You might think this would be a post about Game of Thrones, which was AMAZING, by the way. But no, I thought I’d let that sit for a few days and just take in all the greatness of a show that really knows how to open a season.
But I digress…
Have you heard about this couple that is “unhappy” with Chip and Joanna Gains from Fixer Upper? This is one of the most ridiculous things I think I’ve ever read. I’ve linked an article above in case you’re interested. They are blaming Magnolia Real Estate for “deceiving” them and the city of Waco. Cause it’s Waco’s fault you moved into the house you did…
What it comes down to is that they’re upset because they bought a house in a bad neighborhood.
Let’s talk about how this isn’t anyone’s fault but their own. Chip and Joanna Gains didn’t blind fold you when you drove up to the house. You saw what the neighborhood was like. In fact, I remember, very distinctly watching the show and saying “Don’t buy this house. This is a bad decision.” Having lived in a house that sat on the border of a depressed neighborhood, I can tell you, you know it going in. It’s not a surprise, or at least it shouldn’t be. There’s a reason the house was only like $25,000 and it wasn’t just because it was a shit hole.
What’s the first three rules of real estate? Location. Location. Location.
No one made you buy this house. You made that decision and you are completely responsible for it. My real estate agent showed me a ton of houses that were horrible, not what I wanted, and/or not in the right neighborhood. That was on me to make that decision. You’re unhappy with the choice you made. I get it. Sometimes that happens. But at the end of the day, you are an adult and YOU – not anyone else – are responsible for the decisions you made. Not Chip and Joanna Gains. And definitely not the city of Waco.
Suck it up, buttercup. This one’s on you.
This post contains spoilers and some nudity! Be Advised.
So, let’s be honest. This Sunday is a day that I’ve been waiting more than a year for and so have many of you. IT’S GAME OF THRONES DAY!!! #GOT Baby
In honor of the premier of season 7, I’ve added some clips of my favorite GOT scenes.
Cause Drogo is still one of my favorites. I miss him so much!
Cause Daenerys is a badass!
Cause this is just an awesome conversation!
“I drink and I know things.” That’s all you need to know.
Cause Lyanna Mormont is AMAZING!
And just to bring your spirits back up I have something below that may make you pee your pants.
I’ve been reading a lot of erotica lately. I get on kicks and right now, this is where I am. Let me just say, not all erotica is the same. And anyone who starts throwing up Fifty Shades of Gray as a viable option, just stop reading right now. That is not good erotica and on a baser level, not good writing.
I read a couple of Maya Banks books which have a sweeter edge to them.
I’d previously read a few of her more BDSM oriented books,
so I knew I liked her writing style and voice. But even these had a charming kind of quality. Sometimes I can go for that but I tend to lean toward the hardcore, BDSM erotica. Those are the books that I find satisfying. In my quest for more, I thought I’d try a little Sylvia Day. That was a mistake. I took on Pleasures of the Night. Below is the book cover and the blurb from her website.
In the Twilight between sleep and consciousness, a battle rages between Dream Guardians and Nightmares. Captain Aidan Crossis a legend, as skilled in fulfilling erotic dreams as he is with the glaive that kills his enemies. Women see Aidan as part of their fantasies . . . except Lyssa Bates. Exquisite, desirable, enigmatic Lyssa perplexes this immortal seducer because she sees him as he really is. And as he attempts to unravel her secrets the unthinkable occurs: Aidan Cross falls in love.
Lyssa has been having the most incredible dreams about a man whose blue eyes hold the promise of decadent pleasures and tempting intimacies. And then he appears on her doorstep! This intoxicating stranger is just as irresistible as the man of her dreams . . . but with her surrender there is also grave danger . . .
Because Aidan is on a mission, and the passion that consumes them body and soul could have dire consequences. Loving the mortal woman prophesied to destroy Aidan’s world is not only impossible . . it is forbidden.
This was not good. And I hate saying that because I know how hard it is to put an entire book together, pour your heart and soul into it, and just have it ripped apart. That’s one of the main reasons that I don’t review books on this site. But this was BAAAADDDD. The writing was sub-par. The sentence structure was repetitive and unimaginative. The guy kept calling her “Hot Stuff” which unless it’s 1952, and you’re in a gang that sings and dances to keep your territory, you shouldn’t use that phrase in the modern era. I wasn’t even sure what the hell was going on and then it turns that the dude’s an alien which came out of nowhere. Everyone had an Irish accent and I’m not sure why if they were aliens. There’s a second book in this series but I just don’t care. So, unless someone can really justify Sylvia Day’s other series to me, I think I might be done.
In order to cleanse my palate, I went back to a tried and true author. God help me, I love Kresley Cole and I just know she is a dirty bitch. I 
her more for it.
These are scorching hot. There’s a hard edge to the BDSM that I really enjoy. Her characters are well developed, the writing flows in a seamless manner, and her dudes are HOT! Not only that, her guys are particularly dominate, which I adore.
So, now I’m looking for suggestions. I’m not that knowledgeable about the erotica genre in general so if anyone knows of any good books, I’d like to hear it.
Scarlett is two and deciding where to go on vacation has been an ongoing conversation. Not only in the near future, but in the coming year. Ross and I both have a “use it or loose it” type situation with our vacation time; him more so. I can bank up to so many hours and I’m running up against that hard limit, pretty much every year now.
This summer, we’re just taking some day trips with her around the state. But planning something a little more involved raises questions.
All of these are valid questions that neither one of us has the answer to. The overall vacation time issues are solved for us. One week of my vacation will be spent at RT in Reno in 2018. BY. MY. SELF.
Then, next summer, we’re spending my 40th birthday in Europe. An epic #TreatYoSelf. So, that’s two weeks down for me. Plus, Ross has an unusually high number of black out periods which makes scheduling anything a nightmare. And let’s be honest here, I don’t do heat or sun. I’m basically transparent and begin to sweat with a temperature higher than 72 degrees.
So, that’s what we’ve got. We need to spend two weeks of vacation, sometime between April-May or August-October (and that October is iffy since his week-long manager’s conference takes place in either September or October), that isn’t hot or sunny, and that a two year old would enjoy. Suggestions????
So, working in a bureaucracy can be . . . horrible. Things that make perfect sense to you, things that are reasonable, and should be clear cut become convoluted and complicated. That’s why, being the wonderful and benevolent boss that I am, I bought Nerf guns.
I bought one for everyone in the office. Ross says this is not really a good idea in the work place but, honestly, they feel better. It makes the people come into my office who are angry feel better. Shooting off a few NERF darts at a white board, relieves quite a bit of stress. My employees get two 15 minute breaks. If they want to spend it in my office, playing with the NERF gun and reducing their blood pressure, I’m not going to argue.
I even bought one for my boss. He didn’t give it back.
IT’S MY BIRTHDAY!
That’s right. I have no shame when it comes to my birthday. I don’t care how old I am. I get cake and I get presents. Two of the best things . . . EVER!
Every year, Ross and I spend the day together doing whatever our little hearts desires. Actually, since it’s my birthday, it’s whatever MY little heart desires. This is our #TreatYoSelf day. Parks and Rec fans may remember this hashtag from one of the best episodes ever.
On this day, we don’t do anything we HAVE to. We don’t cook. We don’t do chores. We definitely don’t work.
This year, we’re starting out with a fancy breakfast then hitting a movie. After that, who knows. We can do whatever we want – at least before we have to pick up Scarlett at daycare. Then it’s back to reality. Until then though, the sky’s the limit.
That’s the beauty of #TreatYoSelf.
On Saturday, after Scarlett went to bed, Ross and I had a subdued date night. Honestly, we really just got some chips and dip out and watched a movie. We didn’t even rent anything, we picked from the list of DVR’d choices we’d been hording for a while.
We chose The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 which had, literally been in our DVR since 11-16-2015. That’s right. Almost two years.
Ross was kind of sad to delete it once we’d actually watched it. He thought it would be in there forever and it might have been if it hadn’t been for our decision to have a spur of the moment date night.
What about Part 2, you might ask.
Well, we have that in our DVR too. That was recorded in November of 2016 so I figure we have time. At least a year before we need to watch it.
I feel good about this. #DVRgoals
I listen to quite a few audiobooks. In fact, I might listen to more books per year than I actually read. Mostly, because I can listen to them in the car and at work which makes my work day much more enjoyable. I can’t listen to music at work. I have a tendency to sing along and no one wants that. Really, no one wants that. It’s weird. Plus, I was never really into music. I like music. I could never just sit and listen to it. I always had to be doing something else. That’s why audiobooks makes so much sense. And with the ability to download the content to my phone (instead of the bulky CD’s pack you would need in years past) it’s so much easier. My Audible library is ridiculous and quite frankly Amazon has too much of my money. Actually, there are a couple of authors that have all my money because I own their books in three formats (physical books, ebooks, and audiobooks). Thanks Kresley Cole and Ilona Andrews! No really. Thanks! I want to be you when I grow up some day. I’m 38, by the way.
The flip side is that audiobooks can also be very very bad, independent of the book itself depending on the narrator. This is a performance and quite frankly, if you can’t do an accent, don’t try. I’m listening to something now that just delivers everything in a monotone and has the worst Irish accent I’ve ever heard. Lucky Charms Leprechaun type accent. It’s horrendous and I’m not sure I want to listen to it. I’m in it to win it though. I’ve listened to two hours and it’s only eight hours long. I might as well finish.
As we’ve said before, I have a problem with books. Is there a BA (books anonymous) group I can join? Do I even want to?
Nope! And I have zero shame about that.
As a person who is putting creative work out there for the enjoyment of all – and I do mean all. Buy my books, love me, and bask in my awesomeness! Anyway, I understand that reviews are important. Believe it or not, reviews actually help sell books. Good reviews. Bad reviews. They all help. And the more reviews you have, the more of a proven commodity you are.
Everyone says, “don’t read your reviews. You’ll just hate yourself.” To a point, they’re right. Every good review, you’re flying high. With every bad review (and there will be some – not everyone is going to like your work), you wonder why you got involved in a creative process in the first place. The high’s and low’s can be a little manic, honestly.
However, I read every single review that comes my way. After all, I’m still learning and getting better. I’ll forever be shaping my work to make it the best it can be and some of those reviews had good points; one’s I’d never even considered before. They have absolutely shaped my writing. Some of them were crazy and I’m woman enough to be able to logically reason out constructive criticism from asshats with too much time on their hands. Because there are those people too.
You have to develop a thick skin in order to function this way. People will say some really horrible things about the work you spent months or even years on. They don’t have to look you in the face in order to say them so it doesn’t really matter to them. This is where you have a choice to make. Do you read the reviews? Or, do you just put your work out there and be done with it?
I have chosen the hard way. It’s helped and hurt me. In the beginning, I cried every time someone hated my work. I second guessed myself. But, after a while, I saw the value in what some of them were saying. I thrived and rejoiced as I proved some of them wrong when they’d said I’d never publish anything else. I have 8 published novels now and I’m kinda spiteful like that.
What is the point of all this? Well, the point is really that you should leave reviews. Like it. Don’t like it. Leave a review. The book/movie/album/show may not be your cup of tea but it might be right up someone else’s alley. Every little bit helps.
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