To read, or not to read, that is the question

I'm part of a small book club with some friends and our last two books were duds. The first dud had an interesting premise and plenty of good reviews but the general consensus of the book club was that it was tough to get through. The most recent book was only finished by two people. The rest of us gave up. Humor books can be a risky choice for book club and Dear Girls was not my first choice but I give every book club book a fair shot. I don't like not finishing a book. I decided to stop listening with two hours left on the audio book. (I like to listen to memoirs when they're narrated by the writer.) I decided that I didn't want to waste two more hours of my time on a book I was not enjoying. Ali's humor is not for me. As someone who was firmly in camp MUST FINISH THE BOOK I'm now giving myself permission to put it aside if I'm not enjoying myself. There are too many good books out there and no one is forcing me to finish a dud but myself.

Despite no one really liking the book we still had some interesting discussions over tacos and cheesecake. Did I mention that our book club is called Goldenbooks and Cheesecake Club? My suggestion for the next book is Picnic at Hanging Rock. We're still voting but so far it's in the lead. Fiona kept saying the title wrong so now we're all joking about the name of the book. "Can't wait to read Rock Hanging at the Picnic." I hope we end up reading it so we can have a picnic themed meeting and of course for the running joke of the name.

Thinking of Australia

I was lucky enough to visit Sydney for a week back in October. It was already getting pretty hot going into the summer season there. I had a wonderful time visiting gardens and museums. The people were very friendly. It's hard to imagine how devastating these brush fires are. I am going to donate to the relief efforts. Here are some photos from my trip. Australia is a beautiful place.

What to do

I can't get rid of this bag. He looks so happy to be here!

Ice sculpting

The sculptors at work.

The big reveal!

My old office is the building under the Happy New Years and my dentist is in the tallest building. 

Pretty cool.

New fridge art

Keeley is eight years old and taught me how to draw a braid on scratch art paper on Christmas Day. You can currently see this Keeley original on display in the fridge gallery.

Not the Marathon Monday I planned

Today is Marathon Monday. My office is always closed on Marathon Monday and usually I'd be out enjoying the day and cheering on the runners. Instead I woke up sick to my stomach and spent some quality time with the toilet this morning. The culprit seems to be something I ate at a Game of Thrones viewing party last night. I was not the only one from the party who got sick which is how I narrowed down the culprit. I was thanking my lucky stars that I had the day off.

The weather was pretty awful in the morning with torrential rain and wind. I went back to bed (once I thought it was safe enough to leave the bathroom) and when I woke up a few hours later the rain had stopped and the sun was out. I finally felt well enough to eat a plain bagel and watch a bit of the marathon coverage. It's hard to explain the camaraderie of Marathon Monday. A man interviewed while cheering on his wife from the sidelines described it better than I can. He said he's from a small town in Oklahoma and Boston on Marathon Monday feels like a small town where everyone is friendly. I suggest you come experience it for yourself some time.

My stomach seems to have recovered but now I'm not the least bit tired since I slept all morning. I figured this was the perfect time to update my poor neglected blog.

My weirdness twin Victoria on Netflix's Dating Around

Thank God I'm not on the dating scene anymore. People are a nightmare. I started watching the new dating show on Netflix called Dating Around because my friend Melissa told me one of the girls on the show reminded her of me on a date. Well, what she assumed I would be like on a date. She was right.

I told Derek on our first date that I almost didn't respond to his message on OKC because "only serial killers have one photo."

Victoria calls herself a Masshole and her date is baffled because he's never heard the term. She then jokes about getting it as a trampstamp. She basically can't control the words coming out of her mouth and laughs at herself (that's your girl, right here). She walks into a door on her way out of the bar (HI, HAVE YOU MET ME). The thing that really made me laugh, because it is a very Ginny thing to do, is when she's in the car after the date and they're just talking and she says "let me haul up my pants" and proceeds to do so in the car. I DO THIS ALL THE TIME. I never said I was classy but I just really hate belts. It's amazing Derek didn't go running the other way after our first date.

The guy ends up picking Victoria for a second date out of the five girls he meets. I did not expect that but who can resist me Victoria?

As for Gurki on the second episode, you are an amazing woman and Justin is complete trash.