Quarantine Update – April Part 1

April 27, 2020April 27, 2020 ~ britneyshae ~ Leave a comment

Hello! First of all, I hope everyone reading this is staying safe and healthy amidst the current pandemic. I have officially been in self-isolation for *checks calendar* forty-four days. (In some ways it feels shocking that it’s been that long; in other ways I can’t believe it’s only been forty-four days – but what is time?) Also, as many of you know, April is #CampNaNoWriMo. I personally do not take part in #CampNaNoWriMo (although I’ve had many a failed attempt) but I did want to do a week-by-week blog detailing what I’ve been up to… only for it to suddenly be April 26 and I have yet to make a single “what I’ve been up to” post. SO, consider this a catch up post! Even though I didn’t take part in #CampNaNoWriMo, I have been quite busy. So, I thought I’d still share a bit of what I’ve been doing throughout this very bizarre time. To keep you all from getting bored as I regale you with my entire month of April, this post will only cover April 1 through April 15.

So, sit back… and enjoy.

Writing Update

We’ll start with a writing update. If you read my last post, you know that I finished the first draft of my most current project on March 25.

Here was my goal: I was going to start my revisions in about a week after finishing and wrap up said revisions by the end of April.

Here’s what happened: I started my initial read-through on April 1 but ended up getting distracted by a brand spanking new idea. I don’t want to be over-dramatic and I don’t want to get too ahead of myself, but this idea came to me while I was working (maybe working from home has been good for my creative well?) and I have not been this excited for a project in a very, very, VERY long time.

So throughout this post, I’m going to be talking about two projects: My contemporary YA, which I refer to as “EEMRS”, the acronym for its current title (in my head I pronounce this as “ee-mers,” in case you were curious). And then there’s my new idea, which is a thriller (currently I’m referring to it as “WTW3,” again, an acronym for its current title). While I was supposed to be working on EEMRS, I was, instead, working on WTW3.

I won’t be saying too much about WTW3, but here’s an aesthetic I put together… pretty much immediately.

My plan was for every hour I spent revising EEMRS, I could write 1000 words for my new thriller idea. However… all of my brain power was used up working on WTW3. I made a lot of notes for it and I think I have all of the pieces figured out, but otherwise, I finally put it away (*cries*) and got to work seriously on EEMRS.

For EEMRS, I started my read-through on April 1, as I said above, and I finished my read-through on April 3. I try to do my initial read-through as quickly as possible, preferably in one sitting, but I was distracted (see above aesthetic haha). Normally I like to print my MS out so I can make notes but I have this VERY BAD habit of printing out my MS and not actually using the print out. However, I have a new fix for that problem! Introducing my iPad + Apple Pencil! Now I can read through my MS on my iPad and highlight and make notes with my Apple Pencil! Brilliant!!

And the weather was so beautiful at the beginning of the month. Hasn’t been nearly as nice lately, but OH WELL.

Anyway, I finished my read-through of EEMRS on April 3 and did I jump right into revisions? Noooope. I kept playing around with WTW3. I wrote 3k+ notes. I made a playlist on Spotify (which I might be listening to right now, oops). Basically I did nothing but obsess over WTW3.

I realized pretty quickly that my whole “work on EEMRS for 1 hour, then work on WTW3” plan wasn’t going to work. Apparently I’m not great on working on two projects at once. So… I decided to do my EEMRS revisions so I could get that off to CPs and then I can work on WTW3 with ZERO distractions. (Also my mom really wants to read EEMRS so anytime I mentioned WTW3 she’d be like, “But I want to read EEMRS!” FINE, MOM, YOU WIN.)

So, on April 11 (LOL), I finally began my EEMRS revisions. You should also know that at the end of my digital markup of EEMRS, I wrote the following: “Just finished reading and I have no idea how to fix this ha ha ha.” So yes, I had my work well cut out for me.

Reading Update

As I mentioned in my previous post, I’m not a fast reader. I also am not good at dedicating time to reading. However, during this quarantine period, I have been reading a lot more – which has been really, really great!

So here’s my reading update for the first half of April:

On April 9, I finished reading HARLEY IN THE SKY by Akemi Dawn Bowman. I had been really excited for this one for a long, long time. Basically I can only wish my writing style was like Akemi’s!

Also on April 9, I finished an audio book. I’m not a huge audio book fan (my boyfriend, on the other hand, ONLY “reads” audio books) but occasionally I’ll listen to a nonfiction book. (I can only do nonfiction because I don’t actually have the ability to listen to a fiction book.) So I gave SCRAPPY LITTLE NOBODY by Anna Kendrick a listen. And, um, I really liked Anna Kendrick but liked her a bit less after listening to her book. *shrug*

Finally, on April 12, I finished SUCH A FUN AGE by Kiley Reid. I loved this book. Such a fun read (see what I did there?) while also being thought-provoking. I’ve recommended it to pretty much anyone I’ve come into (virtual) contact with.

What Else…?

Here are a couple of quarantine highlights:

(1) Food. I’m not gonna lie, I’ve been eating a lot more snack-y foods than usual. The highlight is my boyfriend’s attempt at a “Japanese pancake” (I think better known as “soufflé pancake” – we just happened to have these in Japan when we visited last summer) on Easter. I made cheesy potatoes, he made soufflé pancakes. They weren’t quite perfect, but not bad for a first attempt! Also, they were delicious.

Some other highlights include all the cookies I’ve been baking, a bagel every morning (normally I try not to eat too many bagels; little known fact, bagels are my absolute FAVORITE food), and a lot of other goods.

(2) TV & Podcasts. Like most people in quarantine, I have been watching TV, although my boyfriend and I try not to binge watch (apparently we like to torture ourselves). A couple highlights for what I’ve watched or been watching include: (1) Onward on Disney+; (2) Little Fires Everywhere on Hulu; (3) Nancy Drew on the CW; and (4) Bachelor: Listen to Your Heart on ABC, which my friend and I watch at the same time so we can text each other while we watch. As for podcasts, my boyfriend and I have been living for Staying In with Emily & Kumail. We listen every Thursday when a new episode drops.

(3) Exercise. Prior to the gyms closing, I ran a mile a day on the treadmill at my apartment’s gym. I stopped going to the gym a little bit prior to the gym officially closing out of caution and now of course the gym is closed so I can’t go. At first I tried doing at-home workouts through YouTube but I hate being sore, so I went back to running – outside. It’s been oddly refreshing? Especially now that I don’t get out much. I look forward to my run because I get to go outside and get some fresh air. I only run a mile (I am not a runner) and my goal is to get to 8 minutes and 30 seconds, which was my time back in the fourth grade when I had to run a mile in gym. Unfortunately my time seems to be getting worse and worse, probably because I sometimes get stuck waiting for traffic so I can cross the street or sometimes I have to zig-zag around my neighborhood to avoid other people…

Still, I am proud to announce that I ran a mile outside every single day from April 1 through April 15.

And yeah, I think that about wraps up what I’ve been up to! Stay tuned for my next update covering April 15 – April 30. Some teasers: I came up with another thriller idea and made an aesthetic for that one, which I’ll share. Plus, you’ll find out – was I successful in my first round of EEMRS revisions?? Did I get too distracted with my new thriller ideas? What have I been reading? More importantly, what have I been eating??? Did I keep up my mile streak??

All these questions will be answered!! For now, stay safe!

Quarantine Update

April 5, 2020 ~ britneyshae ~ Leave a comment

Hi friends!

I wanted to start this post off by saying that I hope everyone has been safe and well in this very unique and, honestly, kind of difficult time. Even though I’ve been joking that, as an introvert, I’m “thriving,” the truth is, it’s been difficult to maintain productivity and I’ve felt a lot of pressure to “create” during a time where, honestly, it’s been difficult to do so.

SO, I wanted to just take a second to chat here and share what I’ve been up to. I hope no one is discouraged by what I have managed to get done (I finished the first draft of a new manuscript, for example) but I also hope this post provides some comfort because while I did finish the first draft of my new manuscript, I haven’t done much else. And that’s okay!

Let’s just dive in, shall we? This post will basically cover March 14, 2020 through March 31, 2020 (I want to do a different series of posts for April).

Backing up just a bit, my boyfriend and I traveled to my hometown in southern Minnesota on March 4 – March 8, in part so that I could do some research for said manuscript I’ve been working on since January. However, because things changed so quickly and because my boyfriend and I had recently traveled, we began self-isolation and self-quarantine a bit earlier, aka before our state issued the shelter in place. I have essentially been in self-isolation since March 14, 2020. I am also so fortunate to have a job that allows for remote work and all of my in-person meetings were cancelled.

So what have I been up to?

Honestly, the main thing I’ve been filling my time with is reading. I’m also extremely lucky that a bunch of my library holds came in and I was able to swing by and grab them literally the day before my library closed. Best timing ever!

I’m a bit of a slow reader, not because I’m not capable of reading fast but because I tend to find it difficult to sit around for long times. It also doesn’t help that I live in a rather small apartment and haven’t quite created a proper reading nook (which is the dream). However, during this quarantine period, I have been voraciously reading. Probably still at a slower pace than most, but for me, reading three books in three weeks is HUGE.

(Of course, I’m also running through my library book pile way too fast – I have five books total and I’ve already read 3/5.)

I would love to get more into goodreads and to rate books but if I’m being honest, I hate the thought of “officially” rating a book with less than 5 stars and on the flip-side, I hate the thought of rating a book 5 stars if I don’t actually think it was a 5-star read. So instead of update my goodreads page, I thought I’d post about the books I’ve read during quarantine (so far) here.

#1 – THROW LIKE A GIRL by Sarah Henning

As a contemporary sports YA author myself, of course I had to give this book a go! I loved how awesome Liv was at stepping onto the field of a male-dominated sport and making a name for herself. Most refreshing for me was that, for the most part, her all-boy team was welcoming. She had some boy-drama on the team but it wasn’t because she was a girl on a team of boys. I really liked that a lot.

I finished this book on March 21, 2020.

#2 – A GOOD GIRL’S GUIDE TO MURDER by Holly Jackson

I’ll be honest that this book took me a quick second to get into because the third person POV/past tense narration threw me off (been a while since I’ve read that!) but once I got into it… ooooh boy. Y’all, I could not put this book down and it is RARE for me to feel this way about a book (again, small attention span over here). I loved this book. I saw on goodreads that people were claiming the main character, Pip, wasn’t realistic, but honestly, Pip was me in high school a-ha-ha-ha. A little obsessive… I will say I didn’t love the ending and while I didn’t guess the twists, it seemed a bit out there to me. But that didn’t ruin my reading experience!

I finished this book on March 23, 2020.

#3 – OPPOSITE OF ALWAYS by Justin A. Reynolds

Let’s first take a moment to appreciate how well this book’s cover matches my favorite mug…

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Anyway, I loved this book purely for the main character’s voice. Ahh to be able to write like Mr. Justin A. Reynolds!! THE DREAM. I loved our hero, Jack, so so much. I also loved the friendship in the book and I love how while this book was basically about Jack trying to save the love of his life, really it was about him being there for his friends. And did I mention the voice???

I finished this book on March 30, 2020.

What else have I been up to?

As I noted above, I finished the first draft of a new manuscript I’ve been working on since January. My *official* start day was sometime in December when I wrote 500 words (lol) but I really rolled up my sleeves and got to work on it on January 8. I had about 25k words by the end of January, took a quick break to add some tweaks to my previous MS, and then got back to it in the last week-and-a-half of February, ending February with around 50k words. As I mentioned, in early-March I went home to Minnesota to do some research for the project, and got back to work pretty much when this self-quarantine hit.

…now, that doesn’t mean it was easy. In fact, the week of March 16 – March 22 I really, really struggled to get words down. My goal was 10k words for the week (yeesh why so many) and I had to write that out in my planner to force myself to do it… which meant I’d write a minimum of 1k words a day to a maximum of 3k words a day and on Friday, March 20, I didn’t write at all.

Then the week of March 23 – March 29 I wanted to finish the draft before March 29 because, well, March 29 was my birthday and I didn’t want to have to write! So on March 25 I hit 70k words and I wrapped up the first draft (*ahem* may have wrapped it up too quickly, but WHATEVER). And hey, as a bonus, I got to write outside!

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My plan after finishing this first draft was of course to let it sit for a while, but I got antsy and decided to start revising for Camp NaNoWriMo, which I will update you on next week!

So what’s next…?

I thought it might be helpful to list some things that I am excited for as we move forward into April (I know it’s April 5th as I write this, but bear with me). I mean, it looks like we’re doomed to another month (MINIMUM) of quarantine, I’m nearly out of books to read (lol LIBRARY books; I still have my whole bookshelf), and I have a very ugly first draft to tackle and barely any motivation to do so.

So here’s a list of GOOD things:

(1) For my birthday, my boyfriend bought me a second monitor that I can hook up to my laptop. It’s been AWESOME purely because it’s so helpful when working from home, but the real reason he got it was so I could use it when revising. I love to have a huge screen when revising and this second monitor is massive. So, while I am dreading revision because this manuscript is such a dumpster-pile, at least I get to revise on my pretty new monitor!

(2) Speaking of revising… I can finally revise solely in Scrivener!!! I’ve had Scrivener now since 2018 and I really, really like it (like, a lot) but I don’t get to use it very often because when I’m actively writing/revising/editing I often do it between my home laptop and my work computer (I often write/revise/edit on my lunch breaks at work). I don’t have Scrivener on my work computer so it doesn’t make sense to use Scrivener when I have to go between computers so often (literally daily, other than weekends). Plus, I have a PC at work, a Mac at home. Anyway, now that I’m not going into work, I can revise solely on Scrivener! I think this is going to make revising not only easier, but more fun as well.

(3) Comfort reads! I can FINALLY not feel guilty for doing some comfort reading. My idea of “comfort reading” is really weird (I have the oddest desire to re-read Mrs. Dalloway for the… fourth time) but I’m such a slow reader that I always feel guilty re-reading my favorite books when there are so many other books in the world to read. But now that I’ve been flying through books, am nearly done with my library list, I figure I might as well finally enjoy Mrs. Dalloway again!

(4) Tea, tea, and… more tea. This really isn’t anything new for my quarantine life, but I’ve been drinking a lot of tea and not feeling guilty about it. Normally, at work at least, I attempt to only have one cup of tea a day. But tea is like a hug in a cup and since person-to-person hugging is frowned upon, why not fill that void with tea? (And I’m a bit touch-adverse, soooo I actually prefer tea to a real hug, heh heh.)

(5) Rediscovering other creative outlets! I’ll talk more about this in my next post, but I got an iPad and an Apple Pencil on Black Friday but felt like I wasn’t fully utilizing said Apple Pencil, so I finally bought Procreate because it was only $10 and people said it was such an awesome program. At first, I was kind of like, oh, dang, did I totally waste my money? because I had no idea what to do with it. But then I started doodling a cartoon hockey player (which is allllll I did in high school) which led to doodling the picture that now serves as my “author logo” picture for this website! So I also drew my best friend, another one of my really good friends, and then my boyfriend. It makes me SO HAPPY. I’m definitely no “artist” (my boyfriend continually points out that I hold my pencil wrong, which, yes, I do) but I’m SO HAPPY. Although my best friend now wants me to doodle her roommates and her so they can frame it and that’s a lot of pressure… still, that’s a good goal for April!

(6) Finally, checking in with myself. This is a stressful time. A weird time. Something none of us have experienced before. So I need to remind myself to be kind to myself. Be patient. If I don’t feel like working on my revisions, then that’s okay! If I want to read all day, no problem! If I want to binge watch Tiger King, have at it! (I actually haven’t watched Tiger King, but I know from my countless hours spent on social media that’s it’s very “in” right now.)

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And on that note, I’m going to go ahead and wrap this post up! This has been my quarantine update. I will continue updating you as long as I don’t get bored of doing so. Hopefully posts about my revision process will be coming!

NaNoWriMo 2019 ~ two week update ~

November 16, 2019April 2, 2020 ~ britneyshae ~ Leave a comment

Hello and welcome to Day 16 of NaNoWriMo! Hopefully it’s been another happy week for all my fellow NaNoWriMo-ers out there!

I think I told you all last week that I live for NaNoWriMo. It feels like it’s made for me. I am a fast drafter (and if that makes you jealous, just keep in mind that it means I’m a slow reviser because, whew, my first drafts are nightmares!) so getting 2,000 – 5,000 words a day isn’t too difficult for me (I averaged a little over 3000 words per day this NaNoWriMo).

You might have noticed what I did right there – averaged, past-tense.

That’s because, dear readers, I reached 50,000 yesterday! Woo hoo!! Not only that, but (despite my pantser ways), I was able to draft this “just for fun” MS in a way that it wrapped up clearly at the 50,000 word count. So I also finished my NaNo project!

As a reminder, in case you missed last week’s post, I wrote a totally for fun Christmas story with equal parts romance and gothic murder mystery. And a bonus love triangle.

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I thought about updating my aesthetic to match Act 3, which was ALL DARK, ALL GOTHIC, but I’m lazy, so here’s the same Christmas-y aesthetic from last week!

Okay, let’s get to the recap.

NaNoWriMo 2019 – Week Two

As I just said above, Act 3 got a bit dark. I went way off the notes I’d written during “Preptober.” Oh well, this MS will never see the light of day so it’s fine!

Here’s a day-by-day breakdown:

Saturday, November 9
Words Written: 5,045
Total Count: 29,107

I really killed it Saturday. I was trying to get to 30,000, because I felt like if I was in the 30,000 word count come Monday, I could definitely wrap this NaNoWriMo project up by Friday, which was my goal all along. If you’ll recall from last week, I was STOKED for a new project. But more on that in a bit.

To get this pretty hefty word count, I wrote 2,000 words in the morning and then sat down to do a few more words in the afternoon and got on a roll. Like I said, I wanted to push for 30,000, but whew, I was exhausted after that.

Sunday, November 10
Words Written: 4,247
Total Count: 33,354

I had brunch with a friend on this day, so I did 1,000 words before brunch and then 1,000 after. And then, you guessed it, I kept plugging along into the afternoon. I think my main motivation at this point was wanting to finish on Friday so I would write enough that the NaNoWriMo stats page reflected that I’d finish on November 15.

Monday, November 11
Words Written: 3,064
Total Count: 36,418

Alright. Monday. If I’m recalling correctly, I wrote my 1,000 in the morning, my second 1,000 on my lunch break, as was my NaNoWriMo plan (which I stuck very much with, thank you very much). I was able to get about an additional 500 words written during my lunch break, so when I got home that evening, I sat my butt down and forced another 500 words for the 3,000 total. I also wrapped up Act 2 and moved into my very odd and dark Act 3.

Also it snowed on Monday which is what I get for writing a Christmas story. *eye roll*

Tuesday, November 12
Words Written: 3,582
Total Count: 40,000

Okay, y’all. I did not set out on Tuesday to write 3,500 words or to reach 40,000 words. On this particular day, I got to work early to write my morning 1,000, went to update my word count on NaNo’s site… and discovered that SOMETHING WONKY happened with the site and it said I had 38,000 words, which was NOT the case. And at this time, I could not go back in and change my word count by day (they changed it later in the week, but ugh, it’s so complicated and took me FOREVER to do). Since I didn’t want negative words, I had to write greater than 38,000 words. So I pushed myself to get to 40,000. And then the site only reflected that I’d written, like, a little over 1,000 words. It was a sad day. But, hey, I ended up writing more than I might have originally written!

Wednesday, November 13
Words Written: 3,020
Total Count: 43,020

So by this point in the game, I knew I was going to have to continue to write 3,000 words+ if I wanted to reach 50,000 by Friday. So I wrote 2,000 in the morning and another 1,000 on my lunch break.

Thursday, November 14
Words Written: 4,066
Total Count: 47,086

Ah. Thursday. Oh, Thursday. So by this point I knew that in order to hit 50,000 words on Friday I would need to have a 3,000 word day and a 4,000 word day. So I again wrote 2,000 words in the morning and then another 1,000 on my lunch break… knowing I’d have to write another 1,000 at some point.

And then… well, let’s back up a bit. As you recall from my mention above, the reason I wanted to get to 50,000 so badly on Friday was so I could start focusing on the new project I’d come up with last week. Here’s the problem with the idea I’d had last week: I couldn’t figure out how to pitch it in a way that made it… um… worth anyone’s time. I had these vague emotions I wanted to explore, and essentially I was pitching it (to my boyfriend and my friend) as “a story about a girl dealing with change.” WOW. SO SPECIFIC. Okay, it also had a wakeboarding element and a punny team name and fresh water turtles. But that’s about all I had.

So here I am, rushing through NaNoWriMo so I can start working on this project but every time I took to my notebook to write down pitch ideas… it fell flat.

Then Thursday came. And while listening to a podcast, I suddenly got this idea for a rom com. Well, I don’t write rom com, so I tried to take the flicker of rom com idea and translate it to YA contemporary, aka what I do write.

The idea that followed is nothing like the original rom com spark, but… wow. I like it. A lot. And I’m VERY excited to work on it, way more excited than I was for my other idea!

Aka I needed to get through NaNoWriMo. So when I got home Thursday evening, I wrote another 1,000 words. The finish line was in sight!

Friday, November 15
Words Written: 2,358
Total Count: 50,444

Woo hoo! 50,000 words! My biggest challenge here was figuring out if I wanted to hit the 50,000 word mark at work or wait and do it at home. I wrote 2,000 words in the morning, wrote a few on my lunch break, and then, you know, because it was Friday, I ended up pulling it up at 3:30 and got to 50,000 at 4:00 p.m. *Kool-aid man OH YEAH*

I also typed “THE END” on this very strange gothic Christmas tale of romance and woe!

And that wraps up my 2019 NaNoWriMo experience! Which… is kind of a bummer. To be honest, my ACTUAL plan was to take it slow and easy, write 2,000 words a day, and finish around November 25, aka right before Thanksgiving. But, alas, I got carried away.

Going into next week, I’ll start outlining my new idea (yes, yes, I am a pantser, but it does save me time to have *~*some idea*~* of where I’m going – but I rarely, if ever, follow the outline). Although, to be completely honest, I outlined this NaNo idea (following the briefest, simplest of the 3-Act Structure) and I stuck to the outline until Act 3! (Then things went totally off the handle.)

I hope everyone is having a fun NaNoWriMo regardless of word count. I think sometimes we get caught up on whether we’re behind or not proceeding the way we hoped that we forget to have fun! Which is partially why I’m glad I wrote such a silly for fun MS this NaNo.

Good luck everyone!

Seven-Night European Cruise!

August 18, 2017April 2, 2020 ~ britneyshae ~ Leave a comment

Hi all! I won’t give too much introduction and just jump right into this post because I have a lot to cover. So back in May, my boyfriend and I were able to take a trip of a lifetime on board the Disney Magic (Disney Cruise). From May 28 through June 4 (seven nights!) we were on board. Our destination, you ask? Why, the Baltic Sea ports, of course!

We boarded the ship in Copenhagen, Denmark (one of my favorite cities in the world!) and proceeded as follows: Copenhagen, Denmark, Tallinn, Estonia, St. Petersburg, Russia, Helsinki, Finland, Stockholm, Sweden, and Copenhagen, Denmark.

This trip is hard to write a short, concise report on because it was kind of half-cruise, half-European city exploring. So, for this post, I’m just going to talk about the “Ports of Call” and maybe someday I can do a post more on the Disney Cruise part of the trip. I will say that this cruise was wonderful and magical (of course—it’s Disney!) but the downside of the trip was the fact that while we got to see A LOT in a short amount of time, we didn’t always feel as though we properly got to explore the cities as much as we would have wanted (basically it was like a “sampling”). And, on sort of the flip-side, we didn’t really get to enjoy the cruise amenities as much as we would have wanted (the temperatures stayed in the 50s and 60s, thus making the temps a little too frigid for the deck pools and the awesome looking waterslide). So, if you’re considering doing a 7-night Northern European cruise like we did, do be aware that you might feel like you don’t get the full experience—not of the city tours OR of the ship amenities.

BUT, if you want a sampling of both, this is the right cruise for you. 🙂

So, without further ado, here is a relatively quick breakdown of the trip.

Saturday, May 27, 2017

We arrived in Copenhagen, Denmark at around 9:00 in the morning. Let’s just say neither my boyfriend nor I slept at all on the flight from Detroit to Amsterdam, but then we (of course) passed out on the entirety of the short flight from Amsterdam to Copenhagen. So, we were a little bit tired when we reached Copenhagen. I have to throw out that we stayed at the Tivoli Gardens Hotel and we super, super enjoyed our stay. Because they had an immediate room available if we upgraded to the sort of business class, we opted to do so. Included, we got an updated view AND access to the business lounge where we were able to grab free snacks and wine. I highly recommend both this hotel and this upgrade!

We tiredly made our way throughout Copenhagen (which is a super walkable city!) and stopped at a 1920s Café, which, wasn’t really all that 1920s… but let me tell you, the food was AMAZING. Two quick things about Copenhagen’s restaurant scene: (1) at least where we went, there were ALWAYS English menus available, which was very much appreciated and (2) THE SERVING SIZES ARE HUGE. Seriously, you can almost always share. 🙂 Both my boyfriend and I ordered this chicken sandwich, which was almost more salad than sandwich but amazing nonetheless.

Next we made our way to Rosenborg Castle, which we spent some time exploring. Then it was back to the hotel for some much needed R&R. Once we were hungry enough for dinner, we asked the concierge at the hotel (these people were very, very helpful and informative) for a place to try a “local” restaurant experience. She directed us to a “hip” area that used to be a meat market, but was now transformed into sort of mini restaurants. Think food trucks in America, only these were small restaurants. There were so many to choose from, though! We ended up at a BBQ place (I know, I know, so American but my boyfriend’s a picky eater). But seriously, the food was AMAZING. (I love Copenhagen.)

Sunday, May 28, 2017

We boarded the Disney Cruise on this day! I can’t fully remember what we did (it’s all sort of a blur, and we were definitely jet-lagged for the beginning of the trip). We walked around the ship and signed up for a lot of things that were very costly and my sweet boyfriend still wasn’t sure what was included already and what wasn’t (*cough cough* alcohol was not included and I’m not sure he knew that on this first day… or even the second). I think my boyfriend also got a beard trim on this day. He looked dashing.

Monday, May 29, 2017

This was a day at sea. I got my hair done. We did some wine tasting (we never learned the sommelier’s name, which is a shame because he was WONDERFUL). I believe we went to a couple of shows. Stuff like that.

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Welcome to Tallinn, Estonia! This was a very interesting country to visit. There are still a lot of remnants of the Soviet control (which ended in 1991, I believe) and unlike the Russians, the Estonians are not afraid to share their disdain for the Soviet control. Which was incredibly interesting (and a little sad). We saw the city highlights. There’s the Old City, which is sort of medieval, and it’s really beautiful.

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Welcome to St. Petersburg, Russia! I have to say, Russia was one of the reasons I most wanted to do this trip. We did an all-day tour which started with the Hermitage before it was opened (my boyfriend loved it—I was there because it was Catherine the Great’s palace and I love palaces). Next we did some sight-seeing on board a bus, which was nice because it was cold and rainy. In fact, perhaps you will remember the lyrics from Anastasia: “St. Petersburg is gloomy; St. Petersburg is bleak.” It was kind of true. But I feel bad judging it this way, since it was, well, cold and rainy.

Anyway, we stopped at a restaurant and had a traditional Russian meal, which was pretty good. It included caviar, which was not so good, except they roll it up in a crepe(?) with yogurt(?)—I’ll admit we didn’t have a lot of direction—and when it was rolled up with the crepe and yogurt, it was actually really delicious. No joke. We, of course, finished off our meal with a shot of vodka. When in Russia, right?

Next we did some more sight-seeing and stopped at a tourist shop where my boyfriend and our Canadian friend bought some… less than flattering items of the Russian ~~dictator~~ president. Ahem.

We finished the trip with some last-minute sight-seeing of this island where the tsars were all buried and our tour guide told us some true Anastasia stories, which I was THERE FOR.

And that about covers St. Petersburg. Barely any mention of the Soviets, unlike Estonia.

Thursday, June 1, 2017

Helsinki, Finland! Now, it rained in Finland, too, so my Finnish souvenir is a cute umbrella. Unlike Estonia and St. Petersburg, we didn’t do a tour in Finland. We just kind of wandered around. The highlight for me was eating dinner at a “traditional” Finnish restaurant (it was a little touristy, but that was fine with me). I enjoyed this AMAZING potato dish and my boyfriend had reindeer soup (which was actually quite good, even though I felt bad for the reindeer!).

This was our shortest time on shore so between ducking for the rain and me wanting to shop at this cute stationary store (oh, and also me accidentally giving my boyfriend the wrong address for the zoo), we didn’t do a whole lot.

Friday, June 2, 2017

Stockholm, Sweden! It was supposed to rain in Stockholm, but of course it was incredibly sunny and gorgeous and I left my new Finnish umbrella on the bus. (We found it later at lost & found though!) We also didn’t have a tour scheduled in Stockholm, but the bus dropped us off right at all of their royal palaces and castles, so we did a tour there. Then we wandered upon a food festival and had some crepes and I had some sparkling rose-type drink that was pretty tasty. From there we wandered around a bit and stumbled upon a cute cafe that I thought might be a cat cafe, but unfortunately it wasn’t. We ate some Swedish treats and I had some tea with a lot of old people. It was pretty wonderful.

Saturday, June 3, 2017

Another day at sea. Our last day. We did a couples massage and my boyfriend’s trip ended on a devastating note because he wanted to watch some Irish dancer/singers and instead a soccer game was on. Typical Europe.

Sunday, June 4, 2017

Back to Copenhagen! We were a little bit bummed because there was some holiday going on, so a lot of things were closed. We ended up finding a restaurant to eat at where the server told us he loves Americans (that’s a first, right???) and the food was soooo good. I got this brunch burger that was unlike anything I’ve had before. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. (And again, my boyfriend and I could have split it – it was huge!)

Next we went to the Carlsberg Brewery which was really, really cool. I kind of like their beer, too. But maybe I’m biased and blinded by my Copenhagen love.

We walked back to the hotel, which took forever. And that pretty much wraps my trip up. (In a nutshell – I definitely could have gone into a lot more details, but that might bore you all to sleep.)

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July 13, 2017April 2, 2020 ~ britneyshae ~ Leave a comment

I haven’t posted in a long, long time, and that’s partially because I spent the first part of June travelling, then catching up, and then the first part of July travelling, and then catching up! As we’d say in Minnesota, where I grew up and where I just returned from visiting, OOFDA!

I do want to make a blog post compiling a few pictures and notes from my absolutely fantastic 7-night Baltic Sea cruise through the fabulous Disney Cruise line, but before I do that, I thought I’d put together yet another Goodreads YA list, courtesy of my e-mail newsletter featuring the “can’t miss” YA reads for July!

The first book on the list is Daughter of the Burning City by Amanda Foody.

The Gomorrah Festival, a traveling carnival of debauchery, is probably not the most appropriate place for Sorina, but it’s her home. When an impossible crime shatters her world, she descends down a dangerous rabbit hole to save her family.

Carnival? Debauchery? I’m in! I’m especially intrigued because this one has to do with a girl saving her family. Not, you know, saving a boy.

Next up on the list we have What to Say Next, written by Julie Buxbaum:

Lunchtime at Mapleview High is all about sitting with the right crowd. Unless you’re David, who sits alone every day. That all changes when Kit, struggling with a recent tragedy, abandons her popular friends to see what the quiet boy has to say.

Guys, I am seeing this book everywhere. I would say this is probably the absolute “must read” on this list.

Third on the list is Little Monsters by Kara Thomas:

New girl Kacey’s charmed life in Broken Falls takes a drastic turn the night fellow student Bailey disappears. As the town turns to Kacey for answers, she realizes she can’t trust anyone, not even her stepfamily or friends.

I love the Pretty Little Liars vibes going on in this synopsis! Reserving this one at the library ASAP. (Disclaimer: I have like 5 of the Pretty Little Liars books but I’ve only read the first one. Loved it, but forgot what happened and had already sold the first one to Half Priced Books so couldn’t re-read it… ughhh. But I loved the show!)

Alright, moving onto number four – Words on Bathroom Walls by Julia Walton:

The people Adam sees aren’t always there. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, he uses a miracle drug to help him stay focused and hide his symptoms from his crush, Maya. Then the drug starts to fail, leaving Adam to grapple with his secret alone.

I would LOVE to see a book dealing with mental illness done well. I have super high hopes for this one!

What’s next? Ah yes, The Last Magician by Lisa Maxwell:

Magic is all but extinct. To save her fellow Mageus, the few men and women who have an affinity for magic, trained thief Esta travels back in time to 1902 to steal an ancient book from an enigmatic figure known only as the Magician.

This months’ Goodreads list is full of contemporary YA (which is fascinating and also wonderful for me—I’m a contemporary kind of girl), but here’s our fantasy pick. Normally I scroll past the fantasy picks, but this one has a historical element to it and time traveling… so my interest is piqued! I probably won’t pick it up right away, but I do think it sounds interesting.

And finally, we have Solo by two authors, Kwame Alexander with Mary Rand Hess:

Juggling his father’s ruin with his mother’s absence, his forbidden love for a girl with his family’s darkest secret, 17-year-old Blake travels the globe to find meaning and truth in this bewitching novel told in poetic verse.

This sounds seriously beautiful. A little nervous about the poetic verse because poetry is not my strong point, but I love the family elements and I’m always a big fan of the forbidden love theme!

And there we have it! The top-5 can’t-miss YA releases per Goodreads’ July Young Adult Newsletter. The newsletter doesn’t include release dates, but if you’re interested, just click the links I’ve provided and you’ll find the information you need. Happy reading!