Operation: Mystery Birthday

Happy Halloween, y'all! Today is my very favorite holiday. I don't know what it is, but I've always been so in love with Halloween. While I'm not doing anything formal to celebrate this year, I am wearing this super festive scarf that I picked up at Target last night...

...and we will also be having our live discussion tonight of the October ~spooky scary~ Read Your Face Off buddy read, The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn! If you'd like to join in, it's at 8PM EST on my channel!

The main event last weekend was BRETT'S 30TH BIRTHDAY!!! The stars really aligned for us this year. Brett had his bye this weekend and he had his whole birthday OFF, which honestly NEVER happens. I knew with the combination of this being a big milestone birthday and it being his off weekend of the season, I really wanted to do it up right for him because he deserved it! I actually started planning his birthday about a month and a half ago, so this has been a loooong time coming! I let him know not to make *any* plans on his birthday, and commenced planning a day of surprises for him. :)

Somehow, even though it was Brett's birthday weekend, he threw in a surprise for me. A few weeks ago, this ad for Harry Potter ugly Christmas sweaters popped up on my feed. Because Brett and I love ourselves a good ugly sweater during the holidays, I had to text a screenshot to him.

I honestly thought Brett was joking when he said "Done" (hence the cry-laughing Emoji), because we don't often buy fun things for ourselves. #onabudget But it turns out HE WAS SERIOUS. There was a package with his name on our table when I got home on Friday night and I was pretty sure it was a birthday gift from someone. I honestly forgot about this whole text exchange at this point haha. But instead he opened up the package to show me what was inside and it was the FREAKING GRYFFINDOR SWEATER!!! I was so confused! Haha. But I was so excited at the same time. I can't wait to wear this sweater EVERYWHERE this holiday season! If you want your own sweater to rep your house, you can find them here.

This is my surprised/excited/exhausted from the week face XD

So cool!

Saturday - the day of Brett's actual birthday - was MY TURN to bring the surprises! The morning was fairly relaxed. We were in the path of a Nor'Easter on Saturday so we were enjoying the gloomy weather and relaxing at home. I made Brett some breakfast while we got ready for the day. We left the house around 11:30AM for stop number one for lunch at The Fix Burger Bar in Worcester! Brett was able to guess where we were going to eat when we got closer to town - we had been talking about going for YEARS and I thought a birthday was the perfect opportunity to go. What he couldn't guess, though, was that there were two surprise guests waiting for him...

Our friends Grazia & Dre! Grazia had been secretly helping me plan this day since September and while she and Dre couldn't make the rest of the festivities due to a family party that evening, we wanted to still be able to surprise Brett with a visit. It was so funny - they were sitting at the table with the menus hiding their faces XD It killed me. Brett was VERY surprised - surprise birthday part 1 was a success! :) We spent a solid two hours chatting, eating, and enjoying some of their famous boozy milkshakes - so yummy!

Grazia & Dre even managed to surprise me a bit by arranging for some cake to be brought out for Brett after a meal! I was wondering why Grazia was holding her phone like she was taking a picture and then all of the sudden a cake appeared! XD

*totally pretending like I was in on it the whole time* XD

It was so much fun seeing Grazia & Dre - Brett was even saying earlier that morning that he wanted to visit them soon (little did he know... :P). Seeing them really set everything off on the right foot and I was so happy to see Brett so happy. And we were just getting started! We said our goodbyes around 2:30 or so and then we were off to location #2.

For the second part of Operation: Mystery Birthday, I brought Brett to Patriot Place! Patriot Place has so much to do in terms of shopping and restaurants, so I thought this was the perfect location to spend the rest of the evening. We got a hotel room and went out and explored! I wanted to get Brett a birthday gift and he's been wanting new sneakers, so we decided to go to Olympia to check out the options. Little did we know that we would be surprised by Wally the Red Sox mascot and Pat the Patriot! I guess they were looking for something to do since both their teams were out of town this weekend. XD

Pat the Patriot is really good at group selfies - who knew! XD

Wally was just casually doing some shoe shopping and it killed me XD

The weather was getting kind of crazy outside after we finished up at Olympia and we were both feeling a bit sleepy from all of the excitement so far from the day, so we decided to kill the few hours before our dinner reservation by relaxing in the hotel room and warming up from the extreme wind and the rain! We had dinner reservations at Saga Hibachi Steakhouse around 7:15 and we wanted to be rested up for a night of excitement (even though Brett didn't know what kind of excitement was coming his way). 

After a few hours of relaxation, we headed to the restaurant, where *SURPRISE* a bunch of his friends and family were waiting for him to arrive with balloons, gifts, and good cheer!

The zero flew away in the Nor'Easter, so Sophia made a zero sign to attach to the three XD

One happy Brett! (Crown and sign courtesy of Sophia) 

One of many scorpion bowls that were consumed...

Brett was VERY surprised by this part of the evening which I was very happy about! I guess he figured the rest of the day was going to be just the two of us after meeting up with Grazia & Dre earlier. I'd also let him know that we'd be celebrating with his family at his parent's house the next day (which we still did!) so he was completely thrown off the trail. I love it. 

After dinner and much celebrating, we continued the party at Bar Louie. Our original plan was to bar hop at a few of the different bars at Patriot Place, but the weather was so crazy outside and we were having a good time at the bar we were at, so we decided to stay put and watch the Sox game! It was Game 4 and they came back to win the game - such a great way to top off the night. Brett's cousin Angela - his final surprise of the day - also joined us out for drinks which was such a fun treat! :)

Vampire's Essence - Bar Louie's signature Halloween drink that I *had* to try. It tasted like a Sour Patch Kid!

Brett's head gear got more and more ridiculous as the night went on XD

Feelin' good after many drinks and a Red Sox win!

Overall, Brett's birthday was a HUGE success! He was surprised by everything that we planned for him and I don't think a smile left his face the entire time. We had such a fun time with everyone and it was a day I think we'll remember for a long time. Mission accomplished!

Speaking of the Red Sox, they FREAKING WON THE WORLD SERIES ON SUNDAY!!!! We Bostonians are super spoiled when it comes to professional sports championships (11 titles since 2001... not bad) and I don't hate it. The parade is today in Boston and it's a bummer that I'm so close to the parade yet can't go as I do have to work, but I'm sure everyone is going to have a great time.

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The rest of this week and this weekend is going to be very low-key. This is the final week before I head down to VA for the Richmond Marathon (!!!) and I want to take it nice and easy. I'll be running 10 miles on Saturday before I go watch Brett's game, then a nice easy 3 on Sunday. I think I'll run a couple of 2 milers next week but ultimately focus on stretching, hydrating, and eating. I also need to take care of the pile of laundry that is currently taking over our apartment and grocery shop. It's going to be a nice boring weekend sandwiched between two really exciting ones! :)

Truer words have never been spoken.

LINKS I LOVED THIS WEEK

Scotty P's Big Mug Coffee - Scott Patterson a.k.a. LUKE DANES has a coffee brand. WHAAAT?!

Red Sox Troll Game Is STILL Strong from Fox Sports

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 2 Trailer from @MaiselTV on Twitter
Unicorn Planner - Online planner shop that I now want to buy everything from

November 2018 Reading Plans

The last quarter of the year always FLIES BY! I swear we only just started the academic year yesterday, and now we're knocking on November's door. Where does the time go? Anywho, since a new month is right around the corner, it's time to talk about the books I will be focusing on in November. I've put together a combination of books I'm currently in the middle of, books for different reading projects I'm working on, and books that I want to read because they're seasonally appropriate (I mean, there's a book called "Autumn" and a book called "November Road"... can I honestly read these at any other time this year? #nope). Let me know what you're planning to read in the comments. I always love seeing everyone's monthly TBRs! :)

Autumn by Ali Smith

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

Nice Try, Jane Sinner by Lianne Oelke
Perfect Little World by Kevin Wilson
November Road by Lou Berney
A Heart in a Body in the World by Deb Caletti
The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin by Josh Berk
Rich and Pretty by Rumaan Alam
Night Film by Marisha Pessl

#BorrowAThon Round 5 TBR!

Today I am sharing the books I will be pulling from during the next round of BorrowAThon! Because my library system is new to me this time around, I took a different approach to building my TBR. Instead of thinking of specific books to fill each challenge, I decided to take out a stack of books that could fill multiple challenges and just kinda see how I feel during the week of the readathon. Hopefully this approach makes things a bit easier during the week!
The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin History of Wolves by EMily Fridlund The Cat King of Havana by Tom Crosshill Small Admissions by Amy Poeppel The Assistants by Camille Perri The Witch Elm by Tana French Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman
For more info on #BorrowAThon Round 5, be sure to check out the informational blog post!

Losing the Lottery

Hello friends! Happy Wednesday. 

I never know quite how to start out these life update posts, so I figure the best way is saying hello. 

HELLO!

Last Friday Brett and I ventured to Western MA to see our friends Jimmy and Kristen get married! They totally lucked out with the weather. It was honestly the perfect fall day. Super sunny, crisp air, and perfect temperature. Their venue was so cute as well! It was right on a farm with horses and so many trees with the quickly changing leaves. We had such a great time eating, drinking, and celebrating the happy couple.

Over the weekend I started watching The Good Place which I have heard nothing but positive things about and I have to say, I'm REALLY enjoying it! It's super witty, whimsical, and so so so funny. I flew through the first season and I'm a few episodes into the second season. I am so thrilled to find another show that I connect so well with because those are so few and far between for me!

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This week has been riddled with excitement so far, mainly thanks to the fact that the Red Sox are in the World Series and the fact that everyone has been playing the lottery - not something we usually take part in, but when the jackpot is $1.6 billion, how can you resist? No one I know won, but some lucky duck in South Carolina did. Good for them! We still have a ticket for the $620 million Powerball tonight, so fingers crossed! This blog would get a whole lot more interesting. ;) On the flip side, the Red Sox won their first game last night! I'm secretly hoping they sweep the Dodgers so that they would win the series on Brett's birthday which is this Saturday. That would be such a fun birthday present! :P

 My uniform for the week!

Get u a man that understands how to best spend your lottery winnings!

My dad is ready to retire XD

At the last minute I decided to join the WitchAThon over the course of the next 8 days. I've been struggling to finish the books I've picked up during October and I figured that this readathon will give me the extra boost I need to get a couple more books finished before the month comes to a close. I just started reading my first book this morning (The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn) and I'm already flying through it!

New morning routine! <3

Speaking of reading, I've been making the effort this week to leave for work a little bit earlier than normal so I can give myself a little me time before I have to be in the office. There are these rooms that student groups tend to use for meetings in our building that are completely vacant when I arrive to campus at 7:45am, so I've been capitalizing on the quiet space to relax and read before the craziness of the day starts! I'm usually pretty drained mentally at the end of the day, so evening reading is a bit hit or miss. This way, I have reading time in the morning and during my lunch break and I'm able to fit in more pages than usual which I've been super happy with!

This upcoming weekend, like I mentioned, is Brett's 30th birthday! I have lots of surprises in store for his special day (which I shall not disclose at this time :P) and I am so excited to celebrate him all weekend long. I will of course be sharing all that we get up to in next week's life update.

I hope you all enjoy the rest of the week! GOOOOO SOX!

LINKS I LOVED THIS WEEK

Fitness Planner & Routine from FiloAlly

This dog wins Halloween forever from Hero Labradors

Courtney Dauwalter finished second at Big's Backyard Ultra in Tennessee from The Know Outdoors

Family Dog Takes on the Matilda Challenge from NowThis

Me tryna get my life together from Eliab

"The Fight" is the best Parks and Rec Episode and Here's Proof from Buzzfeed

#Witchathon TBR!

This is me very last minute deciding to join in on the #WitchAThon, which will be taking place between October 24 and October 31! I'm feeling like I need an extra boost of energy toward the end of this month to get a few more books read before October comes to a close, and I was a really big fan of the prompts for this readathon, so I figured it might be fun to hop in on the action! I'm going to mainly be focusing my energy on 3 books in the upcoming week and I'm hoping to finish my October reading strong! Though there are 7 challenges, my TBR will only be consisting of:

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling 

I'm really hoping to get through a decent chunk of this monster, and hopefully get it finished in early November so I can do my next reread/rewatch review with Brett! This one will be fulfilling Challenge #1 - Read a book that is bound to make you warm and happy (because, duh) , and Challenge #5 - Read a book that features your ethnic heritage. Like most white folks in the states, I have a lot of European heritage, and for my family it's mainly French and Scottish. My French heritage is featured through our girl Fleur Delacour, and My Scottish heritage is featured through the fact that Hogwarts is set in Scotland. BOOM.

Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol

It's been a while since I've read a graphic and this one fit the readathon theme/challenges perfectly! It also seems like it will be a lot of fun and the story will be right up my alley. I will be using this book to fulfill Challenge #2 - Read a book by candlelight and Challenge #4 - Read a book that has paranormal elements.

The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn

This is the Read Your Face Off buddy read for October and I haven't gotten around to yet. #oops This will be my main priority during the readathon and I am excited to finally get to it because the folks in the book club are really seeming to like it! This book will fulfill Challenge #3 - Read a spooky horror/thriller novel and Challenge #6 - Buddy read a book.

This readathon also has a group book which I don't really plan on reading. I never tend to opt for group books during readathons for some reason? I don't know what it is. Because I'm not planning to read the group book, I won't be able to fulfill all 7 challenges (reading the group book is the final challenge), but my main focus for this readathon is to cram in some serious last minute reading this month. I am planning to vlog the week because we do have some fun things planned, so stay tuned for that to be posted next week! :)

Are you planning on participating in WitchAThon?

Finally Fall Book Tag!

I didn't have a video lined up for this week so I thought I would do an impromptu book tag! When I asked which one folks would like to see on Twitter, the majority of people voted for the Finally Fall Book Tag, originally created by Tall Tales. I really liked the prompts in this one so I'm happy that I took a moment to record this tag! I know this tag has been floating around for a long time, so if you haven't done it yet, consider yourself tagged! ;)
QUESTIONS

1. In fall, the air is crisp and clear: name a book with a vivid setting! 

2. Nature is beautiful… but also dying: name a book that is beautifully written, but also deals with a heavy topic like loss or grief. 

3. Fall is back to school season: share a non-fiction book that taught you something new. 

4. In order to keep warm, it’s good to spend some time with the people we love: name a fictional family/household/friend-group that you’d like to be a part of. 

5. The colorful leaves are piling up on the ground: show us a pile of fall-colored spines! 

6. Fall is the perfect time for some storytelling by the fireside: share a book wherein somebody is telling a story. 

7. The nights are getting darker: share a dark, creepy read. 

8. The days are getting colder: name a short, heartwarming read that could warm up somebody’s cold and rainy day. 

9. Fall (luckily, it’s my favorite season) returns every year: name an old favorite that you’d like to return to soon. 

10. Fall is the perfect time for cozy reading nights: share your favorite cozy reading “accessories”! 

11. Spread the autumn appreciation and tag some people!

Anybody Have a Map?

My feet got a running shoe upgrade this weekend! Brooks Launch 4 → Brooks Adrenaline GTS 18

Happy Wednesday, y'all! This last week has been much better than recent weeks past in terms of mental health. It's always good to appreciate the moments when you're feeling okay and I definitely appreciated that these last few days. While I haven't necessarily done anything too exciting, I've kind of (and by kind of, I mean REALLY) needed this down time to charge my batteries because I feel like I haven't had a chance to really rest my brain since I started job searching back in November. That's a long time feeling drained! I'm feeling like I'm seeing some light at the end of the tunnel of these really tough months and I hope it just continues on this path.

Pre-surgery Halloween-themed selfie

Brett had his surgery last Thursday and it went very well. He was taken into the OR around 3:15 and came out around an hour later. He came out of the anesthesia like a champ and had very minimal bruising and swelling. (He was even up for watching the newest episode of Jersey Shore when we got home that evening! #funfetticakenoooooo) The doctor didn't prescribe any pain meds to him which I was pretty surprised by, but he's been recovering so well with minimal discomfort and high spirits. He has a splint on his nose which he'll be getting off on Friday morning and we can finally put this whole debacle behind us!

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Over the weekend was the #ReadYourFaceOff 24 readathon where I was able to finish An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (highly recommend!) and also went on a bit of an impromptu shopping spree. I knew I needed to go buy new running shoes (pictured above!), but I also wanted to grab Brett some new button down shirts for a wedding we have coming up this Friday and wound up also snagging myself a new fall colored dress (which I still haven't tried on yet... oops) and snagged a sweet Gryffindor hoodie which I am so pumped I own. Not gonna lie, being in the most mainstream Hogwarts house has it's perks, like having the most merch to choose from!

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I know I'm like 2 years tardy to this party, but I've been getting really into the Dear Evan Hansen cast recording this week! It's one of those musicals where the music could easily be on the radio if you didn't know it was from a specific musical. I often question why I torture myself by listening to cast recordings because going to actually see the shows themselves will always be far out of my financial reach. D: I guess I'll just have to settle for the music and reading through the show synopses for now! :P


Another musical highlight from this past week is the "Trees" sketch from this week's SNL. I've gotten into the habit over the last couples weeks of watching SNL on Sundays and it's been kind of fun keeping up to date with the show instead of watching clips here and there as they pop up on my other social media feeds. Brett and I watched last week's episode before the Patriots game on Sunday night and this sketch was our favorite, hands down. It's just so dumb which is the kind of humor I can truly appreciate. We've been quoting it all week! XD

I've been doing a reading vlog this week because for whatever reason, I keep hating the vlogs I'm recording for #ReadYourFaceOff for the last couple of months and I wanted to make up for it in a way. I had Twitter help me decide my TBR for the week and folks picked 3 spooky books for me to choose from which y'all know I'm a big fan of. Here's what you can expect to see in the vlog, which should go up on my channel next week and will be cross posted here at the beginning of next month with my reading wrap up!

The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager

Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero

Misery by Stephen King

This weekend will be a 3 day weekend for me. I have Friday off for our friend's wedding, then nothing on the schedule for the weekend. I am shooting to run 18 miles this weekend (probably for #SundayRunday). My 16 mile long run this past weekend went really well so I'm hoping that 18 will be okay as well. After that it's time to taper before the big race in November! I'm hoping running around on the hills of my town over the last few months will be a big advantage when taking on the nice flat course in Richmond. We shall see!

LINKS I LOVED THIS WEEK

Quirky Husky Loves To Do Flips from The Dodo

Some dogs just want to watch the world burn from Dog Addict

18 Hilarious Posts That'll Make You See "Harry Potter" In A Whole New Light from Buzzfeed

21 Dogs Who Will Sleep Wherever They Damn Well Please from Buzzfeed

Finished the Book Tag!

It's been a LONG time since I've done a book tag, and recently Alyssa at Books and Cats tagged me in the Finished the Book Tag, originally created by Headless Reader! I was psyched to get tagged because I honestly forgot that book tags are options for video ideas. XD This tag really talks about what I do when it comes to finishing books and discussing things like star ratings, statistics, and reviews. Hopefully one of those things piques your interest and you enjoy the video!
QUESTIONS

1. Do you keep a list of the books you have read?

2. If you record stats, what stats do you record?

3. Do you give star ratings for books and if so, what do you score books out of and how do you come about this score?

4. Do you review books?

5. Where do you put your finished books?

6. How do you pick your next book?

7. Do you have any other rituals for when you have finished a book?

8. Who do you tag?

Ups & Downs

This last week has had some major ups and downs. I've been struggling more than normal with my mental health lately and I don't know what it is. I keep looking to find reasons, but I'm coming up short at this point. I'm trying to be super gentle with myself, though, and focus on what I can control. It's just been hard to escape the cycle of my bed and ignoring all the things I want to accomplish when I get home in the evening. It's hard for me to be okay with that, so I'm trying to strike a balance and cope the best way I can, but it's been tough. I know it's a downer, but I think it's important to be up front and real with you all. I know I'm not the only one that is struggling in the world, and maybe someone reading this will feel comforted knowing they're not alone.

I've also been weirdly been dealing with this sore throat/croaky voice for the last few days. I woke up with this raspy voice on Saturday out of no where and it has progressed into a cough/sore throat situation. Not sure what's happening because I feel fine otherwise (no other cold symptoms, just the throat... >_>), so hopefully it's just a passing thing. Not trying to get sick!

Now that I've gotten the major negatives out of the way, let's focus on the positives the last week has brought which include:

1. RUNNING!

Joined a new running club over the long weekend 🏃🏻‍♀️

A post shared by Riley (@rmfickfack) on Oct 9, 2018 at 9:46am PDT

Now that I've deferred my Newport Marathon registration to 2019, I've been feeling super motivated to go out on more runs! Over the weekend I logged a total of 20.2 miles across two days (6.2 on Saturday, 14 on Sunday) and I felt great after each run, albeit pretty sore after #SundayRunday. I will say that I am SO glad I opted to defer my Newport registration because there's honestly no way I would have made it 26.2 miles. My legs were DEAD after 9 miles so, as I predicted, I don't think Newport would have been fun at all. I am really looking forward to Richmond, though (and now I'm officially registered!), and I'm aiming to do a 16 mile day this weekend!

2. READING!

Since we're once again in ~spooky season~ I've been really eager to read through some spooky books! I've somehow already flown through 4 books (admittedly, only one spooky so far, but we're working on it!) and am in the middle of a handful of others. I just started Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero on Monday and I haven't quite gotten into it yet, but I did start An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green last night and I have been loving it! I'm about 50 pages in as of writing this post and I cannot wait to pick it back up. I'm so happy that I always have books to count on as a resource of comfort.

3. LETTING MYSELF LAUGH AT DUMB INTERNET MEMES ALL DAY!

Because honestly it's the only way I get through the pain of how messy the country is these days. #ironicdetachment (but in all seirousness, vote on November 6th, k thanks). 

Side note: have y'all been watching Shane Dawson's Jake Paul series? What have you though about it so far? I know there's a lot of criticism on how he's handling the subject matter, but I honestly think he and Andrew (lol I use their first names like they're my friends) are doing a fantastic job. They're doing something that you rarely, if ever, see on YouTube and are basically single-handedly (is it still "single-handedly" if there's two people?) changing the game and raising the standard. There's a link to a great video at the bottom of this post that explains this a bit more and I think it's a unique perspective to keep in mind as the series continues to release. If anything else, the series is entertaining AF and I'm having a great time watching it. Especially this part:

LMFAOOO this part sentttt meee😭😭🤣🤣🤣🤭😩😩 pic.twitter.com/SEjTU45y2V

— Logyn🕊 (@LniallerV) October 3, 2018

4. BRETT!♥

Honestly Brett has been such an amazing support these last few weeks while my mental health ha taken a bit of a turn. I know he's super busy with work and he's dealing with his own stress, but he's making me feel loved and supported and less alone through this time which has been so incredible. I feel really lucky that he's by my side. 

Speaking of Brett, his surgery for his nose is tomorrow. We're hoping for a speedy and safe procedure and recovery, and we're ready (Brett is ESPECIALLY ready) to put this all behind us! I'll keep y'all updated on how everything goes.

This upcoming weekend is #ReadYourFaceOff October! Woop woop! It's always fun to participate in RYFO every month and really take time to focus on reading and nothing else. I do have to bring my car in for an oil change on Saturday and, like I mentioned earlier, I want to run 16 miles, but other than that I just want to read and spend time with Brett and the dogs. That's all I ever want to do! :P

LINKS I LOVED THIS WEEK

I thought I'd start sharing a list of links that I'm a fan of every week, both to share with you all but also to keep a bit of a record of the things I'm loving/thinking about from week to week. These could include articles, blog posts, podcasts, videos.... really anything! I'll put this section at the end of each Wednesday Life Update post so you'll know where to find them. :)

8 Realities of Marathon Training from Relentless Forward Commotion

What I Learned About Love, I Learned from My Dog from Wedding Woof

Punch Up the Jam Episode 39 - Misery Business

How Shane Dawson Reinvented Collabs (And Paid The Price For It) from Andrei Terbea