Life Lately

• Can you feel it?  The excitement in the air??  That hush that comes right before a storm... ???  Oh, how I love the anticipation of a good dumping of snow!!  We really haven't had one yet this year (yes, we have had snow, but never in a big amount at once).  It makes me tingle from head to toe!  
• I'm glad we're going to be getting a little storm, because I was starting to feel like I'd been jipped by this winter. It hasn't felt long enough for a snow lover like me, and the past week has been day after day of sunshine and + temperatures.  The snow was starting to fade fast. We went sliding Sunday afternoon and I didn't even wear a coat; I wore the coat to snowshoe on Monday and almost sweat to death.  I felt like winter was slipping through my fingers.  However, this 30-40 cm in the forecast and the cold temps over the weekend should keep me in winter mode for a little while longer!
• Since I haven't blogged in a few weeks, here's a quick V-day re-cap:  I had plans that day to go shopping and out for lunch with a friend, but they fell through.  I was feeling kind of ho-hum and blue about it, but decided to fill my day with things I enjoy.  I had a long bath using heart-shaped bath bombs I'd treated myself to while reading, then I baked cookies.  I finished crocheting my first pair of slippers, and they turned out surprisingly well.  I had grilled cheese and tomato soup for lunch, pretty much the definition of comfort food. I spent a few hours playing with my new alcohol inks.  Then I watched a bunch of silly old movies that I love, including Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead and Son-In-Law.  My biggest fail of the day was my attempt to make pizza dough in the breadmaker.  I put it on the wrong setting, and ended up with a baked ball of dough.  It was too late by then to start over, so I used a can of crescent rolls I had in the fridge as a make-shift pizza dough.  It wasn't perfect, but it was okay.  And that's just what Valentine's Day will probably always be for me.  Not perfect, but okay.
  
  
  
  
• I literally did not poke my nose out of my door that day - not once.  (It was a really frigging cold day).   So the following day, when I DID leave the house, I discovered a bag of valentines hanging on my door from Sam & Lainey.  It made my day!!  Probably would have lifted my spirits even more if I'd found them the day before lol!!  But still... nice to be loved by the littles in my life :)
• This past weekend, I DID poke my nose out the door... a lot!  It was such a fun winter weekend.  We had our annual Family Winter Fun Day at my sister's place on Saturday, spending the afternoon out sliding, snowshoeing, playing on the rink.  We had chili and hot dogs for supper, and it was just an all-round great day (despite a persisting headache).  On Sunday after church, a bunch of us went sliding on the hill behind my mom's.  There was a lot of fresh air and fun had!!
  
• I've been crocheting lots of little things lately, trying to build up a stash for Shawville Fair now when I have more time to sit and crochet.  I made a Call The Midwife blanket last week, and now I'm working on a matching baby sweater/hat/bootie set.  I also have patterns to try a doily, a Christening gown, and a child's dress.  I have to get some dish cloths done for our Irish basket (church fundraiser), and I want to make a bunch more slippers since people seem interested in them.  I also want to make a blanket for a little cousin of mine (my Granny Young loved to crochet so I thought it would be nice to make a blanket for all of her littlest descendants in her honour), AND I bought yarn to attempt one of the popular Grinch scarves I keep seeing online. SO much to crochet, so little time!
  
• I finished the next book in our book club lineup, which was One Night: Promised by Jodi Ellen Malpas.  One of the girls in our club made a deal last year that if she finished a daunting book within a month (Stephen King's 11/22/63), she could pick a smutty fun book for this year's line-up with no questions asked.  She completed her challenge, and this is the book she chose.  I'm not above some good smut, in fact I quite enjoy it once in a while.  However, this one didn't really do it for me.  Is it just me, or since Christian Grey, do all the books like this include a rich, domineering businessman who likes to exert his control over a meek young woman?  There was nothing about this guy that was attractive to me.  And if I read the line that he "took her by her nape" one more time, I think I could have screamed.  The image of a guy steering me around with his hand on the back of neck like that?  Gave me the icks.  Now don't get me wrong... many of the, er... "romps" were fun.  But...long.  Almost exhausting.  And then the whole stupid thing ended on a cliffhanger.  So many questions unanswered.  I could have gone ahead and downloaded the next book (it's a trilogy, apparently), but I had no interest in continuing this saga.  At least not right away.  Maybe I'm too old and I've been alone for too long, I don't know, but I was just glad to move on from this one.
  
• Now, I KNOW you're wondering what I moved on to.  And I KNOW I just said I am too old for this.  But the frank truth is that I have moved on to... a 16-year-old boy.  *sigh*  Before you get too creeped out... NO, not a real 16-year-old boy.  Just a fictional character.  But still... I haven't been so madly in love with an unattainable figure since Kawhi.  It feels good to know my heart can still go pitter-pat!!  
• So who? How?  Why?  Here's what happened:  This past Friday evening, I was on the couch battling another sinus headache, which I'd suffered from off and on since last Wednesday.  I fell asleep watching The Shape of Water, then woke up when it was over.  I decided to throw on a light fluffy chick flick since I knew I'd just fall asleep again, so I put on a Netflix movie called To All the Boys I've Loved Before.  I did fall asleep, but ended up waking up about half-way through and sort of started paying attention.  Since I'd been sleeping for a few hours, I was suddenly wide awake at 11 PM and I got so into this movie. SO into it.  When it was over, Netflix automatically rolled into the sequel, To All the Boys, PS I Still Love You, and by then I was officially in love with 16-year-old Peter Kavinsky.  When that was over, I went back and started the first movie again since I'd missed how it all began.  When I finally went to bed around 2 AM, I was on Kavinsky Cloud 9.  This boy... you guys, this BOY.  He is everything little 16-year-old Jill dreamed of!!  And thus... a new obsession was born.  
  
• It has taken all my power to not re-watch the movies every night since.  I have watched Youtube videos galore of the actor, Noah Centineo (23 in real life, so less creepy, right? right???) giving interviews and stuff like that.  I also discovered he's a bit of a Netflix darling, and has been featured in several other of their movies over the past few years.  However, some of them are prettttty bad.  I couldn't get through The Perfect Date, even with his adorable face. He was also in Sierra Burgess is a Loser, and that one was okay.  But what I really want to do is re-watch the To All the Boys movies.  I'm also thrilled to know there's a third movie coming, probably sometime later this year.  My Peter Kavinsky crush has legs.  It's not going to sign with the Clippers and leave anytime soon.  Woo hoo!!
  
  
  
  
• So, I am forcing my friend Lindsay to watch the movies with me Friday night.  Will she like them?  I have no idea.  Probably not.  They are very teeny-boppy.  But I do believe they are very well done teeny-boppy movies, and I do think that the actors did an excellent job for a teeny-boppy movie.  I was rooting for Lara Jean, I adored her little sister Kitty, I thought their dad (played by John Corbett... actors I used to love are now playing the dads in movies *sigh*) was so cute, and I actually LOL'd at LJ's BFF Chris at times.  And there were other boys too... Josh, and John Ambrose McClaren, specifically, who were quite endearing.  But Peter Kavinsky... My gosh, Peter Kavinsky.  He was totally Teen Jill's cup of tea.  He is still 36-year-old Jill's cup of tea.  Can't get enough.  Can't wait to watch them again.  Can't wait to see if Lindsay even remotely agrees. LOL!
  
• How am I keeping this Kavinsky crush at bay until Friday, you ask?  By reading the book.  I had no idea when I started watching the movies, but To All the Boys I've Loved Before was originally a book, a young adult novel written by Jenny Han.  So are the sequels PS I Still Love You and Always and Forever, Lara Jean.  And now that I have the image of Kavinsky in my head, reading the books is almost as good as watching the movies.  So I have paused my book club reading for these instead.  I am already half-way through the first one and I just started in Monday, so I have a feeling it won't take long. 
  
• Well.  That's about it for today.  Truly, Peter Kavinsky is the only thing new in my life.  When people say to me "What's new?", he is what immediately comes to mind.  But I can't actually tell anyone about him.  My God, they would think I was crazy.  Anyone reading this thinks I'm crazy.  Lord KNOWS I'm crazy.  But seriously, watch the movies.  If you want a light, fun little break from reality.  If you want to have a crush on a teenage boy.  You just might agree with me.