Back to Reality... Again

Well I'm finally back to the great state of Indiana and its suddenly starting to kick in that my schedule has me looking at 6 months left to do... a lot. I really haven't crossed much off of the list, but I've added stuff to it, and I'm sincerely hoping to get my butt in gear-- in work and in my personal life.

My visit to TN was fabulous. I can't call it perfect because I'm still trying to get the super computer to crunch through my data, so the jury is still out on that one. But I'll share a little bit of what I'm excited about/loving right now. First, I bought cowboy boots in TN.

"Blame it all on my roots, I showed up in boots... " (Ignore the fact that I'm not a touch southern)

Reading: I got a chance to really read, and it was heavenly. I crossed off "Drink to the Lasses", "The Fault in Our Stars"(sob), "Size 12 and Ready to Rock", and four books of the Rose Gardner Mystery series by Denise Swank. That series has me hooked hard core. The fifth book is set to come out in a month and a half, and June 26 simply cannot come soon enough. I like mystery books and was looking for something that was relatively light hearted (especially after finishing "The Fault in our Stars" which resulted in strange looks from the guy next to me as I sobbed uncontrollably. Truth. My iPad may have water damage from the amount of tears I shed over that book alone, but it was soooooooo good). So you know, I chose the book about the clairvoyant 20-something whose mom gets murdered in the first few chapters. And then I immediately downloaded the next three books in the series. When I finished the fourth book "Thirty One and a Half Regrets", there may have been a brief moment of mourning.

Rose Gardner Mystery Series FTW

Nail Polish: I changed it up a little bit with my reward mani (no chip)/pedi courtesy of the momma (I helped her with a final project for her school). It can be so gray here even now that spring has FINALLY sprung, so I decided to go with a nice bright color- hot pink. I'm totally not a pink person-- I used to have blonde hair and when I wore pink, I felt a lot like a Barbie doll, and apparently, I have carried that over into my now brunette day-- but I don't hate it. It's kind of fun. And the no chip part is Ah-mazing! Being a scientisty engineery type, I'm pretty rough on my hands. Regular nail polish stay nice for approximately 20 minutes. But no chip? No chip lasts forever. Well, probably not really forever, but weeks. Unfortunately, I need to have it changed every 2-3 weeks  because my nails grow pretty quickly and I hate the whole 2/3 of my nail are painted but 1/3 is not look (sorry if you dig this. I don't judge you, just my own hands). And my nails have actually been growing without breaking. It's lovely being able to say "Can you cut them down a bit?" instead of my usual "Yeah, they're short and all different sizes. Do what you can."

Eyes Have It: Um... so I've started wearing make up. When I was in TN, I pretty much wore eye liner, shadow AND mascara every day. IRL, I never wear make-up. No foundation. No powder. Au naturale. So this little bit of eye experimentation is actually a huge step for me. Oh and I got some awesome new glasses from Zenni Optical. They are not paying me to say this, but if you are looking for a cheap pair of glasses, you should check them out. I got my new sweet tortoise-shell prescription glasses along with a pair of polarized prescription sunglasses for less than 80 bucks. And that's with add-ons. They come with their own plastic cases and a nice lens cleaning cloth. I love my new eyes so much that it really makes me want to not wear contacts that frequently.

My glasses with bows replace glasses with skulls

Technology: I got a lovely iPhone 5s yesterday, and I'm so happy with it. My last phone had a battery issue where the battery would get me halfway through the day, so having real battery life is awesome. And I sold my old phone back for store credit, with which Sel and I purchased some games for his Xbox one for both of us to enjoy. One of the games was Just Dance 2014 and it was the best choice. We danced for a few hours last night, and this morning, I got up and put sweat mode on and danced until I was good and sweaty and called it a workout. Then I ate a sandwich with bacon. But I earned it.

My new phone! I finally got it!

And on that note, I'll leave you be. Til' later, y'all!