After an amazing wedding weekend (my boyfriend’s sister’s) it was hard to return to real life this week.

My boyfriend’s parents rented a big beautiful house in Avalon, in south Jersey, and it was a flurry of days filled with family and friends stopping by to help with last-minute projects, eat, drink, or just hang out. It further cemented my idea that happiness is just a steady stream of seeing people you like (and a nice home, with good food).

Here are three things that caught my attention this week:

1. This is my new favorite Instagram.

2. I really loved this piece about struggling to find a heroine in literature you can identify with. I went through something similar as a teenager; while I was never that overweight, I was quite unattractive for a number of years (acne, bushy hair–oh fifteen, you are so unkind). I remember being frustrated that every girl I read about was always beautiful (to be fair, I was primarily reading Sweet Valley High at the time). This has sparked some ideas for a new novel; more on that later.

3. I can’t decide where to go for vacation this year. There’s just so much attempted life-changing going on the prospect of planning a vacation is overwhelming me. But I’m finding this list intriguing, especially Cuba…

Reading: On the subway this morning, I finished Red Queen. And I gotta say … I don’t understand the hype. It started off interesting enough, but the rest of the book was filled with flat characters, uninspired dialogue, obvious plot “twists”, and my biggest book pet peeve: showing and telling. Sentences like “I grin, pleased with myself”, and “he douses the flame, putting it out with water” make me want to scream.

Watching: ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK comes out today! Must be careful not to let the binge-watching intrude on my writing time.

Listening to: More nineties emo stuff, and I love it 🙂

Photo by Lefteris kallergis on Unsplash