Book Juggling

Imagine that literally?

In this case, I'm talking about being in the middle of reading multiple books at a time. This is a thing that I do. My average is 3 books at a time.

Why exactly I do this is because I have different moods for what I'm reading. Sometimes I just really want to breeze through a mindless chick lit novel while other times I am so down for complicated subplots and dragons. There are even times when the main character of a book will just be annoying me too much and I will set that book down and pick up another because there is never a shortage of books in my house.

Another reason that just popped into my head is convenience. I am the kind of person that will just start a new book if the one I was reading at the time was in my room and I was on the couch. This way, I can just leave a book in all my reading locations and not have to wonder where I set it down last. You could come into my house and find a book on the kitchen table, beside my bed, on the floor near the couch, in my backpack and even sometimes in the bathroom.

It almost feels weird to only have one book on the go but that rarely happens anyway. There's nothing worse than not knowing what to do with yourself once you've finished a book so being in the middle of two other stories makes the brain shift that much easier. Just as long as no characters have the same name, it's quite simple to keep everything straight in my head.

Question: what are your book reading habits? Are you a big book juggler? Do you have any weird reading locations? Please share in the comments!

Reasons It's Good To Have A Messy Room

Instead of cleaning my room, like I should be doing, I have decided to use my time to make a post about why it's actually a good thing to have a messy* room. Makes sense. Maybe this is my teenage rebellion. Never really had one of those so I guess I'm due.

*Now, by "messy" I mean clothes a little all over the place and an unmade bed and random paper everywhere. I don't mean anything gross like food and garbage everywhere and all that extreme stuff.

1. It's a time saver. If you have to put every single thing away, all the time, it takes up your time to do that. To make sure your floor is completely spotless, your bed is made and everything in its place is a lot of effort that you can spend doing other things. (Yes, I know there are arguments on the other side of this one but we're just going to ignore them because that is not the point I am trying to make.)

2. Natural parkour course. You may laugh but it's true! Coming home and trying to get into your bed but having to avoid piles of papers and a random box you have out is no easy feat. There is a lot of jumping and balance required. This is not only fun but also improves agility and foot-eye coordination.

3. It's more "you". Seriously, you don't want your room to look like it just came out of an IKEA magazine. By having your collection of paint samples or all the make up you use on a regular basis out in the open, you give your room personality and make it your own.

4. Improves memory. It's like having all your contacts saved on your phone. Do you actually know your best friend's number or do you just know what button to press on your cellular device? That's the same with having a spot for certain things in your room. You won't even think, you don't even have to turn on your brain to find whatever you're looking for. Now if it's just ~somewhere~ you'll have to recall where you last saw it or what you were doing while you had it to discover its location. A great workout for the mind!

Once your read all these arguments, there is no way you could go back to having a regular ol' cleaned up living space, it's inconceivable!

(EDITOR'S NOTE: You don't even know how much I died laughing alone in my room while writing this. If I could have a job that involved thinking up plausible reasons for dumb things, I would die happy and so pleased with myself.)

The Best Kind of Babysitting

You know what seriously is the best? Night babysitting. You get there around 7 and the kid(s) are either already asleep or your sole job is to send them into dreamland.

It rocks when they're already asleep because then you just get to chill in someone else's home on the off chance that the child wakes up. Most parents are super nice and offer you the run of their internet, TV and kitchen which is totally ok by me.

And when all you have to do is but them to bed, it's not bad at all. Speaking for myself here, I'm not that good at thinking up ways to entertain kids so unless they're the type with the overactive imagination that turns everything into a game or the quiet one that likes to amuse themselves I have to work hard to always keep the kid busy. That said, when I know that I need to get them in bed and sleeping, all I have to do is follow the steps to make sure that happens. We put pyjamas on, we brush our teeth, we read a story and then the light goes off. Sure, some kids don't want to sleep but it's easy to wear them out or just be firm about it.

Side Note: Another amazing thing when you are a babysitter is having the kids recognize you and love having you around. Seriously, them jumping around and hugging you when you arrive has to be the best welcome ever.

My Ears Kind Of Love Me Right Now

This is me right now.

So I just added about 30 new songs to my ipod and am in heaven right now. I listen to music pretty much all the time - walking to and from school, while doing homework, when running, before going to bed, while I'm having conversations with other people - so the songs I have end up getting pretty overplayed after a while.

But since I'm a lazy person, I will jot down songs that I discover - on scraps of paper, on my hand, on the notes app in my phone, on my sister's forehead - but not take the time to find them and load them to my music listening device.

So I'll be going about my life, with music, obviously, and then my brain will be like "I NEED TO LISTEN TO THAT SONG THAT WAS REALLY GOOD THAT WE DISCOVERED 3 WEEKS AGO" and I'll be like "cool beans, let me just find it in my ipod... wait. oops, haven't added it yet, sorry man."

^Yes, I have conversations with my brain. Yes, in these conversations my brain talks in caps lock and I talk in lowercase letters.

So this is why I feel pretty darn near euphoric when I talk the time to get every single one of those songs on my ipod and can listen to them whenever I want.

If anyone's interested in the songs, you can ask in the comments and I'll happily oblige!