Orange Is The New Black by Piper Kerman

Overview from BN.com:

With a career, a boyfriend, and a loving family, Piper Kerman barely resembles the reckless young woman who delivered a suitcase of drug money ten years before. But that past has caught up with her. Convicted and sentenced to fifteen months at the infamous federal correctional facility in Danbury, Connecticut, the well-heeled Smith College alumna is now inmate #11187–424—one of the millions of people who disappear “down the rabbit hole” of the American penal system. From her first strip search to her final release, Kerman learns to navigate this strange world with its strictly enforced codes of behavior and arbitrary rules. She meets women from all walks of life, who surprise her with small tokens of generosity, hard words of wisdom, and simple acts of acceptance. Heartbreaking, hilarious, and at times enraging, Kerman’s story offers a rare look into the lives of women in prison—why it is we lock so many away and what happens to them when they’re there.

My Thoughts:

To be honest, I only picked up this book because I love the Netflix show and was happy to learn that the first season had stayed pretty true to the book. Of course, Netflix has had to embellish quite a bit for entertainment value, but a lot of the people and scenarios in the book correlated with those in the show to a lesser degree. What I found profound about the book is that (one): Kerman was absolutely willing to due her time and pay for the consequences of her actions, even though all of it happened ten years prior to her conviction, and (two): during her time of transporting drug money, it was about the thrill and excitement of it all, but while she was in prison, she actually made a correlation to the women and families who are addicted to drugs. Working for these people that were transporting drugs into the country had inadvertently caused the demise of so many women and families who are addicted to these drugs and Kerman got a first hand look at how it has ruined their lives. I feel like that was the big lesson she learned while in prison.

I liked the actual true account of this story, but I don't fee that it was great enough for me to recommend to anyone unless they really like the show and also wanted to know about the true life events. I would probably just recommend sticking with the TV show.

Rating: C

Planning our Disney World Vacation - Part 1

Okay, I may be jumping the gun here. We are planning our next Disney trip for the fall of 2017, but it's never to early to start planning! So I thought I would take you along and share some tips on how we planned our last trip and what we are doing this time around.

Mickey Wreath in the Fall

So the first thing one should figure out is what time of year are you going and for how long. Once you have that in mind, you can start figuring out if there are any special events going on or how busy the parks are likely to be. In the springtime there is the Disney Flower & Garden Festival, late May and early July has Star Wars weekends for all those Jedis in training. Of course Christmas at Disney World is definitely on my bucket list for the future, but we had so much fun last fall, that is the time of year we decided to back in 2017. For us, fall is all about Epcot's International Food and Wine Festival, with Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party thrown in for good measure!

At the 2014 Food & Wine Festival

Once you have an idea of when you want to go the next important piece is the funds! Nobody has ever said that Disney World is a cheap vacation, however, I believe you get what you pay for when going to the 'World' and we don't mind splurging a little bit when we are there. So the Disney company, in all of it's infinite wisdom, has come out with their own vacation savings account - seriously, genius! Folks can head over to this website, (https://disneyvacationaccount.disney.go.com/) figure out when you're going, get an idea for a budget and then figure out how often you would like to contribute to the account. From there the budgeting tool will tell you how much money you will need to set aside to reach your goal, and it will automatically withdraw that amount from your bank account. The other nice thing about this - it's not just for Disney World! You can use this account to save for your next Disney Cruise, Adventure by Disney (Hello, Italy!!), or even save up for a trip to Aulani (Disney's Hawain resort).

Example of Disney's Budgeting Tool

Since we are not actually able to book our Disney trip until next summer, this at least gets us started with our vacation fund growing without us really having to worry about it! It's just a couple of ideas and tools, but I hope that got you thinking and excited about your next Disney vacation!