1. Labor Day Party
For the past four or five years now, I've had friends over to my house to swim and barbecue while the rest of my family goes to Lava Hot Springs. It's great because I don't love camping, but I do love having the house to myself. I didn't actually barbecue this year instead making ratatouille, macaroni and cheese, and peach pie, and only a few people swam because it was frickin' cold! I also made my own orgeat syrup so we could make Mai Tais which were delicious. It was great to see a bunch of my friends, including Dain whom I rarely see since he lives in New Mexico now.
2. Buffy Finale
Three Septembers ago, Kristen and I started watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and we finally watched "Chosen," the final episode! It took us a while to get through the series--mostly because Kristen kept moving (first to WA, then to CA). But I've always enjoyed our (somewhat regular) weekly Buffy nights. I don't what we're going to do now.
3. The Greek Festival
Kristen, Sam, and I went to the annual Greek Festival in SLC and had a good time. I ate way too much food. It was delicious--and heavy. Then we got frappes and toured the Orthodox church. And then we went to the mall to drink Starbucks and buy things at Barnes & Noble.
4. Scandal
I started watching the television show Scandal at the end of August or beginning of September, and I am now halfway through the fourth season. I am addicted! (I probably watched the entire second season during the Labor Day weekend.) Season three took some turns I didn't care for, but I am still watching it compulsively.
In other TV news, I just watched the premier of Scream Queens which is gruesome and darkly funny. The Serial joke was so good. I will definitely keep watching for now.
5. Wicked
I have loved the musical Wicked since college when all my friends were obsessed with it. I've always been curious to read the Maguire novel, and so Sam lent me her copy (it's one of her favorite books), but I did not care for the book at all. It was a deeply frustrating reading experience from the character of Elphaba to the story itself. The creators of the musical made some excellent choices in their adaptation.
6. Fall Reading List
I love to throw in some books with thrills and chills during the fall. For book club (meeting next month), we decided to read some ghost stories with The Turn of the Screw by Henry James and "All Souls' " by Edith Wharton. Currently I'm reading Hawthorne's gothic The House and the Seven Gables and the second book in Harkness's All Souls trilogy Shadow of Night. I also want to get to Updike's The Witches of Eastwick next month. Perhaps I shall share my thoughts on what I've read next time.
7. Books Books Books
This month I went to two library book sales. The first at Davis County where I found nothing that I wanted. Sayud. Then next at the U, where I picked up five nice paperbacks: The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley, The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon, a Norton Critical Edition of Gulliver's Travels and a Penguin Classics copy of The Custom of the Country (my favorite Wharton novel). I also picked up Janson's The History of Art (sixth ed.) for $2! I am pretty pleased with my selections. A couple weeks later, the U had its Employee Appreciation Day which always includes a FREE books table. The pickings were slim, but I grabbed two hardbacks in good condition: Back to Blood by Tom Wolfe and The Letters of Lytton Strachey. (My favorite book so far this year was Priya Parmar's historical novel Vanessa and Her Sister about the Bloomsbury Group, and Lytton Strachey was one of my favorite characters.) I also just liberated about sixteen books from the boxes in the shed from when I moved back to Utah four years ago, and it feels so good to be reunited. On the other hand, I have no shelf space for all these books.
8. Fall Hike
A couple of Sundays ago, I went hiking with Elise up Mueller Park Canyon which is a very easy, moderate hike. Only a few of the leaves had turned, but it felt properly autumnal nevertheless. After the hike, we enjoyed a bottle of Amontillado with some Manchego cheese, and it was delicious!
9. Honeymoon
I picked up Lana Del Rey's third album Honeymoon upon its release, and I have been enjoying it very much. The NYT writes "She’s been angry, and then bored of being angry, but now she’s just bored, and her boredom is entrancing." Opening with the line "We both know that it's not fashionable to love me" and closing with a cover of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," it's a languorous set of retro, cinematic soundscapes for Del Rey's art project persona of a world-weary femme fatale. "Truly there's nobody else for you but me," she sings, and nobody else is making this kind of pop music, and perhaps nobody else even could. It's the Full Lana and won't win any new converts, but it may be her most cohesive work yet (though the Paradise EP is still my favorite). In closing Billboard writes, "Under the cover of midnight, Del Rey has been exploring big ideas about eroticism, drugs, myth, the empty promise of YOLO, what it means to be a woman, and the American soul. But sure, keep writing her off as 'sad.'"
In other music news, I also picked up CHVRCHES new album Every Open Eye which is the kind of shiny, ear candy pop that Lana is NOT making, and it's great, but for some reason the disc won't read in my car's tetchy CD player, so I will keep listening to Honeymoon.
10. Oktoberfest
Over the weekend, Sam, Kristen, Brandon, Vicki, Quinci, and I made our way to Snowbird for Oktoberfest. It was a day full of drinking beer (Wasatch's Pumpkin Ale may be my favorite pumpkin beer) and eating German food and it was wonderful.
Bonus
11. Paris
I have decided to travel to Paris next year. I'm hoping Sam will come with me. Right now it's just the fun fantasy of planning a trip, and now I'm reading Alistair Horne's Seven Ages of Paris and brushing up on my French on Duolingo.
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