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Wildflower by Drew Barrymore (4.5 stars)
Drew Barrymore has always been one of my favorite celebrities, so I really enjoyed her stories in this memoir. There are essays about her parents and unconventional childhood, adventures with her best friends, the evolution of her career, her relationship with her husband, and her thoughts on motherhood. I think what I admire most about Drew is her ability to keep her feet on the ground AND her head in the clouds. She’s a wise, talented, and fun lady.
Enough: 10 Things We Should Tell Teenage Girls by Kate Conner (3 stars)
Since this is my Year of Enough, this book title caught my attention when I saw it in the sidebar of Kate Conner’s blog. Despite the fact that I’m not a teenage girl, nor do I have any in my life, I decided to check it out. Kate is funny and gracious, and I’m on board with most of what she had to say here. However, I know from her blog that her life has changed drastically since writing this book, and I’m really interested to know whether she’d give all the same advice now.
Shine Shine Shine by Lydia Netzer (5 stars)
I think this is one of those novels people will either love or not get at all. It’s a multilayered, uniquely told story about Sunny, a housewife with secrets who’s knocking herself out trying to be normal; her brilliant scientist husband, Maxon, now an astronaut on a mission to colonize the moon; her dying mother, Emma; her autistic son, Bubber; and the Stepford-like Virginia community where they’ve planted themselves. These characters seem so real and think about some real stuff. One of my favorite books is The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, and I heard echoes of it in Shine Shine Shine, in a more immediate and individual way.
Four: A Divergent Story Collection by Veronica Roth (4 stars)
I loved the Divergent trilogy so much that I saved these short stories for as long as I could. The first three follow Four through his Choosing Ceremony and the year or so after, providing backstory for both him and the Dauntless faction as Tris finds it when she arrives. The fourth story is mostly some events of Divergent from his perspective. You can keep your Cullens; give me Tobias Eaton any day.
November books: 4
2015 year to date: 62
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General Highlights:
I wondered why I still feel so tired after a five-day weekend, but putting together this post answered that question for me. November was nonstop.
I ran two 5Ks (one for my alma mater, one for the House of Mews), and my first Turkey Trot 4-Miler. To my own surprise and joy, I cut three minutes off my last four-miler time in September. That’s probably the quickest progress I’ll ever see! I really need to join one of the many running groups in Midtown for more companionship at races.
Mostly due to hunting, my immediate family has split up on Thanksgiving for many years. I’ve had Thanksgiving with friends, with extended family in Miami, and with my BIL’s family. But this year, I got to be with my parents and brother! (“So they’ve killed all the deer?” a friend asked innocently.) It was great. This photo is actually the best of our Thanksgiving group pics – the others were thumb shots.
We celebrated Myla‘s birthday, and also her baby boy, due in January! My baby-shower tolerance is low these days, but I had a genuinely great time at hers. Excited to meet Baby Wolf! ♥
After an amazing 8-0 run, during which they briefly became a contender for a New Year’s bowl, my Tigers lost three straight. We closed the season well on Saturday with a 63-0 trouncing of SMU… then lost our wonderful coach the next day. Meanwhile, basketball season has started (I have fantastic new seats), and those Tigers are all over the place. So far we’ve lost to some UT offshoot and beaten Ohio State. Bottom line: in Memphis sports, getting your heart broken is part of the deal.
Reading:
Drew Barrymore’s latest memoir, Wildflower, is a really enjoyable read. There are stories about her childhood, skydiving with Cameron Diaz, motherhood as someone who never had traditional parents, and her creative soulmate Adam Sandler… among other topics. I first picked up Shine Shine Shine in a bookstore several years ago, read a few pages, and made a mental note to find it later at the library. Well, I finally did, and gave it five stars. It’s an unusual novel about an unusual family and I loved it.
Watching:
I saw Mockingjay Part 2 with my friends, and The Peanuts Movie with my mom, who surprised me at the theater with my old Charlie Brown doll. Hilarious.
Video:
I feel like SNL knocks it out of the park about once a year. This year’s best episode was the pre-Thanksgiving episode with Matthew McConaughey. Do yourself a favor and watch the whole thing. My favorites were the Adele Thanksgiving miracle (which has already become shorthand in my family) and Should You Weigh In On This?
Around Town:
Kelsey and I attended Ignite vol. 9 at the beautiful new Halloran Centre. It was my first Ignite event – if you don’t know how it works, learn about it here. It was fun and inspiring, and I’ll go again! My favorite talks were by Paul Morris of the Downtown Memphis Commission, and Brian Balough, founder of Wiseacre Brewery.
We had a great Supper Club at Greencork on a rainy night; I went to the Broad Avenue water tower lighting with my mom and Gwen; and I finally did my duty as a Memphian and went with my friends to Raiford’s. It was a blast.
Also, per my tradition, I saw the New Ballet Ensemble Nut ReMix at the Cannon Center. It’s one of my favorite events of the year. Usually, alumnus/Memphian Lil Buck headlines, but this year he’s busy touring with Madonna and promoting his new shoe line with Versace. NBD. The show was as awesome as ever.
Cooking/Eating:
I was in charge of desserts for Thanksgiving! I tried a new pumpkin pie recipe – highly recommended, but don’t bake at 300 as she says, unless you want to wait all day. (Also: pre-made pie crust saves half an hour!) I also attempted to make mini apple bundt cakes, but the recipe I randomly chose didn’t yield hefty enough batter for mini bundts. So I baked the rest as a sheet cake, added the fallen-apart cakes as a crumb topping, and covered it all with a brown sugar glaze. Not perfect, but I didn’t put peas or onions in anything, so it was all good.
After we couldn’t get in at the Beauty Shop one morning, Kelsey and I discovered the fantastic Sunday brunch at Strano. We will be back.
Beauty:
My last few mascaras have been Maybelline, and this new kind is the best I’ve tried yet! (The angel wings make me happy too.) I also grabbed this NYC eyeliner at Dollar Tree, and it’s outperforming several expensive eyeliners I’d researched and ordered online. Sure, I can’t sharpen it, but it cost a dollar.
Quote of the Month:
Not a quote exactly, but my new official answer to this question:
On The Blog:
I participated in Hollywood Housewife’s One Day project for the third time. I also wrote about my trip to Iceland for my friend Kim’s travel blog, Girl Lost in the World: a list of my top five Iceland must-sees, and an ode to Icelandic geothermal hot tubs! I will eventually write more about my trip here on my own blog.
Posts I Loved:
♥ Elisabeth Klein: How to Be Okay with Things that You’re Not Okay With
♥ Amanda at All the Little Pieces: Force Quit: An Invitation
♥ Kelsey Munger: What Evangelicals Get Wrong About the Personal Narrative
♥ Erin at Design for Mankind: When Your Friend Changes
♥ Micha Boyett: The Faith Chapter
♥ Alana Semuels in The Atlantic: Dorms for Grownups: A Solution for Lonely Millennials?
4 Comments + Posted in: what i'm into
When I visited Iceland, I fell in love with its geothermal mineral swimming pools. Most towns have at least one public pool, and many Icelanders go daily if possible. They consider it important to their overall health, and now that I’ve participated, I can see why.
On the first night of our trip, my friends and I experienced local swimming pool culture at Laugardalslaug, which was just down the street from our hotel. (Not yet used to the Icelandic language, we immediately renamed it “LaGuardia” for our own reference.)
Read the rest of my ode to Icelandic hot pots over at Girl Lost in the World!
Add a Comment + Posted in: travel
Iceland is a country I’d always wanted to see, but it wasn’t high on my priority list until this summer when a friend told me she was going with her sister. Suddenly, I really wanted to go. I offhandedly mentioned it to Bethany, one of my best and most well-traveled friends. Three days later, she had found and booked a cheap fall fare for herself and her husband, and basically said, “Are you coming or what?” So at the end of October, Bethany, Isaac, and I took off for a week in the land of ice and fire.
Read the rest at Girl Lost in the World, my friend Kim’s travel blog!
This is the first in a series of posts about my trip to Iceland. I’ll be writing again at Kim’s about Iceland’s geothermal hot tubs, and coming back here to talk about what I packed and some of my other favorite memories!
3 Comments + Posted in: travel
Every November, Hollywood Housewife hosts a linkup called One Day, in which everyone posts the minutiae of their regular day that normally go undocumented. I’ve learned that these are the kinds of things you look back on and see how much in your life has changed (or not). While One Day is meant to happen on Instagram throughout the day, I prefer to post it all here as a photoessay of sorts.
Previous One Days: 2013 and 2014.
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
6:00 am: Alarm goes off. Spend 15 more minutes in bed catching up on social media and having my first cuddle of the day with Rufus.
6:45 am: Most mornings, I do a short toning video from my exercise playlist. Other times I do a few halfhearted arm exercises and then flop onto the floor.
7:00 am: How the sausage is made.
7:20 am: Breakfast today is some granola with Craisins in it. (Spoiler alert: I was starving by 10:30.)
7:40 am: Leave for work. My commute is easy now, for which I thank God every single day. The highlight of my drive is the crossing guard at the Campus School, who smiles and waves at each of us every morning and just exudes joy. He’s the embodiment of doing the task appointed to you with all your heart. I want to note this even though I couldn’t take a picture of him while driving through a school zone.
8:00 am: Arrive at work.
8:05 am: My oasis of calm in the midst of (mild) chaos.
9:00 am: Departmental meeting.
10:30 am: SAD is already starting to hit me after only a week, so I’m firing up the sun lamp. Also trying a new tea!
12:40 pm: I try to have a quiet lunch out with a book at least once a week. Today I’m at Lenny’s with Sarah Bessey’s latest (which is amazing) when some big Grizzlies news breaks:
(WHAT IS HAPPENING with the Grizz?!? Ugh.)
3:00 pm: I guess I should appear in my own day at some point, so here’s an #OOTD!
5:10 pm: Leave work. We have a lot of pine trees around the office, and I always have a strong urge to gather the pine cones I find, like they’re stray animals in need of loving homes. I left this one, though, because the last one I picked up lived pointlessly in my car cup holder for months. Godspeed, little pine cone.
5:30 pm: Home! I made this wreath. It’s my favorite.
6:00 pm: Omelets are my default dinner choice when I’m pressed for time (or energy). I almost never burn them anymore! :D
6:30 pm: I bought this over-the-sink wine rack not long after I moved in, and it proved more complicated than it appeared. My dad installed it for me last weekend. It makes me happy to look at it!
7:00 pm: Weekly yoga class! I’ve been taking yoga from Paula for eight years. She works at multiple locations, so when I moved to Midtown, I just switched to the class nearest to my new place. Paula is a great teacher and friend and I love her. After class, we talked for so long, I helped her lock up.
8:30 pm: Predictably with the cooler nights, my low tire pressure light came on, so I have to air up on the way home. One of the tires is so low, I don’t know how the car is rolling. It ends up taking three rounds of quarters. After that I hit the library drive-through to return Drew Barrymore’s new memoir, Wildflower (loved it). The Bartlett library was great, but I’m really happy to have the main library as my nerd home base.
8:45 pm: Home again. Here’s my little mudroom area. My mom gave me this pretty dish that I use for keys. My friends Kathy and Kelsey talked me into getting this purse right before I went to Iceland, and I’m so glad they did. It’s just what I needed.
8:55 pm: Oh yes I did. Also, I often get Facebook messages like this from my mom, and I’m at a point in life where I actually appreciate them. I’ve stopped taking for granted having a good relationship with my mom who loves me and is around. Besides, I’m a naturally cheesy person.
10:00 pm: Manicure and Mindy! Someday I’ll have an actual chest of drawers in my room that’s wide and low enough to set the TV on properly (and hide the cords).
11:00 pm: That took a little longer than expected. But now, goodnight!
2 Comments + Posted in: life lately, linkup