It’s been a week…

But amidst the stress and  bad dreams, there are always good things to find. Here are mine this week:

A (Sort Of) Good Bookish Thing

I’m reading The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black, mostly because I’ve heard her name mentioned along with authors I like and the premise of this sounded interesting. The beginning was fantastic, the descriptive language beautiful, but I’m about halfway through now and I’m not sure where I’ll land on this one. In spite of my intense love for Buffy (not to mention The Passage), I don’t consider myself a general vampire fan. (I was Team Jacob all the way. Don’t get me started on Breaking Dawn.)

A Good Entertainment-ish Thing

Listening to a tremendous amount of Brian Fallon lately. It’s somehow perfect for pre-fall.

A Good Writerly Thing

After rewriting the climax of my work-in-progress (The Play Story) for the fourth time, I think I’ve finally gotten the right sequence of events down. First drafting is tough (but also, fun.)

A Good Seasonal Thing

There are not many times when I will choose iced coffee over the delicious comfort that is hot coffee, but during a 90-degree day in NYC is one of those times. The best way to have it? Make it yourself double strength in your espresso machine, dump it immediately over ice, add half and half (if you’re in an indulgent mood, which I have been.)

A Good Habit-Shifting Thing

For a long time I’ve told myself that I’m going to stop reading the Facebook comments section but I have yet to actually do it. I thought of it as a guilty pleasure before–look how nuts these people are!–but it’s really not pleasurable at all to observe at what lengths people go to to insult strangers. (Also the amount of hate on the internet is terrifying.) Rise above.

A Good Delicious Thing

In the summer, we eat Greek salad for dinner at least once a week. We learned how to make a real Greek salad in Greece three years ago, and haven’t looked back since. It’s fresh tomatoes, peppers, cucumber, and onion, drizzled in extra virgin olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper, and topped with fresh feta (the kind that comes in brine–it makes a difference). Add a fresh baguette and voilà, the perfect delicious easy no-bake meal.

A Good Random Thing

I bought some maple bourbon for our camping trip two weeks ago and we didn’t end up drinking it, and so now I have it in my house. It’s so delicious, it’s very hard to keep from drinking it every single night (but I am staying strong.)

A Good Thing to Look Forward To

We’re taking an impromptu trip to Long Beach Island this weekend because the Jersey Shore in September is the best. Warm weather, warm ocean, and best of all, no tourists, because they’ve all gone home 🙂

Have a great weekend!

Photo by Fahmi Fakhrudin on Unsplash