I'm BACK!

Hey all!  So sorry for the long absence!  I actually went back to school!!!  When we moved here to Michigan, I was afforded the opportunity to finish out my degree, and I knew I would be stupid not to.  So I'm now studying Psychology and so far I'm loving it, though I have been SO BUSY with this studying thing (and re-learning HOW to study) that I just have not had the time to maintain this blog. But that's about to change.  My semester comes to a close next week, so I will have all Winter break to write some catch-up posts, and hopefully in the Spring I'll be able to manage my time better (now that I've got a better hold on this studying thing) and still post regularly :).  So here are some things that have happened since August:

• I started a bullet journal!  Actually, I started and finished one.  This all started with my looking for the perfect planner to stay organized, but when it was obvious no such thing existed, I sort of stumbled into the bullet journaling world.  I have kept a journal since I was in Kindergarten, but this was a new thing for me, and I found a way to combine planning, list making, and journaling all into one notebook.  I'm really digging the Leuchtturm notebooks.  Maybe I'll do a blog post (or a few) totally dedicated to bullet journaling and my method to the madness :)
• My fountain pen collecting took on a new vigor.  I've been collecting fountain pens since we moved to Colorado, actually, but with going back to school along with the bullet journaling thing, I've cared even more about my writing instruments (hint: fountain pens are the only things I ever use).  I've acquired more fountain pens than I care to admit this past semester, and I've got two more on the way (one is a Christmas present from my husband, and the other is a reward to myself for my good grades this semester).  I definitely plan to do several blog posts about fountain pens in the near future!  
• I got to spend Thanksgiving with my family in North Carolina, which is always nice.  That used to be a given, but ever since I moved away from home, spending holidays with my family is always a special treat.
• I still hate my house.  But I've learned to tolerate it.  
• I've discovered that I DESPISE grocery shopping in this town.  There are simply not enough grocery stores to accommodate the population here, and I've taken to getting meal delivery services like Sun Basket and Blue Apron (trust me, for someone who hates shopping and lives in a place where all the stores near her feel like the day before Thanksgiving no matter what day or time you go, these are WORTH IT!).  I'll probably review some of those boxes as well.
• I've been in kind of a reading slump.  Part of that is due to reading so much for school that I no longer want to read ANYTHING when I'm done with it.  So it's taking me forever to get through books and therefore I kind of lose interest in them.  I hope I can remedy this over the break.

So yeah, that's it for this quick update, but I hope to post some more detailed blog posts too (and no this isn't a false promise)!

Top Ten Books I Would Buy RIGHT NOW If Someone Gave Me A Fully Loaded Gift Card

Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish blog meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish!  Head over there to check out their blog as well as to find other bookish blogs!

This weeks theme is which books I would purchase right now if I had a fully loaded gift card.  Well, there's definitely more than 10 books.  I mean, have you SEEN my Amazon wishlist?  lol!  I'd pretty much buy everything on my TBR list if I could...and if I had the time to read them all.

I'm not really going to take the time to explain each one, as this list of books is pretty self-explanatory.  Not all of these are YA, and I tried to limit it to books that haven't yet been released. So, without further ado, the top ten books I would buy are:

1.  Mirror In the Sky

2.  The Geek's Guide to Unrequited Love

3.  Cure for the Common Universe

4.  Orphan Train

5.  The Rosie Project

6.  The Crown's Game

7.  The Smell of Other People's Houses

8.  Dark Matter

9.  A Wizard of Earthsea

10.  My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry

The above list is in no particular order, they are just all books I'd like to read sometime soon and if I had the money I'd just go ahead and buy them (don't worry, OTSP Secret Sister, I won't be buying the books on the wish list even if someone gives me a gift card to buy them  ;).  It's just hypothetical).  Let me know in the comments which books you are eager to read and would buy right now if you had a gift card!