We made it to Friday! This week I’m sharing my October reflections, an insight about social media, my NaNoWriMo goals, and my favorite podcast’s book club recommendation. I’m also continuing my look back into previous reading years – this time to 2020!
• Month in Review •
I kicked off November by taking a look back at October and deciding what is and isn’t working for me. I walked outside almost every day for a total of 88.1 miles and saw some truly beautiful sunrises. I also added another medal to my Conqueror Challenge collection – this time for Yosemite National Park. Now I’m making my way through the Rocky Mountains!
I completed 21 strength workouts and did 12 yoga sessions. I’m satisfied with the strength workouts but want to increase yoga in November. Let me know if you use any good yoga apps!
I read three books in October, all for book clubs. I read Jesmyn Ward’s Let Us Descend for my in-person book club. Olympus, Texas and The Secret Lives of Church Ladies (a collection of short stories) were both for virtual MMD Book Club.
From a life standpoint in October, my mother-in-law stayed with us for a week, we wrapped up my son’s basketball and soccer seasons, I attended a mom’s-night-out event, tried out some new Home Chef dinner meals (Dolly Parton’s BBQ Chicken with Spicy Mayo Corn was a hit!), volunteered at my son’s fall festival, and celebrated Halloween.
• The Pocket Watch Problem •
I’ve written in previous posts that I’m reading a “page-a-day” from Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig. In one of the sections, he writes about the invention of the pocket watch. Haig writes, “Having access to information gives you one kind of freedom at the expense of another.” Check out this quote Haig references from Samuel Pepys in 1665:
“…I cannot forbear carrying my watch in my hand in the coach all this afternoon, and seeing what o’clock it is one hundred times; and am apt to think with myself, how could I be so long without one; though I remember since, I had one, and found it a trouble, and resolved to carry one no more about me while I lived.”
Haig goes on to write, “When the ability to check something turns into a compulsion to do so, we often find ourselves craving the time before, when there was no ability to check in the first place.”
For me, this pocket watch concept has so many parallels with today’s social media obsession. I love staying connected, but I crave the days of 2004-2008 when we had to log on via laptop to check-in with our real-life friends. I remember uploading pictures once per week by connecting my digital camera to my computer. Having access to everyone I’ve ever known in my pocket can feel like a blessing and completely overwhelming. Every few months I experiment with my own social media cadence. Sometimes I feel like it’s working and other times I need to switch things up by taking a day, week, or month off.
• Happier in Hollywood •
There are four podcasts I listen to regularly, but I can only claim to have listened to every single episode of one of them. Happier in Hollywood is hosted by Liz Craft and Sara Fain; they are writers in Hollywood and have been friends with each other since high school. I also love the fact that they are from the Midwest! I was so excited to hear that they have started a book club and their first selection is We Solve Murders by Richard Osman (author of The Thursday Murder Club series). Go to the HiH Facebook group to join in on the bookish fun!
• NaNoWriMo •
I have been researching NaNoWriMo for years and I finally signed up to participate! NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month and takes place each November. The goal is for participants to write 50,000 words over the month. I have been writing for years in various places, but I’ve never counted my words. So, I’m making a concerted effort to write every single day and then at the end of the month, I’ll count it all up! We will see if I even get close to 50,000 (that’s about 1,667 words/day). For reference, my “5 on a Friday” posts are anywhere from 500-1000 words.
• 2020 Reading Recap •
I can usually remember where I was when reading most books, or at least which state I lived in at the time. In early March 2020, I very much remember watching the world begin to shut down due to the pandemic while I was reading Daisy Jones & the Six in the Houston airport. (I vividly remember watching the cleaning crew deep clean the seating area at the gates as I listened to the news.) We spent quite a bit of time at home that year and so I got plenty of reading accomplished. Some of my favorite reads were The Library Book, The Dutch House, and City of Girls.
I hope to start leaving some questions for consideration at the end of each post. These are supposed to be fun to just think about, but feel free to leave a comment too!
- How was your October? What’s working and not working for you right now?
- What’s your approach to social media?
- Are there any books that take you back to a specific place and time?
I hope you have some great reading lined up for this weekend. I’m jumping around between a few different books right now – definitely feeling like a mood reader. Maybe I’ll make it through one of them!
