Sunday Salon: Pre-Christmas Excitement!

It's been awhile since I posted anything other than a review, so I thought a little updating was in order. We're learning to live with Ricky's MS, so our lives have settled down a little since the beginning of the year and his diagnosis. I'm working two jobs (my regular job as a PD, and my second job teaching Business Law at a local college), so it leaves me little time for reading, especially when I use the weekends to catch up on all the non-work-related stuff that needs to get done. But the semester is winding down at school, and we've almost reached the holiday lull in the court system, so I'll soon have plenty of reading time. I've pretty much given up on cleaning, in order to have some free time, and guess what...the world hasn't ended yet. I've been baking cookies for the Christmas cookie exchange at work, doing my Christmas shopping (I'm actually ALL DONE...this is probably the earliest I've ever finished shopping), watching football, and making plans for our long road trip to Ohio to see my family for Christmas. I need to get our tree up tonight and then...Christmas can come whenever it wants!

I'm incredibly excited about our trip up North. We decided to drive this year, because I thought it would be less stressful. I didn't want to deal with trying to make a connection while hauling Ricky and all our crap through a busy airport. Add in all the new security measures, and the fact that flying stresses me out in general, and I'd rather drive, so we can take our time and go at our own pace. This will be the first year that Ricky has ever come home with me for Christmas. That's right, despite being together for four and a half years, he's never come to the old homestead for Christmas. Usually he would have to work, but since he's receiving disability now, it frees him up for holiday traveling.

In reading news, I had a very productive couple of weeks. I read two books within about a week of each other, which I haven't done in a VERY long time, and I'm now re-reading Diana Gabaldon's Outlander. I bought the newest book in the series with a gift card last Christmas and I want to read it soon, but I definitely needed a refresher on the events in the series, so I decided to read them all over again before tackling An Echo in the Bone. I first read the series during my last year of law school/studying for the Bar/my first year of practice. So it's been a good four years or so (at least). I love these books, so I'm flying through the first one. Hopefully, I'll be keeping up this pace, especially with the amount of free time I'll have for reading, once we get to my parents' house.

And, okay, I caved. I asked for a Kindle for Christmas. I was going back and forth on whether I wanted to ask my parents for one. I wasn't sure I was ready to leave actual REAL books behind yet. I have so much on my TBR shelves that it seemed almost unfair to ask for an e-reader on which I can't read any of those books. And I hadn't done any research as to whether I'd prefer a Kindle or a Nook or a Sony. But when my mom asked me what I wanted for Christmas, it just kind of popped out. And then I found myself really excited about the prospect of getting one. And if I DO get one, I'm sure I'll find a way to balance the books I currently own with the books I may purchase for the Kindle.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season, with lots of reading time and many, many books under the tree!

Sunday Salon of Sorts

I'm not really a participant in the Sunday Salon series, but it's been a while since I updated, so I felt it was due.

I finished Katherine Neville's The Fire a week or so ago. Since then, I've been bringing myself up to speed on back issues of magazines that I put off in trying to finish The Fire. I've now picked up a book again, though: Angela Carter's Shaking a Leg. This book is a collection of her journalism and other non-fiction writings - literary criticism, essays, etc. It's been a LOOOONG time since I read a non-fiction book...almost a year, since I was reading Defending the Damned last September during my sister's wedding. So I thought sprinkling in a little non-fic would be good. I've never read any of Carter's fiction, but I've heard nothing but good things about her. I'm looking forward to diving in to this book!

HOWEVER, I'm not sure much reading will get done over the next couple of weeks. Ricky and I are moving into a new house, and I am starting my new position (well, it's a lateral transfer, really) in a different office...it's going to be hectic, to say the least. We've already started packing and moving a few things...our lease here is up on the 31st and our lease in the new place started yesterday, so we can move a little at a time. I HATE moving. I always swear to myself that I won't do it again for X amount of years. But we've been unhappy with our current apartment for some time; we've wanted to get into a house; the rent here is going up; I got transferred...seemed like the right time. And so we go. The plan is to stay in this place a couple of years, pay down our...ahem...substantial...debts, and save some money to buy a place. I hope that happens, so we DON'T have to move again after that for quite some time.

Hope everyone is enjoying their reading! Have a great weekend!