It's raining, it's pouring...

It's finally fall! Now I can stop getting heat stroke every time I go outside, whoooo

I got a free book from the library the other day by taking a survey, Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield. It was very interesting, but very weird. It starts when the main character is a little boy and playing with his friends; while showing off his new slingshot he kills a rook. The first half the book he is really happy, and then disaster strikes, all seemingly stemming from his killing of the bird as a child. I would not have purchased the book, but as a free one it was pretty good!

Then I read The Queen of Dark Things by C. Robert Cargill, which I found on the New YA book shelf. I really liked this one! It was well written for a fantasy YA book. I have now ordered the first book (it's in a series), because the main character was really interesting. The book talked a lot about Aboriginal folk lore which was super cool and not something I had heard a lot about, makes me want to go and do some research into that now.

The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton was an interesting, slightly thrilling book. Not fantasy per-say, but explores a little how humans attribute what happens in their lives to outside forces and are always looking for signs. The main character is a young woman from a small Dutch town who moves to Amsterdam to marry a rich merchant. The marriage is not at all what she expects and so she starts ordering doll house parts from a miniaturist in town. As secrets are revealed within her new family, the doll house eerily mirrors what is going on. Very cool, but I still hate dolls.

I started yesterday The Book of Fate by Brad Meltzer which seems like a political, crime drama? I'll keep you posted. 

I've been working a lot this week so not much has happened since I last wrote. 

On Sunday morning Keegan and I explored a new trail that has opened up right down the road from us!

crosses the train tracks and we got to see a train! I suppose the novelty of trains will wear off soon, but not yet!

King of the forest

 I often get scheduled on the closing shifts at work because I am one of the only non-students, so I have the most flexibility. The other night when I got out the sky was sooo amazing.

And so then Keegan and I went to Crozet Pizza, right across the street from Para, for supper! Super delicious, we got a large margherita pizza, expecting to save some of it for lunch the next day but nope, we ate it all

On Tuesday we made chicken meatballs, they were okay, definitely need to meddle with the recipe. Probably the issue was that we only had half the ingredients it called for...

delicious cookie from work :))

I need to get ready for work now!!

xoxo

banana bread revisited

Good Morning!
My book club went well earlier this week! I got to hang out with a group of adult women who were very nice and said I fit in well for a 22 year old.

The Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline is what we read for September. It was very interesting, definitely an easy read (I read it in one day). Historical fiction but based off a very true and interesting phenomena from the turn of the last century where orphans, or children without stable households who were working on the streets, were rounded up from New York City and given away to families in the country. Some, mainly babies, were taken to be brought up as children in households. Older kids were often used as free labor, boys were wanted on farms and girls were taken to be nannies or seamstresses.  I learned a lot about this in one of my history classes and it was great to revisit the material in a fictionalized way.

For October we are reading Of Bees and Mist by Erick Setiawan. I read this this summer actually and looooved it, so I was excited to see that the book club was doing it too! I would categorize this a magical realism, it's about regular people, living on earth, but there are magical elements without being about wizards and faeries. For example, one character, when she is angry or nagging, has bees come out with her words that attack the person she is annoyed with. The story is about a little girl and her unusual upbringing and then follows her through her marriage, issues with in-laws, and struggles with her husband and son. It doesn't seem to be in the library system either here or at home, but I have a copy at my house in MA if anyone wants to borrow it.

another book I just finished was The Glass Sentence by E. S. Groves. I got 5 books out of the library the other day and this is the only one I liked. I read it all yesterday, it was so good. However, like bees and mist, you have to enjoy fantasy. It's also YA, so keep an open mind about the plot. However, I thought it was awesome and exciting, perfect for when you want an adventure that is not too heavy. In the story, the Great Disruption has occurred a generation or two before. Something happened which split Earth up in time, not in space. Basically, we still have all the same continents, but different parts of the planet now exist as they were in the past or as they will be in the future. The main character is Sophia, a teenage girl, who's family are mapmakers and explorers. Her parents disappeared when she was three and when her uncle gets kidnapped, she sets off the find him, using some special maps he left her. A very interesting world!

I have had a great few days, it was lovely having my friends from home visit. They are driving across the country, staying with friends along the way. They came from D.C. and then left yesterday to go to Asheville, N.C.

we snuck in to visit a farm down the street from my apartment but then the car got stuck and we had a very scary couple moments stuck in the dirt (Volvo triumphed in the end!)

We then took a little trip to Carter's Mountain to get some outdoor exercise

and I showed them my work where we ate great pastries :)))

On Thursday we went to an event called Night at the Museum, at the aboriginal art museum owned by UVA. It was really cool! There were food trucks and some games and live music. We were the youngest people by far (except for the little kids) but I thought it was really cool.

playing corn hole, I am so embarrassingly terrible

In Food News!

We tried Spudnuts for the first time! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spudnut_Shops

They make donuts made with potato flour, obviously I had to eat two. This was glazed, and I a,so had a cinnamon sugar.

Some new kitchen art I made! Designs heavily inspired by some things I saw on easy but was too poor to purchase

Keegan and I had Mexican at Guadalajara (http://charlottesvillemexicanfood.com) last night. I had my classic of verde enchiladas, they were yummy and reasonably priced.

Remember how I made banana bread last week? I think I over cooked it because it was kind of dry. And then it got stale. So this morning I made Banana Bread French Toast! It was so yummy. Because my mom was traumatized by bad french toast as a kid, this was my first time making it myself!

As a final note, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! It was my dad's birthday yesterday and I am so sad that I missed it but we will celebrate at thanksgiving!

Great family shot, miss you all

mwah!

happy long weekend to me!

I have the next five days off work!! I've got my first book club later today and then my friends Katie and Kallie from home are stopping here for a few days on their road trip cross country. It will be exciting to hang out with someone other than Keegan!
I gave my phone number to a girl from work so that we could maybe do something fun (like knit) outside of Para. So nerve wracking.

This past weekend Keegan had a really bad cold but that didn't stop us from doing fun things!

we went to the final Fridays After 5, and got some yummy pizza and gelato :))) many chins

snuck into the seated area! The band that was playing was super fun and Keegan's dad says they have been playing these shows since he went to UVA!

On Saturday we went to the farmers market which, luckily for us, will be continuing every weekend through December. It was pouring rain on and off, I of course, left the umbrella in the car because it was clear when we parked. As soon as we got there the skies opened up and we got drenched.

I got a mini pie to stay warm in the rain! The Pie Guy (http://www.thepieguy.org) has these food stands around- there's one in the Downtown Mall, one on UVA campus, and one comes to the farmer's market. There are lots of options, I got the Snakebite which is a green curry with veggies and chicken. 

Y'all can have your pumpkin spice lattes and butternut squash pastas, I am holding on to peach season as hard as I can.

After the farmer's market we went to the C'ville Pride Festival which was in the park right next to the library (obviously I went in and got out 5 new books as well).

the view from inside the library

new shirt!

It was really fun to see a side of Charlottesville that I do not normally interact with aka the non-UVA side. I was excited to move away from Woods Hole and live in a place that was more diverse and interesting culturally. Nope. All I see all day long is rich preppy white kids. Not that they're not great in their own way, but I got my fill in high school. One of the only things I miss about Mount Holyoke is all the different people I saw every day. At the fest I saw a whole new side of the city!

Speaking of missing MoHo, I miss the safety (or perceived safety that I lived in). As a young woman, I really do not like men as a group in general. I think that this is a city thing, but also probably because I am in the South, but most men here feel like they have the right to say whatever they want to me. Sometimes it's pleasant, like when a elderly man asks me how I am doing today, but most often it is creepy and makes me uncomfortable. I often find myself taking longer walking routes to avoid walking past groups of men. I also notice this at home now that I think about it, like crossing to the other side of the road to avoid all the guys sitting on the wall across from the post office, or entering through the side door of MBL at lunch time. The Male Gaze, so oppressive. 

In related news, there is a missing UVA student, 

http://m.roanoke.com/news/virginia/charlottesville-police-looking-for-missing-u-va-student/article_fa7df5eb-0f59-5ff5-95ad-68737fa35a21.html?mode=jqm

I can watch the state police search the railroad tracks from work. SO sad and scary, sometimes I hate being female in this world.

On a HAPPIER note, I have been eating a lot of great things. There's a yummy dumpling place right next to where I work called Marco & Luca (http://www.yelp.com/biz/marco-and-luca-charlottesville-2)

hilarious name if you're from my neighborhood

I've fallen in love with biscuits (less so with gravy, though it is growing on me)

We have this nifty set up with Pigeon Hole, a breakfast and lunch place near work, where they get free coffee drinks and we get free food :))))))))) 

I stopped by the other day and for biscuits with jam and orange butter and a side of bacon. yum city!

new coffee art at work

the old man who lives near Para grows tomatoes behind the store. When I complimented him on them, he gave me some!! They are super ripe, riper than I like to eat plain, so I am making a soup or sauce with them right now, we'll see how it turns out. 

needed a late night (9 pm is late for me) steak and cheese after I picked Keegan up from a review session yesterday

Where i got my sandwich! I'll have to try they're friend chicken sometime, I hear it's great.

Our apartment is still coming along, I am teaching Keegan about chores and picking up after himself. Mom, I apologize for everything. I am turning into you. I say the exact same things to Keegan about leaving his dried oat and yogurt bowl in the sink that you said to me. And when we have discussions about doing laundry and putting it away instead of leaving it in the dryer for me to take care of, I can picture you and Lucy. Again, sorry….

I painted a picture! It's got a little bit of collage in the green but it's mainly painted. It was really fun, I forgot I liked to paint so much.

hanging up some photos

I need to run to book club now!!

xoxoxoxoooxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxooooooo

I miss Woods Hole and everyone so much!!

While the banana bread bakes...

Hi all! I've been really into my books lately, so I have not been using my free time to write blog posts. Also, nothing really interesting has been happening and I worry about being boring. If anyone is looking for some fun, diverting things to read, here's what I have been into:

White Space by Ilsa J. Bick: This is about some teenagers who all crash in the same spot during a snow storm. And there is something in the dark that is attacking them one by one… dun dun duuuunnnn. As the story progresses they start to question whether they as people actually even exist. Very interesting, well written, a little confusing as sometimes a child is explaining things, but exciting over all!

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman: I loved this. Easy to read in one sitting, this short novel is about a man who returns home for a funeral and starts to remember things he had forgotten as a child. Neil Gaiman is so amazing and writes so beautifully, even if you don't like fantasy, I think that anyone could appreciate this story.

And now I am reading The Troupe by Robert Jackson Bennett (who wrote American Elsewhere) about this young man setting off to find his father, who runs a traveling vaudeville show, and discovers that they are all being chased by enemies who want to destroy the world. Sounds kind of stupid, is actually really interesting and fun.

My mom just sent me Orphan Train which I need to read by next Wednesday for book club!

Here's what I have been up to lately.

We went to the second to last Fridays After Five last week!

Keegan took some great photos of himself.

I got Spendora's Gelato (http://www.splendoras.com) which was voted the best ice cream of Charlottesville. At first I was not interested in going - gelato is NOT ice cream. However, I was persuaded (by myself) to get some because it was really hot out. It was amazing. I got stracciatella (cream with dark chocolate chips) and cinnamon, so delicious). 

We took a day trip to Richmond last weekend!

I had to force Keegan to leave the AC - it is insanely hot and muggy here - but I think it was good for us to go somewhere new and we both had fun over all.

We first went to the Virgin Museum of Fine Arts (http://vmfa.museum)

classic, there were a ton of people standing outside holding Confederate flags. It reminded me of how on Sundays people protest outside the post-office in Falmouth. There was one lonely guy holding a sign that said "this is not my flag"

A quick Google search just now taught me that this is an ongoing issue: http://rvanews.com/features/the-vmfas-confederate-flag-problem/52991

weird rabbit statue that is actually creepy

golden head wreaths from 3rd C. BC!!!!!!!!!!

admiring a mummy

Faberge egg!!!!!!

made of sea shells, amazing

missing Mount Holyoke

Then we went on the Canal Walk in Richmond, a series of walking and biking paths along the canal that highlight cool historical places and events. 

a train went right over us!

it seems like the city has hired local artists to beautify the old buildings, there were so many amazing murals

the architecture was pretty cool too

so hot on the ride back

Later Keegan saved a baby grasshopper that had gotten stuck in our apartment. I stood on the couch and directed the rescue. 

In Food News…..

We're getting pretty good at cooking!

Although, I did just take the banana bread out of the oven and it looks NOTHING like when my mom makes it so I think I must have missed a step somewhere.

pearl couscous with chicken sausage, carrots, craisins, and almonds

spinach lasange

carbonara 

keegan is getting good at stir fry

I bought myself dumplings after work yesterday as a treat because being nice to customers for 8 hours straight is exhausting

And then I came home and made chicken tortilla soup!

That's all I've got to say. Lizzie and Jonathan and visiting us this weekend, hopefully we'll go to the farmers market and the Pride Festival. And then I have a few friends from home visiting me next week! And the week after that is the State Fair!

xo