Local Tourist (June 2020) + Currently (July 2020): Book Bingo, Bookstagram, and More!

Posted June 30, 2020 by shooting in Personal / 28 Comments

Local Tourist is a monthly link up that I host with Dara from Not In Jersey. On the last weekday of every month, we share what local adventures we’ve been up to! I know this might be tough for some because of Covid, but you’re welcome to share past adventures or adventures that you hope to go on in the future!! We’d still love to have you!!!

Local Tourist: June 2020

I had a couple doctor appointments this past month, but who wants to hear about those? At least not in this post! Really, I only had one event that I think would work for Local Tourist, but one is better than nothing!

Friday, June 19: My sister and I took part in a Zoom Book Bingo for Adults. This was hosted through one of our local libraries, and it was a lot of fun! We were all on Zoom and the librarian in charge had the whole bingo set up on her end so she could call out numbers.

The rest of us had digital bingo cards – or we could have printed them off – and obviously we kept going until someone won. I think we played a total of 6 or 7 games – which lasted about 90 minutes. Unfortunately, I did not get a Bingo. My sister, however, did!

The reason it’s called Book Bingo is because if you get a bingo, you get to choose a free book. The librarian emailed all the winners the next week with the list of books you could choose from and you send back your top choices. As long as people aren’t completely overlapping on their choices, you get one of your choices, and then you just go to the library location you chose in the email to pick it up. Easy peasy! My sister ended up choosing Before She Knew Him by Peter Swanson. Neither of us have read it, but we love mysteries and I personally want to read something by Swanson, so it was a great prize that we could share!

If you have your own Local Tourist post to share, please link up here:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter 

Currently: July 2020

I have a post that I need to schedule for tomorrow, so I’m a day early with Currently, hosted by Anne from In Residence. I’m also linking up with Kristen on Thursday for What’s New With You?

Cooking: not a whole lot. I think with quarantine, a lot of people have been making more and more food at home, but that’s not really the case over at my house. We have been regularly supporting a local business that does fantastic carry-out meals though!

Photographing: books! I really haven’t been anywhere or seen anyone since mid-March, but I am trying to work on my Instagram a bit more, and a big part of that is Bookstagram – aka book photography! It’s been fun coming up with new ideas and interesting ways to showcase certain titles. Please follow me – and if you do, let me know, and I’ll follow back!

Sharing: with all of you that I’m hosting a Summer Reading Challenge. There are levels for Kids, Teens, and Adults, so everybody can enter and try and win prizes. Yes, PRIZES!! You get entries for every SINGLE book you read – as well as some other tasks if you’re a teen or adult – so it’s not difficult to enter. I’d love for more people to take part and/or spread the word.

Trying: to move more. I did really well for awhile, even with quarantine, but ever since I got sick, it’s been tough. I know I updated you all awhile back about how I didn’t have COVID, and they said it was pleurisy – which was so super painful and made the month of May kind of awful.

Well, I think I still had pleurisy, but I was also informed (after doing a CT Scan with Contrast) that I have blood clots in my lungs. That explains the lingering pain and pressure on my right side – in my chest and on the side a bit. It doesn’t hurt non-stop but the more I move or bend over, the more it starts to agitate me. Also, I still can’t really lay on my right side or my back, so that’s been annoying at night. I’m currently on Eliquis for six months so that will hopefully take care of the pain/pressure. I guess it can take awhile for the actual blood clots to disappear though. They’re relatively small – which is good – but it’s been a challenge to deal with.

Wondering: all sorts of things – when there will be a cure or vaccine for COVID, when I can dance again, when I’ll have to go back into work (I really don’t mind working from home), if I’ll be able to get away this Fall (not Gatlinburg, but something more isolated), and on and on and on. I’ve definitely had a lot of anxiety these past few months so I try not to dwell on any one thing for too long. I already struggle with anxiety, so this just exacerbates it. I know I’m not alone here!

Before you go, I want to remind you that my giveaway for a Mary Kay Satin Hands pampering set ends tonight! It’s, unfortunately, open to U.S. only but if you can enter – please do! Also, I sell Mary Kay, so if you want to buy anything or have questions, let me know! I’m always happy to help and I won’t hound you to buy things!

 

28 responses to “Local Tourist (June 2020) + Currently (July 2020): Book Bingo, Bookstagram, and More!

  1. Hi Lauren!!!

    I’ve missed you ❤️ Great to be back here today and see how things are coming along with you. Your book bingo sounds like so much fun and love that your sister won a book gift you can both share! I’ve never heard of pleurisy but I’m sorry to hear you’ve been experiencing pain and blood clots. ? hope you are finding some relief with pain management.

    I can’t wait to get out and explore more, too. It gives me something to look forward to. Not being able to get out much has also given me massive amounts of anxiety but this won’t last forever and there is an end in sight, even if it feels like that day might never come ❤️ Sending lots of love your way!!

  2. I am sorry to hear that you are still not back to 100%. I hope you are recovering, though, and that you can get some relief. At least bingo was fun, right? And, I am all about the take-out, though we have been cooking more.

  3. I love that you were able to still make the most out of our current situation and find some virtual fun. We’ve started doing family facetime calls where we just hang out as if we were in the same room. It has been a great way to stay connected with everyone!

  4. We’ve been doing a lot of carry out too. And that bingo sounds fun!

    Sorry to hear about the blood clots. Hope you have relief from them soon and that the Eliquis does the trick. Take care and be well!

  5. I am sorry to hear you still aren’t feeling well. At least they figured out what was wrong, hopefully the medicine will have you feeling better! I feel you on anxiety. It is hard with so many unknowns. I am like you, and am now used to working from home. I really dont want to go back to the office in a full time capacity. I like not wasting so much time in the car and now I am a major germaphobe. I dont really see us taking a trip this year. I will be happy just to go to stores again once things calm down lol. That will be like a trip.

  6. Book bingo sounds like a lot of fun – especially when it’s virtual! I am also looking forward to getting out and enjoying the things I used to before COVID. I really hope people start taking it seriously and using precautions so we can stop the spread of it soon. I’ve had pleurisy and it’s no fun. I hope you are well again soon, friend. <3

  7. I’m sorry to hear that you’re still not feeling the best. I hope the new medicine helps out. That zoom book bingo sounds like fun. I wish my library was doing stuff like that right now but they seem to have just shut down with the exception of curbside pickup for holds.

  8. I’m so sorry that you’ve been ill. I’ve heard that Pleurisy is painful and I hope your medication works quickly and you feel better soon.
    I’ve really been enjoying Instagram and seeing book pics are awesome – I look forward to seeing more of yours.
    Hope that July is a good month for you.

  9. I’m sorry about your health issues Lauren. I hope the meds work for you.

    It’s been really challenging these past few months. I did better early on than I am now. It’s been so long and idiots are making it drag out even longer. I need to force myself out a bit more for fresh air to boost my spirits.

    Karen @ For What It’s Worth

  10. You are definitely not alone in your struggles with anxiety. Mine has been plaguing me hardcore for months now. 🙁 I have taken to different methods to sort of quell it. I learned through therapy that one way that I deal best is through physical activity. So when I start to get jittery and anxious, I move my body. I go for a walk, I clean, I garden. I do PT with my son. And then generally the moment passes. For a bit.

    I am sorry to hear you have been having health issues! I am glad that they found out what it was and you are on medication. Hopefully you feel better soon!

    Oh, and I followed you on Instagram!

  11. Zoom bingo sounds like a blast, what a fun idea! And taking more pictures of books is great, I always love seeing bookstagram posts. I’ve been sharing books on my Stories but sometimes wonder if it would be better to do them on my regular feed.

  12. book bingo sounds so fun! sorry you didn’t get a bingo though. oh, you’ve certainly been dealing with a lot, i’m so sorry. hopefully you feel better soon!

  13. This library book bingo is BRILLIANT! We actually did something similar in person a couple of years ago with the children’s librarian at ours, and it was super cute because the kids got to make their own bingo boards with printed out thumbnail-sized photos of book covers. But now this has me scheming about how I could turn this into a fun Zoom book club get-together. Love it! Thanks for sharing 🙂

    Super excited to check out your summer reading challenge – I always love any summer reading program. And I hope that you’re feeling 100% better soon!

  14. Jen

    I want to do Book Bingo! This sounds like fun. I think I even want to do a book zoonm club. Anything, really to be “around” real people other than my family 🙂

  15. Book Bingo sounds fun!

    I hope that they can sort out the pain and clots on the lungs! 🙁 Fingers crossed for feeling better this month.

    Covid anxiety, wondering about vaccines and when/if things will get back to normal etc is something I’m spending a lot of time doing and feeling and it sucks. I’m especially struggling with planning and thinking of the future with all of the uncertainty.

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