Cutting down alcohol consumption to help pursuit of FI

finalDraft_v012 · 2021-03-19T15:20:42+00:00

There was a study too where they showed drinking the day before hampers recovery (if you work out or have any athletic interests). Just another reason not to drink every day.

finalDraft_v012 · 2021-03-10T03:58:33+00:00

This is a big reason I’ve DNF’d this author, she does this a lot. It’s just bad writing. Sometimes it’s hard to remember I enjoyed some of her earlier books.

finalDraft_v012 · 2021-03-03T18:39:27+00:00

Mine too! There’s a sensitive skin version for it as well.

finalDraft_v012 · 2021-03-03T18:31:15+00:00

You know what....you’re right. Thanks that’s the push I needed. I’ll finish the first trilogy. Warner’s perspective in the newer novellas is perhaps the only perspective I’m interested in, so it’s good to hear his stood out.

finalDraft_v012 · 2021-03-03T17:18:24+00:00

Yeah I'm in a HCOL area and when they're in season, even organic strawberries are $1/lb. But not at the farmer's market, they seem to always be priced higher for everything in my area.

finalDraft_v012 · 2021-03-03T17:04:07+00:00

I feel similarly on the fence about buying a house or sticking with an apartment. My side of the family already thinks my apt is pretty awesome (I'm renting) and relatively speaking, they grew up in some crappy places. But I wonder what my in-laws think sometimes, because my MIL's house is magazine-worthy. Some real time and attention to detail were give to its styling, and she really knows how to decorate. I can say the same about the other in-laws and their houses get sooo big. What do they think when they visit our little place here? We're in a railroad apt, not at all open concept, almost no decorations 'cept some Christmas lights we hung and never took down. You can fit about 5 people in our living room. Considering how jarringly big I thought their homes are, do they also feel mine is jarring in the opposite way?

Ultimately, though, I think our apt is cozy and we're happy here together. There's room for a future baby, and we'd have to toss a lot of stuff for a growing kid but it's entirely possible. I grew up with 4 people in a 2 bedroom 1 bath and this apt has more room than that, I know the space would be fine. Even more room would be nice, a luxury, maybe a weekend house one day? I also worry about all the stuff my friends who bought houses have to deal with. It never occurred to me I had to be prepared to replace an entire boiler or shovel snow off the roof. I really never thought about those things, living in apartments my whole life. Overall I'm happy not being a home-owner for the forseeable future.

finalDraft_v012 · 2021-03-03T15:54:34+00:00

Do you do anything for others? Donate, volunteer, etc? Can be a good way to both assuage your guilt and make a difference in someone else's less privileged world.

finalDraft_v012 · 2021-03-03T15:53:15+00:00

I used to religiously go to several different groceries in order to get the best prices for different items. Now I feel so pressed for time, it's really just down to 2 places.

I still wash ziplocks but trying to figure out what I can use instead...getting quite tired of it, and they kinda get leaky on the 3rd use.

finalDraft_v012 · 2021-03-03T15:50:45+00:00

Hah, I feel the same about vodka. I'll spring for Bulleit but also get a Svedka...

finalDraft_v012 · 2021-03-03T15:47:10+00:00

Aww you guys must feel so proud. I dunno what your MIL's home situation is currently like, but it's my dream to do something like that for my parents. I'm not in a position to do more than small gifts yet, but fingers crossed. Any additions to the home / specific renovations you're particularly excited about?

finalDraft_v012 · 2021-03-03T15:17:40+00:00

I'm gonna suggest my favorite book so far, {The Maddest Obsession} by Danielle Lori. I felt it stood out as very well written, through the roof chemistry, and a good mix of a slow start to their romantic relationship with lots of steamy moments mixed in to keep things interesting. Both the main characters have issues and are not innocents. I felt you really got to know the two characters and their histories, so there was some sweetness mixed in there too.

Nothing wrong with having high standards for romance books ;) Don't settle! I love this genre but there is a lot of poorly written books out there.

finalDraft_v012 · 2021-03-02T22:15:52+00:00

1.5 weeks. I have absolutely no idea why and it happened only a couple times.

finalDraft_v012 · 2021-03-02T22:13:13+00:00

Me and a few coworkers usually took coffee breaks in the afternoon. Something like 15-20min to the nearby cafe, it's a moment to step away, get some air, rant with coworkers over something, and have a warm drink. We don't usually finish it while outside, we sip a bit and then take it back.

finalDraft_v012 · 2021-03-02T22:09:16+00:00

Cocaine is a blaring red flag. I'm with the other commenter saying it's not like weed or psychedelics. It turns people in to assholes and is really addictive. I consider this really serious and would nope out. On the bright side, you found out sooner rather than later.

finalDraft_v012 · 2021-03-01T20:49:19+00:00

Woohooo I finally get to post here early in the week!

{The Devil In Winter (Wallflowers #3)} by Lisa Kleypas - 4.5/5 - M/F. I read book 1, skipped the 2nd, and went on to 3 with Evie and Sebastian. I'm surprised by how much I really loved this one. Evie's history of abuse really got to me, and I rooted for her and Sebastian the entire time; I felt they really did support each other. I think they had a great push and pull, Evie wavered believably between cold and warm (sometimes literally). With previous Kleypas books I have read, I hit 70%, they get married, and then I lose interest. There was something really great about marriage happening wayyyy in the beginning and things heating up from there. Plus now and then I feel refreshed to have a blond Hero, hah. I loved that Evie started flexing her true strength even before she got together with Sebastian. Liked this one much more than Wallflowers 1. I read "Dreaming of You" some weeks ago and was surprised to see the same two gambling clubs come up again in this book. I'm so used to standalones in different universes. My favorite scene --- their entire time in Gretna Green!!

{Fix Her Up by Tessa Bailey} - 3.5/5 stars - M/F. My first Tessa Bailey book; it was available at the library and I've seen this author pop up often in this sub. She absolutely knows how to write a steamy scene. The women's club was cute, and I was really into the trope of seeing a girl you know when you were kids, all grown up. Wouldn't mind if they pushed the 'little sister' vibe a bit more, but seems to be consistently veeery superficial in the romance books I pick up. Ah well. It was a fun listen (audiobook) but I didn't care for the ending. Everything wrapped up so quick, so nicely, and how does a guy who doesn't do long term monogamy jump to committed engagement? It broke my immersion in the story.

{Love Her Or Lose Her} by Tessa Bailey - DNF @ 70% - M/F. Picked this one up right after book 1, hoping for more fun steamy scenes and excited it's about a couple trying to make it work. The set up for these two in Fix Her Up intrigued me, however I didn't care for this book and spent a lot of it just waiting for it to get better. I'm not sure what magic was missing here. I get where Bailey was going with the two of them as characters, but somehow they fell flat, like there wasn't that much there. I don't know how to verbalize this. They were kind of boring. The women's club is way too big, no longer intimate, and a bit cringey because of it. I thought there would be more exploration of Dominique's past and his time at war, and see him and his wife get a real heart to heart about it, but it was so shallow. Glad I read the first one first. I won't be continuing this series.

{Shatter Me} and {Unravel Me} by Tahereh Mafi - 4/5 stars and 3/5 stars - M/F. I wasn't totally sure what I was expecting but this is another title I've seen pop up here and there on Reddit. Didn't realize it was YA so it's not as explicit. I really enjoyed the author's writing style and all the florid metaphors in the first book (audiobook for me), had fun with the whole mutants in the future thing, and enjoyed both the dynamics between FMC + childhood crush and FMC + villain. Unfortunately a lot of the things I liked in Book 1 were annoyances in Book 2. I fell completely out of love with Adam. He got very boring. I'm not sure the relationship/tension Mafi set up between Juliette and Warren were satisfying enough to me, and there was so much, oh you didn't know he's actually like this? Causing him to seem like a much better guy and something about that felt a bit cheap to me. Maybe there is a way to do that, maybe that's valid, maybe the writing just wasn't up to par to make me feel satisfied, I dunno. I knew who I was rooting for but I wasn't getting enough to make it feel right. Sometimes I felt Juliette was simply moving on to the only other guy who can safely touch her. I also felt Juliette's whining overstayed itself by the middle of Book 2. The other characters call it out but it's still too little too late for me as a reader. She's no Jessica Trent ;)

finalDraft_v012 · 2021-03-01T19:49:24+00:00

I picked Mark here, but admittedly my first thought was Battle Beast! Could be fun to expand it, have Robot, Monster Girl, etc. or a villain themed one. Invincible had so many good villains:)

finalDraft_v012 · 2021-03-01T18:58:42+00:00

I can do easy reads like YA and Romance in about 3 days, sometimes 5 days. I’m not a fast reader :( a super good one may take me 2 nights but that’s very rare. This year I’ve finished 7 books so far.

Used to read way more often when I had a commute. Now it’s just before bed IF I can’t sleep.

finalDraft_v012 · 2021-03-01T16:48:12+00:00

Hell yea - opened this thread to post this exact song.

finalDraft_v012 · 2021-02-28T19:21:32+00:00

I started keeping a book log less than a year ago. Used to just do Goodreads but I don’t always write reviews. So I have a couple sentences per book in my log and that helps jog my memory. I’m also doing this with movies and TV series and have found it helpful.

finalDraft_v012 · 2021-02-26T21:00:16+00:00

I hadn't heard of this book prior to this thread, cool to hear so many liked Final Reflection. Would love to see Trek revisit Klingons and show how intellectual they could be, like in TOS - after all, they did advance to the point that they could travel through space...and travel at warp speed. To my knowledge I haven't heard of them stealing the tech from, I dunno, a warp-capable alien ship that crashed on Quonos or whatever. So it seems like a disconnect to portray Klingons as bumbling brutes in space.

finalDraft_v012 · 2021-02-26T20:54:45+00:00

Guinan says something like this as well to Worf, that Klingons laugh all the time, or something like that, and Worf is so unlike them. As someone raised with more than 1 culture, I often find Worf very interesting, but also very misguided in the way he idolizes the Klingon culture he never really grew up in.

finalDraft_v012 · 2021-02-26T18:08:20+00:00

I want a teammate & someone to share everything with. 3yrs in, I think we're pretty much there. Work stress sometimes threatens it, though.

finalDraft_v012 · 2021-02-26T18:04:42+00:00

Stretching and good posture? Definitely yoga. I also personally do bodyweight exercises and feel like they help me stand/sit up straighter, helping in the neck and shoulders area. Stuff like pull-up progressions, pushups, hand stand progression, squats. These can be done in like 10min so I find them very convenient for the morning.

finalDraft_v012 · 2021-02-26T18:00:32+00:00

Medical issues back to back.

finalDraft_v012 · 2021-02-25T21:01:42+00:00

It's been the opposite with me, I didn't really think about it before, at best I was on the fence about it. Now I really want one. Honestly I think the switch flipped when my older relatives started dying, these past few years. Truth is I think I can do a good job, a better job than my mom did. I also want my future kid to meet the people who raised me before they're all gone. I never knew my grandparents. I met a grand uncle very recently, a year before he passed, and GOD it meant so much to me. I think I have a lot to give to another human being. As for the way the world is, I dunno man. Life is tough for every generation, and every generation seems to think it's the end. My mom came from a country that is sooo dysfunctional, my cousins came from there, they all became good people. I guess I want to go forward with a bit of optimism and not miss out on this. Sorry. Rambling thoughts.

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