Life Lately | March 2024

March played with my heart, as it does, and so this month is a smattering of beach frolicking and hunkering down to put together a puzzle on a Saturday afternoon because it's snowing again. Sigh. 

March Highs and Lows

High: A few highs! Duke was on spring break, so we ventured to Grand Rapids to spend a weekend with my sister and her her family. It was short, but a nice break from the responsibilities at home. We ate McDonalds twice, got pizza one night, and in general just lazed around for a couple days. My other high is vague - I've been working on some writing projects that truly light my fire. I wake up early to work on them and return in the evenings for an hour or before bed. It feels wonderful to have something I feel organically passionate about and doesn't feel like work. 

Low: You know, it's lazy to say the weather, but I am lazy and it is the weather. Q1 is always the hardest and the latter half of March felt like a long slog of gray skies, cold weather, and varying precipitation. 

Standout Moments

First, I got botox and you guys, I love it. Like love it love it. I still have full use of my eyebrows and expressions, but the lines on my forehead are nicely smoothed out. I've been candid about this and a gentleman at work very generously said "your botox looks nice" which I know was meant kindly and I took it that way. I feel like I look well rested. 

It's frankly a slippery slope because now I'm noticing random things on my face and wondering, you know, if it couldn't be solved with just a little poke? For now though, it's just my forehead. 

I treated myself to a solo trip to a local used bookstore after work one day, and came out with a stack of things to read. Honestly this probably belongs in my "highs" section because it was such a wonderful feeling. 

Currently reading the book at the top of that heap and I'll get into synopsis below. 

We had some really really nice weather at the beginning of the month. 

And then we had some moodier vibes near the end. 

We bought a boat! It's been on the to-do list for a couple years and we finally found something in our price range and Ryan's boujee expectations. We're very champagne on a beer budget which is a small market to be in. Anyway, I am already envisioning packing sandwiches and summer shandies and and enjoying lake days. 

This is a continuation of last month - Duke is still skulking around the house in full Spiderman costume. He's really into surprise-scaring us lately. AKA he's hiding behind doors and creeping into rooms, just completely doubling over in laughter when he gets us with a good "BAHHH!" 

On St. Pats, we went to a Mexican restaurant, which was definitely the right decision. There was no wait and tbh, I prefer a margarita to a green beer any day of the week. 

Finally, on Easter, I treated myself to an Easter Parade puzzle, waiting for Ryan's mom to arrive for dinner to help me finish up the hardest bits. It got me thinking - are Easter parades a thing somewhere? 

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Consumables

Books:

I finished Demon Copperhead roughly halfway through the month. It was a task because it's huge and I wasn't crazy about it, so I wasn't exactly tearing through it. Frankly I think the subject matter (pill addictions, child abuse, poverty) is something you can't consume in great big gulps. It's compelling and well written and if you like rooting for an unlikely hero, it's quite a good piece of work. But it's also just like, a bummer. 

Then I read The Idea of You, mostly because the internet told me to and Amazon Prime is releasing a hotly anticipated move in May staring Anne Hathaway. It's smut, which I was not forewarned about, and it felt like a big fat flop to me. Hyped books though, you know? My expectations were just set too high, because if I hadn't heard all the buzz about it, I probably would have thought it was fine. Not great, but fine. Instead I was expecting this masterpiece that wound up being a lazy plot driven to get from one sex scene to the next. 

Here's the quick synopsis: Solene, a recently divorced 40 year old mother has a coincidental meet cute with a 20 year old, world famous boy-bander. They wind up boning all over the world while she wrings her hands constantly over being old enough to be his mother. Meanwhile, her ex-husband marries the much younger woman he knocked up and has the audacity to complain at Solene for dating someone too young. 

I mean, there are themes to address here (why can men date younger women, but when women date younger men, it's silly and irresponsible)? And there's this whole skew of what we owe to our children and what do we owe to ourselves. 

So I stand by my review - it's fine but not great, and I probably would have enjoyed it more if booktok hadn't sold it to me like a literary masterpiece. 

Now I'm reading Yolk by Mary H. K. Choi and really enjoying it. It's very much centered on a relationship between two sisters that are somewhat estranged. Very different personalities, really. One of them becomes ill and they have to work through things together. What knocks the wind out of me is the viscerally mean dialogue that is so authentic to siblings, and the way it's ironically accompanied by care. It's hard to describe, but anyone with a sibling understands how easily the phrase "it's not my fault you don't have any friends, you fucking loser" can be delivered while simultaneously passing over a bag of chips to share. 

I come from a family high with daughters, so the sister/sister relationship is really speaking to me. 

Oh I also ate these wings and that was very nice. 

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Last picture is my favorite, and so apt for a long and lazy month. George and I have not always been friends, but he's really become loyal to me in the last couple years. I think it's because I never forget about his breakfast treats. The bargain cost of a loyal friend!

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Happy April friends! We're on the highway to summer!