Life in Denim and Flip Flops

It's time. My personal and professional lives have finally starting to bump heads on this blog enough. I've got two conference presentations coming up in the next month and really need a place to put my presentation materials that isn't this blog. Not that I don't love this blog. I do. I just need a more professional place to put things. I love that I can be my crazy self on this blog. And ramble about books I love or things I loved about my week or bitch about the snow. You know...my not so professional side. :) So I've been working on setting it up. It's not done yet, but there's at least a little bit of content there so far. It's my first attempt at running my own website so it'll take some figuring out. Not sure I'm ready to link it here yet, but I'm sure you can figure out the URL if you digging. Once I've got more done with it I'll let you know. :)

Alternate title for this post: Becky finds another roadtrip book to fall in love with Disclaimer: Despite 2-week driving vacations every summer growing up, and driving to visit friends all over the midwest, Becky hasn't really ever been on something you could call a real roadtrip. She hopes to remedy that some day, but predicted gas prices this summer are making that seem less and less likely. About 6 weeks ago Amy suggested this book to me saying...it sounds like a Becky book. Girl + boy + roadtrip = Becky love. I put it on my list to read thinking it'd be a while before I got my hands on a copy as I'd already requested Dash and Lily and A Lover's Dictionary as purchases for the library (to feed my David Levithan obsession). I try to be good and not do lots of personal requesting. And I'd been trying to be good about buying books. So I really was expecting it to be a while. Then Wednesday night I open the library webpage for the 12th time during my evening...

I love being a part of online communities. I started with YouTube back in 2007, mostly because of the vlogbrothers . That opened the door to all sorts of other channels like FiveAwesomeGuys , MusicFromBlueSkies , RhettandLink , and wheezywaiter . Somewhere in late 2008 I was convinced to join Twitter by my friend Emily. I quickly found my favorite YouTube stars on Twitter and before Twitter changed things, you used to get everyone's @ replies even if you didn't follow that person. I used that to find a bunch of other people to follow. One of those people was vlogbrothers secret sister and young adult author Maureen Johnson . I'm always disappointed when people dismiss YouTube and Twitter as being purely narcissistic or mindless entertainment. I'm not trying to say that they can't be those things, but if you give them a chance they can be so much more. I have these forms of social media to thank for quite a few of my blog friends. I mean I never would have met my B...

...and lots of other British things. Now who doesn't love Colin Firth?? I just saw "The King's Speech," and loved it!! I was a little tickled by the fact that you had Darcy and Elizabeth, 2 of Voldemort's dark wizards, oh and a pirate thrown in for good measure. Sometimes it seems there are only so many British actors that they keep cycling through. But man do I adore them all. I also spent part of the morning listening to my fave Brit's music (Blue Skies). Before I left for the movie this evening I watched part of Wanted with my dear James McAvoy. And last night I decided I needed to restart series 5 of Doctor Who. The irony of watching the Churchill/WWII episode after seeing "The King's Speech" is not lost on me. :) (However can't watch any more tonight...the weeping angels are up next and there's no way I'll sleep after those episodes!) It's been quite the little British weekend for me so far. Maybe I'll have to keep th...

My mom taught me how to crochet when I was younger. We're talking like middle school age. I took it up and crocheted pretty consistently for a little while. Forgot about it for a few years, and then picked it back up in high school. My freshman year of college, I learned my roommate was also a crocheter. I made scarves for all my friends that year. I crocheted on and off for the rest of college and grad school. Then when I got to Dubuque I sort of put the hooks away. Then my coworker started up a knitting and crocheting club. I couldn't make meetings for a while, but I made a point of getting there the last 2 weeks. Using the yarn I had sitting around I made myself a scarf. I tend to wear a lot of scarves in the spring and my waredrobe is sorely lacking in non-pink scarves. This is the one I made to fix that. I am the queen of starting crocheting projects and then not finishing them. I think I currently have 4 projects I've started in the last 2 years. To be completely ho...

I had every intention of writing this blog post last night. I really did. And then the craziness that is the Wisconsin political crisis happened. So clearly I got distracted by that. So without further adieu, things I loved this week. the first signs of spring-- The snow is melting. I've worn skirts twice this week. The sun has shown. And some of the side streets are two lanes again. Surely these are all signs that spring will soon be on it's way. Not tomorrow. And not the day after maybe, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. (And yes, you can check back during Snow Storm Blaise and I'll be whining again, but for now I've got a smile on my face. So go with it!) listening to Katherines again-- I've listened to this book more than I should probably admit to. I love it. I'll listen to it when I'm stressed out, need to smile, keep my mind busy, or just when it's been too long that I can't quote it all. This week has been a combo of all 4 ...

It's been a long week. I've been super stressed and sick and sleep-deprived. I've felt a lot behind on life. Thanks to all my friends and coworkers for dealing with me this week. My friends especially for listening to me, calling me out on my craziness, and reminding me that I can totally do this. You know who you are. Thanks.