Year One, by NoraRoberts

From my Goodreads review...

O.M.G.

While I'm a veteran romance reader and far from a fantasy fan, once I started this book, I couldn't put it down! I read straight through to the last page.

And in fact, once I finished it, the first thing I did was search for Nora Roberts' website to find out if there was a book 2 coming any time soon! I don't know how I'm going to wait until Dec. 4, 2018!

Loved the characters, loved the settings, was surprised from page to page, the stories about the different characters were all intertwined but not confusing, and the fantasy aspect - not anything I ever thought I'd enjoy - was just enough to intrigue me but not so much it would put me off.

I had no idea what the book was about when I bought it, and if I'd known, I wouldn't have - this is a book I'll reread before the next one comes out!!! (And FYI, I almost never do that!!!)

It's 2018!!!

I'm back.

Believe it or not.

In less than a year since I last posted.

No promises, no timelines, no schedule.

But I'm going to try to post something on a regular basis.

Even if it's just a photo, or a book review, or a recipe, or a life update.

Speaking of which, here are some key words to help you imagine what has been going on in Krys' World... and perhaps a sentence or two for each...


#2016election --

In case you don't know, Donald J. Trump is our President. I'm not going to write a post about who I voted for, why I voted that way, or what I think of the election: that's between me and God and whoever I decide I want to share that information with, but I DO want to write about the reactions of people here in the USA.

I'm a bit overwhelmed by the anger and the vitriol.

He won. Period. End of sentence.

Some highlights: Trump supporters being called "deplorables," a post-election pundit on GMA telling the world that Trump should make amends with everyone he offended during his campaign and the first year of his term (and, I'm sure, going back 10-15 years to account for everything he said to anyone when he wasn't running for office and didn't know he would be in 2015...), people who voted for Trump being called "uneducated," Trump being called everything from a racist to insane...

There are many social subjects where I agree with the Democrats and there are some where I think they just go over the top. There are many Republican ideals that are completely in line with how I feel about the US and its government.

 

Today is inauguration day for the new NJ governor, Phil Murphy. This morning, a woman was interviewed on the radio and the crux of her interview can be summarized as follows: she doesn't agree with everything Phil Murphy stands for, but he's her new governor and she will respect and support him. She believes that we can all support this new administration in NJ regardless of who we voted for, with an eye toward all living together in peace and harmony and doing what's best for NJ.

 

Please reread that and insert "Donald Trump" for "Phil Murphy" and "the USA" for "NJ."

 

'Nough said.

#husbandspacemaker --
He got a little dizzy. His legs got a little shaky. They decided it was carotid sinus hypersensitivity. They recommended a pacemaker. It was implanted 4 days after the tilt table test.

#felldownourfrontsteps & #sprainedankle --
All you need to know is that according to my husband, I'm "one tough broad."

This because I opted to go to Applebee's for dinner BEFORE we went to the ER to see about my ankle.

Trust me, if we didn't, there would have been no diner for me. And I was hungry. (There's a reason I'm a Weight Watchers member!)

** No comments will be allowed on this post.

More soon...

No Turning Back, by Tracey Buchanan

Yes, it's true, I haven't posted any book reviews in over two years, and while I have every intention of catching up (on key titles only, not every single book I've read), THIS one deserves a post of its own.

I just finished reading a netgalley.com ARC of Tracy Buchanan's No Turning Back. It's not my usual genre of choice (contemporary romance); it's a mystery. But WHAT a mystery!

I totally admit that I had no suspicion of the plot twist that wrapped up this story! NOT A CLUE!

Here we go...  Anna Graves is a mom, recently back at her job as a radio show talk host after a lengthy maternity leave. While out walking along the beach with her baby daughter, she is attacked by a crazed young man, Elliot Nunn, and instinctively acts to save her child. In doing so, she's responsible for the death of the young man.

Of course it's self defense, but as other teens turn up murdered in her small town in manner eerily similar to the victims of a serial killer years before, Anna becomes the prime suspect.

The author cleverly entwines Anna's life with the brother of the teen she killed, and although her instincts are to trust him, he's from the wrong side of the tracks and circumstances lead her to suspect a member of his family might be the killer.

When I tell you that I didn't expect the killer to be __________, that is the most underwhelming way of saying OMG, I HAD NO EFFIN' CLUE!!!

I did a little digging to see if Ms. Buchanan had some other books for me to read... She does so I will be queuing them up, for sure!

Vain? Me? No way!

So I've never considered myself vain.

I've never been all that concerned with my looks, no more, I dare say, than any girl.

I've never been obsessed with clothes or makeup, although admittedly as I get older, I want to look better.

And younger.

Ah, there's that word, younger.

I've always been told I look younger than my age.

I'm 54.

5 DECADES.

5 decades + 4 more years.

ALMOST 5 more years, in just a couple of months.

My mom doesn't look her age (39).  (Thanks, Jack Benny!)

So I sort of always expected to look younger than my chronological years.

...

Yesterday I went shopping at Nordstrom Rack, in Wayne, NJ.  It was the pre-grand-opening grand opening, by invitation only.  I was the "plus 1" for my girlfriend.  We went inside, picked out a few things to try on and got on line to use the dressing room (it was crowded!).

They took me in first and the girl told me she'd put my friend in the room across and catty-corner from me.

Later on, after champagne and mini appetizers, we bought our stuff and went to the Bahama Breeze Island Grille for dinner.

As we were walking in, my "friend" told me that the girl who brought her into the dressing room told her she was putting her across from her - wait for it - MOTHER!

The only reason I didn't go postal and/or jump in front of a moving vehicle in the parking lot is because my "friend" really does look a LOT younger than her 37 years. In fact, she barely looks 20. So I guess even if I looked 45, I could have been her mother.

Good thing you don't tip the dressing room attendants. THAT one would be very, very, VERY poor.

Yes, Believe It or Not, Still Alive and Kicking!!!

Rumors of my death are highly exaggerated...

Nope. Not dead (thank God!).

Newly employed, as of October 1, working for my former boss from three jobs ago. I have a new title - Operations Manager. I do lots of things - manage the office, create PowerPoints and spreadsheets, answer the phones, order supplies, work with vendors, work with customers. I guess I do a little of everything, and I'm hoping to make myself indispensable so I won't ever get laid off again.

Of course, when I win enough in the lottery not to have to work again, then they can lay me off.

So what's new in my life?

Hmmm...

* I have a beautiful new baby great niece who was born on 10/8. She weighed 6 lbs, 11 oz, and was 20-1/4" long. She's just beautiful and will hereby be referred to as "my beautiful great niece G." She's not mine so I won't post pictures of her but suffice it to say that you've never seen as beautiful a baby girl as her, except her cousin, my other beautiful great niece E.

* My mom had some surgery late last week, and we had a minor scare today - she had a stent put in her femoral artery and once she came home she noticed her ankles were swelling. We were a bit worried about the possibility of a clot but after a doctor's visit and an ultrasound/bilateral venous Doppler, the verdict is:  NO CLOTS.  Just a lot of fluid in her tissues from the IV fluids they were giving her in the hospital.  YAY!  Mom's okay!

* Hubby's radiation treatments are over. He's gone to two follow up appointments, one at the urologist's office and one at the cancer center. Neither were conclusive because neither did blood work - apparently you don't do that for at least a couple/few months after the radiation is done.  In fact, although they're doing some bloodwork in November, we should really wait until next May's test results to shout "We're cancer-free!" from the rooftops.

It's not as bad as it sounds. They all assured us that he'd be fine, that we'd be happy with the lower PSA numbers, but apparently doing the bloodwork too soon won't give us the real picture. His body is still busy fighting the radiation.

I've seen a vast improvement in some of the symptoms - he's not falling asleep at 8pm, as soon as his head hits the pillow, like he was doing after a week or two of treatments.  He's much more alert when he's driving, although I admit to watching him like a hawk to be sure his eyes don't droop, he doesn't look sleepy, and if I ask him to explain the internal combustion engine or baseball one more time to keep him talking, I think he's going to start slapping me around! (Not really, but he'll probably get really annoyed with me!)

* This new job of mine is good. I've discovered they really have no problem with me making changes or updates to their systems, filing, ordering - really, I can do almost anything I want if I think it's going to be better, more efficient, etc. I am a bit of a mouse when it comes to doing without asking first, but they keep on telling me to just take the initiative, do what I want, change what I want, just let them know what I'm doing so they can find it, file it, get it, send it, etc. It's nice to just make a decision and implement it, even something so small as changing how we label something in our Dropbox files because it makes more sense my way...

* The economy is NOT doing as well as people would like to think. For instance, gas prices/heating oil prices are low, so they're not doing an annual Social Security increase. Yea, but what about everything else that is INcreasing, like taxes, food, transportation, etc. Not only did I lose my job this past January 31, my sister lost hers a month or two ago. My other sister is temporarily on leave (without pay) because there isn't any work in her company. My best friend just lost her job. Her daughter was laid off at the beginning of the summer.  If everything is so great, why are people losing their jobs?  (This is not open for political discourse either, this is just a personal rant!)

* It's about 80 degrees today, sunny and beautiful.  Of course this weekend we're due for two cold fronts that will apparently drop our temperature to sub-freezing levels. I guess while I've been cursing the fact that I put my summer clothes away these past two days, I should be glad I have my winter sweaters and work pants out and ready for fall. Or winter. Or whatever decides to rear its ugly head.

* I'm trying to make some changes in my time management, specifically in my free time. I want to read more, catch up on Downton Abbey (I'm only up to S2E3), make time to be more creative, and really start on the Marie Kondo method of tidying up my life. If you don't know what I'm referring to, just click here:  Life-Changing-Magic-Tidying-Decluttering-Organizing. The idea of reducing my clothing to just what I really like, what really brings me joy...  I might be down to only one or two pairs of black pants, not the 10 or 15 I now have!!! (Just for one example...)

Well, it's 5pm and I'm going to leave now - took 10 minutes to write this post...  I'm going to try to stay up on this here blog'o'mine since I'm going to be spending serious time in front of my computer for the foreseeable future... So hopefully I'll be back soon, much sooner than 3.5 months...

Señor Don Gato Lyrics

You're quite welcome.  Now that this is stuck in your head...

A New Reality

I did pretty well last year, doing some regular posting about LEARNing and 30 Days of Lists...

But I fell off the blogging wagon a while back - life just got too busy.  WORK got too busy.  That's where I used to do most of my blogging, in the early hours before anyone else got there.  My usual start time was 7:30am...

But then WORK changed...  I got a new boss, my 5th since I was there, the 3rd in just over a year.  New people were hired, I helped train them.  My job changed.  I took on another person's job when she quit.  We reorganized yet again, and I made it through that restructuring unscathed.

But then the new year rolled around.  You can see when something is going down because the Boys' Club, those 4 men with VP or Director after their names, started keeping their doors closed for meetings.  That's always NOT a good sign.

On Wednesday, January 14, I got an email requesting I attend a Business Update meeting in the HR meeting room the next day.  I knew I was being let go.  There were two other people invited to the same meeting, none of whom was in the office that day, but with 5 minutes of receipt of the email, they had either IM'd me or called.  We all knew our lucky streak was over.  We knew we were being let go.  People/my husband tried the ole "Maybe you're getting promoted" shtick but at publishing house W, you don't get promoted in the HR department.  They just hand you a bunch of extra work and ask you if you want to take over some new responsibilities.  And after about 4 years and almost 1000 people losing their jobs, you say yes and hope for a good raise the next fiscal year...

So the next day we all went downstairs and sure enough, we were laid off.  My severance package precludes me from saying anything bad about my company, but in all honesty, I don't have anything bad to say.  I've been very lucky in my career.  I worked for a company that was successful but run a bit less than efficiently, and I worked with some of my best friends in the world there.  Then I moved here and while one of my best friends followed me over for a while, I was "friendly" with my co-workers but none of them came even close to my SDC posse...  But I've loved my ten years there, and always thought I'd retire (early) from this job, but I guess the consultants had other ideas.  I learned a whole different side of books and publishing and the job was really fun and easy, without any stress or grief from the executives.

So I've applied for unemployment benefits, I'm going to email the HR person to make an appointment to go in and sign my severance contract so they can start sending me my checks, and I'm quite frankly going to hope that I learn to keep house well enough that hubby doesn't age overly quickly with me staying home...  He plans to retire this June, and move on to another job of some kind, to keep busy (read:  Energizer Bunny in lieu of "he").  I'd love to stay home and just find something to do, perhaps a part-time job or some volunteer work...  We'll see what happens.  Thanks to my severance and unemployment and the fact that we don't live beyond our means and couldn't care less about designer names or extravagant cars, restaurants or vacations, we can survive.  It's just a matter of how bored I get or he gets...

Who knows?  Perhaps I'll get back to blogging more regularly...  Maybe I'll have the time to do some things that are a bit more creative and artistic and maybe I'll even share them here...

For now, I'm off to empty yet another box of all the stuff I've accumulated in ten years and sent home these past two weeks.

All About Those Books

LOVE this!!!
Kudos to The Mount Desert Island High School and Mary Ellen and the Readers~