May Wrap Up

Illustration by Ana de Lima

 

May was a month with some surprises for me. My principal asked me to apply for an instructional coach position at my school, and after an interview in which many things went wrong, I actually got the job. This would be a promotion for me. I wouldn't have students anymore, I'd be leading teachers and writing curriculum instead. The tough part is that I don't have the education that is technically required for the job. My principal had to get special permission for me to be appointed to the position with the promise that I would complete a master's degree in remedial reading and language arts over the course of the next two years. It's not completely set in stone yet, but it looks like this is really happening. It it all goes to plan, my life would drastically change in the next few months. I would have to start juggling graduate school with performing a completely new job with a lot of responsibilities. The scary thing is that I think I am up for the challenge. I haven't had a lot to work towards lately and I've felt a bit aimless. This would certainly change that and put me on a track to make a lot more money eventually. It could be big for me, if it becomes official. So, needless to say, I've had a lot to think about this May.

Despite all the excitement though, my reading stayed consistent. I continued my 100-pages-a-day streak and finished nine books, totaling 3,588 pages. I enjoyed most things I read, but unlike last month where I found several new favorites, this month had one book that clearly stood out from the rest. Here is everything I read: 

Storm of Echoes by Christelle Dabos (4 stars)

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim (4 stars)

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett (4 stars)

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater (3 stars)

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater (3 stars)

Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater (3 stars)

The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater (3 stars)

The Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly Barnhill (5 stars)

The Mysterious Disappearance of Aidan S. by David Levithan (4 stars)

My favorite read of the month was definitely The Ogress and the Orphans, which was an incredibly sweet and goodhearted story. I loved the themes of kindness and neighborliness, and I loved how the magic of reading was a big part of the story. It made my all-time favorites list. 

My least favorite reads of the month were the Raven Cycle books, a young adult urban fantasy series that I just couldn't get into. I read all four books, and had to combine them all into one review because they just flowed together in my head and I couldn't remember enough details to differentiate between them. They were well-written and everything, I just didn't find them all that interesting.

I only hauled one book this month, which is an amazing show of restraint for me. I saw that Kelly Barnhill had an adult book coming out, and I loved The Ogress and the Orphans so much that I had to pick it up.

When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill (fantasy, physical book)

I donated quite a few books this month: Miracle Creek, The Grace Year, The Raven Boys, The Dream Thieves, Blue Lily, Lily Blue, The Raven King, and The Mysterious Disappearance of Aidan S. A total of seven books left my shelves.

I need to be more strategic about my reading list for June than usual. I would dearly love to continue my 100-pages-a-day reading streak, but I have a lot going on this month. I have a school fieldtrip, my birthday, and a week-long trip home to Florida. I have to pick some books that are easy to read and will be good to travel with. Here's what I'm going to attempt:

Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips

Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger

Violets Are Blue by Barbara Dee

The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy by Anne Ursu

A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire

Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire

Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire

In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire

Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire

Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire

Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire

This is more books than usual, but the Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire are all novellas and should only take one or two days each to read. The rest of the books on there are either on the short side, middle grades, or young adult fiction, which I usually am able to move through quickly. On a positive note, if I finish all the Wayward Children books, I will have officially finished my Finally in 2022 Challenge a full six months early.

I did still work on my physical reading journal this month, but not as much as I would have wanted to again. I'm still working on the timing on that one. I doubt I'm going to improve on this much during June, since I have a lot happening then, but maybe July will be better.

For my non-reading activities, things have been going well. I have just three sections left on the diamond painting that I have been working on for several months now. I was more into my jigsaw puzzles this month, so I slowed down on it. I will finish that in June.

The first puzzle I finished in May was the 1000 piece "Coffee Talk" from Piecework Puzzles. This puzzles was a lot of fun to put together. It had these thick, velvety pieces that I mentioned loving last month, and the image was cute and relatively easy to put together. The only thing that went wrong was the fact that it was missing a piece up in the top left corner. I contacted Piecework about getting a replacement piece, and they said they don't do that. They did, however, send me a whole other puzzle for free, which was amazing customer service. 

My next puzzle was the Jane Austen-themed "Pride and Puzzlement" from Potter Puzzles. This one was 1000 pieces and came together quickly because it had so many distinct sections. The floral border, however, did take a little while.

Next, I completed the 500 piece "Cool as a Cucumber" from Pezel Puzzles, a new company that I am really exited about. Their first collection features all these cute, pun types of images. I couldn't help myself when I saw them and bought the whole launch collection, so I'll be making several more of these in the future. They have the velvety pieces too, and the pieces come in a cloth zippered bag, which I love.   

The last puzzle I finished was a 1000 piece image from Blanc Puzzles. This was relatively easy to put together and the image was striking. The only tough part was the dark sky at the top. There is some color variation up there to help, but when the pieces were separate in the box, they all looked very similar to me. I had to separate by piece type and just guess and check to make it through. It all came together in the end though.

As usual, I watched a whole lot of movies and TV shows throughout the month. We rewatched Clue, which is one of my husband's favorite movies, so that's always a good time. We also saw the new Dr. Strange movie, which was pretty entertaining, and Top Gun Maverick, which was surprisingly good. Of course, before we saw that, my husband made me watch the original Top Gun movie, which I had never seen. I thought it was pretty terrible, so I was shocked by how much I enjoyed the new one. As for series, we finally finished the first season of Yellow Jackets, which I thought was good, but very slow. We also watched Season 43 of Survivor, which I really enjoyed because I loved the winner.

I've been making steady progress on my ukulele too. I learned Bad Habits by Ed Sheeran, Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond, and finally mastered a few older songs I've been playing around with for a while - Dream a Little Dream of Me and Ain't Misbehavin'. I've been continuing to work on a bunch of Disney songs too, because I can't help myself. In particular, Cruella DeVil has become a new favorite to play. I'm finally getting to a place where I'm mastering some of the chords I've been struggling with, so I feel like I'm actually making some progress with my playing. I've still got a lot to learn, but I'm getting there.

The other activity that took up some time this month was applying for grad school. I've decided that I'm going to go ahead and get my masters whether this new job works out or not, so I applied to the program at the school where my husband teaches. I had to call around to my past colleges to order transcripts, no small thing due to my intense and nonsensical phone anxiety, and I also had to write an essay. I'm just waiting on transcripts to arrive there now before the process can move forward.

So that's pretty much everything I did in May. My June will be busy, but hopefully fun too. Summer break will finally start and I'll be going home to visit, which should bring some much needed relaxation into my life. All I have to do now is make it to the end of school. The last day here is literally on my birthday, which is terrible, but also a great gift when you think about it. We'll see how it all goes.