Rainy Days With Amanda

What comes to mind when you hear someone saying they're taking a trip to Arkansas? Probably not much at first, but let me tell you, Arkansas is heavily underrated and we all should take a couple days or more to enjoy everything Arkansas has to offer. My husband and I traveled to Hot Springs, Arkansas from December 27 - 30. We both are off during this time and wanted to take a little trip as a gift to each other. I really wanted to travel somewhere with a national park and he wanted to go somewhere that wasn't too long of a drive and didn't have to spend an arm and leg on travel. We ended up at Hot Springs and here's everything you need to know.  What We Did   While some might not think there is a lot to do in Arkansas, let alone Hot Springs, you are surely wrong. We found our days filled with fun and always doing one thing or another. Here are some of the things we did while at Hot Springs, Arkansas:   Hiked Around Hot Springs National Park :  Hot Springs National Pa...

78 hours. That is how long it took for my house and my neighbors to regain power. 78 hours of the young and the old freezing in the middle of night and day through one of Texas' worst winter storms ever. But let me start from the beginning and I'll try to make this quick. And just for clarification, I'll be writing this blog post like a short story, because I want to remember this day and if anyone out there researches this years from now, well, here's my thoughts.   It all started the week before Monday, 2/15. The news let us know that San Antonio would be experiencing a winter storm. Now, when the news says winter storm, that usually means it's just going to be cold and, at most, we'll get snow flurries or "snow" that will last until 10 am when the sun is shining bright in the sky. Either way, I prepared my groceries and what not like any other week and any other "winter storm" week.  Monday 2/15. Texas residents woke up to a snow day as w...

Hey Everyone! It had been a while since I wrote a Rainy Thoughts. I have recently gotten into making videos on YouTube . If you haven't checked those out yet, I did a whole NaNoWriMo series, so you can check out my videos at Rainy Books With Amanda .  Anyways, NaNoWriMo 2020. It was different. From writing in the middle of a pandemic to writing in the middle of a very intriguing election that took longer than anticipated, it was a whirlwind of stuff. I felt that this NaNoWriMo in particular was the first time I actually had time to write and go through my whole process. If I was stuck, I was able to really think about things, come up with more content, look for advice with my region group and just really focus on my writing. Time is not a luxury that I have had in the past, juggling the challenge and work and even school at one point. This year, I the unfortunate luxury to not be working and having sole focus on my writing. Blessing in disguise as they might say.  This is the ...

Hey everyone! It has been a minute since I wrote a Rainy Thoughts post. If you're new here, I usually just write book reviews, but every now and then, I like to write about random other things that I may be thinking of, feeling, etc. I wanted to write about something that recently happened to me that I think others can relate too, especially now. The Dream Job... If you asked me what I wanted to do when I was in college, I had two answers for you. I wanted to either be a full-time, traveling author or I wanted to work in a job where I was doing marketing for events put on by the city and where I didn't have to be at my desk all day, possibly tourism. Lo and behold, I found that job. I was/kinda still kinda am, working for the San Antonio River Walk Association. I loved my job. I was out and about, meeting new people from different backgrounds, I was helping promote businesses to locals and tourists, I was doing marketing, and there would be days that I would be at my desk for 2...

You guys, it has been 8 weeks since I started quarantine(ing) and I am measuring my quarantine by when I started working from home, so that has been a full 8 weeks. It's crazy. Week 8. It has me writing letters to friends and doing renditions of Broadway musicals. For those of you who don't know, I took theatre from middle school to high school and even took a class in college. That was actually going to be my major in college until I came to the realization that if I can't sing, I was not going to make it. So here I am, making my poor furbabies and husband endure my performances. Quarantine also has me feeling accomplished. I have done quite a lot, and purchased quite a lot, for stuff I've been needing to do and get for the house but just didn't have time or was using the money for something else. But now, I don't have any excuses. My husband and I also have this great cleaning schedule going on and I'm definitely going to miss that once we go back to w...

Hey everyone! I hope you are doing well, in spite of everything going on. I felt like maybe I could talk about my quarantine experience as everyone else seems to be doing now-a-days. But somehow, hearing people's different experiences, makes me feel a little less alone with my feelings, so maybe that my blog post will be just that for you.  So, I live in Texas. As of the time of this blog posting, we are not on a state-mandated stay-at-home quarantine. Our Governor is leaving that up to each individual city and my city, San Antonio, has decided to do a quarantine, but I don't think it's as restrictive as some other places such as California and New York. Only essential places can be open, but I feel that those "essential" businesses are pretty broad. We have only had this mandate for a week now, so we'll see if our quarantine will go any deeper. Anyways, it was my first full week of full quarantine life and these are my thoughts. On one hand, I enjoy wo...

As of May 5, 2019 I have officially been married for a year. What?! I remember the day almost perfectly. Craziness, mayhem, nervous butterflies and warm love. And some anger because my DJ was not doing a good job the first 45 minutes and I wanted to bite his head off and throw him down a flight of stairs. But I digress. My life is far from perfect and I think my wedding day reflected that, but in a good way. I still enjoyed everything and was so happy that all my family and friends could make it. So what does my wedding day have to with fear? Everything. I was nervous and scared that everything was going to go wrong. But my worst fears didn't come true. Everything went relatively well and people enjoyed themselves and I looked great and I didn't let that fear get to me. Let me tell you, I'm scared of plenty of things. I'm scared of long flights, drowning, heights, human experimentation (that's another day), being alone, and going straight down on a roller coa...

Hello everyone! I'm pleased to announce that my husband and I are officially new homeowners as of Valentine's Day! Not gonna lie, I felt a little nervous about the whole signing my life away, but it was quick, easy and I felt no pressure when looking through our documents. First Time Homeowner We haven't actually moved into our home yet. Our lease at our current townhome isn't up until the end of March and we have a few updates that we are doing to get our home ready for us. Makes me a little anxious, but I'm so ready to move in and for our cat to move in. He's going to love it! Being a homeowner feels freaking fantastic! My husband and I enjoy walking around neighborhoods and one of the things that I always wondered was what house were we going to be in? Would it be slanted? Would it be new or old? Would it be squared and would it have brick? It's crazy to think that part of my life is over, but I'm very happy with our end result. When You...

Hello everyone! Hope you all are doing well. I'm in the process of so many things, one of the things is getting a house! But I'll talk about that in a different post. Anyways, my topic for today applies to those who just got married and/or those spending Christmas for the first time with your in-laws this year or just any Holiday in general. I also have a tip at the end, so if you just want to scroll down, go ahead! Scenario  So let me explain, a bit. My in-laws live 2 hours away in a different city. Currently, my husband and I live in the same city as my family and a few of his family members as well. We've been together for 5 years and this past year is when we decided to start switching holidays since we were getting married and all and we thought it would be nice to spend the Holiday time with each other rather than apart. My niece and I Let me tell you, I'm close with my family so the thought of not spending the holidays, especially Christmas, with th...

It is actually a pretty cold day here in South Texas. I'm currently lounging around my home in joggers and a Golden Girls shirt I made my senior year of high school. Today is going pretty great until I inevitably have to go to the grocery store. Anyways, I've been seeing some other bloggers write their reflections for the 2018 year, so thought it was time to do mine. As I reflect on this year's things, I can't help but feel like I'm a little, excuse my French, badass. I would say that this year has definitely been my year. My year of being bold and taking control of what I want to do in my life. Of course, I had my downs as much as I had my ups, but I feel like I came out conquering and fighting the demons. Here is my year in review for 2018! Side Note: I wrote about most of this stuff in my Rainy Thoughts segment of my blog, so these are just small tidbits. Getting Laid Off At first, I felt that this was a little embarrassing to talk about...

Hello everyone! Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I finally have some time off from my full-time job! Thought I'd celebrate by writing a new rainy thoughts! I've been posting a lot of book - related content and I really wanted to write something a little off topic. This topic is actually something I've been wanting to write about for a while and thought it really appropriate for the gift-giving season coming up. Here are my thoughts on girl and boy toys. What Do I Mean By Girl & Boy Toys? I guess what I mean by this title is that there is this stigma about boys playing with boy toys and girls playing with girl toys. Growing up, I had my fair share of Barbies and Bratz laying around my room. But, as I got a little older, I also had my share of "boy" toys. I never thought that this was a problem. I liked what I liked and my parents never made me feel like I was less of a girl for playing with guy things and sometimes wanting guy shirts because they had Mario a...

Hello everyone! Hope you are all doing swell! If you follow me on Twitter and Instagram, you may have seen that I went to see Wicked with my best friend. I wanted to see that musical with her because, well, the musical is about friendship. So naturally, I took my best friend to see it. My best friend and I have been bet friends since our junior year of high school and friends since the second grade when I went up to her and asked if she wanted to play and she looked at me dead in the face and replied, "No." What do I mean by Date your best friend? Simple. Date your best friend. Done. Do it! Trust me, you won't ever regret it. Why Date Your Best Friend?   Because you will find that dating your best friend will help you to see what you want in your next partner. When you're in a relationship, you tend to give in to what the other wants/does and you shouldn't settle. But when you date your best friend, you find out how you actually want to be treated and ...

Hi guys! If you follow me on Twitter and Instagram , then you probably know that I started a new thing...Lyra classes! Or mostly known as aerial hoop class.  For those of you who don't know who what lyra is, it's a little hard to explain, is here is a great video to watch! (That's not me btw, but hopefully one day!) Cool right?! I've actually been wanting to do stuff like this for a while. And by a while, I mean 2 years already. Two years of me saying that I'm going to do it, but never do. But now I'm in a more financially better place where I can do this and I also have more confidence in myself to go there with a bunch of strangers and I'm just ready to try new things. And that's what I kinda wanted to focus on today for my blog. Wherever you are in life, try something new  Whether you're a parent, student in college, starting your career, getting married, try something new. Try something that you've been wanting to do and go for it!...

There have been lots of articles and stories about how hard it is for some people to find a job. Let me tell you, it's true. At least it was for me. In college, I had internships and jobs that were closely related to my degree. I created one of the top 8 capstones in my senior class and I kept close ties with everyone I met. I thought finding a job after college was going to be easy, and in truth, I was one of the ones that landed a full-time position in my degre field a month after I graduated. But I got that job because I knew someone who knew the manager who needed someone asap. Either way, I got the job. It was defintily not my dream job and it was for a start-up company. I had my own office,  my own money, my own hours, it was great! It was great up until they decided they didn't want to spend money on me and wanted to hire someone for cheap instead and let me go! But I wasn't too sad, because I found out the next day that I was moving back to my hometown, so I t...

Hello everyone! It rained last night here in Texas, which is nice because we really needed it. Some quick updates before I begin today's topic: My book is being proofread as we speak (keep up with updates by subscribing to my author website )! I have also become a Shutterstock Contributor , so check out the few photos I have right now of Japan's countryside. Other than that, things have been kind of crazy, but not too bad. So today I'm going to talk about Airbnb ! I recently started using Airbnb and I thought it might be helpful for those of you out there wanting to know how Airbnb works and if it's a good option for your next trip. Why I first used Airbnb  I first decided to use Airbnb when my husband and I were planning our trip to Japan. I was in charge of getting our room and I remember seeing Airbnb commercials recently and was hearing more and more of my friends using this service. I quickly looked through the Airbnb's in Japan and compared th...