Books 'n Booze

So Des came over today to borrow one of my kick-ass suitcases and as we hung out talking I mentioned doing the July recap and she asked if I had remembered to mention that we didn’t invite her (I’ll come back to that) and I realized that I wrote a recap about the wrong night. Yep. Sure did. I recapped June’s book club which 1. was not my book club to recap and, 2. has already been recapped beautifully by Des. But if you’d like a second perspective on that June 2015 book club, you have a rare alternate perspective available to you in this case. Congrats. Now I feel like you do when you do your homework and then realize that you did it wrong and have to start over. But in my defense I am doing TWO recaps in the time is usually takes us to barely get one completed. This is also excellent documentation for the onset of symptoms when I get diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

Ok! July Book Club actually started earlier that day when Sarah, Des, and I started texting back and forth about what we should do for dinner. See I was telling the truth when I said we were super-busy and I had stuff all over my house from the move out of Cam’s place, so hosting and cooking was going to be a challenge for this month. And Sarah and I both wanted sushi! And Des was being suspiciously quiet but Sarah and I were so busy and excited about the sushi that we didn’t really notice that Des hadn’t chimed in. We just kinda assumed it was cool (although in hind sight, DUH. Des definitely would have sent SOMETHING). Anyway, long story short, Sarah and I went to Sushi Thai and enjoyed appetizers and chatted while Des busted her butt to get to my place because she didn’t get any of our texts about the change in plan. Whoops. Sorry again, Des!!

Exhibit A

Fortunately Sushi Thai is not that far from my place and while Des wasn’t in mood for sushi she was able to find something else to eat. This was also good news for Sarah, who got Des’s leftover mini corn veggies (see exhibit A). So we hung out, relaxed, vented about our crazy lives, and talked about the book. (For this section I refer you back to the previous recap because I was fairly accurate in the book discussion, thank you very much. I just didn’t remember WHERE it happened).

Exhibit B (you’re welcome)

Since it was Salooniversary we followed up dinner with ice cream! Goodberry’s is right down the street and it was a nice warm summer night so we headed down there and sat outside with our concretes and chilled for a bit longer. I also drove the ladies past my new place which is very close by, and which I cannot resist detouring past anytime I’m in the area. Then we headed back to our cars but AGAIN! we definitely went to see Magic Mike XXL a couple days later (see exhibit B). Cause, hello, another chance to show Channing Tatum’s abs? Yes, please!) which was awesome because we don’t usually get that chance.

One final shout-out to Des, the very good sport who brought dessert because she thought we were meeting at my place. And therefore I still have Snickers Ice Cream bars in my freezer. Which are awesome and delicious. Thank you, Des!

As usual, things were chaotic. It was my turn to host but we had just closed on Cam’s place and moved all his stuff so my house was a pile of boxes and spare furniture that didn’t fit into storage. It was also half-birthday time for both Des and Sarah, AND it was Salooniversary! So we decided to go out.

We had a lovely meal at Oak City Meatball, which allows you to make your own meal with a mix of meats in the meatballs, sauces to adorn them, starches to mix them with, and sides to pair. Everything was very good AND we were introduced to brocolini, the coolest new veggie out there – a mix of asparagus and broccoli!

We started with a beer at the bar and then moved to a table and talked. I love these ladies. And I love that we have book club to let us catch up on each others crazy lives every month! Des didn’t actually care for the book – she didn’t like that the narrative was often interrupted by the author (which is an excellent point). Sarah and I, who have seen the movie, talked about how amazingly true to the book it was; I don’t think I’ve ever seen a book more accurately portrayed in film. And since Des hasn’t seen the movie, we wonder what she’ll think of it, if she does ever get around to seeing it…

We talked about lots of other stuff, some of which was in the current events section of the site, most of which was not. Mostly we just enjoyed each other’s company on a rare and lovely evening in downtown Raleigh. And when we were done we went to Busy Bee so Jen and Sarah could have dessert (is that true or am I mixing up nights?) and Des could have a drink (since she’s avoiding sweets – or are you avoiding beer now? DAMN. I suck at recaps!). AND later that same week we got to go see Magic Mike XXL together! TWO events in one week! Which is crazy awesome, just like Channing Tatum’s dance moves. And abs. So WIN.

See you next month!

Whew! Here we are again, in the shadow of next month’s book club, writing last month’s recap. Well, we’re consistent at least!

Let’s see. Book club for April was at my (Jen) house. We had lots to talk about since it was in the midst of wedding planning and we hadn’t seen each other in awhile. Sarah made an appetizer that I remember I really liked but I cannot for the life of me remember what it was. Des brought strawberries. And… something? I also had food available. Yes, this is the worst recap ever. Wait! I made spinach and turkey meatballs, in a sauce of some kind. I remember people liked it and Des ate green stuff. That’s all I got.

After dinner we discussed the book. Des and Sarah both said they enjoyed it even though they’re not quite “children of the 80’s.” They haven’t see ‘Wargames’ or played many of the games from the book, but they still found it fun after it got going (was a little slow to start). They also liked several of the gamer characters, especially ‘H’, and the Steve Woz-like guardian overseeing their attempts to beat the “game.” Anyway, at least they found it entertaining.

We didn’t have too much in the current events so we mainly talked about teaching, looked at a very cool school for inner-city kids that was breaking the mold, considered Gilmore Girl quotes, and got a teeny bit excited about the fact that Spielberg may direct the “Ready Player One” movie. Then we watched movie trailers.

I know, I am a truly awful person and this is not only an late and incomplete recap, it’s also exceptionally boring. What can I say. It was an uneventful night, but awesome for the fact that I got to hang out with my two best friends and relax. Three cheers for book club!

Hello book clubbers! Here we are at the recap for June, 2014’s book club and I confess: it’s been a few weeks. I just like to wait to post so I can check to make sure I don’t have Alzheimer’s yet. Which will be a much less funny joke when I do!

Ok, so we started off with some food- dip with veggies courtesy of Sarah. I made a cheesy chicken casserole which Des was a very good sport about eating since it had spinach in it and broccoli on the side. Not only that, but the “potatoes” in the casserole were actually cauliflower so Des wound up have a very healthy, veggie-filled dinner, completely unbeknownst to her. MuhahaHAHA!!

We’re still on Sawyer-schedule so we got down to business pretty quick and went over the book, American On Purpose, by Craig Ferguson. This was timely for several reasons. First, it was humorous, which we all thought we could use as a change of pace after our last few sister-killing, child trauma books. Two, it has to do with Ferguson’s love of America, which I thought was nice coming up on July 4th. And Craig is in How to Train Your Dragon, Part II (great movie, go see it!) which came out around this time so I thought, why not?

For the most part we liked the book. Des didn’t think it was quite and enjoyable or funny, but in many ways it’s not. Craig is a very funny man but he had many tough years and many parts of his story, specifically his alcoholic years, are tough to hear. That said we thought he was a great writer, a funny guy, but also sentimental without being too cheesy.

We then chatted about the handful of articles we had posted… A mom writing about not wanting her son to share made a case that we found compelling despite ourselves. We talked about the meaning of names (“Des is super chill”), women letting women make choices without judgement, and the HI-larity of celebrities reading tweets (nice work Kimmel!).  We also talked about an Arab woman, stoned to death for marrying a man who had previously killed his first wife – ugh. Our conversations came back to how grateful we are that we live in a country where we can be free to make out own choices “right” or “wrong”, and how much we enjoy late-night comedy. And we talked about how great Des’s cats are.

Dessert was Des’s chocolate-covered strawberries (mmmm!) and then we headed home for a (relatively) early night. Next month is at Sarah’s, but in the meantime we have brunch planned to celebrate Salooniversary 2014 – year 3! It’s so crazy. Good work, us!

Here we are, right in the middle of fall 2013 and so naturally we’re all super-busy. The book club caught me between UNC CAUSE and WordCamp conferences, was mere days after Sarah’s baby shower, and was during an unnaturally stressful week so no big surprise, we were all a little strapped for time.

What WAS a big surprise was the book! Since I thought I had read it but hadn’t. Nope, not at all. Yes, that’s against the rules. I made a mistake and was thinking of a different book- one I *still* can’t find. Anyway, this book was not a great book and so I had to begin book club by apologizing for this profusely. The only thing worse than the book was the movie, which we didn’t watch but saw a trailer for – oh, the agony! Yeah, not my finest hour.

We did eat food too. Sarah and Matt brought a veggie tray. I stopped at Whole Foods for turkey burgers and carrots and made some asparagus as well to avoid feeling like a complete slacker. Des and Tim brought us apple pie and whipped cream which pretty much disappeared from the face of the planet in under 5 minutes.

Music! Des found some great travel songs, which was my request. I changed my musical theme midway through song selection since I felt like the book we read was more appropriate for songs about crimes (the book I’m thinking of had way more travel involved- east to west on a trip in the Canadian Rockies… what WAS that book??). Anyway I chose some travel songs and some crime songs. And Sarah chose to exercise her right not to pick. Which was probably for the best since we were all over the map (literally!).

We found some time to chat about a number of hot topics: Hunger Games and the new movie coming out; female spies and their impact on the war (and good books about that!); make-up and Virgin Airlines new Safety Dance! We also talked about proposed changes to grading in Wake county: no 0 grades and the opportunity to do make-up work at any time, and the teacher HAS to accept it! I swear we have more ridiculous administration and stupid student discussions every month – we really should have a blog for that. We also talked about NOT touching pregnant bellies and Bean Glova made himself known at his first book club by kicking his mom for us. 😀

There were more discussions throughout the evening, of course, and Matt and Tim played a couple riveting (for them) games of whatever games they brought with them. Nala tried to make Sarah sneeze and get Des to pet her non-stop for 3 hours. So yeah. Just about the same as usual, if not a little more stressed. Of course we are moving into December so it’s not like things are about to get less chaotic, but we have Maggiano’s on the schedule and of course, everyone’s favorite: gift exchange! Looking forward to it!