Books 'n Booze

What book did we read again? Oh, right, ok. I can do this…

Hello, internet! I am here to recap the July Saloon, during which we read “What Alice Forgot.” This was an extra special event since it marked the one-year anniversary of book club and we nerds do so like to celebrate things like that. Therefore we squeezed extra fun into our evening by ending on superlatives and fond memories of the last year of books, not-too-much booze, and bakalava. And the other food we ate. Please note that in an effort to fight Sarah for the title of “most likely to post a recap right before the next book club” I have COMPLETELY INTENTIONALLY (no, not really) waited until the morning of August’s book club to write this recap.

First of all, some background. We decided that a book, a CD, and current events were not enough to keep us busy and like the overachievers we are, we opted to add a new element to the Saloon discussion: Thirds. The idea for Thirds came from a post last month in which folks were challenged to try something everyday for a month. This thing might be trying an old food they thought they hated, reaching out to someone they hadn’t spoken to in awhile, making note of things they love or appreciate. Basically things we don’t think to do on a regular basis but are a good idea for gauging your likes and dislikes and pushing yourself to experience new things. We were pretty confident we couldn’t do one of these every day for a month, but we did think we could manage one each month, and decided the 3rd of each month would be a convenient time to do it. And so, “Thirds” were born.

Food
Sarah provided an unnamed appetizer that she came up with all by herself! Little veggie pies with yummy crusts, cream cheese, cucumber, tomatoes and some yummy seasoning. Very tasty and, as is Sarah’s way, very refreshing. Jen made a veggie lasagna (unintentional veggie theme FTW!) with basil, pesto, pine nuts and lots of cheese, and cooked some bread with butter and garlic that ended up stealing the show. Des made vanilla cupcakes with “Fluffy” vanilla icing that was universally adored and only barely made it out of the house before Tim got to them. And as usual we had some beer. This month was a very nice Dogfish Head honey-flavored ale.

Music
Our music theme for “Alice” was “songs you forgot you loved” which resulted in an unsurprising but embarrassing compilation of N*SYNC songs. Other hits from our collection included BNL (who we saw in concert in July YAY!!!), Blues Traveller (who was at the same concert, YAY!!!), and Guns ‘n Roses.

Book
Our book for the month was “What Alice Forgot”, the story of a woman who falls at the gym, bumps her head and subsequently forgets ten years of her life, including the birth of her three children, the failing of her marriage, and [SPOILER ALERT] the death of her best friend. I thought it was a poignant book with a few really good insights that made you think about how your life is now, was ten years ago and will be in ten years. I think we all enjoyed the book. Mostly we agreed that some of the characters were superflous, the sister’s battle to have children was terribly heart-breaking, and Gina’s character was divisive and unsympathetic, yet without representation. So anyway, plenty to chat about there.

Current Events
We had a lot of good discussion this month, much of which really tied into the book (more than usual anyway). I found a video that a comedian did in which he was talking to his younger self- very well done and amusing. Des found an article about how difficult it is to make new friends after college or your early twenties. We may lose track of the people we knew ten years ago but it always seems to be easier to reconnect with them than to connect with someone new, regardless of what you have in common with new people. This also lead to the conversation about how and why we drift away from our friends – and how any why we try to reconnect (which also tied in “Thirds”, see below). And we chatted some about women in science and technology after a couple notable events (poorly filmed add to recruit girls to science, the announcement of a pregnant woman as CEO of Yahoo!). We also found a series of public discussions, sponsored by NC State, with NC State professors, about different (interesting) books, so we’re gonna try to go to some of those. You know, in our spare time.

Thirds
Our Third for this month was to reach out to someone you’ve lost touch with and haven’t talked to in years. I could recap who each of us tried to contact with and try to summarize our various experiences but I don’t think that would do them justice and I think we each felt this was a bit of a personal journey. To sum up: Sarah is very honest, Jen is afraid of religious people and Des was completely successful (woot!). We also learned a valuable lesson during this, our first Third: it is easy to find stuff about people on the internet. And so, in that vein, we will be locking down this site in the future: only Saloon recap posts will remain public.

Superlatives
Des won for overachiever of the night by actually making us certificates for the superlatives she granted. DAMN! Meanwhile the rest of us were admirably summed up as…

SARAH: Most likely to make something healthy /  Most likely to post her blog recap of Saloon the day before the next Saloon while eating black beans at Helios
DES: Most likely to add a capella into the mix / Most likely to read the book for next month’s Saloon before this month’s Saloon has even happened yet… with a cat on her lap
JEN: Most likely to repeat a song on a CD (voted by both – I really OWNED this category)

That’s it, campers! July Saloon is complete and we move into a new year, new books, new food, new (and occasionally repeated) songs. Can’t wait to see what’s next!