This week is not slowing down at all… my college roommate is crashing for a few days, I have to nanny every day, my family has three weddings to photograph, and my sister and I are going to two concerts. Sometimes I think my whole family goes overboard when it comes to filling up our schedules, but on the plus side, there is never a dull moment!

Even though this is three weeks overdue, I thought I’d share a couple brief book recommendations. With the downtime my job sometimes provides, I’ve managed to get in quite a lot of reading this month.

Fiction - The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister. If you’re in need of a light, fluffy read (or just really, really hungry), this novel is perfect for a long afternoon. Set in the fragrant kitchen of a quaint restaurant, eight students of all sizes and ages learn how to cook, to laugh, and to love. Each chapter highlights a different character, from Lillian, the child prodigy and instructor, to Chloe, a clumsy waitress, and Tom, a grieving, bittersweet widower. The stories are not particularly compelling, but the novel is beautifully written and worth the read.

Nonfiction - Cold Tangerines by Shauna Niequist. If you’re in the mood for another feel-good book, this one’s for you. Shauna, a graduate from my very own Westmont College, compiles snippets of stories and lessons learned over the years. She delves into the heartbreak of young teenage girls and surfaces with reminders of God’s faithfulness in difficult situations. I appreciated how she doesn’t shy away from the pain life has to offer, but emphasizes the importance of redemption, perseverance, and joy through everything.

Hope you all are enjoying the last few weeks of summer!

DFTBA,
Ashley

This is going to be short because I have to meet my mom at 7, but I wanted to make a post that now, not only do I have another job, but now I have three, and I might have to leave one of them. One I started at the end of July, which is JCPenney. So far it’s been okay, I just have to be up at the ungodly hour of 7 AM almost every day for it. I was really trying to avoid that when I left the last job because at the last job I had to be awake at 5 AM at least three days a week which I am just not good at.

Now yesterday I was just hired at a bookstore called Books A Million, and I’ve wanted to work in a bookstore for FOREVER so I’m really excited about that. But now I have an interview at JB Dawson’s (a restaurant.. that Sarah has been to!) and I’ve been applying there every few months since it opened a couple years ago. I would be a hostess. I definitely want to stay at the bookstore but I don’t know whether or not I should leave JCPenney for JB Dawson’s. My good friend who also left the evil last job has just been hired there and told me they make $2.83 an hour plus tips. I don’t know if this would screw me over or not when there are no customers. My friend said they add minimum wage to your paycheck if you don’t make at least that, but I hope this wouldn’t mean making only minimum wage on a lot of days. I was thinking about reworking my availability so that I could work all three places, but that might be hard. If JB’s is looking for only 1-4 shifts to be filled a week, then I might be able to do it.. but I don’t know. I’d feel like an ass working at JCPenney’s for less than a month and then quitting. I keep badgering my friend for information about what it’s like at JB’s before I go in for an interview.

So, yeah, really don’t know what to do. It just sucks JB Dawson’s didn’t call me before JCPenney did, I guess. JCPenney’s has nice people and the work is easy (almost boring, which is another reason why I don’t know if I want to stay there or not) but they’re giving me solid hours. If anyone has any advice, feel free to share it with me, ’cause I’m lost!

Anyway, I hope to get my computer fixed soon and hear from you guys next week!

-Brandi

Last week, my mom and I decided to take an impromptu one-day road trip to Bend, Oregon, to see some distant relatives and attend a memorial service for my great-aunt, whom I only met once as a young girl. Although I love road trips, driving for 14 hours after getting up at 5am two days in a row wasn’t exactly my idea of fun! We stayed with my cousins, who had this gorgeous ranch-style house, with horse pastures and a wraparound porch–totally my dream house! Sadly, my mom and I were stuck overnight in their RV, as the guest rooms were filled, and my mom was very concerned that her closet was haunted because the RV wouldn’t stop rattling.

Now, I’m back home and nannying again, which is much more relaxing than having a lot of time off work, strangely enough. The girls have been keeping me entertained between chauffeuring them to tennis camp and soccer practice. One day, the younger girl and I were watching her sister play in a tennis tournament. She was busy on her DS, and looked up suddenly to announce: “I don’t think Obama is cheating on his wife.” Trying not to laugh, I responded, “Oh? Why not?” “Well, because he’s always hugging her and kissing her on TV. So he can’t be cheating.” She gave this further reflection, then added, “I’m not going to cheat on people when I’m older. It’s really bad when someone cheats. But you know, it’s not as bad if they’re both doing it.” I had no response for that… I have no idea where she gets these ideas!

And on that note… hope you’re all having a fantastic, fun-filled summer! :]

DFTBA,
Ashley

My internship finished up on 22 July and we had a big food fest and everyone told me that they will miss me and they wish they had a position for me there permanently because I did such good work. That made me feel great and happy and all sorts of crazy good feelings. The week after my internship ended (last week) my manager went on vacation so at work we all had crazy hours and did crazy things. I did inventory two days in a row (Saturday and Sunday), had a wedding reception on Saturday before inventory and it was NUTS. Too much going on at one time. It’s like the first of August brought a GIANT weight lifted off of my shoulders. No internship, no crazy hours at work, no crazy responsibility, etc. I have three weeks until I go back to school so three weeks to enjoy my self, or try to enjoy myself. I’m a little on edge because one of us part timers will be losing our job this week, and likely it will be me. My manager has to go by numbers, and last month mine were probably the worst, therefore I’ll get the ax. EVEN THOUGH I bust my ass to get shit done around that place, take the initiative to do things when I’m not supposed to, help out when I’m not needed, and volunteer to do FIVE inventories other than my own. None of that shit matters. Nope. It’s all a numbers game at that fucking place and my DM doesn’t like me. After three years, he is ready to get rid of me because I am JUST LIKE my manager, who he also dislikes but cannot find a reason to get rid of her either. So, after this week I may not have a job. Great. I won’t let it get me down though, it’s only retail, and after this year I will have a degree, I can get a REAL job. I HOPE. *crosses fingers*

Phew. And after all of that. Not much else has been going on. Between the internship and work I was putting in 50-55 hour weeks and had barely any time to breathe, so sorry I took some time off from posting, but it was much needed. I was barely on my computer and then my friend borrowed my computer for a few days and well I couldn’t post. But it’s back and I’m back and things are getting back to normal. I just need to remember to breathe. I missed you guys and hope you are all well and good!!

Always,
Serr

The La Roux concert I was supposed to go to on Thursday has been cancelled because Elly, the singing half of La Roux, has pharyngitis. It’s okay, though, because she’ll be rescheduling for November and I’d rather be surrounded by a bunch of people and their body heat in November rather than July. I just think November is a better time for a concert. I was supposed to go to Philadelphia to help one of my friends move into her apartment, but when she moved in she found that some work needs to be done to it so she isn’t fully moving into it until August. So no Philadelphia at all for me tomorrow or Thursday. =\ I was looking forward to it but seeing as how I’m dead broke, it’s probably better to wait a few weeks.

That’s really all that’s going on with me. Sorry so depressing! July is not my month, it seems.

Hope to hear from you guys soon!

Sorry this post is up today and not last week like it should have been. I tried writing something last Thursday and just couldn’t do it. This has been a week absolutely full of work. On Wednesday, I watched the kids for 13 hours and it completely wiped me out!

Because all I’ve done this week is read books and keep an eye on the kids, you get to hear all about my Fourth of July escapades. My family is big into relaxing on the Fourth. Even growing up, we never had traditions like setting off fireworks in the street or barbecuing with friends. Plans were made last minute and varied from year to year. This time, my sister and I joined about 40 of our closest church friends on a camping getaway in Hood River, Oregon. The campsite was tame enough, hardly “roughing it,” but I enjoyed it mostly because it was the first time I’d ever slept in a tent. Crazy, right? Because neither of my parents like camping, my sister and I never had any campground vacations as kids, and I usually declined to join my high school friends on their annual trips. Unfortunately for us, our tent blew over the next morning, so I only slept in it for one night. But it still counts!

Tomorrow I fly out to California for a few days to visit my best friend from college. I cannot wait to soak up the sun and explore Sacramento–this is definitely a much-needed vacation. When I return, I plan on continuing my job search for something more English-related. I’ve looked into a few places, but no luck so far.

At the moment, I have a lot of laundry waiting to be folded and a suitcase ready to be packed, so I apologize that this post is a little on the short side. Hope you’re all having a relaxing week!

DFTBA,
Ashley

I got back from New York City on Thursday. It was a fun time. We saw Hair and Next to Normal, which were really great, despite the fact we had horrid seats for Hair. My mom and I were angry because they decided to close Hair Sunday the 27^th when we had tickets for Wednesday the 30^th, so we had to get a refund on our tickets and buy them again for Sunday. We went from having seats eight rows from the stage, right on the end of the aisle in the middle of the orchestra, to having seats twenty rows from the stage, kind of in the middle where we had to climb over  people to get to our seats. The Al Hirschfield theatre is designed rather poorly, actually. The seats from row to row are hardly raised at all so you’ll be trying to see around the person’s head in front of you no matter where you are. So, most of the time I was trying to see around someone’s head. And then there were these irritating women who were sitting next to us who decided to go down front before the show started to find better seats. Because my mom and I were sitting behind tall people, we decided to move over to the seats the women were in to see a bit better. And then the women decided to reclaim their seats about five songs into the first act, which pissed the people off behind us as well as me and my mom, of course. It kind of harshed our mellow for the rest of the show, and the fact that I could hardly see anything made me really angry, so for the rest of the time I was kind of grumpy but still trying to enjoy it. It was really good, I just wish I could have seen more of it. I was also a little mad because at the very end, since it was the closing of the show, they let audience members up on stage. If we had our original seats, I could have gone up there. I also didn’t bring my camcorder because they’re usually not allowed, but there were a ton of people taking footage at the very end. I have some on my phone, but it’s terribly quality. Oh, well. At least I got to see it before it closed, because it really was quite good.

Next to Normal was a different situation. I bought really cheap tickets in the very last row of the rear mezzanine. Despite this, though, they were better seats than we had for Hair. The Booth theatre’s rows are actually raised quite a lot, so we were almost on top of the stage looking down. I loved Next to Normal. My voice teacher got me into it and gave me two of Natalie’s songs to sing for voice lessons, and I just love the music. It’s very guitar-heavy. I wish I could play Natalie some day, but I’m only getting older and Natalie is a teenager so I can only hope that people will continue to mistake me for a high school senior for a few more years.

The rest of our time was spent shopping, walking through Central Park and taking copious pictures of the Alice in Wonderland statue, and accidentally sneaking into the Museum of Natural History for free. We got to the museum late, about 10 minutes before they were closing, without realizing it, because it closes quite early. But we got to wander around a bit for ten minutes for free, which was fun. We wish we could have seen all of it, but what’re you gonna do? I still got a lot of pictures.

We also took the LIRR to my school! I got to see what taking the Long Island Railroad to and from school would be like. I wandered around the campus a little bit and got to see the lobby of the school’s theatre, walk through the Student Union, and get stuff from the bookstore. My mom and I tried to get a bus to go to the mall near the school, but the bus only comes around every few hours and we missed it when we were coming back from the Domino’s across the street from the campus. So we spent a lot of time sitting around at the station. I wish we could have done more there, because we kind of did just waste a few hours sitting at a train station, but I at least got to see my school. The campus was huge and pretty.

Aaand now I’m home, struggling to find another job! I’ve filled out around twenty applications and have had two interviews, which I think went okay. I wish I could find a full time job, but it’s hard for someone who hasn’t gone to school yet. So I’m just keeping my fingers crossed.

Amy, thanks for suggesting I downloaded Google Chrome. At least Chrome lets you get out of a webpage if it isn’t responding. My computer is still being irritating, but using Chrome seems to help. There were movie posters for Grown Ups all over NYC. I sort of want to see it, because I generally like most of the actors in it.

Ashley, that’s awesome that we were both in Les Miserables at pretty much the same time! I was just ensemble when I was in it. It was at this after school performing arts center I joined in 11^th grade. I joined about two months after they auditioned everyone so I started as one of Thenardier’s cronies (the ratio of girls to boys was about 5:1, lol, so parts that were typically played by boys were played by girls about 90% of the time in our show) but I picked up small solos throughout the show. I was pretty much a homeless criminal whore ensemble member person! What role did you play? I do love that show so much. I was supposed to watch Toy Story 3 at a theatre in NYC but it got too late for us to go the day we wanted to, but I will see it here at home because everyone I know who has seen it loved it. I had extreme OCD as a kid so I always thought my toys really had feelings (lol) but Toy Story just made it much worse. You’ve also reminded me that I need to read The Bell Jar. I’ve owned it for years but have never picked it up. I was also obsessed with the World Cup back during the days when I played soccer in school, but this year I kind of just watched the end of the games and kept track of the scores. I’m really glad the US team got as far as they did this year. I feel like if our team does well, then maybe more Americans will get into soccer. Soccer was always a huge deal at my school, and the only sport I’ve ever cared for, so I do wish it were more popular here.

Sarah, your internship sounds freaking intense. Sorry that life has been so hectic. =\ I don’t know how I feel about the Smurfs movie, either. I, like you, am not a fan of Katy Perry. She annoys me so much. I just remember watching Smurfs at my nan and pap’s house when I was little, but I can’t remember much of what actually happened in it. I’m not feeling too positively about the Smurfs being loose in NYC, though. I feel like whenever they take old cartoons and adapt them into feature length films, they just modernize them, and that’s all, so that they’re nothing like how you remembered. It’s just lame and pointless. But speaking of movies.. somehow we’ll see The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Somehow.

Samantha, I do hope to hear from you soon!

That is all I shall write for now. I thought of more to write but this has already gotten incredibly long, so I’ll save some for next week. Until then, ciao!

“Sometimes it pays to stay in bed in Monday, rather than spending the rest of the week debugging Monday’s code”
- Dan Salomon

Since yesterday was Independence Day, we got today off. And of course, I was sick. It always happens. As such, I haven’t done much and haven’t felt like doing much. I’ve just played Sims 3. My family explored China.

Sorry the post isn’t much. Going to go rest so I’m ready for work tonight. Oh, and this is a good travel checklist.

Amy

I’m exhausted from dealing with bickering siblings, preparing meals, and writing for multiple blogs and newsletters in my spare time—so this post will definitely be on the short side. However, since it is the first of July, I owe you all my reading recommendations for the month!

Nonfiction – The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman. Technically, this should be categorized as fiction. Diane crafts a beautiful novel rich with images of playful badgers and elegant linden trees, capturing the life of Polish zookeepers Jan and Antonia through the ways they relate to nature and society. Set in WWII, this extraordinary couple does the impossible: they transform their magnificent zoo into a refuge for persecuted Jews.

This book walks a fine line between historical fiction and biography. Ackerman is nothing if not well-researched, and the facts embedded in her story make it all the more captivating. Five star rating—this one is a must-read!

Fiction – The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. An older book, this novel has been heralded as a striking, disturbing coming-of-age story. Esther Greenwood is an emerging journalist in New York, enjoying the posh life of a student on scholarship. She wines and dines with important writers and chaperones her promiscuous friend, Doreen. When summer comes, her glitzy life vanishes, and she is stuck at home with her mother for three months. While any ordinary teenager would succumb to boredom, Esther instead succumbs to insanity.

This is one of those books that people either love or hate. I enjoyed it because I could relate to Esther—if for no other reason than she was a 20-something college girl, unsure of herself and her future. It’s dark, honest, and humorous, and a definite favorite.

That’s all I have for this week… I’m off to go camping for the weekend tomorrow! Have a Happy Fourth of July!

DFTBA,
Ashley