After my meltdown, we fell into our daily routine of waking, eating breakfast, beaching and relaxing and things took a turn for the better; like 180° better. We were on vacation in beautiful Turks and Caicos and we had a bunch of activities to look forward to for the remainder of the week.
It typically takes me a couple of days to fully unwind because I'm such a schedule-oriented person but this vacation, because it was short and I had Kayla to tend to, I thought to hell with it, vacay mode starts now. So I mentally checked out, tossed my internal schedule out the window and went with the flow. The only thing we stuck to was Kayla's 1pm nap and this was just so we could stay out later (past her regular 7:45/8pm bedtime) to enjoy the festivities, shows and parades.
I made a promise to myself that during this vacation, I would read at least one book. My co-worker graciously lent me his Kindle so it was easy for me to load up a few books to take with me on this trip. Not only did I read one book but four - yes, four - in one week. There's a lot of reading that can be done if you have a husband who loves to frolick in the sand and ocean as much as a 2 year old child.
I started The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (non-fiction) a few months ago but due to work and having fun with Kayla, it fell by the wayside. I'm glad I started re-reading this because it's an excellent book. It had everything to do with science, technology, history and a little bit of conspiracy theory mixed in - you know, all the makings of a fantastic book I'm too lazy to write a review but it was a great read. Click here for a review/synopsis of the book.
Yes, I read the Brangelina story not because I wanted to, but because it was already loaded on the Kindle. If you want to judge someone, judge my co-worker. I skimmed through a lot of parts and only read the details about how Angelina is a mastermind at manipulating the media, how screwed up she was as a kid and young adult and how she stole Brad Pitt. If you were thinking of reading it, I just gave you the meat of the book so save your money.
I have to say, I was truly impressed by the Devil Wears Prada. This was one of those books where I'd heard great things about it, tried to read it but after a few chapters, put it down with utter boredom. Because I was running out of options and I had to read something, I forced myself to get through the boring parts and I'm glad I did because this is actually a very good book. Hilarious, even and a page-turner after chapter 3. I could barely put this down.
The City of Bones. Not usually my cup of tea but I thought I'd give this a try after hearing good things about the series. At first, it was a little slow and my impatient personality tossed it aside and deemed it unreadable but again, due to limited reading options, I kept at it then could barely put it down after the 3rd chapter. I'm now reading the 2nd book.
So with all this reading, how did I tend to my daughter, you ask? It's called letting my husband do the heavy lifting. While hubs is great at splitting the child-rearing tasks, I tend to take most of it on because, well, I just do. This time around, he fed her, helped bathed her, even put her to bed most nights and you know what? it felt great to let go of the reigns for a bit and really relax.