I Have a Confession...

{I've been reading romance novels.}

It's true. It all started about this time last year when Morgan recommended I read 50 Shades of Gray. You can read my review here.

And then this fall Megan from The Book Asylum contacted me to work with her on a new blog design and I started connecting with other book bloggers. {isn't her new design fun?}

After meeting Natasha from Natasha Is a Book Junkie I realized that there is a whole world of book bloggers out there who aren't the least bit ashamed of reading romance. I spent weeks unconsciously soaking up racy reviews while redesigning Natasha's blog. She had a few book recommendations & I'm loving them!

I'm still treading lightly in the world of romance, and will never give up my love of novels, but it's been great to explore a new genre. And to be honest, between working fulltime and designing partime a book has to really grab my attention to beat out the TV or playing a game on my iPad at the end of the day.

Happy Twenty13!

I finally feel like I'm settling in to America. That only took 5 months.

Reverse culture shock is real, yo.

In this post I talked about how I'd order the wrong thing at Starbucks because I felt rushed. It seemed like everywhere I went there were too many choices, and things cost way too much money.

need this 

I don't know how single-income families make it these days! Especially in an expensive state like California. I'm baffled at how quickly my paycheck disappears each month, and the latest tax hike didn't help matters. Even living in a teeny apartment with no car payments we are still scrimping every month. Maybe it has something to do more with being a med-student's wife, but I doubt it.

It's still nice to be back in the U.S. of A.

I must admit that I'm loving the convenience of being in America. A short list of things I appreciate more after living in Dominica:

1. the dishwasher
2. real cat boxes & litter
3. Target
4. reliable internet
5. owning a car
6. Starbucks
7. ziplock bags

If anyone still reads this blog, thanks for hanging in there. There are plenty of adventures left to be had.

How are YOU Doing?

XO and cheers to Twenty13!

Free Holiday Facebook Covers from PDS

Do you ever get the "creation" bug? A need to just sit down and make something just for fun? I do. I recently made myself a new Facebook timeline cover and I had so many ideas that I ended up creating a handful to share.

I've posted them over at Priceless Design Studio along with simple instructions for downloading. There's a sneak peek below!

California Girl

If you've been following this adventure, I'm sure you are curious where exactly it is that I'm living now. Since returning from Dominica I've been in the north-eastern part of Southern California.

SoCal is huge guys and if you aren't from the West Coast you may not realize that when people say they are from "LA" they really mean "Greater Los Angeles," which is made of 3 densely populated counties.

Southern California is geographically larger than England. {Wikipedia said so.}

But in one of those moments when you realize that the world is actually a little smaller than it seems, my dear friend Stacy and I discovered that I'm actually living in her and her husband's first apartment. Like, the actual unit! I knew this was the same complex as I was apartment hunting but with over 200 units what are the chances we'd end up in the same one?

Back in August, this same friend and her husband offered me a room in their home while I job-hunted, found, and saved for said apartment. Their kindness and generosity is a true  blessing, and something that I am incredibly grateful for.

So, for now, California is home once again.

I'm Alive.

Have I ever mentioned my perfectionist tendencies here on the blog? Even if I haven't, maybe you've noticed, or you know me well enough to know that I can't do anything half-assed or half-way. Honestly, I usually won't even start something unless I think that I'm going to do well at it.

What does this have to do with blogging?

I've thought about sitting down to write about a dozen times in the last month, but I just haven't made it happen. Probably because I know that I simply won't have time to make the post awesome.

I've gotten quite a few sweet emails and encouraging tweets from blog friends who say that they just want to hear from me. You guys make my day.

So, here I am :) Life lately has been a whirlwind. It's hard to believe that I've been back in the states for over two months and working for 6 weeks. I'm so lucky to be working at a job I LIKE!

Isn't my office set-up ridiculous? The photos are kinda crummy, but you get the idea. My work laptop is essentially floating above the desk! And having that extra monitor space is amazing.

It's been a big adjustment getting used to working fulltime again, after two years of not. I completely forgot how working sort of takes over your week days. In fact, I made you a little pie chart of a typical work day.

That "everything else" little chunk is where blogging goes. And if I can't make that piece any larger then I've decided that I need to lower my expectations of what a perfect post looks like here at Priceless Adventure. The truth is that writing is good for my soul, and if that means shorter 30 minute posts then that is what I need to do.

Thanks for sticking with me while I figure this whole thing out!

Any tips on managing a full-time job + blogging?