What’s Making Me Happy {5}
Birthday week has now come and gone.
And, normally I dread my birthday but this one was actually really good and without a lot of angsting around about time and getting older. There was a bit of OMG WHAT AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE, but I think that’s probably par for the course at this age.
However, there are some things that made me happier than a bird with a french fry this week.
1. NOOK TABLET, YO.
I got a Nook Tablet for my birthday! I am so fancy now!
2. Nook Tablet Cover
I went to a local B&N to buy a cover for my precious Nook, and turns out the Kate Spade covers were 75% off. The color options were OMG I HURT YOUR EYES I’M SO PINK and black. So I went with black. I have decided it’s chic and not boring.
3. Dolce & Gabbana Frames
This next thing is both happy and sad. Because. I actually really need new glasses frames. But my stupid health insurance through work doesn’t cover vision. So these frames are, like, $200 at discount websites. And I just can’t afford them right now. So. Le sigh. BUT LOOK AT THEM. THEY ARE SO HAPPY.
4. 21 Jump Street
I can’t believe I’m actually including this here, but so it goes. My dear friend Nigel (who, btw, told me last night that he interviewed FRAN KRANZ—Topher Brink from Dollhouse— this week. *dies*) talked me into seeing 21 Jump Street. And you guys. It is hilarious. Like, really really funny. I recommend it.
5. GAME OF THRONES STARTS TONIGHT.
JON SNOW JON SNOW JON SNOW. WILL BE ON MY TV. YES.
And those are the things that are making me happy this week.
I hope y’all have all enjoyed your weeks. And that you get thee to the nearest HBO-subscribing place you know of and watch Game of Thrones tonight.
What I’m Writing: Distractions, Author ADD, and Goal-Setting
You know those weeks where you have a birthday and then your mom comes to town and you all of a sudden have a bunch of new clothes that you don’t need so you feel like you should go through your closet and give things away so that you can feel better about the acquisition of clothes you don’t really need? And, oh yeah, you basically subsist on coffee and cereal?
That has been my week.
I have done very little writing.
And I have plans this weekend (filming a commercial for the grad program I was in—which should be hilarious—and going to a giant author signing and Game of Thrones is starting up again.)
All of which means that I need to do some serious goal setting for myself when it comes to finishing my current WIP.
ESPECIALLY because while I was in yoga on Thursday night, in a particularly intense downward dog variation (the one where you put your foot up in the air so that you’re doing a standing split and then you bend the leg that’s in the air and stack your hips on top of each other. That sounds crazy, I know. But it’s what I was doing.) in which I was sweating profusely and trying to keep my hands from slipping so that I didn’t fall on my face, I all of a sudden had a FULL ON OUTLINE for a new book pop in my head.
Which just isn’t fair at all.
Because now I’m basically obsessed with this character and her story and I want to tell is SO BADLY. But that would be bad news bears for my darling Willa and Dan, who are so so so close to having their story finished.
SO CLOSE, Y’ALL.
Which brings us back to the goal setting. My friend Farrah, who is very fancy because she has a literary agent and also because she is just very fancy, wrote a blog post about goal setting this week, which I thought was very apropos for my life. (Because obviously Farrah wrote it with me in mind. *rolls eyes at own ego*) And basically. I just need to buckle down. Instead of getting home from work and marathoning six episodes of Supernatural while staring at my WIP and writing maybe thirty words, I need to get myself out of my bedroom and away from the temptation that is Sam and Dean Winchester, and take myself down to the local Starbucks that inexplicably does not have Wifi, and write there.
And hope that I don’t get distracted by the people in the coffee shop.
So I think that is my goal for this next week: I will go write at Starbucks three times this week. If I continue with that pattern for the next couple weeks, hopefully I will be DONE DONE DONE with the drafting of Willa and Dan’s story. *thunderclap*
Hopefully next week I will have been much more productive and will have MANY THINGS to report.
TGIF: Book Blogger Retreat
It’s Friday! It’s Friday! It’s Friday of the longest week eveeeeeerrrrrrr! 
But this weekend holds heaps of good things, one of which is VERY BOOKISH in nature and allows me to see Miss Jamie of Perpetual Page-Turner. And a whole bunch of YA authors. Which is always a happy thing.
Also, being filed in the happy category is Ginger of GReadsBooks‘s question of the week:
Book Blogger Retreat: If you could gather up a handful of book blogger friends to spend a weekend away talking books, where would you go? Tell us about it.
As much as I want this answer to be someplace exotic and warm and beachy, or on the flip side, European and full of adventure and foreign accents and pastries, I think my honest answer is . . . Arkansas.
University of Arkansas campus
I know it seems underwhelming, but. Y’all. Arkansas is legit. I grew up there and love it dearly. And the area I’m from in AR is gorgeous and fun and CHEAP. Seriously. You can take $15 with you when you go out drinking and be in a GOOD PLACE by the end of the night.
And while it’s always a good time to go out and drink and act ridiculous, I think what would be the best is renting a cabin or a house somewhere by the lake, stocking up on junk food and wine, making the dress code pajamas-only, and just hanging out for the weekend chatting about books and Friday Night Lights and boys and life.
It would be the best weekend ever. And, actually, I think that I would have a great time with book blogger friends ANYWHERE we decided to go, be in a cabin in the woods or a swanky hotel room we all have to cram into so that we can afford it. Because friends + books + wine = all things good and holy.
Words of Wisdom for Your Wednesday
And Now I’m 25.
Today I turn 25.
And while I’m very excited to start this new year in my life, leaving 24 behind is a little bittersweet. It’s been a tumultuous year, but one that is definitely for the books.
So, to properly bid adieu to 24, I put together a little Year in Review of my favorite moments.
There are many more great memories from this past year, including hanging out with friends Barbara, Dan, Melissa, and Courtney who all came to NYC to visit, or me going to DC/Connecticut/Arkansas to get out of the crazy city I live in for a change of pace. I loved seeing Josh Ritter TWICE in concert and Andrew Bird for FREE in Prospect Park with my sister this past summer, going to the opera with my friend Kelly, and splurging on Broadway shows and then splitting dessert afterward because none of us had enough money after the show to afford our own desserts.
But, some of the really great memories are the little things—crashing on my friend’s couch to wake up and fine that it had snowed overnight, going on a terrible road trip due to my insane lack of direction even WITH a GPS and finding a route that is absolutely gorgeous, buying a tea kettle with my mom and my first piece of furniture by myself. And meeting many, many awesome authors who have given great advice and endless motivation to so many young writers, myself included.
So, here’s to the year I was 24. *raises glass* (You better raise one too. Because it’s my birthday and I am telling you to drink.)
Now I get to look forward to all the things 25 will bring my way!
25th Birthday Dinner with Friends
Bethany Larson 
