Day 1 of 50 – #nerdlution

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Oh, friends, I cannot tell you how hard it was to do this whole #nerdlution thing this morning.

I slept for maybe 3 hours last night (though my Fitbit sleep report says I slept 5 – apparently reading doesn’t register as being awake) because I simply could not fall asleep. So when my alarm went off before the roosters crow, I debated whether I still wanted to go to the gym.  The internal debate ended up waking me up enough that I decided I might as well go.

You can see how totally not happy I was BEFORE I worked out. But I did get 33 minutes total of exercise in before I left the gym. I realized that I need to tweak my goal a bit. I had hoped to use my Fitbit to keep me on track and aimed to log 10,000 steps each day. But the problem is that it sort of counted the Evil Stepper/Elliptical Machine workout towards my steps and anything I logged manually didn’t count towards my steps. Hmmm…sounds like nothing will be entirely accurate then. SO I’m going to make this less complicated and say that I will either work out for 30 minutes each day OR log 10,000 steps. Problem solved.

(I promise I won’t include pictures of ME every day. But I like being able to document my workouts with pictures of my stats. So you’ll have to excuse me if I share those pictures again. I know my workouts are more than just numbers and it has to do with how I feel and all that good stuff. But there is a proof and accountability factor that I need here. Humor me.)

I did write – in fact, this is my second post of the day. (Go, me!) And already my brain is swirling with a zillion things I want to write. I have a poem to finish from NCTE. I have some notes in my journal that got sparked when I saw a post that Jo Knowles put on FB. And a quick conversation with Sarah Darer Littman generated a bunch of ideas – some for possible essays or blog posts and some for a possible fiction piece. (Hmmmm…maybe I’ll do a NoWriMo in 2014 that is nowhere NEAR November…) And Kim McCollum-Clark had a blog piece in me about blogging. (That seems funny – I know what to do and how to do it and why I should add my voice to the great chorus of voices online – but even I have a horrible time following my own advice somedays. Maybe I’ll hold onto that post until a little later in the 50 days…might give me more cred.)

 

 

Since it is also Monday, I thought I’d finally throw out what I read in the past week and what I’m hoping to read next.

Read:

• Journey by Aaron Becker (My son and I loved this! His first thoughts as we paged through it were, “Harold and the Purple Crayon!” Mine were, “Where the Wild Things Are!” No doubt you could see the connections to both of those beautiful books in this one, but this has it’s own brand of magic in addition to that. Go find it if you haven’t seen this wordless wonder yet.)

• The Dumbest Idea Ever by Jimmy Gownley (I got lucky enough to see this at NCTE in ARC form and I realized that it takes place in Girardville, PA – a town not so far from where my husband was born and his parents were raised. I love reading about the lives of artists and writers and others when they were kids. This graphic memoir does that – but also tells me how he got his start as a comic book artist. I have students who will delight in reading this as well. I’m hoping that he offers a signing nearby when the book comes out in February.)
• The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion (Oh. My. Goodness. I loved this book through and through. Imagine Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory attempting to scientifically search for his perfect mate. Better yet, imagine him befriending (and considering and not considering) someone who is more like Penny than Amy Farrah Fowler. Imagine that it’s all narrated by Sheldon – and that none of this even half demonstrates how amusing and heart-warming this book is. It is not a YA title though I think some of my older students would really enjoy it.)
• The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg (What the heck happened that I missed this? BRILLIANT. I think I need to own a copy of this one for my classroom eventually…)
• Babymouse: Dragonslayer by Jenni and Matt Holm (I adore Babymouse – but I have to say that I particularly loved this one. The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe allusions alone may have sealed it’s spot as my favorite one yet.)

Still Reading:

• Allegiant by Veronica Roth (I am getting closer – and this was what I was reading last night when I couldn’t sleep…I promise, dear students who are desperate to talk about it, I will finish it soon…)
• Fat Boy Vs. The Cheerleaders by Geoff Herbach (Oh wow did I get lucky getting this to read – I’m about 1/3 of the way through, but since I’m not sharing this one with my students until I can hold a copy that is a bit sturdier than what I have, I figured I’d better get reading the stuff they are desperate to read.)
• Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith (HOLY MOLY. I don’t even know where to begin so I won’t. I know that no words I can offer will do anything of this book any justice. Put this on your wish list, pre-order it, do whatever you need to do.)

On Deck:

The Jr Librarian and I went to the library today – and then followed up with a reading lunch at a nearby diner. We were on the hunt for Nerdy Book Club Award Nominees to read – and a few other fun choices. (We thought we were doing pretty well, but apparently we have a bit of work to do…)

To say the young one was focused in his reading today would be an understatement. He almost didn’t notice that the waitress had brought us our food.