50 Book Challenge

A week ago exactly, I officially finished my 50 Book Challenge.  I decided to challenge myself this year because during school, I never had time to read anything except required texts. I was excited to read for pleasure again. As I've gotten older, reading takes longer for me. I don't mean the actual reading speed (because I'm a speed demon) but it takes me longer to read a book because I rarely take the time to sit and read just because.

So I changed that.

At first, I was really afraid I wasn't going to make it. But thanks to spending a month in tech and two months running shows, I got through 50 books. Here they are, in all their glory:

Some of the order got screwed up because I started my challenge on December 19, 2012 instead of the first, so I had to make sure the Goodreads widget counted them toward my goal. You can check out all of the books, ratings, reviews, and more here. 

And, because I don't like reviews (and that would make this post ridiculously long) here's just a peek at my top five.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

Paper Towns by John Green

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

 Did you partake in the 2013 Reading Challenge? Did you read anything wonderful? Let me know! I'm always looking for new books to read!

Summer's in our basement now

Can anyone else not believe it's November already? I realized while writing a letter to a friend today that I'm only here for another month and a half before I'm furloughed for two months. That's so crazy! And while I'm excited about getting to spend some time in Baltimore with my mom and sister and Florida with my dad and best friend, I'm a little sad that I won't be here for two months. For whatever reason, I love this crazy little town.

The Twelfth Night tour is officially over and the cast has all left. On Halloween one of the board members invited us all over to her house for dinner, and that was a lot of fun. She totally loves Halloween, and she had some of the cutest decorations!

It's been quiet for me lately. Last weekend I saw Gravity with my guy, and spent most of Saturday and Sunday catching up on life stuff. It was nice to relax some (and get an extra hour of sleep!) after my crazy weekend the previous week. I gotta keep reading, reading, reading to make my 50 book challenge goal! I'll be so mad if I get to book 49 and don't make it, so I'm reading like a mad man!

Very few things better than this

Before I know it, Mike will be here and we'll be working on our next show! Hopefully we can get the new website up before we're off for two months!

I hope everyone is having a good week! Anyone else doing the 50 Book Challenge? Are you done yet?

October Favorites

Well, another month has almost passed us by! How crazy is it that on Friday it'll be November!? My little blog will be turning 6 months old! I'm impressed that I've had enough things to write about! So let's get into it and see what I've been loving as the leaves turn.

1. Earth Therapeutics Tea Tree Oil Foot Repair Balm

I've been using this before bed on my feet and my hands, and I wake up with the softest skin! It smells a little minty, and that was a little off-putting for me at first, but I got used to it. I have a little travel size I bought from Ulta (Damn you cash register displays!) and while it took me a little while to start using it, I'm really glad I did. Awesome lotion is a must for winter!

2. OPI Nail Envy for Peeling and Sensitive Nails

I've been dealing with my nails peeling like crazy since I started wearing nail polish more, and nothing I did seemed to help. I finally went to one of my nail swapping groups on Facebook and asked for advice. Someone recommended the Nail Envy line to me, so I picked some up when I last went to Ulta. It's pretty pricey for nail stuff, but wow! I put it on underneath my polish, and by the time I took the polish off at the end of the week, my nails already looked better. Hopefully this trend continues!

3. Sweaters

I've never been a huge sweater person, but living in Maine has definitely changed that. I just bought another one last week, and I really love having something a little bit dressier than my beloved hoodies to wear to the office. I definitely need more work appropriate clothes, though. The one pictured here I got from Anthropologie last winter. I love it's little tail and what you can't see is the cute flower trim on the inside!

4. Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

Book 45 of my 50 book challenge, and I would highly recommend this one! If you haven't read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, it is definitely her best book, but this and Sharp Objects (which I'm reading now) are worth a read as well. She tends to write darker themed novels which is right up my alley!

5. Green Mountain Coffee Pumpkin Spice K-Cups

I actually wasn't the biggest fan of these when I first bought them, but the more I drink it the more I like it. The pumpkin flavor was a little overpowering and way spicier than anything I'm used to, but now it's comforting in the morning. I'm glad I picked this up for the month of October, but I'm excited to go back to my regular K-Cups next month.

That's everything! I've been slacking on the trying new products thing lately. I need to get better at that! What products have you guys been loving this month?

We'll be counting stars

Happy Tuesday everyone! I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend. I sure did, even if I didn't get that much sleep!

I know I said I was going to lay off talking about it, but I've now gone on four dates with this guy, so I may be past the "counting my chickens" phase at this point.

We hung out again Tuesday night and saw Insidious 2 which I didn't hate as much as the first one, but it still wasn't great. Then on Friday I met up with him and we went to his house, watched Child's Play 2 (also bad) and played drinking games with his roommates. On Saturday night I met up with him again to get dinner and then I got major points by finding a live stream of the Boston-Detroit game, so we watched that.

I spent most of Sunday reading, and I finished my 46th book last night! I forgot how ridiculously accomplished it makes me feel to finish a book.

Yesterday I spent all day working on the website. I had one major breakthrough and one really frustrating issue (that I still don't know if I can fix) and I fixed a bunch of small things. I still have serious work to do on the production history, but at least there are other, less tedious things on my plate now. We also have two sets of postcards to label and send out, a poster that needs creating, and various other projects I have to work on. I like being busy, but I have a feeling it's about to get crazy.

The thing I'm most pumped about this week? Pretty Little Liars comes back tonight!

I can't get over this show. Nor do I want to!

What are you guys excited about this week?

O, had I but followed the arts!

I feel like I'm always saying this, but it was a crazy week!

Beyond all the normal crazy that happens during the week, on Wednesday, I was asked to run sound for the public performances of Twelfth Night this weekend. That meant that starting Wednesday night, I was in the office during the day and running shows at night. Needless to say, I did not see a lot of my house this week.

The weekend went really well, though. We had small but appreciate houses for the public performances and two school matinees on Thursday. On Sunday, Dawn was gone taking her eldest son on a college visit, so I got to pull triple duty as box office manager, house manager, and sound board op. I also had to do the curtain speech.

Thankfully, I have today off, so I'm trying to get caught up on all my internet things and my life in general. I'm currently at the theater doing laundry and watching all my TV from this week. My hosts don't have an electric dryer, so even on my day off I end up here!

I also have a date tonight, but I've decided not to elaborate too much on the boy situation for a little while. It changes too frequently for it to not be the most confusing ever.

I hope you guys had a good weekend and are having a good start to your week. I'm looking forward to having a short week and some more time to relax. I need to get some serious reading done if I'm going to finish my 50 book challenge!

Tech and freeze pops and t-shirts, oh my!

Shrew tech is over, and we open tonight!

For the most part, the process went pretty smoothly. Our preview last night went really well. There were 119 high school aged kids in the audience, so it was very energetic. They seemed to really appreciate the show, though.

I'm getting through books like it's my job. I like that I have so much time to read in the booth. It's definitely helping me with the 50 Book Challenge. I even had my library card set up for ebook borrowing today, so I can do that now too!

Other than that, there's not much to report. It's been a busy couple of days for everyone and stressful for some people. Me, I'm just tired. But I got to sleep in today, so that was nice. Tomorrow we have two changeovers and a load out plus two shows, so that's going to be rough.

We had a company meeting today, and Dawn brought freeze pops and our company t-shirts!

I think they're pretty cute, and Beka, Beth, and I are planning on having a t-shirt cutting party to make them even cuter.

That's pretty much all I have to report! Until the show tonight, I have nothing to do, so I'm catching up on things and trying to rest. Happy Friday to you all!