2018 Life-ish Goals

2018 is mere days away, so that means it's time to buckle down and reflect on the past year and come up with new goals for the coming year. I've already written about my bookish goals for 2018, so this post is for goals related to my personal life.


1. Get a full-time job and move out. This is basically my number one goal this year and is more important than anything else I will put on this list. I've been living at home since graduating college because I've been working on my master's degree for library science online, but now that the program is over and I've graduated, it's time to find a job and move out. My goal is to move either near my boyfriend or my friends from college, so I'm hoping some promising job prospects pop up in one of those locations.

2. Lose 20 pounds. My long-term goal is to lose 60-65 pounds, but that seems like a huge, unmanageable number at the moment, so I've decided to keep my goal realistic and small. I've been struggling with weight for the past few years as the result of some trauma that happened in college, and it's been really hard to maintain a healthy weight and to lose weight because of the emotional issues I have that stem from that.

3. Eat more healthfully. Connected to the above goal is obviously eating more healthfully. I know I am not a very healthy eater in general, and I really want to try to change that. I'm considering going on the Atkins diet because I need a high protein diet that beats out the fat since I have a fatty liver and want to get rid of that problem, but I'm really bad at diets where I have to track every single thing I eat because it makes me anxious and stressed and overwhelmed. So we'll see how that goes.

4. Decrease my anxiety. 2017 was a horrible year for me emotionally, and my anxiety and depression were at the highest level they've been since high school. A lot of it is situational and a result of living at home and other not so great things that happened, so I'm hoping that moving out will fix some of the problem. I just want to be able to function and function at a high level at a job and not feel so anxious that I feel physically sick every time I go to work.

5. Experiment more with my personal fashion style and gender expression. 2017 was the year of me getting interested in makeup, and in 2018, I hope to experiment more with what I want my personal style to be. I feel like I've always struggled to find a "style" I really like and feel is "me," so I end up just going with jeans and t-shirts or plain sweaters because it's what's easiest. However, this year, while looking at online clothing stores, I've found that what I REALLY like tends to be either on the super feminine or super masculine side of things. I've always been interested in dressing more masculine, but I also like pastel pretty things and dresses with cute prints. I've had a lot of trouble showing this though because these things are hella expensive, and I am poor at the moment. However, hopefully when I get a job, I'll be able to start saving to revamp my wardrobe and have it express my super femme/masculine sides of the fashion spectrum.

2018 Bookish Goals

It's...almost 2018?? I wish I could say it felt like 2017 went by really fast, but boy oh boy, it did not. 2017 was honestly probably the worst year of my life, minus reconnecting with my boyfriend and graduating with my master's degree in library science. This year was just such a mess, and I was a mess, and the whole damn world was a mess, mess, mess. And not even a hot mess: an ugly, horrifying, dreadful mess that I really wish I could mostly erase from my memory.

Aaaaaaanyway...bright side, it's almost over! I never used to be the kind of person who reflected a lot at the end of the year or made goals for the next year, but I did it last year and it was kind of fun and motivational, at least for the first few months of the year. Plus, I've been seeing all my favorite cool people on Book Twitter post about their writing and book-related goals for the past couple weeks and I feel left out and want to post my own! So here are some of the writing and reading goals I have for 2018:

1. Read 55 books. In 2017, my original goal was to read 75 books, but halfway through the year, I realized that was not going to happen, so I changed my goal. This is okay; it's important to take stock of what you can really do and adjust as you go along, which is something I've been working on getting better at this year. I ended up reading mostly good books, and I think I read a lot more for quality versus quantity like I usually do because of this goal, and it improved the quality of the books I read for the most part. So, for next year, I want to keep my goal small but also add a little to my goal from this year, so 55 books it is!

2. Read 1 poetry collection per month. I got really into poetry this year because it's the only genre my boyfriend and I can agree on (he likes literary fiction and I am staunchly into YA), but I realized I really enjoy reading poetry for fun! For 2018, I want to expose myself more to the genre and continue reading some great poetry.

3. Finish the MS I started for NaNoWriMo. I got about 27,000 words into a very dark and depressing contemporary LGBTQ+ novel for NaNo this year before realizing it wanted to be a fluffy romance. With that in mind, I want to redraft my sweet, bookish, queer, anxious novel in 2018.

4. Participate in #PitMad. I have always wanted to participate in #PitMad, but have yet to finish a draft, much less edit and revise in time for one of the events, so that is my goal for this year. Even if I do the one in December, I will consider that a win.

5. Write more poetry. I started writing poetry again this past year, which is something I haven't done since high school but love to do just as much as I did then. I even started a poetry instagram account, but eventually I stopped writing poetry as much so I didn't post and it kind of died. I would like to revive it, since the need to post more frequently would encourage me to write poetry more. Hopefully the combo of wanting to reinstate my poetrygram and reading at least one poetry collection per month will keep me motivated to experiment more with poetry writing!

6. Read more MG. This is an important goal for me professionally because I hope to be a teen/YA librarian soon. The ages of teen/YA can vary depending on library, from grades 6-12 or 7-12, so I feel like I need to read more books on the younger side of things to keep up. Plus, most library jobs for youth are just "youth services," which includes ages 0-18, so I should keep up with all the lit for those ages if I want to have a career in that sector of library services.

Priority November Reads

Since I'm doing NaNoWriMo I obviously hope to write at least as much as I read, but I've still got my priorities in order in terms of my TBR list for the month. There aren't a ton of books coming out this late in the year, but what is coming out sounds super good, plus I have books from October and also 2018 to read, so I have some serious reading goals for this month.

Here are some of the eARCs I have that I hope to read in November (currently reading The November Girl as of the writing of this post)

The November Girl - Lydia Kang

Here We Are Now - Jasmine Warga

The Becoming of Noah Shaw - Michelle Hodkin

The Cruel Prince - Holly Black

Turtles All the Way Down - John Green

Whichwood - Tahereh Mafi

Turtles is def a priority since it came out last month, as is Whichwood since I've had an ARC for a few months but have yet to read it. I really want to read The Cruel Prince because I've been excited about it forever, but it's lower on the list because it's a 2018 release, so I have time. I'm super nervous to read Here We Are Now because I loved Warga's first book, My Heart and Other Black Holes, so much, and HWAN has a somewhat low rating on Goodreads.

I'm also debating reading/buying Renegades by Marissa Meyer because I ended up liking the Lunar Chronicles even though I never read Winter (800 pages is too damn long), but at the same time I'm not sure because I don't know if I want to invest in another series. I get terrible series amnesia, plus if I buy the first one that means I have to buy all of them, plus there's the waiting in between time, but I also want to read something new by her in a different world, so I have confusions. 

I'm also nervous about reading the Noah Shaw book because it's been 5 years since I finished the Mara Dyer books and I don't remember what happened other than she went crazy, and I just had really hoped for a new book for Michelle Hodkin for so long, and I am skeptical when authors can't write outside of one world or story. But we shall see.

NaNoWriMo 2017 Goals

Here's what usually happens during NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, which takes place during the month of November: I decide to do it, write for a couple days, fall behind in my word count daily goals, realize I can't possibly get 50,000 words in one month, freak out because I have an extreme fear and anxiety around failure, and quit to avoid said failure and also because I am still a little afraid of writing what I really want to write.

That is not what is going to happen this year, because I have a great cheerleader in my boyfriend, and I have new goals that are going to make this month of writing more manageable and doable:


1. Write for a couple hours every day. If I set a time goal rather than a word count goal, I'm hoping I'll be more inclined to not view my writing sessions as failures.

2. Write more of Queer Bookish Novel. Maybe I won't finish it, but that's not my goal. I just want to get more of a draft on paper.

3. Don't worry about hitting 50,000 words so much. Even though that's the "official" NaNo goal, my own goal is just to write as much as possible.

4. Write even when I don't know what to say. All the writing advice I've been reading about writing during NaNo and writing a first draft says it's okay if your story goes around in circles in your first draft and if things aren't perfect. So, I'll try to remind myself of this as I write, and just try to get something down most days.

5. Outline the poop out of this novel. I feel like I'm probably more of an outliner than a pantser, so I hope to outline most of this novel so I have at least some idea of where the heck it's going if I don't finish.

6. Have fun. I'm going to try my best not to put too much pressure on myself to be perfect, which is hard for me, but I'm going to try to do it because writing is supposed to be a thing I enjoy, and I want to make the most of this month to remind myself I like writing.

October Goals

It's October! That means it's finally fall, hopefully with cooler weather than we've been having, Halloween, the release of the second season of Stranger Things, and a ton of new books coming out.

To start out, let's recap my September goals and see how I did:

1. Lose 4 pounds. I did not do this. I have been feeling really overwhelmed by pretty much everything for the past two weeks and this means I have let my healthy eating fall way to the wayside. I'm almost at the weight I want to be for my first mini-goal, but I really need to focus on eating healthfully again this month.

2. Read 5 books. I did this.

3. Submit to some poetry contests. I did not do this because of financial reasons and wanting to save money.

4. Start a library feature on the blog. The first Library Chronicles post went up on Friday!

5. Participate in Bloggiesta. I did this.

6. Write more of Queer Bookish Novel. I wrote once this month in addition to the poetry writing, so I guess I somewhat accomplished this.


Now, here are my goals for October...

1. Be stricter about eating well. I really want to get back to the weight I was at the end of August and surpass it and continue losing more, so I definitely need to get back on track with eating healthfully. I've come across a lot of yummy-sounding healthy recipes so that will probably help. I'm also going to try not to stuff myself when I go out to eat with my boyfriend when I see him in two weeks so I can maintain steady weight loss.

2. Write at least once a week. It can be more poetry for the Poetrygram, more of my novel, or whatever, but I want to set aside a chunk of time to write at least once per week this month.

3. Relax more and work on anxiety coping skills. For the past two weeks, I've basically been an anxious, stressed out, overwhelmed wreck. I've mostly been coping with it by giving into my sugar cravings, which is not good for goal #1, drinking lots of tea, walking, and reading. It hasn't really helped though, and I know I need to get better at calming my anxiety when it overtakes me, especially about work-related things so I don't go into my internship or actual job feeling generally terrified and unable to do things, because I want to be able to put myself out there. I also want to work on just relaxing, which I try to do a lot but hardly ever end up feeling truly relaxed. I want October to be a quieter, calmer month for me with fewer stressful things and unexpected emotion crushers, which I know I can't always control, but I still want it to happen.

4. Go to the gym more regularly. I'd been doing really great at this for a couple months after getting a gym membership, but again, the past couple of weeks have really killed me and I've had a hard time leaving the house for anything other than work or the internship. However, I want to focus on being healthy again and that includes fitness, so back to the gym it is.

5. Participate in Dewey's 24-hour Read-a-Thon. I love doing read-a-thons, and this 24 hour one is one I've been doing for the past couple years. I'll probably be working for at least 4 hours on the day of the event, which takes place on October 21, but I'll try to read as much as I can in my remaining 20 hours and try to stay up for the whole thing!

6. Read 2 October eARCs and 1 November release. I'm terrible at keeping up with my eARCs and ARCs, so this month I'm shooting for reading a couple October releases I have on my Kindle and getting ahead by reading at least one book releasing in November.

Fall Mini-Bloggiesta Goals & Tasks

Since I've just started blogging again, I have to think all over again about branding, what I'm going to post when, what I'm going to be writing about, have a useful about me page...basically, I have a lot of blog-related things I need to get in order. Fortunately, it's time for another mini-Bloggiesta challenge! When I used to blog, I loved doing Bloggiesta because it would help me get my bloggy priorities in order and help me set up a to-do list for myself, and I would spend the weekend or week being super productive. Bloggiesta is basically a blogging marathon challenge with the goal of getting done what needs to be done on your blog from basics like posts that need to be written to the more conceptual like nailing down your brand.

After browsing a lot of lifestyle and librarian blogs, I have a lot of ideas for things I need to do during this mini challenge, which runs this week from September 21-24 (that's enough time to get this all done, right?) I want my blog to be fun to read, but also be a resource and be something I can put on a resume or talk about in a cover letter in the future when I start applying to full-time library jobs, and I can't do that with a blog that's not up to par. 

So, without further ado, here are the things I hope to do during this round of Bloggiesta:

- Branding

     - Branded tagline

     - Branded mini "about me" section

- Professional things

     - add a "professional details" section

     - add CV w/ coursework samples

     - add visual resume

     - add librarian-related interests somewhere inc. professional goals and what I like to read

- Posting stuff

     - create a library-related feature

     - make basic schedule for what days I'll post certain post types by category (books, pop culture,              lifestyle, librarianship)

Is this enough stuff? Yes. Is it too much stuff for four days? Maybe. Still, I'm excited to get all of this in order and spruce things up around here and really nail down branding stuff and things like that. I also plan to participate in at least one Twitter chat and two mini-challenges if they align with my personal bloggiesta goals, so we'll see if I can add that later. Let's hope I can pull it all off!!

What are your plans for this Bloggiesta?

Priority Reads for September 2017

I already made my main "goals" post, but have yet to make a bookish goals post for this month. So, today, I'll be sharing a few of the books that are top priorities for me to read this month.

1. Long Way Down - Jason Reynolds (currently reading)

To be honest, this one wasn't even on my radar until I started my library internship and the director and Head of Children's Services strongly recommended I read it. I haven't read anything by Jason Reynolds yet, but I used to love novels written in verse, and they tend to be quick reads for me, so I'm excited to read a novel in this style again.

2. There's Someone Inside Your House - Stephanie Perkins

Stephanie Perkins was on my list of popular authors I haven't read yet, and if I don't read Anna and the French Kiss before this one comes out, TSIYS will definitely be my first read by her. I love horror movies, and especially slashers like Scream, so I think I'm going to really enjoy this one.

3. Jane, Unlimited - Kristin Cashore

I haven't read anything by Kristin Cashore either, since I wasn't as into fantasy when her first series came out, but this book sounds super interesting. Apparently it's written in a unique format where the story is told with the character making different choices and in different genres, which sounds super intriguing. It's gotten mixed reviews so far, but I feel like this is a must-read for me.

4. A Court of War and Ruin - Sarah J. Maas

I know, I know; I'm super ashamed I haven' read this one since its release this past May. I've been putting it off because it's so long, but I've started to un-psyche myself out of reading it, and I need more Rhysand!!!

5. Autoboyography - Christina Lauren

I somehow keep forgetting about this one even though every time I rediscover it I'm super excited to have an eARC of it. It's about a bisexual boy who goes back in the closet when he moves to a conservative town, but falls in love with a boy from his writing seminar where they have to write a novel in a semester. Bookish times and bisexual times? Yes please sign me up!

6. The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue - Mackenzie Lee

This is one I honestly got excited about because of the hype. I don't tend to get very excited about historical fiction, but this gay romp through Europe sounds right up my alley, even if it is on the longer side, yet again. Hopefully it will live up to my very high expectations for it!

7. Before I Let Go - Marieke Nijkamp

This will be another book by an author I haven't read yet, since I wasn't really interested in Nijkamp's debut. I wasn't interested in this one at first, either, but it's a second ARC I got to borrow from the library where I'm interning, so I figured I'd give it a shot. I don't know too much about it other than that it's a mystery, but any book described as having "chilling secrets" always gets me in the end.

September Goals

It's September! Can you believe it's September? I can't believe it's September. Even though September 1st technically isn't fall yet, I consider all of September-November to be fall, which means it's my my favorite season! Time for lots of evening tea times, snuggling under fuzzy blankets with cuddly cats, getting busy with school again, and sweaters. God, I love sweaters. And plaid. Fall = plaid time, and bring me a hot queer girl or cute boy in plaid any day, yes please and thanks.

I've decided to make a list of monthly goals for myself on this blog both for fun purposes and holding myself accountable for the things I want to do. So, welcome to the first monthly goals post at The Cuddly Teapot!

Here are some of my September goals:

1. Lose 4 pounds. I've been doing great with weight loss so far and am almost at my first mini-goal, so I want to continue in that direction and keep exercising at the gym, aiming for 10,000 steps per day, 30+ "active minutes" on FitBit, and eating relatively healthfully.

2. Read 5 books. I was stunned that I managed to read 7 books last month. That's the most I've read in a month all year, and I really want to keep that trajectory going. The first book on my September list? They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera!

3. Submit to some poetry contests. I've been loving writing poems for my poetry Instagram, bluepenpoems, and I want to encourage myself to write more by submitting things to a few contests, where I could maybe even earn some money and get published if I win!

4. Start a library feature on the blog. I really want to share my journey and thoughts concerning librarianship somewhere, and this blog seems like a great place to do it. I'm planning to start a feature called "The Library Chronicles," where I talk about what I'm doing at my internship, how school is going, and respond to various happenings in the library world.

5. Participate in the mini-Fall Bloggiesta from September 21-24. I want to make this blog look more professional, add an About Me page, solidify my brand and my topics of post, etc. I also want to write some mini-reviews of the books I read last month, and Bloggiesta is always a great time to accomplish blog-ish goals and tasks.

6. Write more of Queer Bookish Novel. I've been distracted by poetry lately and scared of getting back to this book because it's emotionally intense for me, but I really want to write at least some of this novel. I really like the direction it's heading in so far, but the challenge for me is just to get a draft on paper and not worry about it being super perfect. That's what revising is for!