Podcasts, Books, Miles and Looks of January

Oh January.  I greeted you with such excitement and you kind of let me down.  I was happy to see you go.  But I have high expectations for February as it includes my birthday, a trip to Mexico, and a visit to my parents' lake home!

Podcasts:

Modern Love Podcast, Episode 2.   I've been a long-time reader of the New York Time's weekly "Modern Love" essays, so I was thrilled when I learned that they were starting a podcast! They have a professional actor read an essay and then at the end of the podcast they interview the author of the essay. There are only 3 so far and they are about 25 minutes so you could easily catch up if you haven't started listening. My favorite of the three was episode 2 which is entitled, "Just One Last Swirl Around the Bowl." On the surface, it's about the death of a family's goldfish, but it's really about grief, mortality, and dealing with the loss of loved ones.

Books:

My reading was low in December but it bounced back big time in January, mostly due to the fact that I was not able to be as active as I normally am and I planned waaaaaay less which was glorious!  I read 9 books this month and my favorite was Kitchens of the Great Midwest, which I highly recommend! The starred ones counted towards the Read Harder Challenge.


Gratitude by Oliver Sacks* - 4 stars
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt - 4 stars
A Pig in Provence by Georgeann Brennan* - 3 stars
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline - 4 stars
Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal - 4 stars **favorite**
The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck by Sarah Knight - 3 stars
Blindness by Jose Saramago* - 3 stars
Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life by Joshua Fields Millburn - 2 stars
The Known World by Edward P. Jones* - 2 stars

Miles:

Oh boy, January was not a great month for working out due to my health issues. I really wanted to work on building my long runs but that was sidelined thanks to my RA. My total mileage for the month was 47 miles but I managed to go to yoga 12 times and did 5 other strength training workouts. Here's hoping that February is a much better month. I'm starting to question whether I will be able to train for and run this marathon given the state of my health these days... time will tell I guess.

Looks:

I guess January was the month for red as both of the looks I am sharing feature the color red! 

My first outfit features a red wool skirt that I got from J. Crew Factory during their black Friday sale which I paired with a Banana Republic button down. A girl at work had the same skirt and after I complimented her on it, she sent me the link and told me it was 50% off and said I should get it, even though that means we might be twins at work some days. I also bought it in a bright blue color.  

The second outfit features a pair of red cords that I bought at a Cabi party I attended in the fall. I paired it with a warm sweater I bought when I bought the skirt above as it was also 50% off. I wore this outfit on a double date in January when it was like -30 degrees outside with the windchill so I was all about being warm and having as little skin showing as possible!