Time for Some Laughs

Last week was a long one for me. I worked 7 days straight and got in a good, solid 55 hours, which will make for a nice paycheck. It still made me pretty tired and one of my jobs is pretty much driving me crazy. I'm at the point where I want to quit, but for at least a little while I need the hours there. In about a month, my 2nd job will have full time hours available so that I can quit the one which is driving me up the wall.

There's also some family drama going on right now, and that has me extra stressed out. So after a rotten day at work on Saturday, I decided that I needed something fun to do to distract myself for a little bit at least. That was the night that comedian Chris Hardwick was doing a show in downtown Denver. I'm a huge fan of his podcast, Nerdist as well as his late night show @Midnight on Comedy Central, so it was a no brainer for me to go see his show.

I'm really glad that I went to see the show because it provided me with an excuse to just let go and laugh really hard for a couple hours. From the opening comedian, to the end of the show, I was able to not have to worry about all my problems and have a good time. It was a really fun night and I've felt much better since. I still have my problems, but I'm feeling generally a lot less stressed out than I was a few days ago.

I guess the lesson to take away from all this is that no matter what you've got going on, you still have to take the time to do something fun. Do something that's just for yourself every once in a while, you'll probably feel better about things when you do. Even when things are getting you down, you have to take the time to laugh. That cliche about laughter being the best medicine is at least sort of true.

I Read...A Lot

If you know me in person, you've probably seen me reading a book pretty frequently. I like to sit down and read at least a little bit every day. I have multiple bookcases full of books and I've been collecting them since I was a kid. In fact, I still have a stash of children's books in my cedar chest in case I have kids or nieces and nephews some day. I have fond memories of reading those books as a kid and I want some future children to get the opportunity to read the same books.

When the Kindle first came out, my brother had to get one because he's the early adopter type. He always has to have the newest gadgets and electronic toys. I've never been extremely interested in gadgets. I was late in getting a cellphone, my first one wasn't until 6 or 7 years ago, and my first smart phone was less than two years ago. So when my brother got me a Kindle for my birthday a few years back, I wasn't convinced I'd enjoy the thing.

I downloaded some books and started reading on the device. It took me a while to really feel great about the e-book reader. There was just something about having a physical book to hold in my hands that I could literally turn the pages of that was more appealing to me. I finally realized that one benefit of having the e-book reader was that I could carry dozens of books with me in a small package. Sometimes books are thick or hard back books are too big to carry around in my purse. Plus, Kindle versions of books are generally cheaper than the physical copies.

If I had a day where I had tons of time to read, I could finish up one book and there was the next one waiting for me. I got to really enjoy my Kindle and then last year my mom accidentally broke the screen on it. I was really disappointed, but bought some books so that I'd have plenty to read. It was late fall and too close to Christmas for me to buy myself a new Kindle. I put it on my wishlist for Christmas, but didn't get one. So when I got an Amazon gift card for Christmas and a cash bonus at work, it was enough to purchase myself a new e-book reader.

A few months ago, when I was Kindle-free, I got an Amazon local offer to try out three months of Audible for $1.95 a month, so I signed up for that. Audiobooks just don't do it for me though, regardless of how good of a job they do in producing the books. I think that maybe I just absorb the stories better and have more of a chance to imagine the characters in my mind if I'm reading them myself. It's weird because I love listening to podcasts, which is similar because it's spoken word storytelling. Maybe I like them better because it's more of a conversation than one person reading a story to you.

I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who prefer audiobooks to any form of reading because they can listen to a story while they're doing other things. I like to listen to podcasts when I can at work and while I do chores or walk the dogs. I think when I read, I like to devote my full attention and imagination to the story, whereas with podcasts, I can just split part of my focus onto the stories being told.

I've just always been very fond of reading. It maybe stems from having taught myself to read when I was a little kid. I don't remember this, but apparently I did teach myself to read. I do remember always being in the advanced reading groups in elementary school. At any rate, I'm going to wrap this up so that I can get back into reading. I'm in the middle of two books right now, so I'd like to get back to them!

Happy Birthday, Jonesy!

Today marks the fourth birthday of my dog, Jonesy. I remember bringing home an adorable 13 pound puppy from the shelter like it was just yesterday and now he's a 90 pound beast. With the exception of a few little health scares like the allergic reaction he had in August, he's been a pretty healthy, happy dog. In honor of his birthday, I'm just going to post some pictures of him, so if that's not your thing, you may want to just skip ahead now.

Here's little baby Jonesy on the day I brought him home

Even though he's a big boy, he never outgrew being a lap dog

He's a great hiking buddy

When he was 2, he got a kitty

He can't wait for summer because he loves to swim!

He is a good cuddle buddy, especially with his best friend Bob Barker

He really likes coming to work with me and making new friends

Happy birthday, Jonesy, here's hoping you have many more!

Things Just Kinda Got Away From Me

I certainly had no intention of skipping writing the blog for over a month. With the holidays, I got busy with baking and all the family togetherness. Well less family togetherness because we're all adults and more working extra hours because both my jobs get busier around the holidays. Then I signed up for Netflix and got a new Kindle. Both of those suck up a fair amount of time and quite honestly, I forgot about blogging for a bit.

The yellow lab ornament I bought last year and painted to resemble Jonesy

Christmas was different for my family this year. Traditionally, we would get together at someone's house on Christmas morning and open presents, then spend the day watching new movies and playing with new toys. This year I had to work 9-5 on Christmas, so we opened presents on Christmas eve instead. We still had the traditional ham dinner on Christmas night. This year my dad decided to get a ham from the Honeybaked Ham store. Honestly, it was a huge disappointment as we all agreed that it wasn't any better than any ham we'd had previously (and I think it was pretty pricey).

Now that we're well into 2015, we've taken down all the Christmas decor and it's all packed away for another year. The outdoor lights had to wait until Tuesday because it snowed on Christmas day and remained cold enough that it didn't thaw out until then. The most exciting thing that happened on Tuesday though, was my dad's old car getting stolen. It had been sitting on the street because he's selling it to a friend of his who hasn't gotten around to paying for it yet.

Apparently at 1AM, the police pounded on the door to inform him that the car had been used in the commission of a crime. I missed out on this because I have had a nasty cold since Saturday and thus I was dead asleep at the time. Fortunately, the car was recovered and is now back at home, with minor damage to the steering column and ignition only. All things considered, he's pretty luck to have the car back so fast and with so little damage done to it. It could've easily been stolen for parts or wrecked in a police chase or some other crazy thing.

I don't believe in giving promises as to how often I'll be updating the blog from here on in, life happens and you can't always follow through. It gets frustrating hearing someone say that they'll post on a specific schedule and then not following through. I understand that life happens, but you don't know that they're not going to post on schedule and get disappointed if you're looking forward to reading more. Besides, for all I know, I'm the only one reading this anyway. My goal is to get into the habit of posting at least once a week, certainly more than once every couple months.

Happy New Year from the angel squirrel taxidermy that mysteriously appeared and disappeared one day at work.