Under the Skin

“I’ve spent a lifetime practicing, becoming who I must be to survive. Hiding in plain sight, always acting, always playing a part. There are times when I fear that I’ll lose me, my true self, in the haze of the facade. But that fear doesn’t matter to anyone besides myself.”  Because I tend to not find out about series until they are basically done, and I have a rule that I don't review a series until all of its written installments are released, I tend to not review books that are in a series as much as stand-alones.  This is one series that I have been reviewing since the first installment.  You can read the previous installments' reviews: Defy Ignite Again, this was the series which was written by the daughter of one of my coworkers.  And I'm glad that I got that introduction into it, because I don't think I would have ever read it without that, and I did enjoy the series. This was a good conclusion to the series for the most part. I don't regret h...

Including this book, I have 11 books on my to-review list. So, this will take a lot of dedication from me, and a lot of patience for all of you, but at the end, you will have a wealth of books that you can read or not read as the fancy strikes you. I'll be honest.  I didn't want to read this book.  I didn't think I'd like it.  I thought it would be a horror movie in book form. Once again, I have realized that you shouldn't judge books by their covers (nor their cultural adaptations).  And I LOVED it! I never would have imagined that I would even begin to like Frankenstein. But, I kind of felt like it was a cultural literacy question. Compound this with the fact that one of my coworkers named it her favorite book. I believe that there is considerable respect for other people in reading their favorite books, and so I read it. Let me start by saying one thing: It is nothing like any of the movies. Not even kind ...

I figured that I would start blogging regularly again.  And I decided to give this a start by writing a book review. I am extremely behind on book reviews, and I figured that I would be able to write one of those without much trouble.  This series I finished back at the very beginning of January.  Here we are now, almost June, and I'm just now writing its book review. (Fablehaven, Rise of the Evening Star, Grip of the Shadow Plague, Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary, Keys to the Demon Prison) Kendra and Seth Sorenson learn that their grandparents are the caretakers of Fablehaven, one of a handful of preserves set up for fantastical creatures.  On the vast lands of Fablehaven, their grandparents are responsible for this wildlife sanctuary full of fairies, satyrs, goblins, trolls, water nymphs and more.  Eventually, they get pulled into a battle against those who want to control the world through the magic that the preserves house, and they are called upon to ...

We are done people!  Today's declutter isn't really a declutter. It's a check-in.  What has this project done for me? Well, I wasn't very good about staying consistent, and towards the end it was an exercise in perseverance. Finish what you started.  I think the only problem was that I live in an apartment and I''m fairly organized.  So 40 Days was probably too long.  But, I did come to realize a few things about clutter: 1) It is okay to throw away something that may have a use if you're not actually using it. 2) It is okay to throw away something that was a gift. 3) It is okay to have things, so long as they actually contribute something to your life.  Since I am moving soon, I'm thinking there will be some radical decluttering going on then, and I will probably use the Japanese method.  My coworker has been doing it and loves it--you hold an item, close your eyes, and if it doesn't give you joy, get rid of it.  You don't need it in your ...

We are so close to going back to my old blog.  And I know that today's will sound weird, but this is actually what I planned.  Today, I decluttered my mind. Some things have happened with my interactions with other people that have really been weighing down on me.  I don't want to go into details, and I don't want to slander other people.  But let's just say that someone was in a sticky and hot situation, and they lied in order to shift blame to me.   And it was a he-said-she-said.  No way of proving.  If I did not already have a good enough reputation and standing in the eyes of authorities involved, as well as the good opinion from every other person who had situation to know, it could have cost me my current job, and effected many future jobs.  To clarify because I work in healthcare, let me say right now that no patient care was compromised, nothing illegal happened. But, they could have really hurt me.  But because of the fact that I h...

At this point, I'm mostly decluttered for this round.  But I have to finish out the 40 Days because quitters quit.  Today, I made a menu plan.  I unfortunately forget to eat.  We've talked about this, but basically, the other thing that dawned on me about this is that I'm bad at remembering to eat when I live alone, and also this affects other things, because I don't have the energy to do anything...because I'm half-starved.  So, I made a menu plan.  I think that when I have everything all determined and think about it the entire day, I will be better about making dinner. 

I haven't been very consistent with my 40 bags project.  But, we are almost there.  Never you fear.  This one doesn't have a picture, because this one is about organizing my goal efforts.  I have a lot of goals, as you know from my New Year's Resolution.  I have always kind of been that way.  And I have some that I haven't been very good at keeping.  I even tried some habit-forming apps on my phone.  But I realized why I haven't really had any success.  There's no reward.  So, I have decided to make this a sticker-based thing like I was potty training or something.  Then when I get all the stickers, I get to buy myself a present.  How does that sound.  So I made my goal charts.  There are a lot of them, but they are built for stickers!