you reading right now? The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman

2. How many books have you read so far? I’m working on my second book now. I know, so slow! :O

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? Actually, I’m quite looking forward to reading The Subtle Knife. I just read the first book, obviously, so I can’t wait to see what happens next!

4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day? Not really. I’m going to watch my sister’s competition in an hour or so, and other than that, I hadn’t had any plans for the whole day.

5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? Gah, yes. My other sister was massively bored, and so she wanted me to play video games with her and watch TV with her (and she said I could read at the same time, but that is insanely hard to do, I don’t know if you know). So basically I haven’t gotten any reading done the past two or three hours, ish. Sad day!

6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? How little I’ve actually been able to read! I’m a pretty fast reader, but I haven’t really gotten much read yet. Which is disappointing, cause I was hoping for maybe four or five books, I guess. At this rate, I’ll be lucky to read three. Mayyybe four if I don’t sleep tonight at all.

7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Not really! I think it’s totally awesome! I would love to see more mini-challenges and things, I suppose.

8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year? Read more!!

9. Are you getting tired yet? A little bit. I took a mini nap earlier, so I’m doing alright, but I’m going to have to take another one if I want to stay up and read into the wee hours.

10. Do you have any tips for other Readers or Cheerleaders, something you think is working well for you that others may not have discovered? Doubtful. . . Yeah, not really. Besides choosing an engaging book that you actually want to read and not wasting time on books that will bog you down. Read because you love to read, not so you can tell everyone at the end of the day that you did.

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Hour 10!

Title of book(s) read since last update: The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
Number of books read since you started: One
Pages read since last update: 52
Running total of pages read since you started: 399
Amount of time spent reading since last update: 45 minutes
Running total of time spent reading since you started: 325 minutes

No idea which book I should start next, though. . . Actually, I think I’m going to take a bit of a break, take a shower, entertain my poor bored-to-death sister, and then get back into it. I feel like I’ve been hiding in a hole all day, haha.

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Hour 9 Update. . .

Title of book(s) read since last update: Still chugging along on The Golden Compass
Number of books read since you started: Most of one
Pages read since last update: 66
Running total of pages read since you started: 347
Amount of time spent reading since last update: 50 minutes
Running total of time spent reading since you started: 275 minutes

I can’t believe it’s already been 9 hours, and I haven’t even finished one book yet! I thought I was a faster reader than this, lol. . . I supposed I did start kinda late, though. Anyway. Back to reading!!

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Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon!

Title of book(s) read since last update: Currently reading The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
Number of books read since you started: Half of one. . . Haha, oops? Better speed up a little.
Pages read since last update: 281
Running total of pages read since you started: 281
Amount of time spent reading since last update: 225 minutes
Running total of time spent reading since you started: 225 minutes

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Share a chocolate moment with a friend

You know those really fun chocolates that have notes on the inside of the wrapper? They’re like fortune cookies. Except you can actually eat them. Mmmm. . . tasty.

Anyway, this post does in fact have a point. I completed another goal! I know, I know, enough with the fanfare. I’m completing lots of goals, but it’s still exciting! Hint about which goal I completed: my dentist will love me.

. . .

That’s right. I’ve been flossing every day for a month!!! I think my teeth actually look a little bit whiter and cleaner in general, too. This is definitely something I’m going to be continuing, but I’m going to need to go and buy more floss soon. I’m almost out of my last. . . roll? What do you call a container for floss? No matter. Goal #13 complete!

Also, I’ve begun my fitness training program. I basically got it from a book called The Beginning Runner’s Guide or The Beginner’s Guide to Running or something like that. The book is in my bag. All the way across the room. I’m so tired and lazy. . . lol. . . excuses! Anyway, so I started that. My first exercise was yesterday, and my next will be tomorrow. You’re supposed to do the exercises every other day, which works better for me. If I had to do it every day, I feel like I wouldn’t keep up with it as well. 

On a completely unrelated side tangent: I met Jean M. Auel today! She wrote Clan of the Cave Bear and the sequels. She’s such a nice lady, and lunch was delicious as well (we went out to lunch at a local seafood place; the calamari [aka squid] was surprisingly good). Also, dessert was basically a chocolate box filled with whip cream and raspberries. If that doesn’t sound like heaven on earth, well. I’ll just say it was reaaalllyy good. And leave it there. [For the Portland, Oregoners, we went to Jake’s Crawfish on 12th and Stark.]

Enjoy your weekends, lovelies!

Rae

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In honor of V-day. . .

Or, in my case, T-day, as it will now forever be known. That’s right. I bought a thong! Four to be exact. It’s good timing too, because I don’t have many undergarments, if you know what I mean. So I also bought six boyshorts at the same time. They were on sale!! Woot. . . Anyway, so that means goal #59 Buy a thong is now complete! I’m discovering they are a little weird to get used to, though. 

Also, in honor of the Valentine colors, I started my period today.  

. . . sorry, that was probably TMI. . . 

So, “hallejuah,” I’m able to work on tracking my period. Excitement galore.

And that’s basically what I’m up to. Yay? =)

— Rae

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The sun never sets on the British empire

I haven’t been accomplishing much over the past two weeks, since it seems like I’m only working on long term goals at the moment. So I’ve been looking over my list, and trying to figure out something I can do in the mean time, you know. I know I need to start tithing, since it is the end of the month. So today I’m going to the bank (mainly for the purpose of lugging along my massive jar of change to have it converted into more carry-able cash form), and after I figure out how much my income was this month, I can tithe from it! I hope the number doesn’t make me cringe. It’s not like I made that much this month, I only started my job after all.

Anyway, so, tithing. Also, another long term thing that needs to get started: the Christmas Jar! I know that I wanted to put about (maybe, we’ll see how this goes) $25 in per month? (For anyone who doesn’t know, the Christmas Jar is a fund jar to help save up for Christmas/holiday presents. I decided to do this because every year, I go broke during the holidays trying to scrape up enough cash to get my loved ones decent gifts. But not this year! With twelve easy installments of $24.99, my family will get super awesome gifts, without the strain and hassle of looking under the couch cushions for stray change!)

Oh, good news!! My mom told me that she had leftover teeth whitening strips! Which means that I can get that goal knocked off as soon as I find them. . . My mom said it would only take about a week to start seeing results, but warned me about the Blue Teeth Syndrome. Apparently if you leave the strips in for too long, then your teeth will turn a shocking (and apparently painfully sore) shade of blue. I promise I won’t let that happen to me.

Recently, I got two books from the library by Nina Garcia to help me with my personal style goal. One is called The Little Black Book of Style and the other one is The One Hundred: A Guide to the Pieces Every Stylish Woman Must Own. So as soon as I finish the book I’m working on right now (The Poisonwood Bible) and I only have about 30 pages left, I’ll get started on those two books. 

So, basically, that’s what I’m going to be working on. But this weekend, first and foremost, is a lazy weekend. Guess why?! Finals are finally over!!! Which is excitement to the extreme. So this weekend shall be gloriously free of homework and responsibilities. Besides reading. And doing a few loads of desperately needed laundry (it seems to have been neglected the past two weeks, agh!). 

With that, adieu!

Rae

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Materialism is a beautiful thing

Well, it is when it results in something as beautiful as my new wallet! Isn’t it gaw-juss? 😀 Anyway, that means that goal #67 is officially completed! Wootwoot etc!

It was quite excellent. Dan and I drove down to Bridgeport on Saturday (procrastinating on studying and blah) to the Urban Outfitters there, and we browsed the store for about thirty seconds before we spotted my the wallet, and then after pouncing upon it and cradling it lovingly in my arms picking it up, we browsed around the rest of the store. Unfortunately, the wallet was all that I had budgeted for, so when I found a beautiful copy of The Picture of Dorian Grey, I was sadly unable to splurge out for it. It was so lovely, though. . . with black and white peacock feather illustrations on the cover!!! And I also saw a really marked down bag that was, well, gorgeous. I’ve been thinking I might save up for that next. . . but UO is soo farr awayyy. I need to just give up on them already!! Or find someone willing to drive me over there. Frequently? 😀

Cheers!

Rae

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That was SCARY!! =D

I’ve been organizing my thoughts and many other things for quite a few days now, and I’ve just now realized I have rather little to show for it. I could have accomplished more, I suppose, but baby steps! Basically, Thursday-Friday-Saturday(morning) I had a friend over, so I didn’t accomplish much. At all. Besides watching a classic movie that I’d never seen before (When Harry Met Sally), which factors into my goal of A to Z of movies I’ve never seen before, focusing mainly on classics (mainly because I don’t know if there is a classic that starts with X or Z). Anyway, Saturday afternoon I was a bum. Totally unproductive. A waste of oxygen. I hate feeling like a bum. Well, I was a bum for the most part. I did catalogue most of the books in our little library. Found some that I could post onto paperbackwap. Depressingly few, however. Blah. Sorry, it’s getting late for me. My mind is going berserk tired. 

So, today was much better. We went to church this morning (I woke up earlier than usual, and wasn’t actually going crazy trying to get ready to go). The sermon was boring, but I made a big list of things I had to do today, just organizing my thoughts like I said before. Stuff like senior pictures (I have no idea how I’m going to pay for those, I know my friends’ parents are paying for theirs, but my parents don’t do that) and fixing my nails (the nail polish was getting seriously chipped) and figuring out approximately how much I need to save up for all the college things I’m going to need to buy this summer.

Side note: I didn’t mark off my goal of buying nail polish and painting my nails even though I did paint my nails last weekend because I didn’t actually buy it. I discovered some of our old nail polish, and apparently not all of it was that bad. But it also doesn’t last very long, and they’re mostly childish colors. So I didn’t want to count it as completing the goal, cause I still want to buy new nail polish. End side note.

I’ve been cleaning my mom’s horse’s stall the past three days since my mom agreed to pay me two dollars every day that I clean it. Guess what? I’ve made six dollars so far! I know it sounds like petty cash (which it is), but it’s easy income! By the end of this week, I’ll have $16. I’m putting my cash so far in an old Altoids tin (remember those?). I’ve decided to save up and buy myself a wallet! My joke is: I’m making all this money, and I need somewhere to put it. So I’ll go spend my money to buy a wallet, but then I’ll have no money to put in it, so I’ll have to sell the wallet for money to put in the wallet and. . . yeah. I know. Bad joke. I did also discover though, that basically every month I can make $60 from cleaning stalls, and by the end of June, just from cleaning stalls, I’ll have made $328 if I clean stalls every day. I should have at least $300, even if I miss a few days. 

Also, I’ve decided to give up on the devotions book that I have. It’s actually quite annoying at how short it is (it literally takes me ten seconds to read it every day), and it’s not meaty enough to even think about after that. So I’m going to look for something else instead, and for the time being, the devotions book is off. 

I’ve found a summer job! Well, sorta. It’s not “official.” My dad will pay me to work in the garden and do things around the farm for him. But it’ll probably be better than working at a fast food place. I’ll be outside, getting exercise and a tan, probably getting paid more, and I don’t have to spend gas money driving to work. I think it’ll work out fine.

Since I know what my job will be, I was able to begin to figure out a sort of budget. I mean, I know what things I’ll be needing to spend money on, basically. College things, gas, Ireland. Small things like wallets, lunch, random woot! shirts. So I know how much I need to make/save up for that which is a start. 

Oh, and my friend and I baked a cake this weekend, but it wasn’t for anyone’s birthday, so it doesn’t count toward my goal. It was tasty though, with cream cheese frosting. 

I think my sister will go running with me, too. Probably not for a while till the weather calms down, since it’s going to be pretty stormy all week. But that’ll be good. We could both use the exercise. It might be tricky finding a time when she can go running, though, since she has a job at the barn and does all sorts of things with horses. Her schedule is surprisingly full. But that will be a work in progress.

Cheers!

Rae

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