what are you doing this weekend?

happy weekend, friends! did you have a good week? what are your plans for the weekend?

me, i couldn't be happier that i have today, tomorrow and monday off. a little three-day weekend does the mind and body good, i find, and my list of things to do includes something water-related (not sure what yet), dinner with friends, lemon bars, a new book, a memorial day barbecue and frozen yogurt. not too shabby. 

and i'm taking monday off from posting (i think), so i'll see you back here on tuesday. i hope you have a wonderful weekend -- even though the real start date of summer is late june, i always feel like memorial day is the season's true kickoff, don't you?

i snapped the photo above at my favorite local bookstore -- how pretty are those fabric covers?

loving: the english dept.

i was an english major/creative writing minor in college and have an almost overwhelming fondness for the classes i took and the professors who taught them. so when i stumbled across a wedding boutique called the english dept., it made me think of two of my favorite things: beautiful, happy white weddings and stacks of books by my favorite writers and theorists. what could be better?

photos: the english dept.

books: the imperfectionists and the frog king

 
i've got a twofer for you today, and i think you're going to like it:  i read like a madwoman last week and finished two books, both of which i thoroughly enjoyed.

first up? tom rachman's the imperfectionists. i've gotta say, this novel was pretty much flawless. it's about an international, english-language newspaper based in rome, and the book alternates between brief, italicized vignettes about the family that founded the paper and longer chapters about members of its current staff (and one of its readers). by the end, not only do you feel like you've gotten to know the characters individually -- on an intimate and often heartbreaking level -- but you also get a sense of what it must be like to walk into their office and interact with them on a collective basis every day. highly, highly, highly recommend. i loved this book.

i followed the imperfectionists with adam davies' the frog king. i actually just met adam in real life (and once at an event at which he read excerpts from this book, which is why it was on my radar), and was immediately taken with his mastery of the english language -- seriously, the man can whip up a fantastic sentence. the frog king, which i understand is pretty autobiographical, is about a young man trying to make it in the razor-sharp world of new york city book publishing and maintain a relationship with the woman he loves more than anything, and, well, the back cover says it all: "this is not a fairy tale." i really enjoyed this book -- it's often funny, and you feel an energy behind davies' prose, which, again, is just beautiful -- and could relate to and empathize with more of it than i should probably admit. it's definitely worth picking up. and if adam gives a reading near you, go. i promise it will be entertaining.

what have you been reading lately? (next on my list is tea obreht's the tiger's wife, which i first spotted on mary's lovely blog.)

a quote for tuesday; or, why i love ira glass.

"nobody tells this to people who are beginners. i wish someone told me. all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. but there is this gap. for the first couple of years you make stuff, it's just not that good. it's trying to be good, it has potential, but it's not. but your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. and your taste is why your work disappoints you. a lot of people never get into this phase. they quit. most people i know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. we know our work doesn't have this special thing we want it to have. we all go through this. and if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it's normal and the most important thing you can do is a lot of work. put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. it is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. and i took longer to figure this out than anyone i've ever met. it's gonna take awhile. it's normal to take awhile. you've just gotta fight your way through."

ira glass

photo by parker fitzgerald

the weekend + committing to...

i celebrated the fact that we all survived the rapture by hanging out with my friends and drinking wine this weekend. it was glorious.

here are some other glorious tidbits from the past few days:

1. two books finished: the imperfectionists (loved; made me teary; made me think seriously about my career) and the frog king (loved; made me teary; made me think seriously about my life). more on both later this week.
2. a new dress in emerald green, courtesy of my friend k.'s insane thrifting abilities.
3. a perfect saturday night with the aforementioned friends-- the kind of night where you laugh a lot and bump into people you know on every corner.
4. fuchsia toenail polish -- the perfect color for the beginning of summer. (and also, having the toenail polish applied while chatting with one of my favorite people.)
5. the overwhelming feelings of love i felt for sarasota at certain points throughout the weekend -- whether it was looking out at the cityscape from a friend's downtown balcony or dipping my toes into the salty water of the bay at island park.

and five goals for the week:

1. continue down the path of assertiveness (which, when i put it that way, sounds kind of yoda-ish, but i still want to do it).
2. on the above note, do one thing that scares me.
3. experiment with getting up half an hour earlier in the mornings. this will either (a) work, (b) fail miserably or (c) work but make me very grumpy -- but i figure, hey, if i can go off coffee, i can wake up earlier. right?
4. plan out my meals for the week. this makes everything easier and i like the domesticity of it.  it's oddly comforting.
5. work some more on my nascent piece of writing.

and you? i would love to hear, so please share!

photo: via