I know I've been slacking on my favorites posts, but February was pretty uneventful. I am ready to make up for it though. If you follow my Instagram, you'll know at the start of last month I had the flu. It was rough. It came out of nowhere and I was stuck home in bed for at least a week. I had no energy to do anything, even checking my phone or watching TV felt like a task. Thankfully, I recovered in time to make my trip to Colorado, though I was still gaining my strength back. I had a nice trip, but when I returned is when the madness of the Coronavirus was just beginning. Because I was sick and then on vacation, I had missed the worst of it, but the week I came back and the weeks following were long and hard to get through. I was coming home exhausted every day and had little time or energy for anything. Because of this, I don't have much for March, but I figured something is better than nothing. I hope you enjoy my little list, and please let me know if you've been indulging in these as well, or what you've been using to distract yourself from the new normal.

Every year it's the same: January seems to go on forever. It's like the never ending month. I spent most of it preparing for the next step in my career and indulging in all the new releases in music, movies, television and literature as well as a new podcast. Below are a few of my favorites:

    It’s weird thinking about where I was at the start of the last decade. It was 2010 and I was halfway through my junior year of high school. I was still adjusting to my new school environment, after having to transfer when my beloved all-girls catholic high school officially closed its doors. I was starting a new chapter just as the world was transitioning into a new decade. So many milestone moments happened for me this past decade: I graduated from high school, passed my road test (after many attempts), earned my Associates and Bachelor’s degrees, met my biggest inspiration, and started an online magazine, just to name a few. ​

December was a hectic month, especially working retail. I felt like all I did was work. With the semester coming to an end and the approach of the holidays, I was mentally and physically exhausted from Black Friday up until Christmas Eve eve. Between studying for my final and working long hours I felt like I would never catch up on sleep. I did manage to take some time for myself though, and found some peace in new music, TV and movies that dropped before and after Christmas.

It's been a bit since I've updated on book club, but we're still going strong. We've been meeting monthly and I was been able to reach my Goodreads challenge goal for the year! Although not everyone has loved every book, I've liked that we're taking the time to read and then come together and discuss and analyze each book, whether we loved or hated it. I feel like it's getting me back into the groove of looking at literature critically and I missed having the opportunity to do that. So, without further ado, here are the books we read in August, September and October:

In the spirit of being determined to write more on here, I figured I'd share some things I have been loving this past month. From delving into podcasts to my favorite new TV show, here are a few things that made my November exciting:

Last Wednesday, I had the pleasure of attending Julia Michaels Inner Monologue tour. It was everything I imagined it would be and more. It was full of magic, love, acceptance and vulnerability wrapped in a warm hug of camaraderie and balloons.

In early October, my friend Sarah came to visit lil ole me on Long Island. We've bonded over our love for Sara Bareilles for quite some time, and she finally announced a tour! We knew we had to go together and Sarah had never been to New York so it was the perfect opportunity. We bought the the tickets sometime early this year and it came and went so quickly.

In the ever growing age of the internet, social media, and a world full of distractions I've found it rather difficult to stay on top of reading. In recent years, I've noticed that if a story doesn't pull me in almost immediately I either don't finish it or it takes me an exuberant amount of time to get through it. Having grown up through words, depicting stories of some of my favorite characters, it's been disheartening for me to have fallen so far off the wagon.  
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