New Years Goals Progress

Well it's been two months since the first of the year & I think I'm doing okay at my goals so far. I joined 24 Hour Fitness because through work I was able to get a membership for $15/mo with NO CONTRACT! Yay! I only joined two weeks ago but I've gone 4 times each week since then. Before that I was able to work out 3+ times/week during most weeks. I haven't really lost any weight though because my eating hasn't been spot on. I've started to go to some Zumba classes at 24 Hour & I have to say that I LOVE THEM! I went to one before Sofia was born & honestly wasn't all that taken with it, mostly because I had no idea how to do the moves they were doing. After I had Sofia, though, my sister-in-law Chirin lent me some Zumba instructional DVD's & they totally made a difference (Chirin has since become a certified Zumba instructor! Yay!). The first one I went to there was barely enough room for everyone to dance without hitting each other. It was such a good time, though! The energy in those classes is so great & it's a really good workout. I went to one this past Saturday after working Friday night & not getting a ton of sleep & it did me so much good. They offer 4 Zumba classes a week at the gym near me so I'm going to try to go to at least 2 classes a week. I'm super stoked :)

Another one of my goals was to start broadening my reading horizons by reading at least one new book a month & try books from different genres. I am proud to say that I've read 3 books so far! Go me :)
The first book I read was called Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare. It's the first in the pseudo-prequel series to the "Mortal Instruments" series (a.k.a City of Bones, City of Ashes, etc.). It's not really from a different genre than my normal books but it was a new book & I finished it at the end of the month & I didn't have enough time to read another one so I'm counting it. It was a really great book! I think that Cassandra Clare is a very good author. She is a first time writer & has been compared to Stephenie Meyer. I have to say that I think that Clare is a better writer & that I also prefer the "Mortal Instruments" series to "Twilight". (I'm not saying I no longer like "Twilight" so no Twi-hearts freak out on me please! ;) ) Both series are in the fantasy genre but I just find Clare's characters & plot more organic & believeable. Clockwork Angel takes place about 200 years before City of Bones but it is about the same "race" of people if you will. Some of the surnames are the same but I don't know if the series are going to be connected in any way yet. The book is about a young girl who comes to England after both of her parents & aunt has died to live with her brother there. She finds that she is not really who she thought she was all of her life but by the end of the book they still haven't decided what exactly she is. The characters are great & the plot keeps you interested until the very end. I'm really looking forward to the next in this series & I would definitely recommend it to anyone!

The second book I read was Persuasion by Jane Austen. One of my goals in life is to read all of Jane Austen's books (I haven't ready any) so I figured I'd start now. I've seen both of the film versions of Pride & Prejudice & Sense & Sensibility so I decided to start off by reading one that I didn't know the story of. Like most (if not all) of Austen's stories, the plot centers around a young woman (well, not so young actually, the main character is approaching the old age of 28!) who is trying to find the love of her life. This story is different, though, in that she had found love in her early 20's but let it slip away because he was not a "suitable" match. When the story opens, she has never married but finds out that there is a chance she will be seeing her old love soon. I have to admit that the book was not exactly an "easy" read because it took more concentrating to understand the language than most books I read. It took even more concentration than that because I read nearly all of it in the middle of the night during down-time at work. I liked the story, but it was a little long winded in some aspects (especially regarding the family finances) & it took quite a while to find out why Anne (the main character) was still single at 27. It's definitely interesting to get an insight into the thoughts & lives of people from the 1800's & to see that what they took so seriously is still what we today take seriously (i.e. money, position, finding "the one"), just with different spins on each side. At first I thought how silly the things were that the character's lives revolved around but when you think about it, we are really not so different today, if not more so engrossed in our money & possesions. It wasn't my favorite of all time but it kept me reading & interested so that's pretty good in my book :)

The most recent one that I read, & actually finished last night, was called Once a Spy by Keith Thomson. I found it at one of those "recommended reads" displays at my library & thought it looked intersting. It's a thriller whose plot centers around a former spy who now has Alzheimer's & therefore could be a potential security risk for the agency he used to work for. His son gets pulled into the middle of things, at first for his own selfish reason. As the story progresses & the son discovers what his father's life really was like, their relationship starts to change & evolve. It was definitely a different twist on the spy/thriller bit & I thought it was a fun read.