Updates

August Recap 2015

2015 08-21 Packing to MoveI’m not sure about the rest of the world, but fall is definitely starting to arrive in New England. I’ve already seen Pumpkin Spice Lattes on people’s social media and Tim just bought Pumpkin Spice Coffeemate. It is a little weird though, last week was beautiful and temperate and then this week we’re back into the 90s (mid 30C’s) and it’s hella humid.

In case I wasn’t stressed enough with everything else I moved over the past few weeks. If you follow me on other social media this isn’t a surprise. I didn’t move far, less than eight miles driving, but I’d been living in the same place for FIVE YEARS. I was amazed at how much I managed to accumulate.

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Random

A Book Reading and Obnoxious Readers

2015 03-09 Boyne and Vann at Harvard Book Store
David Vann, left, and John Boyne, at Harvard Book Store.

Monday night, I had the pleasure of attending a reading at Harvard Bookstore (Shop Local!) featuring John Boyne, of The Absolutist fame, and David Vann, whom I haven’t read yet! It was an enjoyable event and both novelists’ new works, A History of Loneliness and Aquarium respectively, sound fascinating! (I will definitely request them from my local library in the near future.) Boyne’s humility impressed me and I was glad to see him shift focus to Vann when everyone kept asking him questions.

While there, I took the chance to get my copy of The Absolutist signed (SWOON!) and that photo is at the end of this post. Did you know that it was his favorite as well? I nearly hyperventilated (and actually clapped out loud like an awkward lunatic) when he said that and immediately messaged Heather (who is getting a signed copy of a surprise book). When John, first name basis obviously, signed my book I told him how Heather and I are still getting a lot of traffic from our responses to The Absolutist and that I got a long email just last week about it. He commented that he was always fascinated about how long a story can continue to gain traction.

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CRWMPodcast

CRWM #03: The Handmaid’s Tale

CRWM03Note: This episode is going live early due to the holidays, traveling and the potential delay with iTunes uploading.

Welcome to Episode 3 of Come Read With Me, where my friend Patrick and I dive into Margaret Atwood’s classic dystopia A Handmaid’s Tale. Patrick agreed to be on the podcast before he even knew what the podcast was about and when I called him he was ready. I gave him a really long list of books to choose from and he chose perfectly! (His original choice was Twilight but that was reserved and will be Episode 4). If you’ve never read it you should read it, really just read all Atwood as she’s amazing.

In addition to Atwood we spoke about a wide variety of authors and Patrick’s love of creating Twitter bots. Check Patrick out on Twitter @lightaesthetic and check out his website to see some of the awesome games he’s putting together in his spare time.

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30x30, Personal Project

30 x 30: #3 – Take a hip-hop dance class/workshop

2014 11-29 The Dance Complex OutsideFourth one this week and I’m down to six on my 30×30 list! I’ll cross off another one on Monday (YAY NaNoWriMo being over) and maybe the bike ride too as the weather is supposed to be decent.

If there was one on my list I thought I might skip out on (aside from the tattoo), it was this one. I did some research and found The Dance Complex which wasn’t too far from where I live and wasn’t too expensive for a drop in class, but MOST importantly they had a Hip Hop Beginner Basic class. I clung to that basic because I was like okay so it’s even easier than Beginner right?

A few weeks ago my friend Caitrin and I tried to go to the class, but they were very strict about no street-shoes in the studios, so we went for breakfast instead. This time I showed up and no one said anything about shoes of any type! Maybe they just assumed I had shoes in my backpack or something, but not a word!

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Culture Corner

Culture Corner – August 2014

2014 08-08 Throwing Shade Live!I planned to start with the ridiculous movie theater I went to, but why not just go in order?

If you remember back in March I went to see a live taping of the podcast Welcome to Night Vale and how much fun I had, you’ll appreciate this. When I found out a few months ago one of my favorite podcasts, Throwing Shade, was coming to Boston I immediately bought tickets! The original plan was that Caroline, Hayley, a TBD friend and I would go. I mean it’s a comedy podcast dealing with politics and pop culture, of course it would be AMAZING.

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