ARC, Updates

September Recap 2015

How in the world is it October? I still feel like I’ve just gotten back from Spain, it’s hot and the entire summer is before me, but that was three months ago! In reality, this is the busiest time of the year, it’s getting really cold in New England, we’re facing a potential hurricane in the next week and I’ve already done so many fall things it’s not even funny!

Thankfully, built into this really busy month I had some time to relax. A few of us went out to visit my sister who lives in the middle of a national forest and it was a much-needed break from the business that is Boston. The above left photo shows the offices (far right), pavilion and kitchen (center) and the bunk house (left). It was beautiful and we went for two walks and I took a nap by the pond. The right photo is from like 6AM where we were on the office porch just relaxing because we can’t sleep in anymore! (For more pictures check out my Instagram: geowhaley.

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CRWMPodcast

CRWM #07: The Adventures of Captain Underpants

CRWM07For episode seven of Come Read With Me, I was joined by my friend Dalton. He chose The Adventures of Captain Underpants (link to my review) and I am glad he did. This isn’t a book I would have gone out of my way, but it’s one of those books that is as much a part of pop culture as any cartoon show I grew up watching! Make sure to check out his Tumblr The Whet Whitch Whistler and follow him on Twitter @barleypoop.

I think we kept it PG-13 enough, not to warrant an explicit label, but suffice to say we discussed whether or not Dav Pilkey was a bit of a pervert, whether The Adventures of Captain Underpants could be Fifty Shades of Grey for nine-year-olds, AND whether or not Dalton writes fan-fiction or erotica. (Inquiring mines want to know!) To make it even more exciting, I may have even compared Dalton and his sister, Hayley, to the Brontës. Now that is praise from me for sure!

Download it here: CRWM #07 (Right Click and “save as.”) Or, better yet, subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher!

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30x30, Personal Project

30 x 30: #2 – Take a day hike

2014 06-28 Start of the HikeIf you want to find out how in or out of shape you are, go for a hike. Seriously, I knew I’d been lazy recently, but holy hell! I was hoping to cross four things off my list this week but only got to three, but YAY! Nine out of thirty (30%) done.

I’m still not sure that the sign was right, because our trackers definitely said longer than 2.5 miles, but I’m glad I did it! My friend Peter hiked a bunch of mountains last year and asked me a bunch of times and I always said no. When I was making my list I knew I needed to add it to the list and I did, but sheesh it was freaking exhausting. It was about a two-hour drive up and we hiked Mt. Tecumseh, 4003 ft/1,220m in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and it took a little under four hours (up and down).

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Culture Corner

Culture Corner – February 2014

As promised I have a lot to talk about this month and I’m still excited about next month’s culture corner knowing what’s coming! This past month has been a busy month culturally speaking from an awesome winery tour and tasting to another theater production and a book talk to a sing-a-long movie I did so much. So onward!

2014 01-24 Hairspray @ Wheelock Family Theatre

To start the month off (not really), but culturally speaking, I went to the Wheelock Family Theatre production of Hairspray and it was fantastic! I usually go opening night as I work for the school and get free/discounted tickets. From the opening number to the closing the entire show kept the audience (me) completely engaged. Even though I felt that Jenna Lea Scott did a great job as Tracy Turnblad, I felt that Jennifer Beth Glick, as Penny Pingleton upstaged her and everyone else in the production. From the way she chewed her gum to the interactions with Seaweed I couldn’t take my eyes off her, she is one of those actors that acts the entire time they’re on stage even when they’re in the background (similar to Celie from The Color Purple in last month’s Culture Corner).

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Updates

Lunch Break Interlude

Today has not been the most productive of days. I’ve gotten a decent amount of work done in the office, but I’m just not motivated. In hopes of motivating myself I thought I’d take a few minutes to share a neat photo found online and my two newest book additions and neat finds on my random Tuesday off this week.

I randomly stumbled across this rather ingenious photo on a 404 missing page at Scribd. It really does sum up what I feel like when I’m trying to find my next book to read unless something serendipitously comes along and suggests what I should read next. For example, I am currently reading Madame Bovary as I missed a trivia question about the story and then realized French literature is woefully lacking in my life (I believe I’ve only ever read Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo and that was in High School)!

The second photo I took of the random things I bought while driving my sister up to Keene, NH for grad school (so it wasn’t that random, but of all days to take off in a week Tuesday really turned me around). There was a Borders still open so I went in to see if the sales were any better than those Boston had when they closed all our stores. The sales were minutely better (but the staff if-possible even more rude) and I splurged and bought a copy of The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet by Reif Larsen, which I’ve read before and heard him speak and loved it (and him), and a combined A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens for $11.00 total (saving like $36.00 or so. I also went to Target and bought some deodorant (I wouldn’t share this generally, but it was a double pack for $3.99 and a regular stick is $4.56 on its own!) and two neat Moleskine notebooks for $3 and a Green whiteboard/corkboard for my cubicle for $5.00.

And a final picture of my lovely corkboard hanging up in the office:

Also, last week I got my copies of The English Patient, Waiting for Snow in Havana, and Fun Home in preparation for the Boston Book Festival! I’m very excited to re-read Fun Home and even more excited to finally read the first two which have been on my book list for over three years!