Reading Update (2024 #64-66)
[64] You Will Never Be Me by Jesse Q. Sutanto
Fiction / Thrillers / Suspense, heard about from Jamie on The Popcast, Kindle
Synopsis: Meredith was a well known influencer when she took Aspen under her wings to show her the way to social media fame. Now Aspen has surpassed Meredith in followers as an “authentic” momfluencer, and ditched her. Meredith is spiraling and when she finds a way to mess with Aspen’s success, she takes it.
Review: This book was a fast, fun, somewhat twisty read. I enjoyed it, but it also made me feel ill over how much some people care about fame, and how miserable your life can be when you’re doing everything for social media. I liked the conversational and casual writing style of the book – it was very readable. There was odd timing with something in the middle – I thought I missed a jump in time because of it – but that was the only issue.
Recommend? Yes
[65] The Housemaid by Freida McFadden
Fiction / Thrillers / Psychological, available on Kindle Unlimited, Kindle
Synopsis: Millie is desperate to get ANY job – she just lost her diner job, is living in her car, and has a criminal record. The Winchesters hire her to be a live in maid and she can’t believe her luck. Sure, the creepy attic room is, well, creepy, and Nina Winchester seems crazy, but Nina just needs to stay there long enough to make enough money and get a good recommendation for her next job…
Review: Another fast-paced, fun, twisty thriller. With some truly creepy parts to it, but nothing unstomachable!
Recommend? Yes
[66] You, Again by Kate Goldbeck
Fiction / Romance / Romantic Comedy, read with Val and Tiff, Audio
Synopsis: Ari and Josh live in NYC and randomly bump into each other throughout the years, and despise one another. After they both go through breakups, they meet by chance again and become friends.
Review: I could write so much about how much I absolutely disliked this book. Listening to it actually made me angry. I just finished it because it was a group read with Val and Tiff.
This is a cheap When Harry Met Sally ripoff without any of the redeeming character qualities or humor from that film. These characters, and most of the ones in their universe, are extremely unlikable (and unrelatable). I didn’t want them to get together. I didn’t want to know anything about their lives. I wasn’t invested or interested at all. I was just ANNOYED. I listened to this on audio, and there was a weird narration style where it went back and forth from Ari and Josh’s characters’ point-of-view within paragraphs. It was sometimes confusing. I wonder if I would have hated it less had I not listened to it on audio? Some of the voices were terrible. Just blah, all around.
Recommended? Hell no
Random Thoughts Thursday 468
- Apollo was such a good boy at the vet Friday and the staff kept commenting on it – I felt like such a proud cat mom! Apollo was eager to get out of his carrier and explore and roll around on the floor. He even tried to get into the back office of the clinic. Ha. I wonder if he remembers it from when he was a baby and that’s why he was so comfortable? (He was born there and lived there for about 3 months!)
- We moved his annual appointment up a few weeks because he’s had some infrequent bloody stool (the asked how we knew it was his – cause he’s the only one who does naughty poops outside of the box and that’s where we see it). The vet prescribed more fiber (pumpkin). So far, so good!
- The vet jokingly called me a crazy cat lady while I was there, which he also did last time, when I brought Penny in. Both times were in reference to caring for outdoor cats. I really like our vet, and we joke around, but I let him know I hate being called a crazy cat lady. Just cat lady is fine, but please don’t call me crazy. He was like “yeah, you aren’t crazy, crazy would be [situation I am not going to write out].” I could write a lot more about this (he’s not the only one who has called me that). But guys. How often do you see me even mention our cats on here? I talk about flying more. And I don’t blab about our cats in real life either. I know most people don’t care. I am somewhat self-aware. ANYWAY.
- Another thing I could write more about: me being friendly and funny isn’t always well accepted at work with certain clients, and I have to be so serious, and it’s just NOT ME. UGH. I know we don’t get to be 100% ourselves at work all the time but UGH UGH UGH.
- I am still struggling with typing on my phone. I generally can’t stand it. Insert old lady emoji here.
- Alani has this caramel apple flavor drink called Witch’s Brew that apparently only comes out once a year and it’s my favorite and I can’t find it anymore and I only have one can left (saving for a special occasion). WAH!
- Ha! I forgot I had this down here. Another thing I could write more about: sometimes I have to wait to make decisions about doing things until I am in a different mindset, otherwise I will just say no. Anyone else?
Not a planner
Would it surprise you to read that I don’t identify as a planner? When we were traveling to Iowa this summer with Tiff and her family I told them I’m not a planner and Tiff was like “Yeah, but you have a spreadsheet of ideas for things to do/places to go, and places to eat”* for every trip we take.
Okay. That is true.
But hear me out! I despise planning so much that I don’t consider myself a planner.
It’s the responsibility of it. That it puts you in charge. The weight of trying to find things to do and eat (and where to stay?!) that one or more people will like. I don’t want to be the cruise director.
Sigh. But I do it.
And what have I learned?
That it almost always has a great outcome.
UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
So why am I talking about this today?
I have a really big all day partnering meeting I am hosting with customers next week in person in Chicago. I have been dreading it so spectacularly hard. I’ve had to give myself so many pep talks and do so much freaking work to get ready for it. I think by the time it happens I will have put 40+ hours of prep AKA planning into it.
And what did I say to Steven yesterday (in google chat)?
I am hosting this all day partnering meeting in Chicago with customer on 10/17 and I am putting so much f*cking work into it (and I have a ton of help; not complaining about only me doing the work) is this… what it feels like to plan and be prepared?! This is what I meant when I told Tiff’s husband I am NOT a planner. I usually fly by the seat of my pants.
Shocker among ALL shockers, doing all this planning is actually making me feel less anxious and more… prepared?! WHO KNEW! I am actually kind of looking forward to it now? WHOA WHO AM I.
Will I remember this moving forward? Gawd, hopefully.
*My regular days are so structured and on the minute that I want my time off NOT to be, so this list of ideas is always a starting place, and not a whole day of scheduled events. Ideally no more than one scheduled event a day on a day off. That is just where I’m at right now.
Burlington Fly-In
Yesterday’s flying adventure was to the Burlington (WI) Fly-In, which also doubles as a German car/plane show. Three thoughts:
1. We need to arrive at fly-ins toward the beginning. This one was from 10-2 and we couldn’t get the plane until noon (funny enough, the person who had it before us also went to this fly-in). It was around 1:15 when we got there and a lot of the planes (and cars from the car show) were already gone.
The Abel Island Fly-In (our only other fly-in experience) was similar. You know how sometimes you imagine how things are going to be in your head and don’t realize you were doing that until they didn’t go that way? That was me with that fly-in. It was from 12-3 and I figured people would land starting at 12:00 and leave starting at 3:00 but it was more land by 12:00 and leave by 3:00.
I’m not sure if they’re ALL like this, but 100% of my experience with them has been! Ha.
All that being said, we are just flying to fly (so Steven can keep learning) so we weren’t upset that a lot of the cars were gone and we still got to see some cool stuff!
2. I am so freaking impressed by Steven’s flying. That goes without saying and I’ve said it before, but it’s a level of awe that grows the more we fly together and I learn and understand more about all the things he is doing and thinking about while flying.
It was windy yesterday. Of course. Steady winds over 10 knots, gusting in the 20s. I won’t get into the maths behind which runway you depart and land on based on the winds and what the crosswinds end up being (in knots) based on the angle they hit the runway but we took off from UGN with a crazy crosswind. Like really pushing us across the runway (off the centerline) as we were leaving. And Steven handled it like a pro! Constantly adjusting the rudder and ailerons and whatever else for a smooth as possible departure. Like I said, I was impressed!
The two landings were great too – super smooth. Those runways were more aligned with the direction of the wind so there wasn’t as bad of a crosswind but there was still strong gusting. I learned that when it’s gusty like that you take the difference of the steady and gusting wind and divide it by 2 and add that to the normal landing speed to help prevent from stalling. Steven did that and flaps 20% instead of 30% so we’d be coming in a bit faster. Sorry – got a bit technical but writing that stuff helps me remember it.
Anyway, I was very “wow wow wow” yesterday. I was also thinking other passengers probably wouldn’t enjoy those gusty flights (and Steven said they’d probably think he was a bad pilot from how much the plane gets thrown around). We had invited someone who had plans and I’m glad that’s not the flight we took them on. (We’d also invited Josh who also had plans and totally wouldn’t have thought anything of it.)
3. I wonder if I could ever do this. I’ve always wanted to be a pilot and this is the first time it really seemed like something I wouldn’t be able to handle (the coordination of – there is so much going on!). Granted, Steven has well over a hundred hours of flying (which I think is great for a new pilot who started in April 2023) and I know .01% about it, so I could be wrong, but I really wonder if my little pea brain could coordinate and get into enough of a flow state to handle winds like that and the constant adjusting. I’m sure it’s one of those practice, practice, practice things, until it becomes second nature and almost flow state. Or something.
Weekend so far
This is 60% good stories and 40% me complaining so proceed with caution!
Good – Steven was able to do his night flight on Friday (after rescheduling from the Friday before) and is current for passengers. Woo hoo!
Good – We started Nobody Wants This on Netflix and I think it’s pretty cute!
Bad – When I started work yesterday morning I realized all the files I made last week were the wrong size and that I had to redo them all to get the work done I had intended on doing that day. GAH! I was so frustrated with myself. I ended up working all day (even a bit after dinner), just taking a break to go to a coworker’s celebration of life for her dad. Ugh. I won’t make THAT mistake in Adobe Illustrator again.
Good – I’m so glad I took a break and went to the celebration of life. It was a haul from the house (50+ miles one way) but I listened to a new book on the way there and back, and it felt really good to support my coworker, and mingle with other coworkers. I felt very “on” – connected with the conversation, in a good mood, people were laughing at my jokes, etc. etc. I hadn’t felt that on in a while, so that was nice. (Edited to add: I should note this celebration of life was at a bowling alley and it had a party atmosphere)
Bad – When I was saying hello to a walker in the preserve this morning, he responded with “Do you know running is bad for you?” I legit thought he was joking so I said “Oh yeah, why is that?” then he LEGIT gave a speech about all the forces on my joints, which particular joints, etc. And I was still running ahead and away from him during this time. I responded with “Guess I’m f*cked!” and thought that would be enough but he kept going on why hiking is better for me, why it is blah blah blah, just wanted me to know, have a nice day. I seriously considered flipping him the bird over my shoulder, but didn’t. Proud of me.
I understand he thought he was being helpful. But I just don’t want to hear that on my run. Reminds me of this other guy I’d run into at the park time to time and he’d lecture me about how I need to lose weight.
Could both of those statements be true? Sure. I know I’m in a bigger body. And I know that body won’t let me run forever. Do I need to hear them from random ass stranger at the preserve? Nah.
Random Thoughts Thursday 467
- My Tuesday post wasn’t meant to alarm/worry you or make you think I hate my job. It was just me trying to express how busy I am at work and how it’s making the days fly by. And that I need to continue to focus on relaxing during my time off.
- Sometimes at work customers will ask me if they are my only customer. No. I have 29. Eight of those are new-to-me as of October 1 (I dropped 2 and picked up 8). And some of those 29 have sub agencies/bureaus… ANYWAY. I hope when they are asking it’s because I provide such top level customer service they must think they are my ONLY one. Ha. That must be it, right?
- I recently realized that Steven is the age now (43) that my Mom was when she first met Steven in 2002… when I was 18. That’s a lot of numbers. It’s mostly just another reflection on how fast time goes by. And that I cannot imagine being our age and having a kid in college.
- I knew the date on that photo was wrong and that it’s from sometime in October 2002. 2002 planner to the rescue! It was October 30.
- I’m trying not to focus on weight as a personal health metric, but it’s something I need to know for when we fly so Steven can do the weight and balance of the plane. So that’s… something. It doesn’t make me feel bad, just fights my “weight doesn’t matter” mentality with “well, actually it does for flying.”
- Well, you saw it above, but here is my new mani from last week!
- I have a few other random thoughts but I’ll save them for another day or their own post!
Dropping balls
I have to share two experiences from Val’s visit that have been playing on repeat in my head since she left. The first is funny and the second is scary. Or should we reverse them? Let’s do scary then funny.
Story 1 (the scary one): After our flight Val and I went to pick up a pizza in Steven’s car. Steven took my car to get gas and wasn’t with us.
When we got to the pizza place Val opened her door and a man approached our car stepped in front of the open door. I said, “sorry, we’re not interested” before he even got started on his spiel. Dude, read the room.
But he kept going, saying something like “let me tell you what’s going on” then leaned in more over Val to tell us some story about how he missed his train stop south of where we were and wondered if we were going north or if we were going south could we drop him off.
Val told him no and he went away but loitered outside of the pizza station and it made her super uncomfortable.
It made me ragey that after I told him no, he kept going, then doubled down by leaning in more and making it so Val couldn’t close the door or get away from him. Steven’s car is pretty low to the ground, so this man was kind of towering over Val.
Was I being a bitch? Yes. I wish I would have been bitchier and told him to f*ck off. We were two women, in a not super awesome part of town, being accosted right after arriving somewhere and opening our door. NOT COOL.
Also, we were not going south, we were going north. Also, he had a phone in his hand. Order a freaking Uber, dude. GAH.
And maybe, just maybe, don’t rush up to someone and step into their space right after they open their car door to ask them for something. There was never a chance in hell he was getting in the car, but definitely not after that. UGH.
Story 2 (the funny one): While we were flying with Val around northern Chicagoland, we kept hearing someone on the radio telling air traffic control they were dropping balls. Since we are all children this made us very giggly. Then we researched it later and found out it’s a charity thing – people buy golf balls, then a helicopter drops them off at a golf course, and the one that gets a hole in one or close to it wins. Or something like that.
But, “dropping balls!” Snicker snicker.
Work hard/play medium
I just had my mind blown. I came over here to blog about the work hard/play hard concept and era of my life I am in… then realized I might not interpret that concept the same way as everyone else.
In my mind “work hard/play hard” meant you were working really hard when you were working, and playing really hard the rest of the time (maybe almost to excess). Which sounded exhausting to me. Like when do you rest?!
But then when I googled work hard/play hard the top result said “The phrase ‘work hard, play hard’ refers to the practice of having a good work-life balance and prioritizing both professional growth and personal enjoyment. People who embrace the work hard, play hard lifestyle give equal attention to reaching their career-related and personal goals.”
Huh. That description makes it sound less intense than it was in my mind. I mean, I have “doing less” as a personal goal. And I am all about work-life balance.
But then other searches supported my original interpretation of work hard/play hard, one even adding “rest harder” at the end.
ANYWAY. Let’s get out of that rabbit hole. This was meant to be a short post. Oops.
What I was going to say is I feel like I am in a work hard/play medium part of my life and I want to be in a work lite/play medium part of life… but I don’t see that changing for a while. At least until the holidays, for an interim break. Then back at it.
Work is making the days fly by. I have little actions each day that give me a sense of accomplishment and purpose, but it still freaks me out how fast the days are going. Like life is flying by and it’s just… work. It’s not even something I typically share with people outside of work. It’s a separate part of my personality that I mostly shut down when I’m off. AM I WASTING MY LIFE AWAY.
My days are feeling monotonous/routine, even though they technically aren’t, when you look at the fine details. Every day at work is completely different with new unforeseen problems. My days never go how I think they’re going to. It’s kind of nuts. The monotonous/routine part about it is that I wake up early each day to work out, work all day, then try to have free time and do it all again the next day.
So when I’m off from my full-time job I am OFF and don’t think about it at all and just focus on resting, having fun, and part-time work. Ya know, work hard/play hard.
What is this post even about. Thank you for witnessing my existential crisis and the beginning stages of burnout. Yes, I will book some therapy for this month.
Recent playing:
Reading Update (2024 #61-63)
[61] Reckless (Chestnut Springs #4) by Elsie Silver
Fiction / Romance / Contemporary, fourth in series, Kindle
Synopsis: Winter and Theo’s meet cute is NOT that cute. They’re both driving to the same destination in a snowstorm and Winter is freaked out and driving super slow and Theo is riding her ass. He gets out laughing about it and she immediately chews him out. He’s instantly attracted to how feisty she is. They spend a night together that changes their life forever… but don’t see each other again until a year and a half later.
Review: This book really took me through the ringer. I don’t want to spoil anything, but there is a huge miscommunication at the beginning that made me SO mad. And it gets talked about right away but it’s undoable and heartbreaking. All that being said, it was fun to see Winter (she is Summer’s sister from the first book) get a love story, and I loved her and Theo’s (he is the bull riding protege of Summer’s fiance from the first book) chemistry.
Recommend? Yes
[62] The Women by Kristin Hannah
Fiction / Women, heard about from everyone, read with Mom & Snis, audio
Synopsis: Frankie is a 20 year-old nurse and joins the army so she can go to Vietnam to be with her brother. He dies before she even gets there, but she still goes, and her life is forever changed by her service there, the relationships she makes, and her struggles when she returns home.
Review: It was such an emotional journey listening to this (I was so excited when I saw Julia Whelan was the narrator!), but I loved it. Hannah creates such an amazing sense of space/environment that you feel like you can almost understand the horror Frankie is seeing in Vietnam, and her struggles when she gets back. And you’re more connected to Frankie’s story because of that. I love historical fiction like this that tells a story in such a memorable way that I’m actually learning about new parts of history I didn’t know about – like the women who served in Vietnam. There were so many themes explored in this book, but I especially loved the focus on female friendship, and the lifelong friends Frankie made in the other nurses she served with. Their absolute love and devotion to one another was inspiring (and really, a lot of what got Frankie through all her hardships).
Recommend? Absolutely yes
[63] Hopeless (Chestnut Springs #5) by Elsie Silver
Fiction / Romance / Contemporary, fourth in series, Kindle
Synopsis: Beau is not himself after returning from being captured in Afghanistan, and starts spending a lot of time at the local watering hole, where Bailey, his much younger neighbor, works. Bailey’s family has a horrible reputation – her dad’s in jail, her brothers are drunk petty thieves, and her mom split a long time ago. Bailey is honest and works hard, but everyone in town just sees her as being as horrible as the rest of her family. She can’t get another job anywhere, so Beau offers to be fake engaged to her to help with her reputation, since his family is so beloved.
Review: I really enjoyed this book and the chemistry between these two. Honestly, it was probably my fave of the series! I wish the author would get to the “we actually like each other and this isn’t fake” part of the story a bit faster, but they gotta build suspense, right? I really enjoyed this series overall, and the little universe created and how it ties in with Wild Love and Wild Eyes.
Recommend? Yes, all 5 in the series!
Flying to Lake Lawn Airport
Today’s flying adventure was to Lake Lawn Airport in Delavan, Wisconsin (C59), with Bobbi!
We picked this airport because it’s close (34.9 nautical miles, 24 minute flight there and 27 on the way back) and it’s across the street from Lake Lawn Resort, which has a few restaurants we could go to for lunch. Originally we invited Bobbi and her husband, then realized the Cessna 172 that was available couldn’t carry all of us and fuel. The other plane we fly has a bigger engine and higher useful load but wasn’t available. All four of us will have to go together in the future in that plane, cause spoiler alert, we had a lot of fun!
After we figured that out earlier this week and knew it would just be the three of us, we turned to weather watch. It was HELLA windy here this weekend. Steven was going to fly Friday night to get his night currency for passengers and had to cancel because the wind was gusting so high. Besides throwing you around in the air, the high winds can create a crosswind on the runway that affect your stability and control and cause you to drift off course.
Fun, fun!
It was pretty windy at Waukegan (look at Bobbi’s hair blowing back!) but we obviously had two safe takeoffs and landings.
And actually, the wind had reduced a bit once we got inland/away from Lake Michigan (Steven still had to do a lot of corrections to land safely at Lake Lawn from crosswind, but it was a super smooth landing! I was impressed.).
We had a lovely time chatting at lunch then walked around a bit at the resort.
It was sunny and hot there, completely different weather than we were experiencing in Illinois before we left. That lake effect back home, I tell ya.
Gah, on the flight home I went to open Steven’s new water bottle, which has a straw in it, and the pressure change made it throw water all over me, the iPad, my headset, and the plane. Derp. We won’t be using that bottle in the plane again. (My headset controller is now currently sitting in a bag of rice. Sigh. It was fine on the flight but there was water in it when I got home. And I only know that because I went to change the batteries. I’m glad I saw it!)
But other than that, totally great flight! I love seeing the land around us from above, and really enjoyed pointing things out to Bobbi. We love having passengers and Bobbi said she really enjoyed it!
I’m so glad we got to go, and share it with Bobbi! I worked most of yesterday (Fake Meats work) and needed to do something fun today. Y’all have maybe picked up that my life is mostly work, flying, and the occasional visit with family and friends. I really look forward to these adventures! We’ll have to slowly wean me off of them in the fall so I don’t struggle in the winter if we can’t fly much because of weather. Kind of joking, but kind of not. I’ve been really looking forward to this for a long time and am so grateful I get to go with Steven!
Hi! I’m Kim, a 40-something-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, flying, 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! 🙂
