Catching Up

I've just been writing about books, but you are due a life update. I'm going to do it based on what is on my camera roll.

I spent a glorious part of an afternoon wandering around the University of Pennsylvania campus. Here's what you need to know. The campus is GORGEOUS and there are SO MANY PEOPLE wandering around on foot. Since COVID, our campus is basically dead, so this was shocking to me. I cannot stress how pretty the campus is. 

Also, Philly has a reputation for people being assholes and I have to admit that while most Philadelphians I met were lovely and welcoming, there were more assholes per capita than in any other place I've ever been. I was shoulder checked on the sidewalk multiple times and the guy on the train was really short with me when I could not produce my ticket in 0.3 seconds. But, honestly, most people were generous and excited to show me their city.

It is the City of Brotherly Love, I guess. 

My conference was at the Penn Museum, which has lovely grounds and you would not believe how fabulous conference spaces and classrooms. 

When you walk in, you are greeted with a sphinx.

This is the room where we ate all our meals. Look, I was not expecting any of this based on the conference description. If I had known it was going to be like this, I would have been way more excited about the conference instead of absolutely dreading it. 

Moving on. 

After the gorgeous day, it rained and rained and rained. I had packed an umbrella, but it broke upon leaving the museum right before my 1.3 mile walk to my hotel. I stopped at a random bookstore (I think it was Drexel's bookstore?) and purchased this umbrella, which my husband helpfully told me is in support of the Philadelphia Phillies. I guess I'm a Phillies fan now? 

So things went really well. The conference was actually useful, the venue was stunning, and my hotel was great. I think you know where this is going. 

Hey, it has been over a year since I have flown and the rules have changed SO MUCH. Why isn't anyone telling me about these changes. When I left Madison, I literally just put my backpack in the x-ray machine and walked through the thingmabob that is probably giving me radiation poisoning. There was no shoe taking off, no electronics out of the bag, NO LIQUIDS IN A ZIPLOC BAG. You still can't bring in a water bottle with liquid in it, though. 

When I left via Philadelphia, I did have to take my Kindle and laptop out of my bag, but that was it. No shoes, no three ounce liquids all in a bag. Honestly, if I had known this liquid rule change, I would have brought my foundation. Anyway. Regular travelers, why aren't you telling me these things? 

Because I wanted to leave from Madison and because I wanted to stay for the morning presentations on Wednesday at the conference, I had to have a layover on the way home. It happened to be in Charlotte. I don't want to go get into the gory details, but the flight was delayed and delayed and delayed and we didn't leave Charlotte until after 1am. 

It wasn't my worst travel story, but I have got to stop using American Airlines. I got into bed after 3:30am and when the alarm went off, I almost cried.

So I've been mostly recovering because apparently one messed up night's sleep in my 40s means I am essentially useless for the next five days.

Here are some views from my morning walk with Hannah yesterday. 

Spooky season is here and I'm going to stop complaining about the end of summer. I'm embracing fall and Halloween and I'm here for it! 

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If you have a bad night's sleep, how long does it take you to recover? What city do you think has the rudest people? 

Five for Friday, Edition #48

I've been working on this post for weeks. Some of this is now outdated, but I'm not editing anything. You get it all.

1) The deer were back! I would really like it if they ate all the greenery in our yard. 

Hey, is that a jungle? No, it's our backyard and our algae-stained siding!

2) Do you know what Michelle sent me? A dragon the size of a teacup!! I nearly died with the cuteness. Thank you so much, Michelle. She holds a pride of place in my office.

3) Last weekend was my birthday weekend! I was a lady who lunched! On Sunday, my actual birthday, I lunched with some friends in town. On Monday, I met with Sarah, Birchie, and Kyria in Madison for a quick brunch. There was cake and presents! What a life. 

The water bottle is a thing. So, I'm sort of a picky witch about water bottles. I hate plastic ones. I don't want a straw (impossible to clean - FIGHT ME ON THIS). I have been using a dented old metal Nathan one (Nathan doesn't even make metal bottles anymore) that wobbles because of all the dents, but earlier in the summer, the carabiner clip BROKE on the lid and my husband had less and less patience for me and my busted, wobbly water bottle. USE ANOTHER ONE, he implored. 

He bought me this one. Here's the sssshhhh secret. I don't like it. I hate the mint green color. This can be fixed with a judicious use of stickers.  But more than that. The lid is plastic. I don't want my lips to touch plastic (this is a sensory thing - plastic has a *smell* and apparently no one else gets it, but I DO). Okay, I can take off the lid. Well, that's all well and good, but then I have to put the top down and IT DOESN'T LAY FLAT. 

It was a thoughtful gift, but there's a reason I was still using the busted Nathan one. 

(Also, I really am grateful he bought it for me. You know I'm going to use it until it, too, is busted. And then I'll find an old Nathan water bottle on eBay.)

4) I'm going to Indianapolis this weekend to see Garth Brooks in concert with TJC!! Woot woot! We saw him in Rockford, IL in 2014, Detroit in 2015 (we went with my mom, sister, and BIL, and they were SUCH DOWNERS - don't go to concerts with people who don't share your concert vibe), and Columbus in 2016. Having a blog with all these details is AMAZING. Anyway, I'm going to have so so so so much fun.  

5) It wouldn't be a Five by Friday post if I didn't tell you a little bit about how disappointed I am with my fellow humans. I was driving home Wednesday night after a very long workday in which I ran a training for all the faculty advisors in my college. I was looking forward to yoga and convincing my husband that a frozen pizza is a healthy dinner option. As I drove along the river, a woman was literally LYING ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD trying to stand up and she kept falling over. A man was with her, but he seemed unable to help her up. I watched THREE CARS in front of me pass by her. I pulled over as soon as it was safe to stop and ran back to help her.

I watched ANOTHER THREE CARS drive by as I ran towards her. 

Anyway, the man and I helped her up and walked her to her car. She was shaking and her knee was terribly scraped. I asked if they wanted me to call an ambulance or run to my house (like three blocks away) to get first aid stuff. They declined and drove away. 

WHY DIDN'T ANYONE ELSE STOP? 

I honestly thought the boys on the roof situation was the last time I would deal with this. WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE? I don't think of myself as the kindest/most helpful person in the world, but I was literally crying as I drove the three blocks home. Why are we not helping people who need help? Is this just my town? I love my town. I'm a big booster for it. But maybe my town doesn't have anyone's back? I apologize for the all caps but WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK? 

Photo Every Day: July 2026, Week 4

Thursday, July 23 - This time of year we sometimes have tiny ants come inside our house, especially in our shoddily constructed addition. We use Terro bait traps and they do a pretty good job. However, a certain feline was playing with the trap, which WE DO NOT WANT, so Dr. BB had to construct a solution. A Chewy box is almost always the solution.

Friday, July 24 - Our new local bookstore had a fun Dungeon Crawler Carl bingo night. It was really quite delightful and we had a good time. I'm really enjoying having a bookstore in town and am basically going to go to every event there I possibly can in order to make sure it survives. 

Saturday, July 25 - Is it possible that the only photos I took all day were of my kitty? Yes, yes, it is. Also, we're kind of worried about Zelda Belda. She's not eating well, even though her weight is stable. I'm giving it another week of her weird eating habits before I call the vet. She's on a steroid, which is supposed to increase her appetite, but maybe we need to up her dosage. Poor baby girl.

Sunday, July 26 - This should be illegal. Usually Costco can do no wrong in my world, but this is unacceptable.

Monday, July 27 - I have once again forgotten I was supposed to take a photo every day this month. This is my dog. She's walking before bed. She's not happy about it.

Tuesday, July 28 - You guys. I'm so bad at this. Let's pretend Tuesday didn't exist.

Wednesday, July 29 - Last freshman registration event of the summer! Woot! They have been doing construction in the building we use all summer long and they're redoing some lab spaces. I took a photo to show that the reno is nearly done! Next summer we'll get to use these classroom spaces and we're pretty excited about it. 

Thursday, July 30 - Do you want some whiplash? Now we're at a waterpark! My husband's siblings and all their kids are in a Wisconsin family fun area (Wisconsin Dells) and we are doing all the things. 

Friday, July 31 - Back at the VRBO, my nieces are attempting to teach me to make friendship bracelets. I have to admit that there was a lot of poking fun at Aunt NGS for not being able to figure this shit out. 

Saturday, August 1 - My husband and I took my niece and we got our nails done. Her first manicure! We're obviously building core memories over here. 

Sunday, August 2 - I have no words for this. All of the kids are surrounding their grandfather and his wife. Have you ever seen anything so cute?

And that's a wrap on July. Thank heavens because I am bad at remembering to take a photo every day. 

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What's a favorite memory you have from July? 

Photo Every Day: July 2026, Week 3

Thursday, June 16
A couple of things today. One, it's hot. Two, the air quality is bad because of wildfires in Canada? I think. It smells like rubber and there's a haze that I last saw at Bretz, a gay bar in Toledo I was a regular at in 2001 that had a lingering cigarette funk years after smoking indoors had been banned. Also, I had a dentist appointment? What a day. 

Friday, July 17

I borderline forced my poor husband to go to the community center for a fundraiser after dinner. He was not feeling great and Friday nights are not ideal for either of us since we're usually fried after a work week. Regardless, we went. There was a band playing Bill Monroe music, a silent auction, and plenty of lovely people to chat with.

Saturday, July 18

There was an Adult Book Fair in my town today. It was amazing. Anne came and we made bookmarks, wandered around some book-themed vendors, and finished with Book Trivia. I don't want to brag, but we did come in first at book trivia. FIRST PLACE!! I knew Redwall!

Sunday, July 19

Back at the book fair again today. I am obsessed and so excited to see so many people in our town. Don't forget to sign up for my book fair giveaway if you want some adorable bookish items. The air quality was back to being gross, so we tried to limit our time outdoors. But not so limited that I didn't get photos of the sign advertising tattoos at the community center, which seems like the lady who originally imagined uses for this space would never have imaged. Sorry, not sorry, Joan, you fabulous lady. 

My friend Gina and I chatted with all the vendors and they seemed so happy with the turnout. Yay! We were also used in some social media promo, so if you start to see Gina and I become famous, you'll know how it started.

Monday, July 20

I had to come down off my book fair high and go to work. The chair of the math department had a question about the software I'm ostensibly an expert on, so I wandered down to her office. She had a collection of math-themed stickers and I have to let you know, I was unable to prevent myself from taking a bunch. All my math friends are getting stickers!

Tuesday, July 21

Next month, we're doing a big training at work. Our office is charged with doing a big training for all faculty advisors. We did it last year (I mentioned it in 4a of this post) and it was quite successful. It was so successful, in fact, that someone in leadership heard how amazing it was and mandated it be required for ALL the colleges, not just our college. *sigh* Frankly, it's ruining the vibe to have these other people there (they're lovely people, I promise, but they have different advising models and it's hard to account for all of that in our material). 

Anyway. One of the things that people liked about our training last year was that we did a lot of hands-on activities. So we have to continue that because did you know faculty members make terrible students? Of course you knew that.

My co-worker LB won an award at an advising conference for work she presented on play in training. She created a dice game to create advising scenarios that leads to excellent conversations. So we're doing a dice game is what I'm saying. 

I found these Yahtzee yard dice for a STEAL at a local thrift shop for $10.55.

I told LB about them and then she went and bought a bucket of them, too.

That's twelve tables done. And I guess we can put regular-sized dice on the rest of the tables. 

Wednesday, July 22

It was SO NICE today. Highs in the 70s with a breeze. I had to wear a sweatshirt when I walked the dog this morning. The air quality is back to normal, so we even slept with the windows open. But let's back up to the dog walk.

Look how beautiful it was!!

How was Hannah handling it, you ask? 

THIS IS HOW SHE WAS THE ENTIRE WALK. Do you notice the tucked tail? What is she afraid of? It's not dark. No one was setting off fireworks? We literally didn't see another person or dog in the park. What did we see? Sandhill cranes, geese, ducks, squirrels, and a very foolhardy tiny rabbit. She pulled and yanked and started just sitting (her version of a no, thank you). 

I ended up shortening the leash so she had to walk right by my side (loose leash? that's for other dogs, I guess) and I would not let her pull. I hated to do it, but I was scared I was going to hurt her or she was going to hurt me. 

Anyone else want to come and deal with the mental case that is my dog? 

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Is the air clear where you are? Anyone want to adopt a slightly used neurotic dog? Come to my town for our next book fair? 

In Which My Small Town Auditions for Stars Hollow (and a Bookish Giveaway!)

I fear my Gilmore Girls reference may be too dated? Stars Hollow is the fictional town where Lorelei and Rory Gilmore live in Gilmore Girls, just to be clear. 

This past weekend my town hosted a Grown Up Book Fair event that involved roughly a dozen locations in walkable distance downtown. It was organized by a woman who owns one of our three coffee shops in town (I mean, four if you count Dunkin', but I'm not counting Dunkin', sorry) and hats off to her because this event was HOPPING. 

How much of this schedule did I participate in? As much as possible, I tell you. I don't know why I'm blocking out the business names except I'm still pretending there's a facade of privacy on this blog and that 90% of my readers don't know my exact address, let alone the incredibly accessible name of my town. 

 

The weekend began with Bookish Pilates for me at the local community center. The air quality was okay on Saturday, so I met up with my friend Gina and we did it! I've never done a Pilates class, so this counts as "try a new fitness class" on my goals list for the year. Woot woot! What makes Pilates bookish? Great question. The playlist was made of songs that were on movies or tv shows based on books. Pretty tangential, but the instructor was quite proud of it, so I feel obligated to share. (Her name is Abby and she is based out of The Place in Oconomowoc. She was great.)

I stopped at the Farmers Market to buy honey, and then I went home and changed clothes because I was a sweaty mess and I gulped down a Gatorade like I had not had water in decades. Then I met up with Anne and we started doing other things!

First up, DIY confetti bookmarks at the library. I thought this was such a genius event! It was a little bit messy and I'm sure they're going to be picking glitter confetti off the floor for the rest of the month, but I am in love with my bookmark. The library was also having its monthly Friends of the Library book sale and the place was hopping. The library isn't open on Sunday, but I saw them back at the fair on Sunday with a booth at the community center.

Then we wandered around the vendors. There were vendors at SO MANY places. I have to admit it made my heart swell to see so many people walking around with tote bags downtown. Parking lots were full, stores were busy hives of activity, and it was like I was living my favorite small town dream. 

Then Anne and I met up with some other folks for book trivia. I want you to know that our team kicked ass even though Sarah and Mark had "other plans."  We were the Octobooks (we sort of panicked when we needed to decide on a name - there were eight of us, so it sort of worked) and we took home first place. Look, it was great and I know I had hyped it up last week, but the hype really did pay off. (I lost a point because I messed up the order of New Moon and Eclipse in the Twilight series and I was almost sort of proud that I just couldn't remember. It didn't seem like anyone else at the table had ANY clue, so at least I had something.)

So, you'd think I'd have done my business at this point, but NO. Gina and I met on Sunday morning and we toured the vendors again and I purchased MOAR things. 

Here are some vendors I super duper am excited about.

Bewitched Between Bindings is a Milwaukee-based company that sells book-inspired candles by genre, author, or character. BUT! I don't want you to think this is just some random scent - she only creates scents if they are described in the book or she has heard from the author directly. I was so fascinated by this woman and kept calling her a creative genius. I suspect I will place a large order with her store around Christmas. 

Sunshine Cookies is a local place that had some very hysterical book-related cookies, but also had some truly divine macarons (I had a salted caramel one). Huge thumbs up. 

There were local authors, people selling Kindle cases, lovely stained glass with book themes, totes, stickers, greeting cards, and all sorts of blind dates with books. There were artists doing bookish flash tattoos. I think Gina might have actually gotten one if they had had any appointments left. 

There was a lady who will DISCOVER YOUR FOUR LETTER READING PERSONALITY. Stephany, are you reading this? You need to get her on your podcast. 

Friends, it was a great time. The vendors were super friendly and excited to be there. The attendees were polite and patient. There were long lines at some places and everyone was just so chill and happy to be there. If you can get yourself to a grown up book fair, I recommend it!

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On to the giveaway. As I was wandering about, I was making purchases. I have two fun collections to share with you.

Collection #1 - The Purple Bookshelf

A heart-shaped bookshelf ornament, stickers, two pens and a highlighter, a lovely bird magnet, some reading tabs, and a notebook all in a purple pencil case. I don't know for sure, but I bet I'll add some merchandise about how awesome my town is, too. 

Collection #2 - The Orange Cat

A glasses wearing cat asleep on a pile of books ornament, stickers, two pens and a highlighter, a lovely bird magnet, some reading tabs, and a notebook all in an orange pencil case. I don't know for sure, but I bet I'll add some merchandise about how awesome my town is, too. 

Do you want a chance to win one of these delightful packages? Fill out the Google form.  Deadline is Wednesday, August 5. I'm happy to ship internationally. I'll probably remind you between now and then. 

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Have you been to a grown up book fair? Would you be a good addition to a book trivia team? Do you know the order of the books in Twilight?