Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

How's it going, folks?

The title just about sums it up. This is where you can have a free discussion about life and it's many twists, turns, bumps, and happenings.

My last day of work. I retired. I have been a RN is a hospital since 1983. I never thought this day would get here. Great moment & day.

Congrats Sherri! That's a huge deal!

Happy New Year everyone... and good reading to all of you!

I did want to check in with our Australian members. I hope you are all safe from the fires.

Happy New Year everyone! And congratulations Sherri! Enjoy your well-earned retirement!

Sherri wrote: "My last day of work. I retired. I have been a RN is a hospital since 1983. I never thought this day would get here. Great moment & day."

Wow, that's fabulous! Congrats on your well deserved retirement!!

We hosted a party last night for NYE and then had a couple of my kid's friends stay over, so today has been mostly cleaning up and getting a gaggle of sleep deprived teenage girls up and going, lol.
Hubby and I are heading out in a few to watch the movie Zombieland-Double Tap. I'm such a nerd, LOVE zombie themed anything lol.

Do we have any members who practice yoga in the group?

I'm so excited to start Yoga with Adriene's 30-day challenge tomorrow. I've never done yoga but it's very in line with a lot of my personal intentions and practices. I also desperately need to start a fitness routine so I'm going with the totally cliche, new year's approach and starting with it right off the bat in 2020.

Fingers cross I actually follow through for the whole month 🤞🏻

Laura wrote: "Do we have any members who practice yoga in the group?

I'm so excited to start Yoga with Adriene's 30-day challenge tomorrow. I've never done yoga but it's very in line with a lot of my personal i..."

My mom's a yoga instructor so I go to her classes a lot! She teaches power vinyasa in a hot room (not Hot Yoga TM, but it is a warm room). I love it and definitely want to go more this year

I used to do some very basic stuff a few years back, but that kind of fell by the wayside for reasons. Yoga classes here are ridiculously expensive, but I might try and get back into the basic stuff again, because it was such a nice routine to have.

Laura wrote: "Do we have any members who practice yoga in the group?

I'm so excited to start Yoga with Adriene's 30-day challenge tomorrow. I've never done yoga but it's very in line with a lot of my personal i..."


I'm getting back into it this year! I just resigned up for the hot yoga studio up the street and have a goal to go 3 times per week when I'm not traveling for work. (Actually, now that I think about it, 10 times per month is probably better...) I have a lot of spinal/disc issues, and it is the only thing I do that helps that without causing pain somewhere else. Good luck with your practice!

This is pretty much the only place I can share this where I know that people will get how exciting this is - I bought myself some Air Pods the other day, so I can actually listen to stuff on my commute to work (I catch a lot of trains/buses/trams), and today was my first day back - it was SO good. I wish I had bought them months ago. I'm going to be able to listen to so many more audiobooks - I knocked off around 3h of my book today!

Ah yay, Jody! I got Air Pods for Christmas and I'm so so excited! I feel like they will actually make me want to go to the gym because I'll be able to listen to audiobooks without having to worry about pockets and wires and whatnot.

Yes! I thought about getting the adapter thing so I could plug my wired earbuds in, but they really are a pain in the butt, especially in winter with scarves, hats, jackets. Plus, seriously, if there is even the slightest possibility that I'm going to get hooked on something, I will, so the less wires, the better, for my own safety.

The thought of starting a new audiobook made returning to work after the break much easier! I do use wired headphones though because I would be paranoid about them falling out (specifically the gap between the train and the platform, like I always think my shoes will fall down there, have they ever? no, stupid brain). I also can't be bothered with yet another thing I need to remember to charge.

I almost dropped one down an elevator shaft today so I understand! Also my daughter and and one of her friends have both fallen between a train and the platform so your fear is pretty valid. (Most terrifying moment of my life to date.)

Jody wrote: "I almost dropped one down an elevator shaft today so I understand! Also my daughter and and one of her friends have both fallen between a train and the platform so your fear is pretty valid. (Most ..."

Yikes. My nightmare.

It was awful. We were in Singapore on our way to moving here from Australia, and was the first time she had ever been on a train (we drove everywhere in Aus, public transport isn’t as much a thing). Thank God she got stuck and was easy to pull back out. My friend’s kid slipped down at the Zürich main station - the gaps can be pretty big there. He fell all the way to the tracks. I’m still paranoid seven years later, even though we’ve been on more trains than I can count.

That's terrifying!

I am on a decluttering kick and have finally let go of some books I will never read again. 5 large reusable shopping bags went to goodwill. Some books went to a local little free library. I have two more to let go in the wild at a local coffe shop that has a book spot.

It is fun to spread the love of books around in the free little libraries. Does anyone else share books that way? Or do you have your own way to give away books?

Anastasia wrote: "I am on a decluttering kick and have finally let go of some books I will never read again. 5 large reusable shopping bags went to goodwill. Some books went to a local little free library. I have tw..."

Decluttering is the BEST feeling! I'm a minimalist but with kids the clutter just accumulates, ugh lol.

I personally only own two (non-religious) books, so I haven't had to deal with books around the house. I really should declutter my ever growing library book pile though lol. I had them in a basket by my reading chair, but they outgrew that so I had to move them into to my (huge) Sams Club cooler bag ha! The darn thing is so heavy it's hard to move around.... I may have a bit of a library book addiction lol.

Soooo last month I kicked bum and read 15 books (the previous years total was 52, so a HUGE increase in reading). Felt great ending the month, have a stack of books on hand that I really want to read.......and winding down the first week of the new month I've read only 1 book and DNF'd another :/ I'm not dealing with burn out but there's just too many darn distractions right now!

I LOVE politics and between the impeachment shenanigans wrapping up, the Iowa caucuses/primaries kicking off, State of the Union address etc, I'm in heaven, LOL. And then throw in the crazy virus that's now gaining steam, and I'm in sensory overload right now sigh.... I'm a (closet) prepper and have spent so much time this week keeping up on the latest virus news, doing small things to be ready 'just in case' etc. I could have probably read 3 books in the time that I've spent staring at that darn John Hopkins tracking map :p

Anyone else feeling distracted right now?

I'm the opposite, ZeeJane. With all the craziness in politics, I want to bury my head in a book!

I love donating library books (or selling them to the local used bookstore), so I cull my books pretty regularly. I currently have $100 in credit at our used bookstore from selling so many books back to them!

On Jan 17th I decided to do a 30 day social media detox. I deleted my 3 social media apps, GR, Facebook, and Instagram, from my phone. I lasted 1 week without accessing GR! It was too hard w tracking challenges, at least that’s what I told myself! Deleting FB was the best decision I’ve made in awhile. What a waste of time! I’ve noticed that FB is now sending me email messages telling me what I’m missing! I don’t miss it at all. I got really caught up in the politics of the last Presidential race and I don’t want to do that again! It had a negative effect on my health. I may have to delete the GR app again, though, and just check in once a day on the computer. This may be my last post from my phone for awhile!

Sherri wrote: "My last day of work. I retired. I have been a RN is a hospital since 1983. I never thought this day would get here. Great moment & day."

WOW, congratulations. I got my RN in1984 so won't be retiring yet. Wish I could. Best wishes to you!

Pam, that's awesome! I deleted Facebook from my phone, but I think I would really miss Instagram, and I could never delete Goodreads! The only reason I don't delete Facebook completely is because I'm in quite a few groups that I enjoy.

Pam wrote: "On Jan 17th I decided to do a 30 day social media detox. I deleted my 3 social media apps, GR, Facebook, and Instagram, from my phone. I lasted 1 week without accessing GR! It was too hard w tracki..."

Deleted my FB account a while back, best decision ever :)

I agree about Facebook. While I still have an account, I never check it. Most of the posts are negative or just memes. Almost like watching constant commercials.
Why would I want to do that? We have not had television for 20 years so commercials are really both thing. :P

Emily wrote: "Pam, that's awesome! I deleted Facebook from my phone, but I think I would really miss Instagram, and I could never delete Goodreads! The only reason I don't delete Facebook completely is because I..."

Same for me. I deleted Facebook a few months ago and don’t miss it all. But I do really enjoy my therapist group and a zero waste group so I visit it from the browser here and there.

My YouTube time has increased significantly in recent months but it’s replaced my tv time more than anything. I honestly think it’s been a good thing because I primarily watch different forms of “self help”

Anyone watch the Oscars last night??? I’ve only seen 1917 but I was SO happy it got 3 Oscars, and I am planning to watch the rest of the winners and best picture noms soon.

I didn’t, but I really want to watch Marriage Story, Parasite, and 1917. I need to watch more movies!

Sabrina wrote: "Anyone watch the Oscars last night??? I’ve only seen 1917 but I was SO happy it got 3 Oscars, and I am planning to watch the rest of the winners and best picture noms soon."

I don't watch award shows but we did see 1917 this weekend and loved it! We rented Joker a few days ago and that was really good too, though hard to watch.

There are a few things I miss about Facebook but I think taking a month break (6 days left) has been a good thing.

I didn’t watch the Oscars. My husband was complaining about the political comments so we didn’t watch it. I’m glad 1917 won. That was an amazing film! I had seen the preview where they showed how they filmed it in 1 continuous shot, which was interesting in itself. Instead of watching TV, my daughter, 3 year old grandson and I were singing & dancing to ‘70’s/‘80s rock. It got kinda crazy! It was a lot more fun than watching a bunch of celebrities patting themselves on their backs, as my husband likes to say!

I’ve been reading a ton because I am sort of self quarantined at home with my family, here in Haikou, China. All parks and public areas are shut down, restaurants are only allowed open for delivery, and most districts in the city are shut off from the others in an attempt to control the corona virus. We haven’t left our apartment in about 3 weeks no except to collect packages (including groceries) at our compound’s gate, but luckily we have a large patio so have private space to exercise and get fresh air. But still... getting exhausting. Next week I go back to work, but from home. I’m a science teacher at an international high school and we’ll be online teaching starting in a couple of weeks because it’s not safe to go back to school. Next week I start preparing for that and am concerned how it will go with my husband and I working from home with 2 kids here, although my in-laws will be watching them, they are 4.5 and 1.5 years old and don’t understand that we need undisturbed time to work.

Wow, Erica! Good luck with that! Hope your family stays healthy.

That sounds so stressful, Erica! I can only imagine trying to explain that situation to the 4 year old. Keep us updated!

Oh goodness Erica! I'll be thinking of y'all... that so tough!!

Hoping your family stays healthy and things get back to normal soon for you Erica!

I just need to rant in a place that isn't my Facebook:

As I've mentioned before, this year my wife and I are trying to buy a house. We found one we loved so we put in an offer last week. They said they wanted 90-120 days for closing; we asked their agent who said they want mid-May to close. So we suggested May 8 as a potential closing (I can't do the weeks of the 10th or 17th due to school issues). They told us that's too soon, because they need more time to find a place for their son to move to (their adult son who flipped us off when we went for a showing last week).

We countered with May 22. They got back to us today, nope, still too soon....how about June 15? Well, unfortunately, we can't do anything in the June 6 to June 25 window because of the end of the school year and my wife attending a conference. We asked our agent to inquire whether they can do a day before that window.

But, if they say no, we're now faced with a question: do we want to wait for June 26 or 29 for a house we were told would want to close in mid-May? And, it delays us selling our house. We want a few weeks of owning both houses so we can work on the new house and not have to worry about unpacking at the same time. Now we wouldn't be able to close on our current house until mid-July.

So, we're frustrated right now!

Sorry you're dealing with that Steve, moving is the worst ugh. When we moved to our house 3 years ago we didn't realize the woman selling it had legitimate mental health issues and the stress of selling her house set her off-we ended up having to get the sheriffs department involved several times, including them sweeping the house with hands on their holsters-it was nuts!

It was worth it though and we love our house :) Hopefully you get everything figured out soon!

Oh Steve, that's such a tough decision!

When we bought our house, we signed the contracts, had the inspection, and then (after the inspection!), the original owners decided they didn't want to sell anymore. They offered to pay us $1000 to back out of the contract... the contract that stated that if they backed out, they owned us 50% of the home's value.

When my husband pointed that out to our realtor, our realtor said we could press the 50% issue or we could just stand firm and require them to sell the house... but if we pressed the 50%, they probably wouldn't be able to pay it and we could get caught up in legal fees. So we ended up just not allowing them to back out of the contract. The husband didn't even show up for the signing -- he gave his wife power of attorney and she cried through the entire signing. Four years later and we still get mail addressed to them.

It makes us sound heartless, but at the time, we were very limited on funds and had to be out of our rental by the end of the month... the day we scheduled our closing! All in all, I'm happy with our decision, but it was not an easy one at the time. I'm hoping it goes a bit more smoothly for you!

ZeeJane wrote: "Sorry you're dealing with that Steve, moving is the worst ugh. When we moved to our house 3 years ago we didn't realize the woman selling it had legitimate mental health issues and the stress of se..."

Yikes! We're actually a little worried about something like that. My wife said last night, "But what if he comes back at some point and throws a rock through the window?" If we get this house, we'll definitely be changing the locks as soon as we leave closing!

Emily - thanks for that insight! (Sorry you had to go through it, though!) We were talking about that yesterday, too. We're worried that they may attempt to back out during the process and leave us in the lurch. I assumed we'd have some recourse but hadn't asked our agent yet.

Also, to be fair... I still get mail for my house's previous owners, and that was 5 years ago in a very amicable, smooth process. Mostly it's junk from a bank or car dealership, but it also includes Christmas cards!

Here's hoping our agent has good news for us in the next day or so. We started looking at listings again last night to have other options, but our hearts just don't feel into it since we've gone all in mentally on this particular house!

It's hard to change your mind once you've committed to a house... that's a big purchase and a huge commitment! Definitely read into your contract to make sure there are protections if they want to back out.

Steve wrote: "ZeeJane wrote: "Sorry you're dealing with that Steve, moving is the worst ugh. When we moved to our house 3 years ago we didn't realize the woman selling it had legitimate mental health issues and ..."

Rocks through stain glass windows, stair railing spindles broke off, sharpie marker on 150 year old plastered walls; burned our outdoor stuff in a fire, (while my kids watched through the window, waiting for the sheriffs department to show up), stole bins of our stuff while we watched, (again, from the window waiting for yet another sheriff deputy to show up again), smeared dog, (and human!!! poo), on the walls, dumped bleach all over the kitchen floor, broke the fridge handles off, took door knobs (the nice antique glass ones); threw stuff down toilets (had to replace the toilets/plumbing), and the list goes on sigh.... our move-in was quite the 'adventure' :p

Update: We kept going back and forth with the people with our original house love. They didn't get back to us for a week or so. In the meantime, we saw an open house this past Sunday and fell in love with another house.

The original house eventually told us they had another bidder and seemed to be suggesting we'd have an opportunity to match that. But when our agent inquired for some more details, their agent took a day to get back and then said "Oh, they just decided to go with the other offer."

So we put an offer on this new house Tuesday morning. Tuesday night we got told that our bid basically tied with another, so asked each of us if we'd agree to go to listing price and agree to a particular closing date. Well Wednesday night we found out that we tied again, so we submitted new offer this morning. We finally found out after 9PM that they accepted our offer! WOOOOO!

It's going to be a June closing like the original one wanted, but we're so in love with this house that we don't care :) (Plus, they were upfront and didn't jerk us around by claiming they wanted May instead of June).

Hooray! Great news all around, Steve!

Great news, Steve! Congratulations!

Well, here we are. No school, libraries have also closed. Stores and restaurants closed. Have to stay home. Thank God for Kindle. At least I can work outside and READ.

Everything is closing here too - they've just had a live feed government conference about it. It looks like schools are closed until after the Easter break, all non-essential stores will be closed, restaurants that can have over 50 people need to close, we are being told to avoid using public transport (which here in Switzerland is very heavily used), borders are being locked down.

I'm still waiting to hear back on whether or not my work will be stopped - I work as an in-home behavioural therapist with autistic kids, and it seems insane that they wouldn't stop sessions - we almost all catch public transport, and we are almost constantly in physical contact with the kids.

I've already been stuck at home the past week and a half with a nasty respiratory bug, and am already going stir crazy ... another 4-6 weeks of this ... send help!

Jody wrote: "Everything is closing here too - they've just had a live feed government conference about it. It looks like schools are closed until after the Easter break, all non-essential stores will be closed,..."

Time to start picking up some new Chonks Jody.

I did some panic buying today before the non-essential stores close ... two new jigsaws and a few new games. 😀 And yep, Tracy! I have Crime and Punishment lined up next!