Whew. What a year. It somehow feels like one of the shortest and yet longest years ever. So much has happened this year and I can’t wait to share it all with you.
Let’s start with some book stuff….
This year I read 98 out of 50 books with most them between August and December.
Across those books I read 34,671 pages (not including the book I am half through at the time I am writing this). This means my average book is 357 pages long.
The shortest book I read this year was 192 pages.
The longest book I read this year was 752 pages.
My average book rating on Goodreads was 3.3 stars.
My favorite book of the year
Other favorite books
Disappointing books of 2019 (2 stars or less)
Now let’s get into some blogging stuff!!
This was my first year of blogging and I started in August so I have been blogging for about 5 months now. I have posted 85 posts and have gained 230 followers exactly which I am so happy about. I think that rounds out to about 45-50 people a month which is amazing. I am so lucky to have all of y’all.
Next I wanted to share some of my favorite posts I have done
Arc of a Scythe series review : Warning spoilers ahead
One Day at Disney || Blog Tour
The How & The Why Review and Favorite Quotes || Blog Tour
Life stuff that happened this year
So much has changed for me this year and it is crazy to think about. I wanted to recap some of the bigger things that have happened so I can look later and see what was going in 2019. Unfortunately I have a pretty bad memory so I don’t remember much before August when I started keeping a journal/blogging with monthly wrap ups.
One of the most obvious things to y’all is that I started blogging!!! In August, one of my best friends, Britt, was sick and I was up with her a lot of nights. I am normally really talkative unless I am upset or falling asleep and one night to get me to talk, she asked me to tell her a story. My brain was completely blank so I couldn’t but the next day I started looking up books to read her and then it spiraled into books I could read normally.
I came across some of the blogs I follow now and decided I want to join the community. I am so glad I did. I have made some amazing friends and have felt nothing but support from everyone. I love interacting with y’all, seeing what you are reading and reading all of your posts. Around this time, I started my job at the same restaurant where my wife works and my wife turned 25!!!!
In a little bit sadder news, my grandfather got in a car accident this month while drinking and driving. I didn’t know how to feel about it then and I don’t know how to feel about it now. I am so disappointed that this happened and hope that he really turns over a new leaf.
In September, my best friend/sister, Amanda (my maid of honor) told me she was getting engaged in October and married in January. She wanted to let me know as soon as possible so that I could tell her if I could be a bridesmaid and to make sure that I had time to book a flight even if I couldn’t. Of course I said yes and even though money was tight, I was going to be there no matter what. I am so excited to go see her in just a few days (by the time this post goes up). I also upped my blogging game this month, reading more and writing more than I had in August but quickly became overwhelmed and had to back down.
In October, our Godson’s mom and Alice’s best friend, told us she was having another baby. We are so excited for her and her family to welcome their little princess in the spring! I reached 200 followers on my blog which I was so excited about and I continued to plan my wedding for November. My grandfather’s court date was pushed back from October to November.
November finally came and I was so excited. I couldn’t wait to get meet my best friend, get married and finally FINALLY take my wife to Disney World for the first time. Everything went amazingly and you can read a little more about it in my November wrap up if you want! We were gone for two weeks from the time we left home until the day we came back since we got married out of state so both blogging and reading were put on a huge back burner. I ended up being behind on blogging for the rest of the year.
On November 26th, I was calling my grandmother to find out if she had any silver shoes I could borrow to wear for Amanda’s wedding and found out that my grandfather had his trial and was going to jail. I found this out about 20 minutes before I had to work. I immediately texted my favorite coworker to let her know/see if she would be there and went to cry in the bathroom for a while. I am a firm believer that he got what he deserved but it is also hard because he is my grandfather and will be missing all holidays this year.
We spent Thanksgiving with Alice’s family and then drove up to my grandmother’s for some last minute black friday shopping.
December came and went so quickly that I am in utter disbelief that it is over. One big thing that happened this month was that Alice and I am came out at work. I don’t talk about it too much on this blog but Alice is a trans woman and had been using her deadname at work due to legal and personal reasons. Early in the month, she approached our favorite manager about coming out and we set up a meeting with her and our general manager. We all met on December 11th as well as one of our other managers who typically runs front of house (where I am) and decided that we would wait until the 21st to come out to coworkers as our general manager was going on vacation and wanted to be there when we started. I was and am a lot more nervous than Alice is about this but I have embraced it and things are going well so far. I came out to a lot of my closer coworkers first and then slowly spread to others at the holiday party. As of now, a manager walks us to our car every day until I know most/everyone at work knows and we don’t have any issues.
The only other big thing that isn’t Christmas (which wasn’t big this year) that happened in December was that my wife celebrated being two years sober. I talked about it a little in my December wrap up but on December 15th 2017, Alice stopped drinking and a few weeks later decided she wasn’t going to drink again. I am so, so proud that she made this decision on her own. It took me a long time to forgive her for the thing she did to me while drinking but I am so glad I did because I love her more than anything. The situation with my grandfather this year has truly made me so grateful that Alice stopped drinking before something like that happened to her.
All in all, this year has been a rollercoaster but I am so glad to be going through life with Alice no matter what is happening.
Just a YA book reader sharing her thoughts with the world 