#Discussion: End of Year Wrap Up

Welcome to the end of 2019!

I wasn't originally going to do these types of posts, especially since I am doing Stacking the Shelves posts. However, I want to update on my reading goals, favourite reads, etc. etc. There are categories below and you can see them there.

I did a Quarterly Wrap-Up for Science Fiction and Fantasy Fridays so let me know which format of these you prefer since I'm trying out a couple different ways of doing that.

Read the original 2019 Reading Goals post!

See how I did in the first quarter of the year by clicking here!

See how I did in the second quarter of the year by clicking here!

See how I did in the third quarter of the year by clicking here!

Reading Goal Progress

2019 Overall Goal: 110/100 Books
Page Count: 32,757/108,000
NetGalley eARCs: 5/55 Books
Adult Novels: 56/75 Books
Diverse Novels: 40/75 Books
Poetry Collections: 18/50 Books
"Outside" My Comfort Zone: 19/30 Books

My Progress Thoughts:

This year was a whirlwind. I started off the year strong with reading, blogging, and instagram, but slowly tapered off. Partly because I got busy at work and other life stuff and partly because I didn't have the energy. But this last quarter I only read two (2!!!!) books because so much of my life changed and adjusted and I just didn't have the time, energy, or mental capacity to do both. I was still doing beta reading and other freelance work but I wasn't focusing on the blog.

I thought about taking a hiatus, but I love the creative outlet that the blog gives me so I'm definitely not going anywhere any time soon. But I think I may change some of my focus going into 2020.

So what happened?

Well, first of all, I quit my job at the City of Windsor and took a job in Toronto! Which was a huge step for me both career wise (and financial wise). I moved into a managerial position and into consulting so that was big. Plus once I found out about the job, I asked my boyfriend to move with me and he said yes, so we had to figure all that out.

So that transition triggered me moving to Guelph. The cost of living in the Greater Toronto Area is ridiculous and even with my pay increase, we had a hard time finding a place for us to live that was in our price range. We are really lucky though. We have a brand new condo that we are renting and starting to make our own.

Part of what I plan on doing next year is to do more styling/home decor posts so that you can see how I'm styling and also because it has become a larger part of my life (and what I enjoy doing!). Fun fact about me: I almost went to school to become an interior designer.

But Jamie, you're thinking, you have a job in Toronto but live in Guelph. What is the commute like? Long. It's almost 2 hours each way every day on transit. I plan on using this time in the new year to listen to audiobooks and podcasts but right now I'm using it for ... sleep.

So all of this started in October and it's now January 2nd. In between, I apartment hunted, lived in AirBnBs, and then moved. All of that together was just too much to continue reading at the same capacity and so I had to focus on my work, which meant that my blogging went to the wayside.

Another reason for that is my boyfriend is not very social media friendly (aka he has a facebook profile he doesn't use and that's it) so I have been trying to keep things off social media related to our relationship and him in general. Which means I've changed my relationship with social media too. But I'm not mad about it.

Then just as we were getting settled, I started working a second job over the holidays for online/remote customer service. So I was working basically two full time jobs. Which meant I didn't have time to do ... well, anything. Our apartment didn't get unpacked and I didn't read and we were both a little stressed.

But now things are starting to settle down because I have a full week off before I have to go back to work (although it's not a full week now). We have all our boxes unpacked so now it's just about decorating and styling (which I want to share some of that with you!).

I also got a cat, named Pepper, but if you follow me on Twitter or Instagram, you definitely know that because all I do is post pictures of her.

So that felt like a bunch of excuses but I wanted to let you know what was going on in my life. I'll have a 2020 reading goals post up by the end of the week!