Even More Books!

Okay so post number five of the year regarding reading...bear with me. If only I were doing this well on any of my other resolutions. Young adult fantasy has always been a not-so-guilty pleasure of mine, and I absolutely have the tendency to blaze through everything an author has ever written in a week by giving up basically everything else including sleeping and eating when I get into one of these phases. Though I think these were maybe a little more adult than young adult, Sarah J. Maas's books (all seven of them) absolutely fell into this category for me. The first five were of the Throne of Glass series. There were some novellas too, but I'm not really counting those. The story is very strong, fast paced (except the third book, which I have to say was kind of a drag), and keeps you on your toes, not to mention I think this series has one of my all time favorite female fictional characters in it (Manon Blackbeak). Overall, I would highly recommend (most of) this series, especially if you like this genre, though you might consider waiting a year until it's finished because the suspense will kill you.
Next up, was the two books in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series that are out so far. I actually though that A Court of Thorns and Roses was really slow, cliche and kind of boring until about the last 50 pages, which made me anticipate something better for book two, and oh boy, A Court of Mist and Fury did. not. disappoint. Again, I think I've added a new all-time favorite character (Rhysand) to my list, and much of the plot (though it progressed a little too quickly in places) and the characters' motivations were truly well written. The book even went so far as to properly explain away some of the plot points in the first book that I was most disappointed with. So, overall, I would highly recommend the second book in this series, and I suppose you'll have to read the first one for context. I am looking forward to the next one in this series more so than in the Throne of Glass series, actually, as the plot really thickened by the end there.

And now I'm at 15 books, with a month to go! :)

Quiet! Work In Progress...

Well, I don't want to spoil the surprise just yet, but I have some big things (hopefully) happening that I'm very excited about! I won't know for sure that things have taken the direction I want until early next year, but I have a couple months of work ahead of me to put in as well, so I might be a little more absent than usual on this blog (I see you rolling your eyes at me).
I've taken some cool "breaks" though that I want to post about eventually, including my first trip to New York City, which has been a "never have I ever" go-to of mine for way too long now (even though it was always a total winner). I am currently the least excited for fall I think I've ever been in my life, not in the least because it strikes dread in my very soul that winter is coming. But things are going to be busy soon with holidays and elections (though oh god, can't wait for it to be over already) and conferences and there's SO LITTLE TIME to get everything done and I am so bad at not getting enough sleep now! I hope your fall is going a little more relaxing than mine, and if you live somewhere warm, please for the love of all that's holy, send a little more summer my way.

More (Audio)Book Reviews

I must say that I am kicking ass at my reading goal this year, though I will be honest some of it has felt a tiny bit like cheating because well...audiobooks. My office does not have parking directly below or around it, so our designated work parking is about 0.5 miles away. This means I have about a 25 minute walk (round trip) every day during which to listen to something and in order to not spend that time with my head buried in my phone, I will sometimes fill it up by listening to a book. And I am of the opinion that listening to books still counts as reading them.
Somehow I managed to get all the way through high school and college without ever having to pick up this book, but I took a public health class this summer for which one fo the final paper topics dealt with this book. Having never read it and feeling a little ambitious, I told myself it would be unfair to select another paper topic without first giving this book a go, so I downloaded an audiobook. As pretty much expected, it turned out to be an interesting read (with a healthy dose of incredibly depressing and totally horrifying on the side). For those who've never read it, The Jungle is about a Lithuanian family who emigrates to the the Stockyards of Chicago in the early 1900s and slowly learns first hand about the horrors of the meatpacking industry of the time, while struggling to make ends meet. I wasn't a huge fan of the ending which was basically a 10-page political plug, but it made sense in the context of the book. Sinclair had actually written the book as a way to highlight the plight of workers in the meat industry and advocate for better rights for those workers, but the uproar around the book's release centered almost solely on the egregious practices of the meat industry and led to some of the first food inspection laws with real teeth behind them. Overall, I would recommend this book, but maybe...pick something fun to do after you read it.
Admittedly, I am somewhat picky about narrators in audiobooks, but I LOVE listening to comedians narrate their own books and this book was no exception. Offerman has excellent delivery and descriptions in this autobiographical tale of his life, experiences, and career. It was a light and easy listen with some really good lessons incorporated throughout the book. There were a couple parts where the writing was a little heavy handed for me, but ignoring those, the book was wonderful! I would recommend this book.
Basically as soon as I had finished Paddle Your Own Canoe I went through the end-of-book withdrawals that every reader experiences upon completing a good book. You know, the ones that kind of feel like you just got broken up with? Well, naturally, I did what any good book lover does and jumped right into the next book by the same author so I could listen to Nick Offerman, my new friend, tell me about Gumption. The concept for this second book of Offerman's was pretty unique to me. Instead of writing about himself, he chose to highlight the concept of gumption, what it means, and who he has found to have exemplified the trait. As such, I got to learn about a variety of incredibly interesting people from James Madison and Teddy Roosevelt to Yoko Ono and Carol Burnett, all while laughing heartily. I thought it was a great concept for a book and Offerman had incredible delivery. I would highly recommend this book.

Summer Shakes

One of my goals for the year has been to improve the quality of my food intake. I have made it several months being really good about hitting a decent caloric deficit every day, but since noticing an annoying plateau in my fitness goals, I thought I probably needed to step it up a little in the macros department (and the strength training department). Right this minute I am at Newport beach in California, so my current shakes have been a little more of the sugary ice-cream variety, but over the past few weeks, I've been trying an assortment of protein shakes and smoothies to improve my fruit/veggie/protein intake and give myself a good energy boost in the morning and before my high intensity workouts (which are usually on my lunch break). I thought I'd take a minute and share some of my favorites with you!
This shake is a staple. The ingredients are by far the easiest [banana, protein powder (I use vanilla), peanut butter, and some low fat milk] and it's one of the most delicious shakes I've tried. It's extremely high in calories (usually around 600-700 with two bananas), so I try to save this one for days I know I'm going to be doing a much more intense workout (or dancing for 3 hours).
This berry-packed shake is light and refreshing (and if I don't finish the whole thing in the morning, I sometimes add a little gin or vodka to it in the evening for a light fruity cocktail). I'm sure there are a million ways to make this, but I generally prefer a combination of strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, a plum, and maybe a banana if the berries/plum combo turns out to be a little more tart than I'd hoped. Adding a scoop of protein powder and some milk to this shake usually caps it out around 400-450 calories, making a good breakfast substitute on a low-intensity exercise day.
I am absolutely a minimalist, and I am rather obstinate about not buying things I plan to only use once or twice, so looking for a green smoothie mix was a challenge. Many recipes had their complicated assortment of ingredients by which to mask the taste of a bunch of bitter vegetables, and I just didn't feel like investing in Goji berries, chia seeds, coconut flakes, or whatever else. Knowing that banana is basically the all-masking smoothie flavor, I decided to go for a simple kale, spinach, and banana recipe for my green smoothie and topped it off with some milk, cinnamon, and vanilla protein powder.

Do you have any shake recipes you really like? How are you getting your protein for the day in?

Rueda de Casino!

This week, I found a new favorite quote about dance. I am reading/listening to Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and there is a line at the beginning about attendees of a wedding:

"Some do not dance anything at all, but simply hold each other's hands and allow the undisciplined joy of motion to express itself with their feet."   The undisciplined joy of motion...I can't think of a better way to express how I feel about dance, though I lack the eloquence of Sinclair (and boy is he eloquent in this book) in my expression. I have been quoting this to myself all day, while thinking about salsa class tomorrow and looking forward to it more than usual.


I mentioned a while ago about taking a salsa class as a means of completing part of a New Year's resolution. Well, here's that post I promised I was going to make about my salsa class. The style I'm dancing is called Rueda de Casino. The video above is actually some of my instructors and classmates dancing this style! Maybe one day if they get me on video, I will post that, but don't hold your breath, guys.  It's a group dance that started in the streets of Cuba and is danced in a circle or rueda, where moves are called out and partners are constantly switching. In Cuba, the moves would differ a lot even between different areas of the same city because people would make up their own and then groups jealousy guarded their own moves in their communities. The history of this dance and the flexibility and variety of moves is one of the things I have loved most about learning it! I've talked about dance as a passion of mine on this blog before; one that, in different phases of my life, hasn't been maintained as regularly or thoroughly as I really need in order to to feel fulfilled. Taking this class has been slowly filling that gap, teaching me to be confident in movement again and helping me feel that undisciplined joy of motion, and I am so happy and thankful to have dance to look forward to every week again!

Book Reviews: Why Not Me? and Catcher in the Rye

In keeping with my resolutions, I recently finished two more books! The first, was Mindy Kaling's Why Not Me? which I basically knew I would like before I even started. Full of her usual charm and wit, Mindy Kaling rocked it yet again. I really enjoyed the glimpse into her life and how well the autobiographical and comedic components complemented each other to make this book so enjoyable. Also, reading the whole thing in her voice and with her delivery helped a lot. I would highly recommend this book.

The other book I read recently was J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. Somehow I managed to make it through the entirety of my primary education without ever having to read this book, but I'd heard a lot about it, namely that the characters get more and more annoying the older you get. I can't really speak to what high-school-me would have thought about Holden Caulfield, but adult-me definitely found him a little over dramatic and judgy. That being said, I didn't have any trouble at all getting through this book and found the story pretty interesting overall. I've notcied that when I read books I had to read for school over again, I like them A LOT more than when I struggle to read a chapter a day and identify themes and symbolism and whatnot, so for those of you who didn't like this book much as a student, it might be worth another try. I'm not sure I would choose to read this again, but overall, I would recommend this book, especially as a one-time adult, re-read.

In other news, IT'S FINALLY WARM OUTSIDE. I'm pretty sure my mood has improved like 1000% since March.

Tuesday Tunes!

Spring is in full swing here, and as I've been trying to spend more and more time outside walking in the warmer weather, I've been on the lookout for music that matches this significant uplifting of my spirits. Here's a few songs I've been enjoying!
1. "Summertime" - The Mowgli's
2. "Bounce With Me" - Ben Drake, John Clay, & Josh Radden
3. "Words I Never Said" - Lupe Fiasco ft. Skylar Grey
4. "Nothing Without Love" - Nate Ruess
5. "High Society" - Betty WHO

Also, there's the Hamilton: The Musical soundtrack, which I haven't included above because otherwise this Tuesday Tunes would be 30 songs long, but is a complete goddamn masterpiece through and through. Happy Tuesday, friends!

Review: The Ghost Map

Second post this month?!? I bet you thought you were going crazy. But, I just couldn't wait to share a little bit about this book I finished over the weekend. N understands my profound love of all things infectious diseases and epidemiology and very astutely Googled "best epidemiology books" while looking for a gift for me last year. The one that had the best reviews was The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson, which I later opened up, complete with nerdy squealing, as a Christmas gift. N wins all the Christmas present points for this one.

The Ghost Map tells the tale of one of the worst Cholera epidemics to ever hit Britain, and the story of how, eventually due to this outbreak, it was discovered that cholera was transmitted by drinking contaminated water. It seems like common sense now, but Johnson talks at length about how the leading theories at the time were basically that all disease was transmitted through air, and the way you knew this was the case was how bad it smelled. Now, we're talking pre-running water Victorian England here where people were chucking their waste out the front window down onto the street, so with a little imagination, I'm sure you can guess just how bad it probably smelled everywhere in London. If smell were truly a representation of disease, surely...everyone would have been dead or heading there. And then it talks about Dr. John Snow, now known as the father of modern epidemiology, who had just that thought and put it to action. In the end, with a little help from a local reverend, Snow not only managed to prove the waterborne theory, but discovered the source of the outbreak, how the water had gotten contaminated and by whom. Finally, Snow truly revolutionized the way we understand disease spread by mapping the span of the outbreak in a way that hadn't ever been done before. Overall, I would highly recommend this book. Even if you're not a public health person, it's an incredibly fast-paced and addicting read and not that this makes any difference, but you'd probably win a bunch of points in my book!

And happy spring, friends! Hope it's starting to warm up where you are!

Spring Break

I work in infectious disease outbreak management and due to several high-profile outbreaks in my area in the last few weeks, I have been working 10-12 hour days for nearly the past month. Feeling thoroughly burned out on work and desperately in need of time away from my job, I took yesterday and today off and N and I went on a little mini-spring break to St. Louis. I didn't appreciate how good vacations, even small ones, feel when you've worked your ass off leading up to them. College finals have had nothing on my level of stress this past month. I want to share a little of our fun break with you all, but first, an outfit post!

Dress: JC Penney;
Cardigan: The Limited;
Boots:Payless;
We didn't have a lot of time and had a lot of things we wanted to do, so we tried to pack in each day with as much as we could. The first night, we stopped by the Schlafly Tap Room. Schafly is a St. Louis-based brewery, and they make one of my all-time favorite pumpkin beers. Of course, we weren't there to try beers we already liked, so between the two of us, we got flights of all their drafts and casked beers and made a go of it! Their Tasmanian IPA and casked Coffee Stout were definitely my two favorites.
The next day, we had packed the City Museum, the Arch, and the City Garden into our day's plans. The City Museum is a discovery center/museum playground type location, came highly recommended from a few friends, and did not disappoint. I would highly recommend it if you're ever planning a trip to St. Louis and make sure to pack some sneakers! We walked to most of our destinations since our hotel was relatively close, but this day, I hit a personal high of almost 23,000 steps!
The last day we went to the famed Forest Park. Larger than Central Park in NY, this park houses the Science Museum, History Museum, Art Museum, the grounds of the 1904 World's Fair, the Municipal Theatre, and a ton of other cool attractions. We only had time to explore the science museum and history museums and do a little walking around the park before we had to leave, but I think you could make a day of this place and it would be well worth it. We enjoyed this amazing sunset while leaving and came home exhausted but feeling twice as relaxed as when we started.

Scenes From a Fall Wedding

Since it's the middle of dreaded winter, I've been finding it pleasant to daydream about things I was doing when it was a little bit warmer out. In the fall, N and I were invited to the wedding of some very-cool-but-not-that-close friends of ours. The reason I mention the not-that-close part is because the wedding was smack dab in the middle of the beautiful Great Smoky Mountains, a whole, thrilling 9.5 hour drive away from where we live. We spent weeks agonizing over whether to go, and how important was it really that we were there, and texting admiring pictures of the venue and the Smokies to each other before finally deciding to go (well after the RSVP date...because we are bad people, but like I said, these friends are very cool and chill and do not hate us...to our knowledge). Here they are being totally adorable for your viewing pleasure:
Having never driven through this part of the country, I was a little worried we were looking at 9 hours of farmland, but turns out...we headed straight through the Cumberland Gap National Forest (which I only know exists because of the Wagon Wheel song, being from the west). It was stunning and even the pouring rain could ruin the drive completely. P.S. Feel free to complain about the crack running through these pictures courtesy of N still not having gotten his windshield fixed even though it's been this way for like 3 years.

Before the wedding, we ended up having several hours to ourselves to do a little exploring, and weather be damned, we took advantage of it! Fall was just beginning to show it's colors in the mountains and we managed to find this lovely little waterfall for a quick hike.
Yes, this one was taken by balancing on rocks in the center of the creek.

And then, there was the wedding itself. I can't say enough about how elegant and quaint and rustic and just plain ADORABLE this wedding was. Also, they had a drone that, while drowning out part of their vows to the audience, took amazing aerial panoramic pictures of the ceremony. The reception was in a half indoor-half outdoor rustic barn/lodge-type thing, which was equally gorgeous. Also, the reception had cocktail appetizers and there was much dancing and a photo booth, so I was a happy lady.

I've never given a whole lot of thought to what I want my wedding to be like (mostly because the idea of planning that gives me the beginnings-of-panic-attack feeling if I think about it for too long), but I'm pretty sure that expensive rustic mountain wedding has recently shot to the top of my list.

Book Reviews: The Silkworm and Modern Romance

So far so good on making good of this particular resolution. For a little while, I'd been wanting to read The Silkworm but hadn't worked in any time to actually start it. The book follows detective Cormoran Strike and his red-headed secretary, Robin, on another mystery, in which they are tasked with finding a missing author, whose last manuscript grotesquely depicted real-life friends, family, and other acquaintances who had slighted the man. There were some parts where I found myself annoyed at how obviously the reader was kept from knowing what the main characters knew, but I definitely made it to the end with my suspicions thrown for a loop and the story was fast paced and enjoyable. If you read my review of The Cuckoo's Calling, I would place this at about the same level, though I think Galbraith has truly hit his stride with the main characters by now, who are both very well written. Overall, I would recommend this book. I really enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to starting the next Strike book, Career of Evil.

This next one was a fall 2015 read, so I can't count it among the New Years resolution books, but I have to say this may have hit my favorite books of all time list. Modern Romance is definitely one of the most unique endeavors by a comedian I have seen and I cannot say enough good things about it. If you haven't heard about this book yet, it centers around the findings of actor/comedian Aziz Ansari and social science researcher, Eric Klinenberg, as they try to understand how technology has affected romance and relationships in the U.S. and around the world. He really has a way of explaining social science research in way that's accessible, but with classic Aziz comedic insertions. While I think the audiobook is probably excellent, I would suggest the print version first, as otherwise, you'd be missing out on some excellent graphs and pictures. Aziz hits on many of the themes in the book in his new show Master of None as well. I would highly recommend this book, even if you are, like me, usually a fiction aficionado. Side TV plug: I would highly recommend the show too.

What are you reading/watching these days?

Resolution Evaluation

Last year, I set goals in a much more concrete way than I have in years past. This year, I want to start the habit of evaluating these goals and continue to set realistic ones for next year. Beware, this post might be long.

1. Improve finances: Save 20% of income each month. Learn about investing and start a portfolio with a small amount of money. Look into Roth IRAs.
Evaluation: 60% complete. I did open an IRA and am maxing my contribution. I started putting some money into an investment account and have been reading up on investing, but haven't actually hit the "Go" button on it, so to speak. And lastly...pretty sure I failed miserably at saving 20% of my income...whoops. I blame sushi.

2. Improve skin: Less picking/nervous face-touching. Find a dermatologist. Get into the habit of moisturizing daily. Wash your damn make-up off every night.  
Evaluation: 60% complete. Gotten a little better about picking. Am moisturizing pretty close to daily (and using a moisturizer with SPF 15!) and pretty sure I've almost always washed my make up off ALL YEAR (disregard that I maybe wore make up like 20 times all year). Did not find a dermatologist, but I'm not sure I want to anymore.

3. Get healthier. Develop a routine (even for weekends). Buy at least one vegetable you don't usually eat per grocery trip and figure out a delicious recipe to prepare it. Take at least one dance class this year.
Evaluation: 80% complete. I know for a fact that I did more regular exercise this year than in years prior and it feels great, even if I haven't really seen a change in my body yet. I ate way more variety of vegetables this year than I can remember eating since I stopped living with my parents, but I was not nearly as good as I hope to be on cooking at home and not eating out as much. Again, I blame sushi. Also, I am taking a salsa class! I'll post more on that another time. 
 
4. Make two new non-work friends.
Evaluation: 50% complete. I met a lot of new non-work people through various meet-ups and salsa class this year, some of whom I've started to see more regularly, but I don't know if I would categorize them as friends just yet. 
 
5. Volunteer locally.
Evaluation: 10% Complete. I looked into a few things, probably not as thoroughly as I could have, but didn't find anything that was really what I was looking for and/or fit with my schedule which currently involves almost never being available on weekends.
And now for the new/continuing resolutions:
1. Improve finances. Press play on investing. Since saving 20% didn't work for me last year, I'm rolling it over, but adding in a weekly calendar task to check how I'm doing in case I need to adjust. Just in case I'm totally sucking at this goal like last year, I also added a calendar reminder for 6 months in to switch to the "just immediately put the 20% in your savings account on the second paycheck of each month and don't ever withdraw it" method.
2. Get healthier. Do 30 min of exercise at least 4 days a week. Track calories (I did this for about 2 months of last year and probably saw more body change and habit change during those two months than any other time). Meal plan and prep at least two weeks a month. Research and implement ways to decrease stressed out skin-picking. Keep on dancing!
3. Get educated. I have some skills I think could use a little brushing up. I have a little money saved, so I am planning on taking a couple of classes this upcoming year.
4. Read more. Last year, I read very little for pleasure, which is sad, because reading brings me A LOT of pleasure. I read 13 books in total, which doesn't sound so bad until you find out that 10 of those books were a Series of Unfortunate Events re-read. I have a few on my iPad and got a couple for Christmas, so I have a nice little list to start off with. I am hopeful that if I just plan a little reading time every day, I should have no problem reaching this goal.

What are your resolutions?

Nostalgic Trip

I am currently sitting on the balcony of my hotel room and looking out at this view, except now the sun is setting so the hotel adjacent is reflecting the pink light of a beautiful California sunset:
I have a glass of water at my side because I bought a bottle of wine without realizing I had no corkscrew, but I've been thinking. Something about living here made me want to start blogging, and even though I've had months of absence on this blog since I've moved away, being back here again after three years (and in a swanky bay-side hotel I didn't have to pay for on top of that) made me want to blog again. I'm pretty sure this feeling will go away once I return home, so I figured I ought to hurry up and post this.

I am so enamored of the food here. I am lucky if where I live there are places have 3.5+ stars on Yelp with >50 reviews. Here, I am swimming in 4.5+ stars and sometimes >1000 reviews. As someone with an obsession with Mexican food and sushi that could rival our society's obsession with celebrity breakups, I am in fresh salsa and fish HEAVEN. I seriously never want to leave. It's been so amazing to see a few of the wonderful friends that live here and spend time with them, too. And finally, this conference I'm at has been excellent. It's reminded me why I went into infectious diseases in public health and how critical conferences like these are to keeping up with research and making connections in the field. But, I wish I could be doing this from somewhere else. I don't mind the Midwest, but it pales so much in comparison to where I grew up and the hot southwest that I love.

Why did I leave again?!

That Darn Travel Bug

This is one of the few summers in my life I have not spent doing any traveling for fun...and I am going insanely stir crazy. This is not at all helped by the fact that N is going to the beach in southern California for a week with his family soon, during which time I will undoubtedly be the most grumpy person to ever grace this earth. So instead of doing the work I should definitely be doing, let me fantasize to you for a moment about within-the-range-of-reason-and-budget places I would like to go this summer, because I'm pretty sure the people in my real life are sick of hearing about them.

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Can you believe this place is in northern Michigan? Also, look how humongous those dunes are compared to the teeny-tiny ant-people! From what I hear, the weather is not-too-cold in the summer, and there's some amazing hiking and kayaking on the lake.

Northern Kentucky I would never have thought I would ever really care to go to Kentucky, but it's one of the few places within driving distance and I did tell you I was going really stir crazy. Desperation is a good way to get yourself to broaden your travel horizons, no disrespect to Kentucky. My two top interests are some of the tons of Civil War museums, monuments, and forts and the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. I haven't looked into it yet, but I also hear there are some really neat caves there!

Cummins Falls State Park, TN This is another place I recently discovered, also more or less within driving distance. Of course, going to Tennessee would certainly also warrant a stop in Nashville, I think seeing these unique falls and getting some swimming in would be incredibly fun and refreshing.
And finally, Niagara Falls. Do I even need to comment on this one? Maybe with a side-trip to Rochester or Pittsburgh or Toronto on the side...

The Benefits of Introspection

Somehow, another month is on its way out, and I am almost a year into living in the Midwest.

There's something so...homespun and small-town charming about it all that I can't quite wrap my head around. I've never lived in a place like this before, and I don't know if I will stay here, but I can't deny it has captured my narrow little mind and shown me all sorts of new things I will never forget.

I've never before had the urge to garden or plant, but now I'm growing three little herbs in a pot (baby steps) and it's truly a challenge not to be proud of myself (though I specifically picked ones I knew would basically live no matter what I did) that they're thriving. The fireflies are coming out slowly now, and I've been enchanted by them too. If there weren't so many darn mosquitoes-that-apparently-don't-give-a-shit-how-much-bug-spray-I've-doused-myself-in, I would just sit outside and watch them all evening.

On the other not-pleasant-at-all hand, N and I recently encountered a person laying at the side of a road near his house recently. He was mostly covered by the tall grass and shrubs, and we only noticed because his leg was about a quarter of the way into the very small road. We looked at each other in a moment of panic, clearly both thinking "Uh shit is he dead? Should we go check? Should we call someone? What do we do?!!!" We did go check, and thank goodness it appeared that he was breathing normally and just asleep. We figured he wasn't hurting anyone so we should just leave him alone and he had disappeared within an hour or so.
A while back N linked me to this seminal post on procrastination by Tim Urban and naturally, as I was putting off writing an SOP (oh my god, so. boring.), I read the whole post and every subsequent procrastination post linked to it. To my slight surprise, I discovered something very important. I fall into the "Successtinator" category where I happen to have a job that makes me feel fulfilled because I have many deadlines that require me to get things done and doing a bunch of menial tasks gives me the false impression of having achieved things, but in reality, my house just periodically gets VERY clean, and that is not an achievement to be proud of in the long run.

Procrastinators like me spend very little time in what Urban calls Quadrant Two: Important but not Urgent. He describes this as the quadrant of true fulfillment through activities undertaken for personal improvement (i.e. hobbies that are true rather than a quick way to ignore other things) and Successtinators spend a bunch of time doing other stuff and telling themselves they're doing really well while putting off the stuff in this section. This blog was started as something of a true hobby for personal fulfillment. I was Quadrant Two-ing hard for a little while, and then all of a sudden my interest waned and suddenly I was not blogging because it made me feel fulfilled, but because I hated to break the commitment I had made. It is nice (albeit a bit eerie) to have someone explain perfectly down to the T the way your procrastinator brain works, and I am excited to take this new awareness and turn it into action...I hope.
I am nearing the end of my first week of what I'm calling my food-discipline, caloric-deficit (FDCD) diet. This is pretty basic and just means I've planned all my meals around creating a certain amount of caloric deficit, while also accounting for the fact that I need to eat like 6 times a day to stave off hunger. To be on the safe side (because Jesus, it is hard to estimate calories), I have underestimated my basal metabolic rate, and overestimated the amount of calories things contain when I can't count them exactly. I have factored in exercise for about 2-3 days a week (though I have been reasonably disciplined as of late and am averaging about 4 days/week of moderate exercise the last couple months). We shall see how long this lasts. Hopefully, if nothing else, I will be exhaustively aware of how much crap I normally put in my body. All this being said, discipline sucks and I desperately want to go back to the land of not giving a fuck. Eyes on the prize, Mugdha...
Lastly, I was thrilled to rise today to the Supreme Court's ruling on same-sex marriage. Think what you might, but you cannot deny that love has truly won today. And if you haven't read the end of Justice Kennedy's description of the ruling, you truly should. What a time to be alive!

Happy weekend, all!

Tuesday Tunes!

Well, as I've said before, summer is here, and with it has come the time for upbeat pop, laid back rock, and the music of sunny days and warm nights. Here's some of my faves:

1. "Take My Hand (Remix)" - The Cab ft. Cassadee Pope
2. "In the Dark" - Dev
3. "Young, Wild and Free" - Snoop Dogg & Wiz Khalifa ft. Bruno Mars
4. "Chase This Light" - Jimmy Eat World
5. "Fight Song" - Rachel Platten