The Life of an Office Girl

My eldest daughter and I drove up to see youngest and kiddos yesterday, hoping that traffic would be lighter on Columbus Day. It wasn’t. We still had fun painting rocks, having lunch, and playing. My granddaughter had discovered the American Girl doll catalog and showed me the one she wants for her birthday next June. Like a five star restaurant, AG does not list prices in their catalog, so I looked it up on Amazon later. When my girls were little, I decided that AG was too expensive; however, I am OK with buying one of these dolls for my granddaughter even though they’re still super pricey. LOL

Eldest played Taylor Swift’s new album The Life of a Showgirl on our drive to and from Los Angeles. Now, I consider myself neutral on TS ~ her music is for the most part (to me) pretty, bland, and boring with a few fun exceptions like “Shake It Off.” I understand she does a great live show, but I am not into loud, crowded $$$ concerts and prefer to enjoy music at home or while driving. On social media, one is supposed to either adore or despise TS, but I can’t get so emotional about a celeb. I did have fun with an FB friend the other day mocking the cringey lyrics to “Wood,” but I admit that I enjoyed TS's new song “Opalite.” The rest of the tracks fell into the PB&B category, including the ode to Travis’ penis.

Working backwards, Sunday I enjoyed a romcom on Prime called Maintenance Required, which was similar to You’ve Got Mail, but with cars instead of books. While I will always love YGM, this flick had much hotter-looking stars who had palpable physical chemistry ~ Madelaine Petsch and Jacob Scipio. The chemistry between Kathleen (Meg Ryan) and Joe (Tom Hanks) in YGM was more verbal/ intellectual, while Maintenance Required felt more "realistic." It won't become a regular in my romcom rotation, but it was a nice treat.

I binge-read two thrillers by Jason Rekulak: Hidden Pictures and The Last One at the Wedding. I gave a five-star rating to each of these! HP had supernatural elements, but they were consistent and didn't end up creating more questions than they answered. The narrative style was first person, present tense, which is generally not my favorite, but it worked in both of these. HP had a young woman narrating; the wedding novel had a man in his 50s, both completely believable. The narration pulled me right into the story and kept me hooked throughout. The twists in each were completely unexpected, but not deus ex machina. They made sense in retrospect. 

I watched the new Superman movie at a friend's house on Saturday. I liked it as much any movie of that genre (i.e., not much), but it was fun to have dinner with friends and play some board games. Sunday, I did more rock painting with the book club gals, and we also had lunch. Good times. I didn't even mind being social for three days in a row! Well, maybe family doesn't count.

That's it for my exciting recap. I am now back in the office the rest of the week.