Merry Mondays #6 – 2017 Resolutions

Merry Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by Lillian @ Mom With a Reading Problem during the month of December to celebrate Christmas and the holiday season. Each week a different topic centered around the holidays will be discussed. This is my first year participating, and I’m trying to catch up on my missed Mondays.

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Monday, January 2nd 

Today’s Topic: 2017 New Year’s Resolutions

Has it come to this? The year I thought I’d get away…*sigh*. Apparently I did do NYRs last year. Whoooooops! Let’s revisit those and see how I did.

Resolutions from Last Year

Bookish & Bloggish

• Read one book per week. While I didn’t read one book each week, I read an average of one book per week. 
• Complete Alphabet Soup and NetGalley challenges.
• Complete the 40 Book Challenge at school. (Ends in June) Ummm…I changed some of the categories and got close. 
• Participate in quarterly BINGO type games. While I don’t fill in my card each month/quarter like I secretly hope, I enjoy playing and played all year!
• Write one discussion post per month – so that means they have to be really thoughtful! Somewhere around June/July I completely lost motivation and creation for this. 
• Link up weekly to the usual blog linkys. I didn’t keep up with this too well.  

Personal Life

• Say “NO” more often. While I am not directly telling people “no,” I do have a more cavalier, DGAF attitude and am refusing to add jobs or tasks to my plate. I even refused to be the walking encyclopedia for my brothers. I actually told them to “Google it.”  
• Make more time for me. During the school year this is difficult, but it was what I was aiming for. I didn’t do so well on it. I only had real me time over summer.
• Stay true to who I am. YEP!
• Drink more water. Epic fail.
• Take Baby on walks more frequently. I am a terrible mother.
• Leave school by 5 pm at least two days a week. Nope.
• Cook some of those delish meals from Pinterest. Ha!
• Worry less. Stress less. This is a work in progress.
• Write a novel with my good friend Pineapple? No progress.

Well, that was a resounding failure, right? Why do we do these things, again?

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Hmmph. I don’t know. We like to build ourselves up and stay positive. I can respect that.

So, without further waylaying, here are the things I want to do better at this year. *Note, I make no promises! Just a promise to do better.

My 2017 Do Betters

Bookish & Bloggish

• Meet my Goodreads goal of 52 books. This is an average of one book each week. (Super Secret Goal is 150. Shhhhh!)
• Meet each of my other bookish challenges – for the first year ever.
  • Devote myself to increasing my NetGalley ratio by reading a minimum of 50 NG books. I am embarrassed to even say where I sit and how many books I have received.
  • Listen to an audiobook on average every other month.
  • Read a title beginning with each letter of the alphabet.
• Continue to keep my blog updated. (Review Archive, Challenges, Monthly Chit Chats updated monthly)
• Cross-post reviews to Goodreads and Amazon at the end of each month during monthly housekeeping.
• Link up weekly to each meme’s linky. Link all posts to my Google+ group weekly.
• Review my backlog of review books (ebooks) directly from authors. Only a handful come to mind.
• I will TRY to stop grabbing freebies AND be super selective with new NetGalley offerings. I WILL read the synopsis each time and not fall for cover love.

Personal Life

• Worry less. Stress less.
• Leave school by 5 pm at least two days a week.
• Say “NO” to new jobs or tasks pushed off on me by others. This primarily applies to my work life, but occasionally to my brothers.
• Make more time for fun me things, like pleasure reading, dedicated Netflix binging (without multitasking), unfettered salon days.
• Pay off all of my personal debt (excluding my car and student loan). Keep credit cards paid off monthly.
• Work on my writing project. Perhaps in aims of working toward a writing partnership with my good friend Pineapple.
• Finalize my curriculum brain child, Shark Week – a PBL, for national/international publication or sale.
• Take Baby on walks more frequently.
• Drink more water daily.
• Lose 20 pounds – and keep it off!
• Eat out “fast food” less. This requires me to be home and make a conscious effort to cook for both dinner and lunches.
• Find new recipes to try. Also, maybe somewhere to stockpile easy access to recipes on phone? Any suggestions for a method?
• Try new hair and makeup tips and tutorials.
• Update my resume and apply for new jobs.
• MOVE IN WITH THE MAN. Be a family under ONE roof! 🙂
• Declutter. Papers, physical items, clothes, jewelry (?), email folders. Everything!

These are my “do better” resolutions for 2017. Do we have any in common? What are some of your top goals this year? I’d love to hear from you! Leave me a comment below. 

Merry Mondays #5

Merry Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by Lillian @ Mom With a Reading Problem during the month of December to celebrate Christmas and the holiday season. Each week a different topic centered around the holidays will be discussed. This is my first year participating, and I’m trying to catch up on my missed Mondays.

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Monday, December 26

Today’s Topic: End of 2016 – How did you do?

Time to check up on those New Year’s resolutions.

 

I failed. Hard core. I only met one of my year-long challenges. Next year I am keeping things simple.

• Goodreads – 53/52 completed
• Alphabet Soup – 20/26 completed
• NetGalley – 6/50 completed
• Shelf Love / Backlist Books – 19/51+ completed
• TBR – 23/50 completed
• Discussion Challenge – 18/24 posts
• Winter BINGO – 4/25 completed –> ends in February
• December BINGO – 12/25 completed

Merry Mondays #4

Merry Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by Lillian @ Mom With a Reading Problem during the month of December to celebrate Christmas and the holiday season. Each week a different topic centered around the holidays will be discussed. This is my first year participating, and I’m trying to catch up on my missed Mondays.

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Monday, December 18

Today’s Topic: Favorite Holiday Recipe

 

My former partner (she abandoned me to go down and teach 2nd grade) used to make this for all of our holiday parties. It was delicious. Last year I somehow got sent home with loads of it and I was eating it all throughout the spring.

 

PC: Butter With a Side of Bread

Tiger Butter

1 pack almond bark (24oz)

8 oz peanut butter (I use creamy, but you can use crunchy…..I also use cheap store brand for baking)

4-6 squares of chocolate candy coating

Melt almond bark and mix in peanut butter, stir.  Pour onto a wax paper lined baking sheet.

Melt chocolate-drop on top of almond/pb mixture, then drag a knife through to make a design.

Cool in fridge, then break apart.

 

Merry Mondays #1

Merry Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by Lillian @ Mom With a Reading Problem during the month of December to celebrate Christmas and the holiday season. Each week a different topic centered around the holidays will be discussed. This is my first year participating, and I’m trying to catch up on my missed Mondays.

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Monday, November 28

Today’s Topic: Holiday Wish List

 

FYI, I have an Amazon Wish List here.

“Punko” Dolls

I have been trying to keep the little window shopping girl inside of me hostage about these cute little Funko dolls. Although I call them Punko dolls, which perfectly shows how out of touch I am. I really want the Harry Potter set. After finally reading the series after graduating college, I fell in love with this series like very few other books, only about four I can name right off.

Kendra Scott Signature Danielle Earrings in Gold and Goldstone

I recently started looking into Kendra Scott jewelry. Several women on my campus and my own students own multiple pieces, and I finally decided to just window shop. I spent over half a day looking, and maybe because it was all online, but I found there were very few that I liked, but his was one of them.

School for Adventurers series

I read the first in this series a few years ago now. I loved it! I so want the entire series. It was so interesting. You can read my review of The First Fight here.

Lady and the Tramp DVD

I’ve slowly been working on beefing up my Disney and childhood movies collection. Somehow I didn’t get this one in the past few years. How is that possible? I love it!

Bed Head BH320 Rock ‘n’ Roller Ceramic Styling Iron

I have very thick hair and curling my hair has become so bothersome I don’t even mess with it anymore. It takes over an hour to curl my hair, and I work from one side to the other, sectioning my hair off in halves and then in smaller sections within each half. When I finish the second half (all of my hair) the first half has fallen flat – even with being hairsprayed immediately after curling. When I got my hair done for prom, my cousin’s stylist used over 80 bobby pins and an entire can of hairspray. My curls were nearly flat before I even put on my dress. So….maybe this will help me get over my curls and I can just be OK with waves. 🙂

Merry Mondays #2

Merry Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by Lillian @ Mom With a Reading Problem during the month of December to celebrate Christmas and the holiday season. Each week a different topic centered around the holidays will be discussed. This is my first year participating, and I’m trying to catch up on my missed Mondays.

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Monday, December 5

Today’s Topic: Favorite Family Tradition

Honestly, my family doesn’t have a tradition any longer. We used to all go as a huge family (all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins on my mother’s side) to hunt for our Christmas tree and chop it down on Thanksgiving after we ate, but the last time that event took place was in the 90s. After some family issues, our tradition was disbanded as my aunts/uncles did their own things for Thanksgiving.

There have been so many incidents over the years, and we even just had another this past Thanksgiving, that I just want to do my own thing with the man for the holidays…but he is in Massachusetts all of December. I suppose our Marie Calendar’s Thanksgiving feast is a tradition?

I need tradition recommendations! I feel such a holiday failure without having one.

Merry Mondays #3

Merry Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by Lillian @ Mom With a Reading Problem during the month of December to celebrate Christmas and the holiday season. Each week a different topic centered around the holidays will be discussed. This is my first year participating, and I’m trying to catch up on my missed Mondays.

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Monday, December 12

Today’s Topic: White Christmas or Beach Christmas

Which is your preferred way to spend the holiday season? How do you spend your Christmas and what is your dream holiday?

 

I’ve lived in my area for my entire life, and I don’t ever recall having a white Christmas. We rarely get snow, and when we do it is barely an inch, so it basically doesn’t count. I can count on one hand the number of times I recall us having snow. Though, when my grandmother was still alive, we always had Christmas at her house, and out of that grew a family tradition on Thanksgiving. When I was somewhere between four and seven, I do remember having a white Thanksgiving. It was family tradition that we all – aunts, uncles, cousins – marched single file following my mom’s oldest brother through the pasture to pick out a Christmas tree. We would cut it down and bring it back, and I do vividly remember marching along in that line one Thanksgiving, bundled all up looking like the Michelin man, and if I happened to topple over I would have been rolling around like a rolly polly and unable to get back up.

Since I’ve never had a white Christmas – a real one – I would like to experience one at home and one traveling. After seeing so many friends visiting New York this year and all of the entertainment and activities, particularly around Christmas, I’d like to experience my “away” white Christmas in New York.

After that I think I’ll be good to have beach Christmases – Hawaii, Jamaica. In fact, one of my students is going to Jamaica tomorrow!

Chit Chat – January 2017

January News

This month brought my 4th year blogging! I was horrible and did nothing. I didn’t even post about it. Next year, though, I’m going to do something big. What would you like to see?

I took Nereyda’s constant amazing beautiful posts about her bullet journal. In November and December I debated and debated and debated and I finally took the plunge! I haven’t taken any photos yet, but I hope to set up a couple of posts soon. I have discovered where I already went wrong and how to set up my future one the way I need it to be. I’m a little disappointed with my creativity, and I am very Type A OCD so the fact that things are not 100% aligned and perfect does bother me, but I’ve got to get past that if I’m going to keep doing this, which I fully intend to do! I also am introducing bullet journaling to my yearbook students because it plays heavily into our content. So far they mostly took the lazy route, but I’m going to keep pushing.

January also brought the end of the UIL season, so I will have just a teeny bit more time on my hands to fully get the yearbook finished in the next month. We only submitted 8 of the 16 spreads we needed to today, so we have more work to do in February. We also got news that my supervisor is (supposedly) retiring this school year. And I had about 38758475 kids out with the flu, strep, or the stomach bug the last few days.

January Reads

I recorded a reading goal in my bullet journal for the month, and I set my sights to read 6 books in January. I was so close!

Average Rating: 4.5 stars
Pages Read: 1,342 pages
Favorite Book: TIE – Somebody Like You and Staying for Good

January Posts

I was surprised with my activity level this month around the blogosphere given everything I have going on. Tuesdays are by far becoming my most popular visiting days.

Tuesday Teaser & Intro – Somebody Like You

End of Year Survey 2016

Top Ten Tuesday: Underrated, Hidden Gems

I would love if you’d go show a little love to one of these other posts from January:

Merry Mondays #6: 2017 Resolutions

Review: Adventurous Proposal

Review: Faith in Every Footstep

Review: Staying for Good

Visitors & Search Terms

I was happy to see an increase in traffic for January on the blog! It does not compare to the traffic I’ve seen the last three Januarys, but que sera sera. January totaled in at 1,170 visitors.

Search Terms

little wolf et grant – ET phone home? 

dolores umbridge feet – I’m sure she has them, as wicked a woman as she was, but you won’t find them here!

book with ferris wheel on cover – I got you! I did a Cover Characteristic post all about this one!

julian david stone – Swell dude who wrote an interesting story.

the dragon who cannot breathe fire story –  Poor little dragon.

brides for indians program – Allegedly a fictional part of May Dodd’s story.

Challenge Updates

I decided this year to keep my challenges simple and do my two fun BINGOs I did last year. Liik at my progress so far!

• Goodreads – 4/52 completed
• Alphabet Soup – 3/26 completed –> I got X done!
• Audiobook – 2/6 completed
• NetGalley – 2/50 completed
• Shelf Love – 3/52 completed
• COYER Blackout – 6/xx completed
• Winter BINGO – 12/25 completed –> ends in February
• January BINGO – 15/25 completed

February Reads

For February I want to read 5 books. That’s my goal. I am finally going to get around to the rest of the Power of the Matchmaker series!

 

Sunday Post ~ Winter Break Up

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news, a post to recap the past week on your blog, showcase books and things received, and share news about what is coming up on the blog for the week ahead. To get in on the Sunday funday, see the rules here: Sunday Post Meme.

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The weather here in Central Texas has been off. It was blazing during Christmas. The past few days have been freezing cold, like Winter actually got the memo to do it’s job. And I hear tomorrow is going to be Tshirt and shorts weather. I have decided Winter is either the most bipolar of the seasons, or it is that super lazy coworker who only puts in any effort when the boss is around.

Life is stressful right now. My ELA students are in the midst of this PBL project that has been pushed back for reasons out of my control, and it just needs to be over so we can move on. My Yearbook kids are freaking the fuck out, reality setting in that the first half of the book is due this coming Friday. I have been telling them this since August 22. At this point, some of the more creative (and time-consuming) ideas we had have to go out the window. Honestly? I don’t think they’ll meet deadline. Most pages are at the 40% completion mark. We are still having to work without any computers to get our work done.

Things at work that keep happening just make it crystal clear it is no longer where I belong. Perhaps because now there is the man and we have made our plans to make the big move that I’m seeing all the faults that I just put up with before or I never realized were happening. I’m tired of being taken advantage of. I’m tired of being told I’m not good enough, what I’m doing is not good enough. I’m tired of being brushed off when I have something to meaningfully contribute. I’m just done being wanted for what I can do for someone else to make them look good and otherwise shit on. Done with that mess.

Baby is getting along well with Photographer Dad’s kiddos. She thinks they are her little charges. I think I pissed the third roommate off. I am currently watching Nashville on Hulu. It’s the first show I’m watching since going back to Hulu. I have my air purifier and tower fan going in my room at night because there is no air/heat from the HVAC and the fan does not work. The two are loud. I had my TV volume set at 9. In the old house, I typically had it set in the 30s. It goes up to 75. I had the volume set on 9 and he started banging on the wall between our rooms. This might become a problem. A possible solution is to rearrange my room (which will require help) so that the TV is on the other side of the room, even though I like how it is set up now. Anybody have any other suggestions?

 Still none.

• Monday
  • Review ~ Adventurous Proposal
  • End of Year Survey
  • Merry Mondays #6
• Tuesday
  • Top Ten Tuesday ~ 
  • Teaser Tuesday & Intro ~ Mistletoe at Moonglow
• Wednesday
  • WWW Wednesday
• Thursday
  • Famous Last Words #21
•  Friday
  • Feature Follow Friday ~ Blogging Helper Tips
  • Book Blogger Hop #2

 

• Monday
  • Review ~ DNF: Parallel Roads
  • The Book Blogger Test
• Tuesday
  • Top Ten Tuesday ~ 
  • Teaser Tuesday & Intro ~ TBD
• Wednesday
  • WWW Wednesday
• Thursday
  • Famous Last Words #21
•  Friday
  • Review ~ Faith in Every Footstep
  • Feature Follow Friday ~ Favorite Humorous Books
  • Book Blogger Hop #3

I started listening to Cruel Beauty on audio in October. I’ve slowly whittled away at chapters. I need to get back to it and finish it so I can move on to a new audio. This will be my first audiobook of the year.

I’ve also been reading Somebody Like You for an upcoming tour. I haven’t had as much reading time as I had hoped, so in order to get it together I might not be as active for the next couple weeks while I get our yearbook sent off and catch up in reading.

This is a feature I am adding to my Sunday Posts. After being asked by a coworker – in all seriousness – if I had a life, I decided to join disc jockey Bobby Bones of Kase 101 in doing one human thing each week.

How does it work?

In order to not lose what little sanity I have left and in order to not become enslaved to the Texas Education Agency via my school district, I will…

• leave school within an hour of dismissal once a week
• go do one human thing with another human
• talk about my human thing on the blog each week

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I finally decided to give in and work on a project (that I won’t tell you about until I’ve got some photos to show!) this year. I didn’t know what materials I would need, so I asked the most artsy friend I know to help me pick out materials. Turns out, he’s doing the same project, too! So we can see each other’s work and help each other out. We met Wednesday at an art store and he helped me pick out the rest of what I hadn’t ordered, and then we went to a very hip and popular pizza joint and just caught up. In all, it was a three hour outing that I enjoyed thoroughly. Sadly, we didn’t think to take any pictures! I am excited to share my project and his too with you guys!

Sunday Post ~ Happy 2017

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news, a post to recap the past week on your blog, showcase books and things received, and share news about what is coming up on the blog for the week ahead. To get in on the Sunday funday, see the rules here: Sunday Post Meme.

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I picked the man up on Wednesday and it was glorious. I am so glad he is home. We have spent a lot of time just curled up on the couch together and taking Baby on walks.

New Year’s Eve 

The man and I spent New Year’s Eve at The River Walk in San Antonio. There were 15 miles of river decorated with Christmas lights. We were told they start putting up in late August!

We have endured a year and a half of weekend commuting. We survived the big move in November. And he is continually reminding me that soon we’ll be living in the same house. If all goes well, in six months I will make the last move before we pick out our (hopefully) forever home.

What better time to say “I love you”? Right after the fireworks started near The Tower of the Americas and the big 2016 on the tower changed to 2017, I looked at him and said the words. This time they weren’t just in my head like they have been the thousand times before. I said them out loud.

I started out my 2017 with love. How did you start your 2017?

• Monday
  • Review ~ Oklahoma Christmas Blues
  • Merry Mondays #5
• Tuesday
  • Top Ten Tuesday ~ Best Books of 2016
  • Teaser Tuesday & Intro ~ Oklahoma Christmas Blues
• Wednesday
  • WWW Wednesday
• Thursday
  • Famous Last Words #20
•  Friday
  • Feature Follow Friday ~ Misleading Blurbs
  • Beyond the Books
  • Book Blogger Hop #1

• Monday
  • Review ~ Adventurous Proposal
  • End of Year Survey
• Tuesday
  • Top Ten Tuesday ~ 
  • Teaser Tuesday & Intro ~ Mistletoe at Moonglow
• Wednesday
  • WWW Wednesday
• Thursday
  • Famous Last Words #21
•  Friday
  • Feature Follow Friday ~ Blogging Helper Tips
  • Book Blogger Hop #2

I haven’t got any new books. YAY! I have been trying to whittle through as many as I could during this break. It’s less than my past Christmas breaks, but I am happy I finished more books before 2016 closed out.

This is a feature I am adding to my Sunday Posts. After being asked by a coworker – in all seriousness – if I had a life, I decided to join disc jockey Bobby Bones of Kase 101 in doing one human thing each week.

How does it work?

In order to not lose what little sanity I have left and in order to not become enslaved to the Texas Education Agency via my school district, I will…

• leave school within an hour of dismissal once a week
• go do one human thing with another human
• talk about my human thing on the blog each week

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I did no human things this week. Two Fridays ago I did go gallivanting at all the department stores trying to find some new jeans. Seriously, how hard is this task? I felt like a frazzled mother of three – and I don’t even have kids! It was awful. I wrote down what I bought and I’m ordering it online from now on. I am too old for that shit!

View this post on Instagram

When your family is so full of cheaters you gotta take your dominos to the bathroom. #dominos #cheaters #protectthebones #cutthroat

A post shared by Charlie Girl (@sissybearla) on Dec 25, 2016 at 2:29pm PST

 

 

 

Sunday Post ~ The Christmas Edition

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news, a post to recap the past week on your blog, showcase books and things received, and share news about what is coming up on the blog for the week ahead. To get in on the Sunday funday, see the rules here: Sunday Post Meme.

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After waking up on Sunday to more symptoms; dropping $100 at Walgreens on a steam mask, new neti pot and medications; and waking up to a killer cough on Monday with near constant congestion (and lack of breath), I called our Teladoc line. I’ve called twice before since I’ve been with my employer, and both times were a fail. People I work with have called and got prescriptions for strep throat, Z Packs, and the medications they needed for their diagnosis. I’m 0-2 with Teladoc. Last year I called during the Thanksgiving and they told me to go to an ER immediately because I was suffering from something neurological. It was a double ear infection and upper respiratory infection. This time I called, waited two hours for a consult, and they finally came through for me! I was prescribed the Pearl pill, which is heaven. Completely numbs your throat, so you can’t dally with the swallowing. And I got a Z Pack. Another upper respiratory. And after taking the first two pills in the Z Pack I could breathe! Hallelujah!

The week consisted of watching episodes of Snapped and Joe Kenda’s show. I only watch true crime shows like that when the man is not around. I think it would weird him out. And there was actually an episode set in Austin and it was on the same street I lived on only two years after the murder! That creeped me out!

I also got some reading and blogging done before the Christmas holiday.

Silverwitch

• Monday
  • Review ~ Between Heaven and Earth
  • Merry Mondays #4
• Tuesday
  • Top Ten Tuesday ~
  • First Chapter First Paragraph ~ Wish Upon a Bear
  • The Dreaded Question
• Wednesday
  • WWW Wednesday
  • Blitz + Giveaway ~ Silverwitch
• Thursday
  • Famous Last Words #19
•  Friday
  • Feature Follow Friday ~ Best Villains

• Monday
  • Review ~ Oklahoma Christmas Blues
  • Merry Mondays #5
• Tuesday
  • Top Ten Tuesday ~ Best Books of 2016
  • Teaser Tuesday & Intro ~ Oklahoma Christmas Blues
• Wednesday
  • WWW Wednesday
• Thursday
  • Famous Last Words #20
•  Friday
  • Feature Follow Friday ~ TBD
  • Beyond the Books
  • Book Blogger Hop #1

This is a feature I am adding to my Sunday Posts. After being asked by a coworker – in all seriousness – if I had a life, I decided to join disc jockey Bobby Bones of Kase 101 in doing one human thing each week.

How does it work?

In order to not lose what little sanity I have left and in order to not become enslaved to the Texas Education Agency via my school district, I will…

• leave school within an hour of dismissal once a week
• go do one human thing with another human
• talk about my human thing on the blog each week

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While it was not positive and since everyone is off wherever for the holidays, I share my “Shitty Walgreens Experience” with you…

I am in green Charlie Brown pajama bottoms and a purple digital camo Cabela’s hoodie. My hair looks like it hasn’t been washed in a few days, because it hadn’t. I sounded like shit. I looked like shit. I’m buying over $100 in cold/flu medications, neti pot, steam mask, etc. I clearly do not look or sound well.

The Walgreen checker asked cheerily, “How are you doing?”

Without even looking up from the keypad, I deadpanned, “Not so great.”

And she awwwed and her happy, bright face went from Snow White with the woodland animals to crestfallen. Really? I look and sound horrible. How do you think I feel? Somebody relied on Steve to solve Blue’s Clues…