(not that much more, but the alliteration felt right.)
1- Thinking of everyone a bit farther north and west as Hurricane Isaias approaches. (We are not in the cone at all, and I feel so lucky about how this hurricane season has been overall, but this one looks scary). I hope everyone weathers the storm okay and that the damage is less than anticipated. Hurricanes are SO ROUGH psychologically too (all the anticipation, being stuck inside, then periods of such uncertainty about how you managed it and what to do).
2- NF Book Love: I’m only ~30 pages into this book, but I wanted to thank reader Caitlin for recommending it!
I’m actually glad I didn’t read it before because there’s a vignette segment that reminds me a lot of my OWN book (the “Tale of Two Mondays” portion that features an exaggerated day-in-life without effective planning tactics — honestly his version is even more stressful!)
But, I am enjoying the kitchen vignettes and learning about chef culture and how it can be applied to everyday life. I *do* feel like I have my own mise-en-place game down, but just appreciate the different way of looking at things.
3- Music this week has kind of taken a backseat to playing lots of Weezer in anticipation of the concert next week (YAY). But I have been zoning out to this gem:
I’ve also enjoyed the new Miranda Lambert + a new-to-me artist named Greg Freeman (made me think of: Kurt Vile, Modest Mouse). As always I pulled all of these from last Friday’s NPR music!
4- PODCAST: I appreciated Emma’s recent ep on MAINTENANCE. She called it “You got your dream body, how do you keep it?” but really it’s all about how many people go on some sort of quest to change their bodies, but don’t focus on what they’ll do once they reach a goal. Clearly, the answer can’t be “go back to prior lifestyle!” because that will just lead back to . . . the prior physical state.
I also like how she emphasizes creating maintenance habits and routines that are sustainable, rather than something you have to white-knuckle through. You can’t (happily) exist forcing a calorie deficit forever, for example. You need a template for the loooooong haul. I do think I’ve made some progress with body composition goals this year (yay!) thanks to heavy lifting and intentional eating habits (esp protein) so it’s nice to think about how to shift to more of a “let’s keep the progress!” sort of place.
5- STATING HERE AGAIN my desire to finish Fellowship Point by Monday! The story seemed to gain some momentum in last night’s segment, so that is promising. AND OMG, I did NOT need this to be ready at the library but now I have yet another book in my queue!
As much as I wanted to read Thoroughbreds next I feel compelled to throw this one in there instead (I bought Thoroughbreds).
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Fellowship Point arrived for me at the library yesterday. It’s… longer than I expected, but I’m hoping to settle in and read it over the weekend. Monday is Canadian Thanksgiving, so what are the odds I can carve out some day-time reading??
I stayed up until almost 1 am last night reading a novel. Sarah, WHY DO I DO THIS?? I know I cannot read novels at night, but I wanted to and I did and it was lovely… but morning came way too early…
Okay well good luck with FP. Like I said previously, things do pick up and I really enjoyed the last third of the book. Well, I enjoyed the whole thing but I do agree there was a bit of a lull in the middle.
Yes, those poor people in the path of Isaias! We have been so lucky this year- I don’t want to get too smug because clearly it’s not over yet. But we’re getting close.
Can you link the podcast episode wrt maintenance…I am trying to figure it out 🤪
She doesn’t have a dedicated site but here’s the Apple Podcasts link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/you-got-your-dream-body-now-how-do-you-keep-it/id1529524084?i=1000793232696
I predict you will love Shampoo Effect—it’s pretty propulsive and I think I remember you loved Pineapple Street (I did too). I am starting Exit Party tonight and then I need to dig into American Hagwon which just arrived from the library…but is quite long so I need to get in the frame of mind for it!! I loved Pachinko, which was also long, by the same author.
I have Shampoo Effect checked out right now, too! I have 2 other books to read first (a middle grade book I’m screening as a read aloud to Paul (Impossible Creatures) and Take What You Can). I loved Jackson’s last book so imagine I’ll love this one, too.
I’ve been listening to Sara Bareilles new album, Good Grief, on repeat this fall. It’s my new “emo” album to listen to on flights (heavy work travel tends to put me solidly in an emo sort of mood…).