Ramblings of a Thirty-Something

So...it's been awhile. To my dear readers, whoever you may be, I am sorry (I feel like I apologize for this a lot...I promise I'll get better!) For those of you who are new to my fantastic little blog world (my words...no one else has ever called it that to my knowledge), welcome! I'm here to provide a service to you today. I'm solving a problem you may or may not have known you even had! Summer is approaching (not nearly fast enough for my fellow teachers and me), and once all that free time hits, I know one of my first orders of business is my reading list. This is especially important this summer, as I will be doing quite a bit of travelling and always need something to read in the car/plane/train/whatever random transportation I'm using at the moment. For those of you who aren't teachers and are just looking for a great beach read (jealous = me) or pool read (still jealous = me) or backyard-whilst-trying-to-get-some-sort-of-tan read (definitely me), then h

Grab yer dirk an' yer kilt, whether ya be MacKenzie or Fraser:   Outlander  is back, ya ken? (Insert fangirly squealing here) For anyone who doesn't understand anything I said, I apologize. It's hard to come back to my flat Midwestern accent after listening to the lilting speech of the Highlanders for an hour. If you are not aware, Outlander  is a fantastic series on Starz based on a fantastic series written by Diana Gabaldon. Here's a non-spoilery synopsis:  a woman (Claire) in "present-day" 1945 travels back to 1743 Scotland via some magic stones at Craigh na Dun. She doesn't know how to get back to her own time and is forced to survive in this slightly civilized land at the mercy of the Clan MacKenzie while avoiding the British Army. If it sounds at all cheesy, I apologize. It's hard to do it justice. Photo from Starz.com Outlander  is not just a time-travel story. The story delves into the politics of the day and the major historical th