30-minute fully body strength training
The Time for Change
A girl in the world
Monday, August 04, 2025
July 2025 Accountability Buddy
30-minute fully body strength training
Friday, August 01, 2025
The Compound by Aisling Rawle
I heard about The Compound by Aisling Rawle on Sarah's Bookshelves. It was described as Lord of the Flies meets Love Island and while that's not exactly accurate, it's not entirely inaccurate, either.
In a near-future (maybe current day?) Lily wakes up in a remote desert compound where she is on a reality show with nineteen other young people. She's 20something, beautiful, driftless, and she's counting on this show to help make her future easier. The world is hard - jobs are boring, there's constant war, and there's a hint that these young people don't think they'll be alive in twenty years.
The first part of this book was tough because twenty people is a lot. By the time you get to half that number, it's a lot easier to follow who is who. As the show goes on, we see Lily do more and more things for rewards and prizes that she wouldn't have considered doing early on in the show. Will Lily make it to the end with her own true self intact?
I think this book is mostly a critique of social media and late-stage capitalism (buy more stuff! stuff will make you happy!), but when I finished the last page, I still was wondering what the take home theme was supposed to be. There are plenty of interesting social critiques - how women (and men) of color are treated on television, how even when gender roles aren't assigned, people do what's "expected" of them, sexual attraction versus love, and the whole idea of television production on "reality" television and how it influences behavior outside of a set - but I just left the book feeling jangly and uncertain.
Maybe that's the point. 4/5 stars
Line of note:
The boys were delighted with themselves, and spent a long time finishing it, and a longer time congratulating themselves on it. (page 136)
Ahem.
Hat mentions (why hats?):
Some people put their shoes on the lower shelf, and others put sunscreen and hats and aloe vera on the shelves. (page 80)
After two further challenges (name fifteen capital cities - a tin of white paint; reveal who we voted for in the last election - baseball hats for everyone) we were exhausted and starving. (page 90)
They were plainly dressed in shorts and T-shirts, sunglasses and hats. (page 134)
"A month ago, I could have told you the minute and the hour and the date at the drop of a hat." (page 264)
a swimming hat (page 287) - WTF does that even mean? Like one of those stretchy cap things?
Thursday, July 31, 2025
The Parting Gift
I left you all on a bit of a cliffhanger about what I was going to get Blanche's mom since she's abandoning us for greener pastures. Was I even going to get a gift? I think you all knew I was going to get a gift, right? It's what I do.
Well, I got her a nice bag with our town's name on it. Seriously, friends, it's a nice bag.
Then I filled it with my favorite road trip snacks.
Then I got Blanche some presents, too.
And then I gave to her. I didn't even cry. Not once.
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Do you find it challenging to meet friends as an adult?
Wednesday, July 30, 2025
A Long Weekend in Seattle
Bestest Friend and I spent a long weekend in Seattle - we met up at the airport on Friday morning and she left on Monday morning (I spent the whole of Monday at the airport, but pretend that never happened).
I'm going to condense this because is there anything more boring than somebody else's trip, but here's what we did if you're interested in the TL;DR version. I'll go into all the details below.
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Seattle Aquarium - Okay. Maybe I wouldn't normally pay that price for what it is, but it was fine.
Public Market - This place is so much fun. Very crowded, so be prepared for that.
Saturday
Underground Tour - Eh. Bestest Friend and I are bad at guided tours. LOL. Maybe it was our fault more than the fault of the tour.
Seattle Center - What a beautiful area to wander around.
Permanent jewelry - So much fun.
Sunday
Whale watching tour - Really fun!
Fremont Market - Very impressive!
Gas Works Park - Beautiful!
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We met at baggage claim! It took forever to get bags. I wore a mask most of the time when I was in the airport or on a plane because it was so crowded. |
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In the middle is Jason, our host. In all photos of me with Jason, I am closing my eyes. It's just a thing. |
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Taken from on top of the Ocean Pavilion. |
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She looks like she's going on a real expedition here. |
Storica Studio - Ever since Stephany wrote about getting permanent jewelry with her book club, I've been wanting to do it. Bestest Friend and I had a couple of hours to kill and I sort of jokingly said we could get bracelets and she was so excited to do it! We made an appointment at Storica Studio and were there in half an hour.
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We took a photo with Nina. Of course we did. |
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There are sea lions on that buoy. |
Fremont Market
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Just picture me doing this the whole time |
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Crumpets. I legit ate most of that. I think Bestest Friend ate maybe 1.5 of those crumpets. |
There are a lot of unhoused people in Seattle, especially in the downtown area. They all seemed polite and reasonable to me, but you should know that going in.
Tuesday, July 29, 2025
The Return of Ellie Black
More than anything, Chelsey wishes there was a way to know when you were experiencing the happiest moments of your life. (location 634)
Right? If only I had known how good it was when I was sixteen. And twenty-six.
Our substitute English teacher held the whole class captive two minutes past the final bell to finish a poem about a snowman and a moor. (location 344)
This one? What else could it be, right?
Another of him and his family at the rodeo—parents and all six kids in jeans and cowboy hats. (location 94)
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Did you know you were experiencing some of the happiest times of your life?
Monday, July 28, 2025
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
I have no idea how I started reading An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser, but I'm pretty sure that I didn't know when I downloaded the audiobook read by Grover Gardner that it was more than 38 hours long. But, hey, if you're trying to read big books, I guess 38 hours is what you get.
This book is insane. It's as if the author had no idea what genre he wanted to write in, so he wrote in all of them.
Clyde Griffiths grows up poor in Kansas City as the son of religious fanatics. He takes a job as a bellboy at a fancy hotel and is introduced to girls, drinking, and gambling. After a terrible accident in which a young girl dies, Clyde runs away to Chicago. While working as a bellhop there, he meets his father's brother who is a wealthy owner of a factory in Lycurgus, New York. His uncle offers him a job and Clyde is off to Lycurgus.
Clyde is not supposed to date any young women at the factory, but he gets involved with a woman named Roberta anyway. He also starts seeing a wealthy socialite named Sondra. Roberta gets pregnant, Clyde plots her murder so he can live a foot loose and fancy free life with Sondra and when Roberta drowns, Clyde is arrested and tried for her murder.
YOU GUYS. What is this? Is it a coming-of-age novel? A murder mystery? A romance novel with a love triangle? A character study of man going insane? Is it a legal thriller?
I don't know what it is because I just referred to it as the toxic masculinity book that criticizes capitalism. I didn't love this book, but I was riveted by what would happen in the next chapter. What else could Dreiser possibly find to write about.
Apparently this book was based on true events. According to Wikipedia:
Dreiser based the book on a notorious criminal case. On July 11, 1906, resort owners found an overturned boat and the body of Grace Brown at Big Moose Lake in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York. Chester Gillette was put on trial, and convicted of killing Brown, though he claimed that her death was a suicide. Gillette was executed by electric chair on March 30, 1908. The murder trial drew international attention when Brown's love letters to Gillette were read in court. Dreiser saved newspaper clippings about the case for several years before writing his novel, during which he studied the case closely. He based Clyde Griffiths on Chester Gillette, deliberately giving him the same initials.
I don't know. I don't think I'd recommend it, to be honest. 3/5 stars
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While I listened to the audiobook, the page numbers will be from this version on the Internet Archive.
Lines of note:
And immediately after breakfast joining a long procession that day after day at this hour made for the mills across the river. For just outside her own door she invariably met with a company of factory girls and women, boys and men, of the same relative ages, to say nothing of many old and weary-looking women who looked more like wraiths than human beings, who had issued from the various streets and houses of this vicinity. (page 258)
Pre-COVID cities were like this, right? Just long lines of people heading it to work. I liked the imagery.
But if she questioned him in regard to these things now, would he not get angry and lie to her still more? For after all she could not help thinking that apart from his love for her she had no real claim on him. But she could not possibly imagine that he could change so quickly. (page 389)
Oh, so much symbolism in this passage! Also, isn't it interesting how quickly you can change from love to hate (or disinterest in this case).
Things I looked up:
orchestrelle (multiple times on pages 292 and 293) - A type of mechanical organ, specifically a player organ, popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was designed to imitate the sound of an orchestra through the use of paper music rolls and a system of reeds and bellows
tergiversation (page 480) - the act of evading a clear or direct answer or position, often through ambiguity or deception
Hat mentions (why hats?): I counted 137 hats in this book! Hats were a main plot point. That's 50 more hats than in Gone With the Wind. I'll only give you multiples.
felt hat (page 15, 87, 201, 298, 597, 871)
hat and coat (page 220, 232, 266, 523, 538, 586, 588 x 2, 589)
small brown hat (page 265, 510)
the same little round brown hat (page 277)
coat and hat (page 281, 538 x 2)
To match this pleasing little costume, she planned to add a chic little gray silk hat — poke-shaped, with pink or scarlet cherries nestled up under the trim, together with a neat little blue serge traveling suit, which, with brown shoes and a brown hat, would make her as smart as any bride. (page 468)
straw hat (page 475, 498, 511, 512 x 2, 515, 519 x 2, 533, 538 x 2, 539, 544, 545, 550, 552, 575, 588, 589 x 2, 590, 614 x 4, 615 x 6, 618, 630 x 2, 666, 697, 705, 706, 754, 778)
two hats (page 630 x 2, 633, 635, 645, 651, 652, 656, 666, 695, 746)
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Have you ever read An American Tragedy? Watched the movie A Place in the Sun starring starring Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, and Shelley Winters that is based on it?
Friday, July 25, 2025
Five for Friday, Edition #26
1) Update on my mom: It's not great.
2) Do you remember Blanche the Puppy? Well, her human decided to take a new job in New Mexico and is abandoning us. I'm sort of peeved because I was starting to become real friends with her and now she's leaving and I'm sad (there are only so many women of my age without children who I know in my town). ANYWAY. In between the craziness of my travel and work schedule, I put together a drinks thing at a local bar tomorrow night as a going away party. Do I bring a present for her and/or Blanche? I don't want her to have to move something useless, but is there something meaningful? A bag of road trip snacks? A fancy pen? One of those notes cut out of magazine letters ransoming Blanche so she doesn't leave?
3) July was supposed to be fun. I had the trip to Seattle (which I'm going to try to write about this weekend) with Bestest Friend. Next week, we're supposed to go to California for a wedding. The California trip could be canceled at any second (see bullet #1) and can we talk about how I let my husband figure out the dogsitting logistics and then when I followed up with the dogsitter, they had already booked a different dog for that time? So I've been utilizing all of my personal network to attempt to find somewhere/someone for Hannah. I don't have time for this and I'm sort of upset with my husband and with the dogsitter.
I think we have Hannah figured out, but now I'm struggling to find someone to come in once a day to take care of Zelda. *sigh*
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Bestest Friend and I have matching wallets. We did not plan this. |
4) I was recently at an airport (MSP, to be exact) and I had a choice of Dunkin, Starbucks, or Caribou. What's your choice? What's your order?
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Seattle preview |
5) I don't want to actually write this up in my Seattle recap, but Delta had some sort of data breach thing and my trip home was not fun. My original flight was supposed to leave at 1:30 and I got to the airport early in order to spend time with Bestest Friend and at some point, I got notified that my flight was postponed until 2:30, which meant I'd miss my connection. I talked with someone at Delta and the best they could do was book me at a midnight flight and I'd get to my home airport at 8:15 the following morning. I wandered around the airport futilely in an attempt to get on a standby flight, but I was at SeaTac for an entire day.
It's not the worst airport to be stuck at, but it certainly isn't the best. Delta didn't even offer me a food voucher and their representatives basically told me to go fuck myself, so while all my flights were fine, I'm still a bit upset by the whole thing. At least I was just by myself and I didn't have kids with me or wasn't trying to find food for Dr. BB to eat. Still.
Overall, I'm glad I went on the trip, but it ended on a down note.
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Sound off in the comments. Which coffee/tea purveyor do you choose? What present should I give to Blanche's human?