I'm behind. It's my fault (obviously...who else would it be?). I've also got to transfer pictures from my camera and do upkeep. I'm just behind, which is the story of my life. You'd think with work being nonexistent I'd get more stuff done but alas. 

Macy's Beauty Box costs $15 (including shipping) and there's usually a $5 or $10-off card included for shopping in the beauty department. At the moment, Macy's has halted their boxes due to the Covid-19. I hope they start up again but I understand why the program is stopped. Sephora had a similar box (which I had petty issues with on it's own) which they've stopped for one time purchases. 

The sad thing about Macy's stopping their boxes (besides the pandemic, of course) is that May's box was going to be a Jo Malone box. That's exciting. I don't have any Jo Malone products, so I hope that starts up again when it's safe. For purely selfish reasons (I wanna try Jo Malone!). 

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I've been able to read some again. I had to stop watching the news for the most part (like, the 24/7 news cycle) because it just makes me anxious. I've been working on cleaning out my house. I still have tons of stuff that I just inherited and stuff from previous moves.  The goal is a house clean out since no one can see my getting rid of all the junk they gave me since we're all supposed to be in quarantine! So this past week I took out all my books to be read and re-read and moved them into one large pile.

So I can officially say that I have a book hoarding problem. I have managed to read fifteen books since the quarantine officially started. I've made a tiny dent! 

I've also quit the Junior League. I just couldn't suffer through another year. I think if you meet people through it where you become friends that it's probably so much fun. I met a lot of people who were okay but I didn't connect with them. The people I did connect with...quit earlier. I think I'll probably just volunteer with other places and work on finding people to jam with through other ways. I just couldn't pay for another year and then go sustainer (and pay for that). I don't have enough energy with work, migraine and the house for a group where I wasn't meshing. 

I picked this book up from my local indie because I thought it seemed fun, had a lovely cover and dealt with a more lighthearted plot. There's no murder in this (like my normal type of book) and it's more familial issues with a contemporary love story. I thought it was okay but had a few issues with the plot and characters. I usually don't love hyped books (this one was fits that category in my opinion) and sometimes it's hard to figure out if the book is actually good when it has the marketing push behind it. This was better than the last hyped book I read, but it was a solid three star for me (3* = okay). 

Macy's has a beauty subscription box, which costs $15. It comes with deluxe samples (around five I think, although sometimes six) and either a bag or a beauty item. December had a really well made sparkly bag and November had a really hefty mirror. A gift card for either $5 or $10 off a beauty purchase at Macy's is also included. 

There's a wait list at the moment, so I don't know how fast/slow it is. I don't remember there being one when I signed up. 

Also, Macy's is having a bit of sale. So, fun times. 

Well, it's still a mess out there. I'm starting my quarantine over (I had to go to the grocery store yesterday) to be on the safe side...so day one! It's still not widespread in my area but to be fair...there aren't many tests (and it takes a long time to get results back) so I suppose the information I'm receiving is from two or so weeks ago. 

I'm focusing on work (which has mostly collapsed) and cleaning my house. I haven't been able to sit still to watch new TV shows, although my friend has been pushing me to watch Tiger King on Netflix. Also, I still haven't seen Miss Fisher's new movie. I think I need to stop reading so much of the news, it's all anxiety-inducing for me. 

Reading has also been much slower, mostly because of the inability to sit still and relax. I'm in the process of reading three books, Emma (the annotated version) by Jane Austin, The Highwayman by Kerrigan Byrne (the first chapter isn't doing much for me but I have hope) and The Impersonator by Mary Miley. Maybe I can swing through those soon. 

I just finished Ayoade on Top by Richard Ayoade. I enjoy Ayoade's humor and he was promoting this on Graham Norton's show so I ordered it (from the UK) and it's adorable. Adorkable? Mostly, it's intelligently sarcastic, witty and has a grammatically correct triple apostrophe. Be still my heart. If you're trying to determine where you've seen Ayoade, he's been in several TV shows, directed some movies, written a few books, appeared on panel shows, is currently hosting a game show in the UK AND played Moss on the IT Crowd. 

I think because my anxiety is so high I haven't really sat down to make this week's posts. I'm all over the place on it. So, instead, I thought I would show some of the YA books I enjoyed (but passed on to teachers). I wouldn't normally go into a longer post about them but hey, maybe I should do shorter posts anyways.