Tag: Friends

30x30

30 x 30: #28 – Get out of non-student loan debt

Geoff W

2014 10-31 No More CC DebtI’m down to 11 and after this weekend I’ll be down to 10 and will have started two more with a third one on-going. I’m going to kick this list’s butt! I’m not sure I’ve ever been happier seeing a bar chart (and I really like bar charts), but watching that little debt bar on Mint.com slowly dwindle away and actually turn green (whoops I overpaid :-D) this year has been AWESOME!

If there was one I was most scared of not accomplishing and one that I will forever be most proud of accomplishing it is getting out of non-student loan debt (AKA credit card debt). Now don’t get me wrong, I didn’t have an outrageous amount of debt, however, it was enough to make me wonder why I’d accrued it. And I know exactly why, but I’m not going into that, this is about the excitement of paying it off.

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CRWMPodcast

CRWM #02: The Man Who Loved Pride & Prejudice

Geoff W

CRWM02It’s here! It’s here! It’s finally here!

As promised I’ve finally edited and posted Episode 2 of Come Read With Me! My guest this episode is my friend Caitrin and we discuss Abigail Reynold’s The Man Who Loved Pride & Prejudice which I wrote about back in January! Thankfully, there weren’t any technical issues this time.

By far the highlight of this episode, apart from all the general Austen love, is about nine minutes in when I realize I misspoke about my favorite Jane Austen novel. It’s a good thing it wasn’t later in the podcast (aka later in the bottle of wine) or I might’ve cried! From pick up lines and my confusion over Colin Firth and Colin Farrel to Caitrin’s adoration of Sense and Sensibility and the Classics Club, nothing is off-limits.


You can download it by right clicking this link and selecting save as.

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Books

Book 311: Last Summer – Michael Thomas Ford

Geoff W

I’m so glad the guy I’m seeing loaned this to me (even if it did throw off my schedule a bit) and I was even happier to find out that I have a Jane Austen fan-fiction novel on my shelf he wrote, Jane Bites Back. I was hesitant to read it with the whole vampire thing, but I’m looking forward to it now I’ve read this one!

I’m confused (and sad) about why there aren’t more reviews of this awesome novel on Goodreads! On the other hand, I’m glad that there aren’t that many reviews because people would leave idiot responses (including gifs) about it and then I’d just be grumpy. Not only did I love this book because of Ford’s incredibly witty and hilarious one-liners, but I enjoyed it because of how many of the books he referenced that I’ve read. From Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to Maupin’s Tales of the City. I’ve clearly earned my “gay-card,” according to some of the characters.

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30x30, Personal Project

30 x 30: #30 – Visit Alie in VA

Geoff W

2014 10-17 Virginia is for FriendsI was able to squeeze the 18th list item into an incredibly busy weekend. We flew down to Virginia for a wedding this past weekend and we were so close to where my BFF from growing up, Alie, lives and I knew I had to see her. This was one of the two I thought might happen AFTER my birthday, but squeezing it in made it happen BEFORE!

Alie has lived in Virginia for longer than I’ve lived in Boston and I just haven’t had the money to get down to visit her. We’ve seen each other a couple of times since high school, most recently for our 10 year reunion last year, but we talk everyday and it was good to see where she lived. I no longer fear that she lives in the middle of a war zone in a rundown building with hoodlums running around. (Seeing really goes a long way for alleviating those worries.

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Books

Book 305: The Girl With No Shadow (Chocolat #2) – Joanne Harris

Geoff W

As I said in my response to Chocolat, I had no idea there were sequels and I’m so glad I decided to read them. I haven’t started the third, Peaches for Father Frances, but I’m excited to start it soon.

Harris takes the story of Vianne and Anouk we followed in Chocolat and expands the age-old battle between good and evil. Instead of the church, this time Vianne and Anouk, now Yanne and Annie, are battling evil itself and magic takes an even more prominent role in this story than in the first. And I was glad she did! She writes about magic in such a way as to make it beautifully common.

“It took me a little longer to recognize these things as magic. Like all children reared on stories, I’d expected fireworks: magic wands and broomstick rides. The real magic of my mother’s books seemed so dull, so fustily academic, with its silly incantations and its pompous old men, that it hardly counted as magic at all.” (67)

Beautifully common, might sound like an oxymoron or an insult, but it’s not. Harris’ writes about it so matter of fact and sets it up that way in this novel, common usage versus evil usage, that you can’t help but appreciate the beauty of the magic she chooses to write about.

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