Book Haul

Notes from Jess: The fairies are at it again.  Thankfully this time they gave my post back a bit faster than last time.  Don't feed the fairies chocolate guys, they like to steal my posts when their tummies are full of chocolate.

I don't know about you but when I travel I have to have a book with me.  It's nothing for me to start a book once we get on the road within a few minutes from our house and have the book completed by the time we arrive at our destination.  In 2012 when I went to New Orleans I was on a charter bus for over 17 hours.  I read three books that day and contemplated starting a fourth but I was just tired and hungry, oh and my Kindle had died.

Since we're getting ready to leave for Wyoming early Tuesday morning I hit up our local bookstore that Ma and I have credit through selling our books to and picked out a few to take with me.  I was short on time so I couldn't just browse away like normal, but I ended up picking up three that looked promising.

Get this, my grand total for the trip to the bookstore was $11.25 (including tax).  Warlord was the only book I was able to pay half with my store credit since the other two, Rules of Civility and Dark and Stormy Knights was on their massive clearance shelf.  Not bad considering I had to drive into the city to get these books!  Totally worth the gas in the truck to buy from there because the ladies that work there are so wonderful and have helped me make some serious book decisions before!

Totes cheesin' it up on the webcam because I was having issues with
my camera and I'm wayyy too tired to sort it out right now.

I'm sure you're dying to know what I've chosen.  Is this how this works? I just tell you about what I bought? Is that a book haul?

Warlord by Ilario Pantano with Malcolm McConnell

Why I chose this book: Every once in a while I love to read a good military fiction book.  I've been due to read one for a while now and I wanted something that I could somehow know what was going on.  I saw the Marine Corps emblem on the spine and pulled it out to check it out.  I've only ever read one book on the war in Iraq and it was written the year following 9/11.  Considering that the person who wrote this was a sniper in Desert Storm and lead an infantry platoon in Iraq after 9/11, I was drawn to this book over others because I felt it could give me some insight to the life of these guys and gals that served and in some cases still serving in this area of the Middle East.

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

Why I chose this book: Set in the late thirties I was immediately drawn to this book because I've read so much futuristic/alternative universe books recently that I was definitely ready to pick up something that was set in the past.  Basically, from what I understand of the synopsis on the back, Katey Kontent, 25, meets this handsome banker dude in a jazz bar on New Year's Eve and the story follows her year long journey to the upperside of the New York society.  It sounds quite a bit different from what I normally gravitate towards at the book store like all those murder mysteries my Ma has me hooked on.

Dark and Stormy Knights edited by P.N. Elrod

Why I chose this book: Whenever I buy more than one book I usually always pick one with little to know thought process.  Picking at random basically. This one is it.  From the sounds of it, this one is more supernatural based, or maybe not. I can't tell from the synopsis.  What I found interesting from further inspection one I got to the truck to head home was that there isn't just one author.  There's more than the four names that are listed on the front cover.  Should be an interesting read in general!

I will also take along The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien that I'm currently reading as well as the book I need to finish for school and can not for the life of me remember what it's called right now.

What was the last book you purchased?

#BlogEveryDayInJuly Challenge

Jeane and Jem are hosting a challenge the month of July.  It's just what the title of this post says, they're going to be blogging every day in July!  Jeane's post here has a list of daily prompts and a nice little button show off.

I'm planning on blogging the first week in July even though I'll be on the road and in who-knows-where Wyoming.  I decided that I'm going to attempt Jeane and Jem's challenge, though I won't be following all of their prompts.  I plan on mixing them up a bit and doing which ever ones I feel the urge to do.  As I've mentioned before (I think) I have issues committing and I can't automatically just crank out decent quality of posts on the daily. So they're my disclaimer, I'm going to attempt the challenge, but I'm not planning on doing all the prompts on all the right days. Hollandaise*? Good.

Also, I guess I should note that I'm going to write and schedule posts for the first week of the challenge since I'll be traveling and stuff.  Some days I'll post twice, once with the scheduled post and then whatever I decide to blog about during our trip. Looks like it might be a bit busy around this spot of the internet!

*Culinary humor right there. I couldn't help myself. I said hollandaise because I didn't know how to spell capisce. Capisce? 

Music: 3 Songs On Replay

Do you ever find yourself listening to the same songs? On repeat? For days? Or maybe a couple of weeks?  Well, I definitely do! It happens so frequently that I'm starting to sing at work, and I'm not a singing-in-public type of person. In fact I'm more of a sing-in-the-shower and sing-in-the-car type of person.

Here are the three songs I just can't enough of the last couple of weeks.

Day Drinking by Little Big Town - I first heard this on the CMT awards when they performed in all white and HAD PAINT SPLATTER EVERYWHERE AT THE END, it was super neat.  I have to admit, I just really love the whistling and the drumming parts.  It's so easy to get that tune stuck in my head!


This is How We Roll Remix by Florida Georgia Line, Jason Derulo, Luke Bryan - So, yeah this one is also from the CMT awards.  The version on spotify (the official version, I think) is different from the actual CMT performance version where they mixed This Is How We Roll and Talk Dirty together.  Both versions have been stuck in my head and are super fun to dance around to while getting dressed for work.



Surfboard by Cody Simpson - Originally I didn't like this song when it was performed the first time on the last season of Dancing with the Stars.  I guess by the second time it was performed, in it's entirety this time, I started to like it.  So of course I took to spotify and guess what...it's stuck in my head.

What about you? What songs have you found yourself humming or singing when there's no music playing?

Of Mulberry Trees and Water

One thing that I've found myself missing about from my childhood has been the long summer weekends camping.  It used to be the norm for my Ma to take off on a Friday and we'd load up the truck and camper on Thursday when she got off work and set off on the road.  Most times we didn't even have a specific location in mind!

I've fished, camped and swam in more lakes than the average Joe in Kansas.  I guess in some ways we just lake hopped most summers, which was fun because we got find the best camping spots and the best fishing spots!

These weekends, and in one summer we spent maybe eight days home just long enough to do a bit of laundry and pay bills, have a special place in my heart that bring some memories back when I hear certain town names.

A favorite story I like to tell is about the time we camped at Wellington City Lake.  We had found a lovely sunny spot on top of a little hill.  We could see the entire lake and there wasn't many people around.  There was lots of room for our dog, Dusty, to roam around.  During our set up of camp our camper became unbalanced after we unhitched it from the truck and it started to roll down the hill....towards the lake. I was about eight and on crutches and I remember yelling for my parents when it started to roll.  My Ma was the one who stopped it from rolling into the lake.  Ever since we've yet to camp on a hill again.

Another story that I just love to remind my Ma of is the year we hitched up our camper and traveled to Fritch, Texas for our family reunion that June.  We stopped somewhere in Oklahoma on a Thursday night at a KOA.  It was late and since we don't normally do the KAO thing because they're usually packed during the summer and it's just not something that our family likes, we didn't have much choice of camp spots.  So we ended up under a mulberry tree.  My Ma was so mad because there was no way around tracking in mulberries.  We spent the better part of that evening cleaning up the floors in our camper to make sure there weren't any mulberry stains because my Ma was not having any of that.  The next morning we loaded up in the truck and headed south again for Fritch.  When we set up camp in Fritch we were happy to have made it to our destination.  Camper is unhitched, legs are pulled down, slide out has been cranked out, water, sewer and electricity hooked up and everything is level.  We open the door to do our clean-everything-and-put-things-back-where-they-belong routine and the look on my Ma's face was priceless.  She forgot to turn the kitchen sink off completely and had flooded the main part of our camper.  Not only did we spend a lot of time cleaning mulberries from our camper floor that weekend we also spent a lot of time and paper towels drying out our camper.

As you can guess, these are just a couple of many stories we have.  What is your favorite thing from your childhood during the summer?

Seven Things that Guests Do That Annoy Me

Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those people who automatically hates their guests.  I'm far from that.  In fact, I love my guests no matter what.  That's right, even when their little gremlin decides to smear their ice cream cone down the wall of the booth in the corner that is such a pain to clean.  Even when a guest gets irrational upset over forgetting their extra dipping sauce.  I love them all, no matter their hot and flustered moments.  Because really, I get them too.

I do however get annoyed some weeks when it seems like all guests are missing a point or two.  Thus, my list of things that guests do that annoy me.

• Not looking me in the eyes when ordering.  I can't tell if you're actually ordering or if you're just talking about maybe trying the grilled chicken salad.  If you make eye contact with me, even just at the beginning of your order I know you're ready to roll and I'll do my best to catch everything you say the first time.  If you talk to the floor, well, we're going to be for a while.
• Getting annoyed when I have to ask extra questions to clarify the order.  If it's during lunch time, which it probably is and you're talking soft or rushing words I can't hear you well.  There's a line of people at each register, employees talking and making noise in the grill and talking to guests in the drive thru window plus if I'm wearing a headset, I have one ear that I can't hear out of because it's getting drive thru orders.  Do you want your burger to have mayo on it or would you like to pick off the tomato because you couldn't stand to answer my question.
• Mistaking me for a guy.  This doesn't happen often, but it annoys the crap out of me.  My hair is pulled back in a bun with a cap on.  I'm not a skinny woman, I have curves and muscle.  But apparently a feminine name "Jessica" and fancy wide rimmed glasses with jewels on the side scream out "I'm a man".
• Standing at the counter waiting for food when they've just ordered.  Your burger isn't ready yet. Your chicken is still in the fryer.  We're waiting on fresh fries to be salted.  Oh, and you had three medium milkshakes made with the hardest flavor of ice cream we have? Yeah, it's going to take a couple minutes, we don't magically have it all ready.  Go, get your drink, pick out your booth and get all the napkins and ketchup you want.  We'll call your number. You won't go hungry. And no,  I can not give you your shake right now because then someone else will try to make it again. Leave it alone, please.
• Asking for lids on a single dip of ice cream in a cup.  Are you serious?  By the time you get home it's gonna be melted.  I don't understand, but here's your lid regardless.
• Ordering diet cherry limeade.  What?  Okay, I get the soda water instead of the simple syrup carbonation mixture, it's not as sweet which I totes understand.  But you do realize that the cherry syrup we put in means syrup right?  Don't complain that it's too sweet, you wanted a cherry limeade, diet.
• Giving me the stink eye when I have to tell you pull your vehicle up to the door at the end of the drive thru lane because we're waiting on fresh fries/chicken and we already have the next vehicle's order completely finished.  Like seriously? Are you in such a hurry that you're not going to appreciate that we're not giving you the old sitting-here-for-at-least-thirty-minutes-and-not-really-that-hot fries? How about fresh crispy chicken strips?  Just pull up to the door, please.

Well, that all came out a bit like I was ranting, but that still doesn't mean that I'm not at least a little bit annoyed when these things happen...at least five times every shift I work (excluding the one about guests mistaking me for a man).

What's your number one pet peeve as a guest in fast food restaurants?  I think mine has to be when I'm not greeted.  I like to see a smiling face ready to help me order.  It makes me want to go back; there have been times when I've revisited a fast food restaurant I might have had troubles with the food before just because I had a good customer service experience with a member of the crew.

Tuesday of Thanks

Note from Jess: This was originally written Tuesday around mid day but it never got posted because of an internet outage from a large weather system moving into the area.  Think of this as the fairies that kidnapped this post deciding that they weren't bad fairies and have decided to deliver it.  Better late than never, eh?  Keep an eye for those fairies if you're in Kansas.  They like to come out when it's about to rain.

It's Tuesday, and I'm thankful.  That pretty much explains this post.

• It's Tuesday and not Monday.  For some reason, yesterday was just a big case of Monday times five and I'm thankful that we're done that for a few more days.
• I'm thankful for the blown out tire on my dad's truck that is allowing us to spend time together to fix it.  It's hot outside and we're not happy about how difficult the process of fixing the tire is but it's been a great bonding moment for my dad and I.
• I'm thankful that in a week we're going to be on the road to Wyoming to see my brother.  I've been waiting for months now to get on the road!
• I'm super thankful for great managers who look out for me.  Yesterday I was getting dizzy and the stubborn me decided I could fight through it.  Eventually they ganged up on me and talked some sense into me. I ended up sitting down for ten to fifteen minutes to get over the dizziness.  Of course, they made sure I hydrated too.
• I'm thankful for our veterans and all that they've done for our country including lending a helping hand wherever they can now that they're out of the service.

What are you thankful for this Tuesday?

Writing

Writing is a unique experience.  Sometimes it takes a lot of brain power to write words and form a story.  Other times it's like the words have already been programmed into the soul and you just know what to write without having to think twice about it.  Writing takes a fair bit of imagination too, whether it be about fairies and werewolves or if it's about the price of gas down the street.

I've always enjoyed writing, even all those long and tedious history papers I used to have to write.  It was a feeling of accomplishment when I finished something that I was going to submit.  There was a "look at that, I've created something" feeling; though I do admit that most of my writing is is more along the lines of "oh wow, that's terrible" but it still has the "I've created something" feeling.

Just recently I've found myself writing more than normal.  I'm not talking about the research papers I've had to do for school but the stuff I just find myself writing.  It's been a while since I've felt no self pressure and no restraints on my writing; writing because I just felt the urge to write instead of making myself write something.

At first it started with me coming back to the blogging world.  Then, I found myself writing journal type things in a spare notebook.  And then, here I am today writing on my laptop and bringing  a few characters that popped into my head onto the page.

The common thread I've found between all of these things is that these writings are short.  The most I've written for one setting that hasn't been pushed or rushed has been 750 words.  I used to think that was such a small amount of words (especially since I've attempted NaNoWriMo events many times before) but I've come to realize that you can say a lot in 750 words.

I'm probably not going to share most of what I write, even the stuff that I think I've written well because it's a private thing.  Writing and sharing for others to see is a vulnerable thing because you're putting yourself out there.  Some things, no matter how well they're written or how much soul you've poured into it should just be kept to yourself, like buying yourself a birthday gift.

I have so much respect and support for authors, journalists and other bloggers.  Writing is such a unique and wonderful thing.

Pain

Some mornings I have difficulties putting socks and shoes on.  Most people don't know that.

Some days I can hardly bare standing long enough to take a shower.  Most people don't know that.

Some days I find it difficult to bend at the waist to pick something light up.  Most people don't know that.

Most days, in the back of my mind I wonder if I'm going to start hurting in my hips and legs before I can get home and lay down.  No one knows that, until now.

I try so hard to fight through the pain without the aid of meds.  Mind over matter they say.  Maybe it was all those times I had nurses, doctors and surgeons look me in the eyes and tell me it's not real.

It is very real.

Some days I wake up and wonder if I'm going to be able to focus on my work and projects.  Most people don't know that.

I try my hardest, even when the pain is crushing, to hide the fact that I am having pain.

I don't want differential treatment.

They said I would be able to live a regular and normal life.

But it happens.  Shit happens.

It's not that I'm too proud to admit that I have pain.  I'm afraid to burden those around me.

But when does not admitting it to those around me begin to take a toll on me?

In Progress: Summer Bucket List

A few weeks ago I made a bucket list for this summer.  I remembered the other when I was thinking about getting back to blogging, or at least trying to fit in a couple of posts a week, that I needed to see how much I could cross off my list.

There isn't much, but it's a work in progress obviously and there's still weeks left of summer!

• eat something new ...lemon chicken is now my favorite thing when ordering Chinese.
• go to a museum that I haven't gone to before
• see three movies at the theatre... 22 Jump Street (6/14)
• walk the two mile loop at the park twice, at least once (that's four miles total)
• try five new recipes and share (with the internets and IRL peoples)
• read four books ... One Tuesday Morning by Karen Kingsbury

Like I said, it's not much, but it's progress.  I may not try eating anything else new this summer because I'm seriously addicted to lemon chicken. I might even order some today for a late lunch...

I'm sort of holding out on the museum for when we go to Wyoming but I'll probably end up somewhere in Wichita anyway.

One movie down, two to go.  I would like to see Step Up All In, because I've seen all the other Step Up films, most in theatre...so why not?  Obvi, I want to see The Fault in Our Stars, and I'm planning on going alone so I can cry by myself and hog a whole box of tissues....because apparently it's that good.  Oh, and of course I want to see Jersey Boys! I've been patiently waiting for it to be released since I first saw the advert for it; Clint Eastwood is directing it too!

It's been hot and windy, that's my excuse for not getting out and walking at the park.  I'm planning on starting a walking routine sometime after wheat harvest is done so I won't die from all the dust and pollen exposure.

Haven't been doing much baking or cooking recently.  Been super busy with work and school and most recently we hosted our family reunion.  Planning on getting back in the kitchen very soon!

Currently, I'm reading City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. I haven't gotten far, only a couple of chapters but I'm enjoying it so far.

How about you? Any exciting things you've done so far, or books and/or movies you've read/seen?

Wheat Harvest

It's that time of year again in Kansas, wheat harvest.  If you're not from around here, which I doubt most of you are, let me explain wheat harvest.

If you haven't already been slowed or stopped on the roads because of combines the last few days, now you're really gonna notice.  You're going to see farm trucks carrying umpteenth amounts of loads into the local co-op for weighing.  If you're daily route takes you by said co-op you might see a long line of farm trucks waiting for their turn, especially in the evening when everyone decides to call it quits around dusk.  Dust is every where, 10 times as worse as normal, especially if the wind is blowing, like it is today.

For me, I've always had this love-hate relationship with wheat harvest.  I know a lot of farmers around our area and it's great seeing them do what they love on their land.  I love how the community pitches in to help out when needed, like making dinner for friends who are involved with the massive operations.  But on the flip side, my allergies are the worst.  I might die this year.

A few tips for the average Joe during wheat harvest:

• I know you're frustrated when you get stuck behind a combine.  Calm down, keep three or four car lengths behind them until you can pass them.  Normally, they'll try to signal you the all clear to go around.
• No one likes getting stuck behind the faster than the combine but still slower farm truck that's loaded full of grain.  I get it, believe me.  Don't tailgate these folks, because remember, they're helping our economy and helping produce those wonderful grain filled products you love to consume.
• Unless absolutely necessary, stay away from the back roads.  If the wind has picked up dust will make it difficult to see those trucks sitting on the edge of the road why the farmers are in the field.
• Don't drive with your windows down.  You're gonna get so much dust and dirt blown in you'll have to go get your car detailed when harvest is finished.  And if you have allergies like I do, you're going to want to seal your vehicle tight.

Above all, just remember if you're around our part of the world, these farmers tend to their fields like their children.  It's their job and it's often times a very sketchy job because Kansas weather is so unpredictable it's hard to know if crops are going to do well or not.  Remember when you get stuck behind a combine or grain truck that these guys work extremely hard for harvest and it'll all be over in a couple of weeks and the combines will go back into storage for a couple of more months.  Be nice and wave at them when you drive by, they like that

Does anyone else have seasonal allergies or allergies year round like I do? What do you do to survive? I take at least two showers a day, quit using hairspray for a month or two, do laundry often and avoid the outside as much as I can!