I don’t even know where this week went. Let’s try to recap anyway.

• Finished The Sea of Tranquility and had a major book hangover for the rest of the week. It’s better now but my god, did this book destroy me. Made it hard to function the whole week because I am tired. Picked up The Summer That Melted Everything and Truly Madly Guilty. Am in the middle of 4 different books because I cannot commit.
• Steph and I saw Jodi Picoult at the Philadelphia Free Library on Tuesday for a Q&A about her new book, Small Great Things. If you haven’t read it yet, I highly, HIGHLY recommend it. I’ve read every single one of her books and without a doubt, this one is the most impactful and one of her best. It brings up issues of race and racism which, while it’s uncomfortable to talk about, it an incredibly necessary conversation this country needs to have. And those conversations start with us.
• I watched the Netflix documentary Audrie & Daisy. If you have the ability, watch it. It’s about rape, which, like race, is not an easy topic to discuss but the way these girls’ cases were handled are an affront to justice and explores the rape culture that persists in this country. There’s one police officer in the documentary I wanted to punch in the face. People like him should not exist in law enforcement yet they do. It is infuriating. And as a parent, I am absolutely terrified of what my daughter might face as she gets older, particularly with social media and online bullying.
• We got our carpets cleaned. So instead of in the house, my dog puked all over my car. While I was in the school pickup line. Sans anything to clean it up with. My daughter said my car smells like her nightmare. Smells like my nightmare, too.
• While I’m not a fan of the Cubs or the Indians, this World Series is historic and fascinating and I’m rooting for the Cubs only because good friends of mine are Cubs fans and I think they might implode if the Cubs don’t win. I like my friends and don’t want them to implode. Also, Fox? NOT COOL to put up a graphic about the no hitter. YOU DON’T TALK ABOUT THE NO HITTER. Basic baseball etiquette.
• Song of the week. I know I was going to do a Breaking Benjamin song this week but I changed my mind. Have you heard the new Kings of Leon song? It’s so, so good. Kings of Leon is like Mumford and Sons. I forget about them and then I hear a song or two on the radio and remember how fucking awesome they are.

That’s all she wrote this week. We’re headed to the beach for a college friend’s wedding and I get to see lots of old friends as well. I’m very excited about this (and even more excited that I found a dress and shoes for a total of $50). Maybe, MAYBE, I might even take a picture and put it on ye old Instagram. We’ll see.

Have a great weekend!

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Written after the shitshow of a presidential debate. I apologize for the brevity but my brain is fried from it.

• Finished Eileen and currently reading Adnan’s Story and Burn Baby Burn. Picked up Between the World and Me. Had to pause Brat Pack America to finish up some library books.
• Binged on Longmire. I love that Netflix picked up this show after A&E dumped it because Lou Diamond Phillips is freaking everything. The show is worth watching solely for him.
• My daughter lost another tooth this week. I find loose teeth DISGUSTING and I was thrilled when the thing fell out. However, she still believes, or my husband still wants her to believe in the tooth fairy and I am so over that shit. When she was 5 it was cute. At almost 10, it’s simply annoying. I don’t have it in my to make a big deal out of a tooth anymore. Why? Because it’s a fucking tooth. They fall out. That’s what they’re supposed to do.
• The debate: there’s not much left for me to say except that Trump is exactly the reason we still need feminism. He started the debate insulting a woman, he ended the debate insulting a woman, and throughout the debate he did nothing but bully, yell, demean, patronize, and yes, insult, a woman. He evaded a question that attempted to hold him accountable for his behavior towards women. He used fear mongering language about a women’s issue rather than fact and actual information. He is mansplaining personified. He is clearly threatened by intelligent, competent, successful women and when women rise up and defeat this motherfucker in a few weeks, I hope he becomes nothing but a footnote and distant orange memory.
• Help, please. I need new recipes, preferably meat free or can be easily adapted to meat free. Can you guys point me in the direction of some of your favorites?
• Song of the week: “If You Don’t Don’t” by Jimmy Eat World. I was torn between this one and one from Breaking Benjamin but I’ll pick one of theirs for next week. Jimmy Eat World has a new album (do you love how I show my age with that word?) that releases today and it makes me happy when a band that’s been around forever but isn’t maybe crazy popular still puts out new music. This song is from Bleed American, which is my favorite of their albums, and this is my favorite of all the songs.

Hope you guys enjoy your weekend!

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• • Thank you to everyone for our Show Us Your Books birthday wishes and for participating and making the last 2 years bookish and amazing! There’s still time to enter the giveaway if you haven’t. In other reading news, I finished The Couple Next Door and started both Eileen and Adnan’s Story. Picked up nothing new from the library.
  • I know that public schools get a lot of well deserved criticism but I need to say that I’m really quite happy with my daughter’s school. Not only is she learning to code but in her reading group, they’re reading Number the Stars which, if I’m not mistaken, is often banned in schools. Where I live gets some flak for being backwoods but this shit is progressive.
  • Have you guys watched Westworld? I have mixed feelings on it thus far. Not enough to quit but enough that I’m not in love with it either.
  • Trump. Okay, if you want well-written, well-thought out posts about this misogynistic assboil, read what my girls Steph and Ali have to say. If you want a semi-inarticulate rant, keep reading. So, when I was in college, there was this guy I knew. This guy repulsive when it came to treating women, so much so that he referred to all women as “pigs”. Yup. You read that right. Pigs. And laugh about it and the guys around him laughed about it and encouraged it. Back then, I didn’t attribute it to rape culture because to be honest, it wasn’t something that registered. I just knew it was wrong and disgusting and the sight of him enraged me. And it infuriated me when the other guys would laugh and egg him on and when I’d bring up how awful it was, I’d get told “that’s just him being him”. FUCK THAT NONSENSE. It wasn’t acceptable then from a shitfuck of a fraternity boy and sure as hell isn’t acceptable from the person who wants to be the leader of this country. Allowing Trump and the guy I know persist in their actions and statements is what allows a Brock Turner to happen. And as the parent of a daughter, I cannot stand by and permit these behaviors and actions and entitlement attitudes to keep happening. Society needs to stop raising its boys and electing leaders who encourage and foster the belief that boys can do and take anything they want and girls have to just smile and accept it. Because, rest assured, my girl is NOT being raised to accept it. I am raising a force to be reckoned with. And I know plenty of other of parents are, too. I hope everyone who sits by and defends Trump and his ilk is ready for the army of girls like mine who will no longer accept it and will riot in the streets to make it stop. And those of us who can vote and start the ball rolling on affecting this change, please, use your voice wisely. (And I am not going to address the #repealthe19th that was trending the other night as a response to the “if only men voted map” because I don’t want my head to explode)
  • Confession: I am full on obsessed with Too Faced makeup. I bought the Peanut Butter and Jelly palette the other day and holy hell, is it amazing. I don’t think I’ll be able to use another brand of eye makeup for a long, long time. Also, for those who use the Better Than Sex mascara, if you have trouble getting it off with standard makeup remover, Too Faced makes a mascara dissolving pen. I haven’t tried it yet but it’s on the list. If you have used it, what do you think?
  • Song of the week: Untouchable Face by Ani DiFranco. Another college reference. Every Thursday, I would go to the Stone Balloon (RIP) for mug night ($.50 drafts? Yes, please) and there was always a cover band playing. My favorite, Tin Pan Alley, used to do this song and it’s just angry and fun and while I’m not a huge Ani DiFranco fan, I respect  and admire her and her feminist activism.

Hope you guys have a great weekend! We’ll be celebrating the husband’s birthday a little early and not too much of anything else.

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This week is a 9 pack. I blame it on jetlag.

• • I have not fully recovered from my time in San Diego. I mean, I had a kick ass amazing time in a beautiful city with some of my favorite people on the planet but my internal clock is still all kinds of screwy. I’m still not 100% sure what day of the week it is and I know I need more sleep. But every day and night I spent out there was worth feeling this way.
  • My keys got locked in my car on Monday night. Did not realize it until I went to take my daughter to school on Tuesday. Had to call my husband to free the keys. Didn’t know what excuse to write on the late student sign-in sheet so I wrote “adulting fail”. Pretty sure I’m going to get a letter about that. Don’t even care.
  • I read two great books on the plane ride to San Diego, Monster and Lady Cop Makes Trouble, and on the way home, I tried to read The Woman in Cabin 10. Let’s just say that if Steph and I weren’t discussing it for The Armchair Librarians, it would have been returned to sender tout de suite. I hate it and it’s killing my reading vibe.
  • As per usual, my mind is a busy place and even moreso this week. I’m aching for a quiet place to work through my thoughts and a mid-week beach trip was in order. The rain, however, was a huge obstacle in making that dream come true. Seriously. Stop fucking raining.
  • I had a conversation with someone in San Diego about the show Orphan Black. He recommended it highly and since the chick who stars in it just won the Emmy, I figured I’d give it a try. And you know? It’s right up my fucked up, murdery alley. I’m not digging the whole weird science fiction element but it’s more in the same vein as Stranger Things or Dark Matter (the book) so I can overlook it when it gets too weird for me to handle.
  • Speaking of fucked up and murdery, did you see the Buzzfeed post about true crime podcasts? I’m pleased to say that I listen to several of them already. ALL THE TRUE CRIME!!!
  • The debate: I just cannot comment on it. Everything about it ignited a horror that renders me speechless and incoherent. It was one of the most disgusting displays of mansplaining, disrespect, arrogance, bullying, and sheer dickishness I have ever been unfortunate enough to watch. He bulldozed over Hillary and Lester, and showed absolutely no regard for the rules of debate or even common courtesy. The only thing that orange asshole proved is that not only is he unfit to be president, he’s unfit to be a basic human being. Like, it’s an impossibility. Is this the person we want as the face of our country? HELL NO. And I can’t even begin to imagine what will happen if he somehow, through some rip in the time/space continuum, is elected. I’m genuinely terrified. How people can continue to defend him absolutely escapes me. Plus, he’s a fucking liar who lies. I hate liars.
  • South Carolina: Every day my child is dropped off at school, this is precisely what I panic about. My heart breaks and aches for those parents and those children and what happened to that teenager to make him think shooting up a school of babies would make it better? Oh, wait. AND WE STILL DON’T HAVE PRACTICAL GUN LAWS?! What the fuck is it going to take?
  • I might have shared this song already but it’s definitely my anthem lately:

This weekend will involve cheer practice, naps, books, and general sorts of nothingness.

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