Anything Sunday (4): 80's Childhood Treasures

I don't know about anyone else, but I loved growing up in the 80's. OK, so some (all right—most, if not all) of the fashions and hairstyles from that decade haven't held up well over time, but I have so many fond memories from my childhood.

I was doing some organizing around the house last weekend and went through some of the childhood relics I've held on to. (I promise that I'm not a hoarder.) I was curious to see if anybody else remembers things like . . . .

Strawberry Shortcake! I know that she and her friends have been brought back, complete with a modern makeover, in recent years, but these are the original mini figures from the 80's. And they still have a faint scent to them! I did have a few of the bigger dolls and the trolley that was shaped like a berry, but those are long gone.

I know that Lego isn't a strictly 80's thing, but I still have the sets (and the case) that I received as Christmas and birthday gifts when I was a kid. I spent countless hours building with Lego bricks and built a model of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre out of Lego for a high school English project. I very stupidly failed to take a picture of it at the time—d'oh!

I don't have my NES or the games anymore, but I still have The Official Nintendo Player's Guide, lol. I'll never forget how proud I was the day that I completed The Legend of Zelda!

My co-worker and I were just talking about the sticker albums we had as kids. I wasn't into sticker collecting all that much, but I do love how the albums have almost become like scrapbooks because the stickers are very much 80's themed with the likes of Pac-Man and Rainbow Brite!

If you're a fellow 80's child like me, do any of these ring a bell?

Anything Sunday (3): Pen and Paper Rock!

You have no idea how much I wanted to make a rock, paper, scissors joke out of the post title. I thought better of it, however, and spared you all from the wrath of my horrible humor.

This past Friday was National Handwriting Day, which I think is really neat. I still love writing with good old-fashioned pen and paper. There's just something gratifying about writing things out by hand that can't be replaced by typing on a keyboard, at least for me. Even back in school, penmanship lessons were never tedious.

Most of the time, I hand write blog posts first. It started back when I sometimes picked up Ally and Melissa from school or band practice. For those of you who've experienced the (non) joy of waiting in the student car rider line, you're familiar with having time to kill. Lots of time to kill. So I'd whip out a notebook and pencil and work on writing reviews and other posts in the car until the line began moving. And I'm really glad that I did. Writing everything down first does create double work of sorts, in that I still have to type a post up. That doesn't bother me, though, and I get a much needed break from staring at the screen of an electronic device. I would miss writing everything by hand first, too, because it's become an integral part of my blogging routine.

In addition to my notebook of blog posts, I keep a separate notebook of my favorite book quotes. I know a lot of other bloggers do as well. For me, a quote book is like a scrapbook; it reminds me of the books I've read, the awesome characters I've met, and the fantastic fictional worlds I've visited.

As much as I enjoy putting pen/pencil to paper, something that I've never been very good at is keeping a journal. I've started and stopped a number of times through the years and have failed at maintaining a journal on a consistent basis. Often I'd sit down to write . . . and find I had nothing to say. I know the point of journals is to be able to write about whatever you feel like writing about, but I guess I fare better with structure, like when I set out to write a book review. I think I'd like to give journaling another go in the future, this time without putting so much pressure on myself to make it perfect.

I feel especially old school with hand writing because I write in cursive/script almost exclusively. Scripting has always just been a lot faster for me than printing, plus I've always found script cool. When I was a kid and could just about manage printing my name, I begged my mom to teach me how to write in script like she did because I thought script looked way better than print. When I started third grade and we were expected to use cursive all the time, well, I couldn't have been happier!

Are any of you old school pen and paper peeps like me? Do you ever use cursive/script?

Anything Sunday (2): Non-Bookish 2014 Favorites

In the spirit of Anything Sunday, I figured I'd write about some of the non-bookish things that I loved about 2014. Or, at least, the ones I remember at this moment, lol, because I feel like this year went by extraordinarily fast. So, in no particular order, here we go:

• Elvis Costello Concert in Nashville: Easily one of the highlights of 2014 for me. I hadn't been to one of his concerts in six years, so this was long overdue. I'm still in a bit of disbelief over how perfectly the timing aligned for this: we were already set to be in Nashville that weekend for UtopYA Con. I'm psyched to be going to see him in concert again in March 2015—this time much closer to home though, lol.
• Tampa Bay Comic Con: This was my first experience at a comic con, and it was a lot of fun—seeing all of the creative, and often clever, costumes and checking out all of the cool merchandise. This nerd was in heaven.
• Guardians of the Galaxy: I saw this for the first time a few weeks ago, and I can't stop watching it. Groot rocks!
• Outlander: This superb adaptation of the novel blew me away, though Game of Thrones will always be first in my heart when it comes to book-to-TV-adaptations. James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser—I freakin' love you.
• Game of Thrones, Season 4: Justice was finally served to that sh*t Joffrey, literally, hahaha! And how badass was Episode 9, "The Watchers on the Wall?" I think I even liked the battle between the Night's Watch and the Wildlings better than Season 2's Battle of the Blackwater.
• Seeing the Yankees Play: I technically went to Tampa to see them play the Tampa Bay Rays, but I was really there to support NY all the way. I went to a few Yankees games as a kid when I lived in NY, but I never went to any during their late 90's championship seasons. So, 2014 marked the first time that I was in the stands to see Derek Jeter bat (he was the DH that day and didn't play shortstop). Of course it was also the last time I was in the stands to see him, since he retired at the end of the season. I watched his last home game at Yankee Stadium on TV, and I'm not ashamed to admit that it brought tears to my eyes.
• Glee: At Ally's persistent urging, I binge watched the first four seasons this past summer and mentally berated myself for not tuning in sooner.

I'm sure I'm missing a few more things, but at this point in the year, almost everything that happened up until a few days ago is pretty much a blur. If you have any year end posts, please leave a link so I can check them out! And I wish each and every one of you all the best for 2015!

Anything Sunday!

For a while now, I've been trying to come up with some kind of post that I can do on a semi-regular basis that doesn't necessarily have to be book-related. I really enjoyed fangirling all about the Simpsons back in September and have wanted to try to add some more random topic-type posts into the mix since then. As usual, time has evilly conspired to prevent me from doing this, and it's also a big reason why I'd like to do this. I hate seeing the blog go stagnant when I'm too busy to finish a book and get it reviewed. Having the flexibility to still write a post, even though it might not focus on books, puts my mind at ease a little.

So today is basically a little introduction to this type of post, but I also wanted to take a moment to get in the spirit of Thanksgiving, since it's this Thursday. I can't thank you guys enough for sticking around with the blog. Reading your comments here and chatting with you on Twitter and Goodreads truly, truly make my day. On the days when I'm feeling blah about blogging because my time is so tied up with life outside of books, I think of how terribly I'd miss interacting with all of you if I gave up blogging. I've been talking to some of you for over 2 years now, and your friendship means the world to me. So thank you again, and if you celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope it's a very, very happy one!