Friday Six Pack - 2017 Vol. 1

Not a link-up, but I'm taking a page from Jana today with six things that are currently going on in my world.

This week's six pack is brought to you by (of course) Columbus Brewing Company's SFW. We just started bottling this farmhouse ale. It's lighter than a lot of our beers and I'm a big fan. ** Just in case you don't know, I work for CBC.

Watching

Oscar nominated movies. So far I've seen 8 of the 9 Best Picture nominees (#9 is on deck for tonight). I've also seen all of the nominated shorts - documentary, live action, and animated (OK, I've actually only seen 3 1/2 of the animated shorts because of a scheduling SNAFU on my part). Look for a review and predictions post next week.

Reading

On Kindle - The Forgotten Girls by Alexa Steele, a murder mystery that I'm enjoying but I need to step it up because I've only been reading this one in small snippets.

On Audible - Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan. I'm not sure if I would like this if I were reading it traditionally, but I'm liking the audio version a lot.

Drinking

Smoothies and juices from Zest Juice Co., a local company that I just started visiting. Today's purchase (below) a Blue Almond smoothie and a bottle of Crave juice (carrot, grapefruit, pineapple, turmeric and ginger). Other favorites include the Pistachio Oatmeal Cookie smoothie and Habanero Heat juice.

Obsessing

My latest KEEP purchases. I'm addicted to KEEP Collective's bracelets. My friend Tiffany is a consultant and decided last week to design a "nevertheless, she persisted" bracelet and she's donating some of her commission to the ACLU. Because I have a few items from KEEP, I've been mixing it up. If you're interested, let me know.

Hoping

For some good college news for our nephew James. For those who don't know, James has been living with us since July. He's a senior in high school and we're in the midst of college visits and FAFSA and the Common App and lions and tigers and bears, oh my! We were late to the party with college stuff but hopefully he'll still be able to get some scholarships and whatnot. And seriously, how can they resist this face?

Listening

Other than audiobooks, I'm also constantly on the lookout for a new episode of the NPR Politics Podcast. I started listening during the campaign last year. Of course now they have to preface every episode with "we recorded this at 2:00 pm on Thursday. Things may have changed since then." And they usually have.


Enjoy the weekend! Here in Columbus, we're expecting 60 degree weather. In February.

The Straw

If you know me, you know that I can seem quiet, maybe even standoffish, when really I'm just trying to formulate what I want to say. I'm not always successful at that and it sometimes gets me in trouble. ;) Conversely, if I think too long, the moment has passed and it's not relevant anymore.

The past two weeks have felt like two years. Everyday -- damn near every HOUR -- there's another outrageous story about something the President or Congress or a "senior advisor" said or did. Unfortunately, outrageous does not necessarily mean untrue.

I have strong feelings about a lot of these issues, but because of my hesitancy in speaking out and the rapid firing of information flying around, I've kept relatively quiet.

And then this happened: House Votes to Overturn Obama Rule Restricting Gun Sales to the Mentally Ill.

What the actual fuck?

How many times have we heard in recent years following mass shootings "we don't have a gun problem, we have a mental health problem." Has anyone who said that actually done anything about said mental health problem? I mean it. If they have, please let me know because I've seen no evidence of it. Instead, we're now going to make it EASIER for mentally ill people to obtain guns because otherwise we're discriminating against the mentally ill and not allowing them to exercise their second amendment rights.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Please tell me how this is making America safe? And make sure you tell the families of the victims at Sandy Hook, too. And before anyone labels me as someone who wants to ban guns, that's not true. I just want some common sense restrictions and background checks, particularly on weapons like the one used at Sandy Hook. I will never understand why civilians need guns like that.



Now that I've opened the floodgates, here's something that I wish more people would realize:

Mari Andrew

Why do people think it's OK to tell others what they should and shouldn't care about or how they should spend their own time? Yes, I'm worked up about the refugee ban. That doesn't mean I don't care about the homeless here in our country. Or the veterans. Or the homeless veterans.

But you know what I DO wonder? If the president cares about them. Where's the executive order on that? Tell you what, Donnie, you let me know when you get around to "the forgotten men and women of our country [who] will be forgotten no more."  Get back to me when you "bring back jobs." I mean, you could have started that a long time ago and led by example, but whatever.

In the meantime, I'll be watching. And so will millions of other Americans. You spent eight years bashing Obama and trying to de-legitimize his presidency. Buckle up.

Showin' My Books - January '17

Time to link up and talk books!

Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick (audiobook, read by the author) - I'm a fan, to be sure, and I enjoyed this. I literally laughed out loud several times. There's nothing really juicy or scandalous; it's just a fun listen.


The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison (audiobook) - This book is messed up, but I liked it. I really appreciated the audio version, as they used a male voice for the FBI agent and a female voice for the survivor being interviewed. The twist was kind of anti-climactic for me but overall it was good in that twisted, creepy, disturbing way.


Dark Matter by Blake Crouch - I read this for my real-life book club and I know a lot of my fellow bloggers had this on their best of 2016 lists, but it just didn't do it for me. I kept going with it because I was interested in the story and what would happen with Jason, but eventually I got so confused that I didn't much care anymore. Unlike The Martian, with this one I couldn't get past the science-y stuff.


Every Little Kiss by Susan Hatler - After Dark Matter I needed some total chick lit. I found out about this book from Bookbub and I think it was free on Amazon. It was pretty predictable but it served its purpose. It's the first in a series and I could maybe see myself reading another one when I need some book candy.


What's on your bookshelf lately?

Favorite Books of 2016

Linking up with my girls Steph and Jana for Show Us Your Books - Best of 2016!

These are in no particular order and not all of them came out in 2016; I just read them in 2016. The links will take you to the blog posts in which I wrote about the books.

• The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta
• Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah
• The Light of the Fireflies by Paul Pen
• Please Don't Come Back From the Moon by Dean Bakopolous
• Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
• Dumplin' by Julie Murphy

I can't wait to read some of your favorites from the year so I can add to my ever-growing pile of books to read!

Gimme a V!

I'm generally not a fan of sentences that begin with "No matter your political leanings, ..." But today I'm doing just that. And I promise this will be as non-partisan as I can possibly be.


No matter your political leanings, please do not let ANY polls factor in to whether or not you will vote. If you've already voted, that's awesome. If not, please, please, pretty please get out and vote on Tuesday. People have quite literally died to ensure that future generations are able to exercise this right. We are those generations.

I recently watched the movie Suffragette, which chronicles the struggles of women in England in the early 20th century who were beaten, jailed, and lost their families and sometimes their lives while fighting for the vote. At the end of the movie there is a running list of various countries around the world and when women were given the right to vote. Probably the most astonishing one on this list for me was Switzerland, 1971. I fully admit to knowing nothing about Switzerland's political history, but seriously? 1971?!

No matter your political leanings, don't ignore down-ballot races. Pay attention to Senate and House candidates, even at the state level. Do some research on the judges up for election in your area. Don't blow off the city council. These people really will have a say in your future. And for those who don't believe their vote counts, these are the places where your vote absolutely counts.


No matter your political leanings, take the high road after election day. I know that's a pipe dream, but no matter the outcome, we all have to live with it, and we really do need to all work together.