Happy Valentine's Day

     I've returned from a very long winter break and boy, do I have some things to fill you in on. My Christmas into New Years week was perhaps the most painful period of my life thus far. That may sound like an extremely dramatized statement but it is in fact entirely accurate. I ended up in the ER early in the morning on New Years Eve and a short CT scan later, turns out I have a very infected, very inflamed gallbladder! My year did not have the greatest start and this whole month is kind of a blur so I am just, at this point, crawling to the finish of January. Only one more week! 
    We started second semester last week and I can say with great satisfaction that I have passed Chemistry and I am officially done with high school science! Although, now I have returned to waking up at 6:45 to be ready for an 8 am class. Lots of coffee is coursing through my veins.
    We've magically skipped through time! And by magically skipped through time, I mean I wrote two wimpy paragraphs, got distracted, and now here I am two weeks later picking right back up. My brain is a chaotic mess. But let's not waste time on previously established facts; we've got things to discuss! First of all, I finally finished the biography I was reading about Alexander Hamilton. It only took five months! I had to do a lot of block reading where I just read a chunk every few days or so because it's a very long, very dense book. I ended up appreciating the work much more since I actually took the time to pause instead of trying to get from start to finish as fast as possible. 
    And major news on the college front: I am officially going to Drake in the fall! I am so so excited! There is a lot that I still have to figure out but at least the 'post-high school plan' is beginning to materialize. I can't believe the end is as close as it is. I remember that at the last week of my eighth grade year, a teacher said that the next four years would fly by. I didn't pay much attention because I was mostly focused on the fact that the school year was done. I was not doing any looking ahead. But here we are with nineteen weeks to go until graduation. My English teacher has warned us all that the spring will take forever so I'm just trying to stay in the present. Otherwise, I will stress myself out too much and we can't have that.
    This weekend, I had brunch with some friends at a new spot downtown and it was delicious. Homegrown is in the same place as Big Grove if anyone has ever been there. We got coffeecake for a starter which had so much flavor and different tastes. There were a lot of different, fabulous sounding dishes on the menu and I went with croissant french toast. I don't know where the croissant was supposed to come into play but nevertheless, it was very good. The final bill ended up being $23 and I consider that a win!
    Hi, here I am again! I keep stopping and starting so this is very all over the place. I've been trying to get a lot done but instead, I keep taking naps. My life is very difficult at the moment but I have managed to write half of a first draft essay for English in an hour and a half. Also, you can't see anything that I can at the moment but we are having a very entertaining discussion in AP Government. The topic of the day is affirmative action and we're all on a roll. Good conversation is so much more interesting than never-ending silence.
    I am still working my way through a novel on French history and I finally just crossed over the two hundred page mark. Over the weekend, I finished the last book in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series and it was excellent! I blew through all five in a few hours so don't let the page count scare you. Next, I'm starting the Glass Throne series, which is by the same author with overlapping mythology so that will be fun. I plan on reviewing the entire ACOTAR series before the end of the month so be on the look out for that! I'm also reading Dracula but mid-nineteenth century literature takes awhile to get through. I have a lot more books on my shelf plus the final half of my 2022 book list coming out on YouTube hopefully in the next few weeks. I'm hoping to get on a more consistent schedule throughout the year and with everything that went on after New Year's, I need a minute to get my schedule in order. Under that sphere is also the monthly newsletters and I know I've said this many times, but I am seriously trying to get those back up and running. I'm still trying to figure out how it works through the blog because making it myself is very time-consuming.
     Another sort of interest that I'm getting into is embroidery. The project I'm on is one that I started months ago but I just recently got back into it. This go-around is much more smoother than my first attempt! Although, my fingers are still at risk from that very tiny needle. I was even pricking my leg (Tip: don't set it on your lap when the needle's going through). I'd like some more patterns once I get my skills better but I'm not getting too ahead of myself.
    This post happens to fall on Valentine's Day and I happen to love Valentine's Day so I bought myself a gift. It was stupidly overpriced but that's never stopped me. This online shop annotates books and then mails them with all kinds of fun goodies; I couldn't resist. I ordered a rainbow mug too. Coffee cups are starting to be a major financial investment but I don't think I'm mad about it.  
    I'm kind of glad that it's taken me so long to post this because the Bridgerton spin-off for Queen Charlotte was given a release date today: May 4th! Sometimes Netflix strikes gold! I mean Bridgerton, Wednesday, Shadow and Bone; they're fabulous. But the other streaming services have good ones too: The Last of Us on HBO, Yellowstone (and its many prequels) on Paramount, Criminal Minds: Evolution, and those are only the ones that come to mind immediately. 
    And with that, I think I've finally reached the end of this update. The plan wasn't for it to take this long but better late than never! I hope you stick around for the whole year because it's going to be jam-packed with all sorts of fun. No, I will not give spoilers. You'll just have to be patient. Happy Valentine's Day!

XO,
​Caroline