Reading Update (2024 #22-24)
[22] The Idea of You by Robinne Lee
Fiction / Romance / Rock Stars, saw in @aliontherun1’s Insta stories, Kindle
Synopsis: When Solène takes her daughter and her friends to a concert of their favorite boy band, she makes a connection with one of the singers, Hayes, who is 19 years her junior. Solène (who is single and divorced) and Hayes fall for each other and start a clandestine relationship, which has Solène flying around the world to meet up with him on tour, hoping the world (and her daughter) doesn’t find out.
Review: This book is good but the entire tone is foreboding, so you’re just waiting the entire time for their relationship to implode. It’s stressful, but I still felt compelled to read it because I wanted to know what was going to happen to them. (And I feel compelled to watch the movie version on Prime when it comes out in May.)
Recommend? Yes, but proceed with caution
[23] Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
Fiction / Fantasy / Romance, green light by Jamie on The Popcast, graphic audio
Synopsis: Violet lived her entire life thinking she’d be a scribe, but her mother, who is the commanding general of the army, has ordered her to try to become a dragon rider. Violet is small, and has some illness (that was never explained) that causes her joints and muscles to be susceptible to injury all the time, but she is determined to bond with a dragon and NOT DIE from training or any of the people who want to kill her because of who her mother is – especially Xaden Riorson, her wingleader, who is a separatists’ child. Wink wink.
Review: Writing a synopsis for fantasy books feels impossible to me. There’s just so much going on. Thankfully, this is a book that gently takes you through it all at a manageable pace. All that being said, holy sh*t the graphic audio of this was excellent. I LOVED this book. It’s action packed from almost the beginning. It’s doesn’t have any of those major lulls like A Court of Thorns and Roses does. I loved how sassy Violet was, the family she formed with her classmates, and her becoming stronger and figuring out who she is (and who she is in love with, *ahem). So many scenes in this book had me completely enthralled, like when she threshed (spelling? no idea since did audio version) with her dragon, when she found out what her signet was, the big scene at the end. I would honestly listen to this again and I can’t wait to listen to the second book on Graphic Audio when it’s released in May!
Recommend? Yes
[24] Meet Me at the Lake by Carley Fortune
Fiction / Romance, recommendation from Snis, Kindle
Synopsis: Fern and Will spent twenty-four hours together ten years ago and promised to meet up a year later, and Will never showed. It took Fern forever to get over him, and she is thrown for a loop when he shows up at the resort Fern just inherited from her deceased mother, and isn’t sure if she wants to run or not.
Review: This took forever to pick up for me. And it did that annoying thing where one of the characters has some “big thing!” that happened in their past and they drag out telling you (it wasn’t even that big of a thing when they did). The author also drug out the twenty-four hours that Fern and Will spent together until almost the end of the book, so you’re wondering what the heck was so magical that made her so destroyed when he didn’t show up a year later (still not sure). And the switching back and forth from present day to their day 10 years ago confused me sometimes and I thought I was in the wrong storyline. Also, Will pissed me off. When my snis recommended this to me she said people liked that the characters were realistic (as in, Will was NOT a knight in shining armour and had lots of issues), and I realize now what that means and it wasn’t for me.
Recommend? No
Random Thoughts Thursday 447
- I adore my new mani from Lorena! She used a different technique (dip) on the flowers to make them pop out on my nails. Fun!
- I LOVE stickers. I subscribe to a monthly sticker club from Pipsticks and have a sticker binder to organize them all (thanks, snis!). I primarily use them on mail. My snis told me her kids always know when the mail they get is from me because of all the stickers. Awww. I love that! When I was visiting her in January a piece of mail I had sent came late, and I got to see what they do with the stickers – peel them off and put them on things, including themselves!
- Confession – I had not heard of Dresden, Germany until our travel agent suggested it to us (I chose where we are going based on proximity to where my friends live), so when I tell people where we are going I usually don’t mention the city name and just say Germany. BUT! This week I was talking to a coworker and told her and it turns out she did a two week study abroad program there in grad school! And a good friend of ours has been there and to Leipzig (another city we are going to) and raved about them both. So… not everyone is as uncultured as me.
- Have I mentioned where we are going? Amsterdam, Dresden, Leipzig, Brussels, and Bruges.
- I’m so freaking pumped for our trip. I can’t wait to meet all our friends and see all the sites and eat all the food (I’ve found some great places to make reservations!). Pretty sure that is a repeat comment from last week… but it’s still true
- No matter what new toys we buy the cats, their favorite toy, for a few years, has been Christmas mouse. I don’t know what it is about this mouse, but it’s the one we find in our bedroom each morning, and the one they carry around the house and do that “I have a toy in my mouth!” cry at us with.
- The great thing about my new dye color is how much it hides my grays. Ha. Bonus! My colorist had mentioned this but it didn’t click until I realized I couldn’t see my grays as easily in the mirror (or wait, is that just my eyes going? ha ha ha).
- I’ve been struggling big time Monday mornings and usually arrive to class in a bad mood and this week I blasted music in the car instead of listening to an audiobook and that helped!
March Training
In class Monday I said to Bobbi “I’m hungry, and have no reason to be,” thinking about all the food I’d eaten the night before and breakfast I’d had, and she responded back “Yes you do! You’re training so much!”
Yes I am! Thank you for that reminder, Bobbi!
I’m struggling to figure out how much to eat after increasing my running last month to train for the marathon, while still lifting. Don’t worry – I’m well fueled! I’m just over here, trying to figure out hunger cues and how to fuel myself in my late 30s. I’m making very slow progress, but progress nonetheless.
But I’m not here to talk about that! I’m here to share a brief (??) recap of my March training.
March Stats:
Running
I had a solid running base going into marathon training – I was running 3-5 times a week, and doing a long run each week, anywhere from 10-15 miles. According to Garmin (I don’t track my mileage outside of Garmin for mental health reasons) I was running ~28 miles a week in February. In March I focused on increasing the long run distance, running 5 days a week, and adding a few miles to my weekly runs (they were 3-5 miles previously, in March I increased them to 3-8 miles).
It’s probably important to note I’m running the marathon for fun and don’t really give a sh*t what my finish time is. I did put in 5:00 for an estimated time when I registered, though. *shrugs*
Runs: 24 (10 w/Steven!)
Miles run in March: 174
Avg per week: ~37 miles (When I remembered, I’d look at my watch on Sunday to see how many miles I ran that week)
Long runs: 5 – 14m, 16m, 16m + 3m, 18m, 13.4m
Ha, that 16 + 3. I’m in NO place to be doing doubles, but that Friday before Steven left for work he asked if I wanted to run after work. I’d already planned to do my long run that morning so I cut it short and did it, plus an afternoon run. I felt good. Better than when he joined me the next week for the last 3 of my 18 miler, ha!
My long runs have all felt pretty good. I start them out listening to podcasts or a book then switch to music at the end to speed up.
Strength
I was taking strength classes 3-5 times a week leading up to March, and continued with that.
Strength: 19 classes:
Upper Body: 7
HIIT: 7
Lower Body: 5
I don’t want lower body to be the class I go to the least, that’s just how the gym schedule aligns with my office schedule – my office day is one of the lower body days so I usually only get to go to it once a week. Ya girl loves lower body day.
Rest & Recovery:
Massage
I get a massage every 3+ weeks and that aligned with getting one in March. I have two scheduled for April and one right before the marathon in May.
Sleep
I try to get 8 hours of good sleep a night. Key words: good & try.
Rest Day
I take a full rest day each week on my office day. All I do that day is walk to and from the office.
April!
April will be an interesting month – we’ll be gone for 10 days in Europe, during which my goal is to run once (a short run) in each of the three countries we’re visiting. I plan to run 19m and 20m for long runs before we go, then we’ll see what I feel like when I get back for running and class. Maybe I’ll be super awake in the mornings since we’ll be coming from the east and want to do all the early morning classes. Maybe I’ll be completely out of it for a few weeks (<— very likely). It’s a FAFO situation for sure!
First cross country!
Steven did his first solo cross country flight on Friday! Woo hoo!
He flew from Waukegan, IL to Janesville, WI and back (previously, he hadn’t left the airport pattern on his own). While he was flying, I remembered I could track him on flightaware.com, so I did!
We celebrated with pizza when he got home (gah, what an adrenaline inducing night for him – after his lesson, while getting gas, he saw a high speed police pursuit and the car they were chasing drove through the gas station he was at, hitting another car, then drove into someone’s yard and did donuts there until the police surrounded them) and I asked him a million questions about how it went.
Flying over Lake Geneva
Flying progress has been slow since he had his first solo in December because of the weather. It’s funny (not) – instructors told him that lessons aren’t canceled that much more in the winter months but he’s had so many canceled! Anyway, onward!
He needs to take the written exam and pass it, then he will be endorsed for his next (longer) cross country solo, then he has to get a few more hours during certain things and can take the oral and flying exams. Woo hoo! I cannot wait until I can go up with him as PIC (pilot in command)!
April Fools’
Yesterday I was chatting with a friend about holidays being a big deal at our house growing up, and that I loved how magical my mom made them. My friend asked which one I remember the most.
That was easy to answer. Hands down, April Fools’ when we were in grade school.
We were the age where mom still helped us get dressed/pick out our clothes, and when it was time to do that, instead of going to our closet/dresser/whatever, Mom had us follow her into the basement. I remember thinking, “oh, maybe my clothes are in the dryer?”
So we follow her down there, and she proceeds to open the chest freezer, and pull out clothes of ours that she had soaked in water, then frozen flat. And she told us that is what we were wearing.
I am still laughing about this, what… 35 years later?
I loved how extremely silly it was, and that she thought ahead to do that. Ha!
She obviously passed this fun-loving nature down to my snis – Mom text me some of the jokes my snis played on her kids today. (I’m not doing any jokes, but I did make one for the FakeMeats’s socials.)
I don’t have a pic of the frozen clothes but here is me and my snis with Mom in January!
Random Thoughts Thursday 446
- Here is the mani I got two weeks ago! I had this in a draft to post last week but didn’t feel like posting.
- Oh! And I had my hair dyed a little lighter last Friday. I like the color, but don’t love the application of it – the skinny stripes of it around my face and how it accentuates my roots. I know I’ll like it better when it grows out a bit.
- My last Stitch Fix was a bust. I asked for comfy long sleeved tops for our Europe trip and didn’t see any in my preview. So I asked for them again and didn’t receive any when the box came. I sent it all back without trying anything on (even the two things I was kind of interested in from my preview) and canceled future fixes.
- I want to pack as light as possible for our trip and wonder if I’ll be able to do it. I’m such an overpacker! I keep telling myself “all you ABSOLUTELY need is your meds, Kim!” All that being said, I’m thinking about bringing just a few things and wearing them several times. And doing laundry mid trip.
- I’m so glad March is almost over and we can be done with these motherfreaking 65 burpees a day in strength class.
- Marathon training is going well, but running and doing so much strength training is a lot, as I thought it would be. I’m looking forward to our trip and the training break. I was telling Steven this yesterday during our run and he asked if I was worried about a training setback because of the break. I told him I’m not. I think it will help to reset (even if it’s 4 weeks out from the marathon). I’m just running the marathon for fun anyway.
- I am also very much looking forward to being disconnected during our trip.
- Something that happened at work in June last year has been my main focus since then, and it’s finally getting close to a resolution and I feel cautiously optimistic about it all.
Reading Update (2024 #19-21)
[19] A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas
Fiction / Fantasy / Romance, part 4 after A Court of Frost and Starlight, Graphic Audio
Synopsis: (SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!): It’s one year after the war and Nesta is in a terrible headspace from it – she drinks to oblivion every day and has a new partner every night. Feyre and Rhysand order her to leave the city and live in the House of Wind and train with Cassian and work in the library there.
Review: Gah, I loved this book so much once it got going and Nesta started training and taking care of herself a bit more. The bulk of the story is her forgiving herself (again, SPOILERS) for not saving her father during the war and for treating him and her family and everyone she knows like shit for all of her life. But there’s the love story between her and Cassian (holy cow, this book had so much sex, ha!), the threat from Queen Briallyn, the magical house she lives in (a character all its own!), the background story with Feyre and Rhysand, and my favorite plotline – the friendships she forms with Gwyn (a priestess) and Emerie (Illyrian shop owner). Gah, I guess I’m just a big sucker for a good friendship story. I think I’d actually listen to this again – the graphic audio was so good!
Recommend? Yes
[20] Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera
Fiction / Mystery & Detective, green light from Jamie on The Popcast, audio
Synopsis: Lucy’s best friend was murdered five years ago, and everyone thinks Lucy did it. But she can’t remember that night at all. She’s moved away from her hometown where it happened and started a new life, but when the podcast Listen for the Lie features her story, she ends up going back, and trying to figure out what really happened.
Review: This was excellent and so engaging on audio – I loved how the podcast segments had intro/outro music and a different voice for the podcast host. Mystery is usually not my jam, but I was totally into this, and trying to figure out what happened. Of course, I couldn’t, since Lucy didn’t remember anything, but it was a fun ride!
Recommend? Yes, on audio if you can!
[21] You, with a View by Jessica Joyce
Fiction / Romance / Romantic Comedy, read about on Stephany’s blog, Kindle
Synopsis: Noelle is grieving the loss of her grandmother, and finds a box of hers with a love letter to a man she did NOT marry and never mentioned to Noelle. Noelle makes a TikTok about it and the man is revealed to be the grandparent of her arch nemesis from high school, Theo. Noelle meets with them and the three of them decide to go on the honeymoon trip to national parks and landmarks that her grandmother planned and never went on.
Review: What an enjoyable romance! I love how creative some authors are with putting depth (dealing with grieving, relationships with your grandparents, work stress, believing in yourself, loss of identity, etc.) into their romances. We still get our happy ending with some substance along the way! Here for it. And enemies-to-lovers is one of my favorite tropes, so big bonus. And gimme all the nature scenes and hiking! Woo hoo!
Recommend? Yes
Reading Update (2024 #16-18)
[16] For the Love of Friends by Sara Goodman Confino
Fiction / Women, saw on Kindle Unlimited, Kindle
Synopsis: Lily is a bridesmaids in 5 weddings (two of which are her siblings’) that are all within weeks of each other. And she’s thirty-two and unmarried, so she’s constantly dealing with judgement from everyone (especially her mother) about that. To help relieve stress, she starts an anonymous Bridesmania blog to snark about it all. She also becomes close friends with a groomsman from her friend’s upcoming wedding… even though she’s sworn off groosman after sleeping with a different one at the engagement party.
Review: Gah, the brides, bridesmaids, and their families in this book are just insane. I could not believe the things they were putting Lily through! I totally understood why she was using her blog as an outlet to vent about them! This was a fun read, with a satisfying ending.
Recommend? Yes
[17] Cold People by Tom Rob Smith
Fiction / Thrillers / Suspense, Green Light from Knox on The Popcast, Kindle
Synopsis: Aliens invade earth and give everyone 30 days to get to Antarctica, then they have to figure out how to survive there.
Review: This book is not really about the aliens, it’s about what the people do to survive. It was kind of interesting and I was going to give it 4 out of 5 stars until the lame ending. It’s a 3.
Recommend? No
[18] Cover Story by Susan Rigetti
Fiction / City Life, read about on Stephany’s blog, Kindle
Synopsis: Lora Ricci is failing at NYU and hopes her summer internship at ELLE magazine will get her in the door and help her with her dream of becoming a writer. She meets heiress Cat Wolff, an ELLE contributing editor, and is immediately captivated by her, and beyond excited that Cat wants to work on a project together, with Lora as the ghostwriter… even though a few people have warned her not to trust Cat.
Review: I loved how fast-paced this was. The book is all journal entries, emails, purchases, and news articles, so I flew through it, and am glad Stephany recommended it in print rather than audiobook. The book kept me on my toes, and I rode through all the emotions Lora was as she worked with Cat. The ending was predictable, but still a lot of fun.
Recommend? Yes
Random Thoughts Thursday 445
- I have completely embraced having a quieter social media and blogging presence this year, and it feels good… but a bit odd. I’m a recovering oversharer (can I say I’m in recovery yet?) and while I appreciate the time back from not documenting and sharing so much… yeah, it just feels strange. Like I’m forgetting to do something (but happy I am not at the same time).
- Something I didn’t share last week – I did my long run on Saturday and felt so good! I rode with Steven to the office and ran home from there, adding in a loop at the preserve to get to 16 miles.
- Steven started running again a few weeks ago! Exciting! I want to run with him, but still get my marathon training miles in, so we’ve worked out a few scenarios that allow me to do that – it’s basically either me running to the preserve from the house and him joining me later to run, or us driving to the preserve and running together, then me running home while he drives home.
- Our Europe trip is starting to feel SO real and I’m getting SO excited! A lot of unwelcomed (is it ever welcomed?) anxiety was making it hard for me to get excited, but I’ve gotten close enough to the trip now that that’s going away and I am super pumped to see my friends, eat yummy foods, and see several new cities!
- I’m struggling to learn Dutch by memorization. I do well with an alphabet, formally learning how to conjugate verbs, and knowing the WHY behind things. You can’t just tell me some nouns are “de” nouns and some are “het” nouns and I just have to memorize it (de and het mean “the”). Ha. I’m trying though! Ik spreek een beetje Nederlands!
Random Thoughts Thursday 444
- I decided to go all pink (well, black shorts) for my May marathon and got these beauties to wear (Women’s Gel-Nimbus 25s)!
- I’m going to try to keep up my strength class frequency (typically 4-5 classes a week) while upping my mileage for training but we’ll see how realistic that is (likely not very).
- WWM (my gym) does a March Madness challenge that’s 65 burpees (without the pushup, so not really a burpee, but still) a day. EVERY CLASS. It’s horrible. HORRIBLE. They aren’t even 65 in a row, but I still don’t want to do them.
- Dune: Part Two was so good! We’re going to see it again in IMAX. Seeing part two in the theater makes me wish I could have seen part one in the theater. Maybe it’ll come back.
- I finally started learning Dutch on Duolingo for our trip in April. Not sure why I waited until March to start, but it’s been fun to learn a new language. Steven took German in high school so I asked him to refresh on that.
- Mani from last week!
Hi! I’m Kim, a 39-year-old living in northeastern Illinois with my husband Steven, and our cats, Khaleesi, Apollo, Starbuck, and Eddard aka Ned. My current main hobbies are running, painting rocks, reading, and eating. I follow a vegan lifestyle and am employed by the federal government. I write about a variety of topics and consider this a “life” blog – a place I can share anything that’s on my mind. Please visit the “About” page to get a better idea of who I am! 🙂
