At the Moment: November 24

WHAT I'M READING

A Dance with Dragons

Like the last time I posted one of these, I'm reading a Song of Ice and Fire novel. In the past 2 weeks, I've made it all the way to...page 232. I'm hoping to finish before Christmas so that I can send it home with my family, and therefore have extra room in my luggage. Probably for a new pair of boots :)

WHAT I'M WATCHING

La Patrona

This is the Spanish-language [Mexican] telenovela I've been watching consistently. Except for a few stretches where either not much happened, or a lot of really bad things happened to the protagonist, it's been delightful. Bonus: there aren't too many long, drawn out, dramatic stares.

War and Peace

So far, I've watched the first part of this miniseries - like the novel [which I haven't read], it's ridiculously long. But I really enjoyed it. I mean, it's about Russia and the 1800s, I have every reason to like it. Plus the cast is fantastic, full of talented actors from all across Europe, including Brenda Blethlyn and Malcom McDowell and Clemence Posey [Fleur in Harry Potter].

WHAT I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO

Christmas! It's only one month away! I get to see my family, travel in Andalucia, and then spend some time in Istanbul or Morocco as well. I cannot wait to feel warm again.

WHAT I'M DREADING

Sweeping. Mopping. Doing dishes. Laundry. Ugh, so many chores. I get lazy about cleaning my apartment and then accumulate a really long list of things that need to get done. The dishes are the worst, no sooner have I gotten around to cleaning the dirty ones than I need to cook again. And especially since I don't have a roommate, I'm bad about cleaning the floors as often as I probably should. Oh well.

WHAT I DID INSTEAD OF MOPPING

Iglesia Nuestra Señora del Espino

Went on walks and took pictures! After this weekend, I'm pretty much out of touristy things to do in Soria. I still have plenty of masses to go to in order to see the insides of all the churches, but other than that...I've been to all the "highlights" that are listed on my tourist map.

So that just means that I'm going to start going to all the other cities on my ever-increasing list of Places to See. I'm focusing on Northern Spain for the moment - Barcelona, Burgos, San Sebastian, Segovia, Valladolid and Zaragoza are up first, mostly because they're fairly close to me. [I definitely did not make that alphabetical on purpose...OCD in action.] It'll be a little difficult to travel on weekends, since I only have three days and it takes a while to get anywhere by bus. There is, however, a nice 4 day holiday weekend coming up :)

At the Moment: May 25

WHAT I'M READING

The Great Pearl Heist by Molly Caldwell Crosby

Okay, I haven't technically started reading this yet, but it's the topmost book on my very high to-read pile from the library, so it's what I'll pick up next.

A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin 

I'm finally to page 500! So...halfway done. This is the one series where I can actually read just one chapter and be done reading for the day. They're good books but it's terrible trying to finish one.

WHAT I'M DREADING

Job hunting. I have two weeks left of being employed (2 days at my preschool and a week doing VBS at my own church) and then hopefully I will be a nanny for a while before either teaching or being an au pair for the next year. But that means more interviews and more deciding what to apply for...which I hate very, very much.

WHAT I'M WATCHING

Howl's Moving Castle! (I got my sister to watch it with me last night. She hadn't ever seen it and I hadn't in a long time PLUS I finally read the book just a little while ago.)

Soon, the second seasons of Castle and The Borgias! The upside to not working is that you can watch hours and hours worth of episodes every day.

And eventually I will get to the theaters to see all the movies coming out this summer. But I'm going to have to wait on some of them because there are fifty bajillion sequels in the next few months and I do not have the money to pay $10 to see each of them. So hooray for the dollar theater!

WHAT I'M ENJOYING

Hanging out with all my family! Between Mother's Day, a 1st birthday party, my little sister's confirmation, and now Memorial Day weekend, I've decided this month is just family month. Not that I'm complaining.

I also got a bunch of Cold War and mob family related books and I'm hoping that reading those will make me actually want to work on writing my current favorite work-in-progress. We'll see.

So happy Memorial Day weekend to all of y'all! I'm having a very lovely 6 day weekend at the moment :)

At the Moment: March 22

I'm working on several half finished posts that are going to be really good [I mean, at least in my opinion], but as March seems to be even busier than January and February, those still exist more in my head than on paper. Or they exist on paper rather than on the computer.

But I digress. I've been journaling more often this month, which reminded me that I liked writing and missed writing, so I really wanted to make an effort on this blogging thing. That was one of my Lenten resolutions, and probably the one I've done the least work towards [oops]. So I'm taking a quick break from vacuuming [probably my least favorite chore, and thus one that merits plenty of breaks], I wanted to do a sum-up of what's going on right now.

At the moment:

I am eagerly anticipating reading MIND GAMES by Kiersten White.

I finally got to adore this beautiful, brand-spanking-new book after picking it up from the library. IT'S SO PRETTY.

In a similar vein, I'm starting to brainstorm again for my alternate history Cold War-esque spy story.

We're babysitting my precious little cousins, after also getting to see a bunch of my lovely family last weekend.

I'm working on an application to teach in Spain for the next school year! And I would get paid for it too!

And Spain is in the top 5 of countries that I really, really want to go visit.

I've been watching a ton of movies, which is nice, except that means I'm not reading near as many books - only 10 so far this year, which is really tragic. But the books that I have read have been exceptionally good! So that, I am very happy about.

I have watched and rewatched the latest episode of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries five times since it was uploaded yesterday. [My mother thinks I'm a little bit obsessed.] I just want to say this - if you like PRIDE AND PREJUDICE in the slightest, you really should be watching this web series.

The first of many wonderful episodes.

And finally, I'm wishing a super happy birthday to my amazing little sister!