Book Review: One Day by David Nicholls

I would honestly like to know:  are we ever going to get some decent fall weather in the District?  I've just about had it with my only two options being plastering my 'fro to my head or looking like a Treasure Troll wandering the streets of DC.  It's nearly November and I'm scared to change my wardrobe because surely some other 80 degree monsoon is lurking around the corner.

ANYWHO.  Back to the book review.  Though I'm not sure I can seriously review this little morsel.  It was a summer reading choice for one of my book clubs (Yes.  I'm in two book clubs.), point being that it was a crack pop love story that would be easy to read, perhaps, while aimlessly bobbing in some body of water with a cocktail in your hand (or whatever else it is you people do for your summers).  Dexter Mahew and Emma Morley bob and weave in and out of a life long cat-and-mouse game, which had its surprisingly charming moments, and its more unsurprisingly dull ones.  Not what I'd call clever (which we all know is my holy grail for literature, music, men, life), but it had its own warmth that inadvertently attached you fondly to the characters and would result in moderate sadness if, say, one of them were to die at the end just after they finally found love.

Whoops!  Spoiler alert.  My B!  Not like any of y'all would deep dive into this high-grade smut.  And it's really the only eventful thing in the whole flipping 450 pages (Promise I wouldn't spoil a good one!  Honest!).  Tragedy is delicious, especially when it's foreshadowed by a bit 'o haunting- which reminds me, Happy Halloween!...

She philosophically noted dates as they came past in the revolution of the ear;...her own birthday; and every other day individualized by incidents in which she had taken some share.  She suddenly thought one afternoon, when looking in the glass at her fairness, that there was yet another date, of greater importance to her than those; that of her own death, when all these charms would have disappeared; a day which lay sly and unseen among all the other days of the year, giving no sign or sound when she annually passed over it; but not the less surely there.  When was it?  ~ Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles

Rain rain go away...

...come back on Sunday so they'll cancel the marathon.  HA.  Not really - I mean, just because I'm undertrained from taking 2.5 weeks off due to some pesky injury doesn't mean everyone else should be robbed of their day of glory.  But for reals I could use a wish right nooow wish right nooow wish right nooow.

Hold on to your hineys because momma's got the writin' bug tonight.  And it's been nearly one month since I've been even remotely interested in hanging out with my laptop at home so we have lots to catch up on friends!

First stop:  American History Friday Series!  As we all know, I work an extra hour per day and somehow the federal government thinks that means I deserve every other Friday off.  Well my momma told me never to look a gift horse in the mouth so I breeze out of headquarters every other Thursday with the top down and don't look back (not my top y'all...speaking figuratively here).  And with my insatiable curiosity and lack of a primary history education (thanks for nothing Gilchrist County), the only logical choice for my Fridays was to enforce a mandatory American History Friday Series.  America, you sassy sassy minx!  Here are some highlights of late:

The Pope-Leighy house is Frank Lloyd Wright's (to be confused with Howard Rourke) only work in the DC area.  Unfortunately the tiny man who gave me the tour wouldn't let me snap any pics inside, not to mention my digital camera bit the big one on this outing (RIP), so all I have is this camera phone documentation.  Lovely house and oh so FLW.  If you haven't read about this man's personal life or visited any of his brilliant architectural masterpieces, call in sick tomorrow and do something with your life!  And hope you never get stuck on a tasteful tour of one of his homes with me because I can't stop running my yapper about his torrid affair with Mamah Cheney and gosh can you just believe it all?! (Which undoubtedly makes the tiny man wonder who's giving this tour anyway?)

Two Fridays later, I hopped on the train for a long-overdue trip to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. *yawn* Folks, if you grew up in Florida and began your aquatic adventures at Sea World as a child, spare yourself the $25 and don't waste your time in aquariums. Period. I wandered through stinky isles of fish pools and plastic replicas of coral reefs, just waiting to turn a corner and pet a sting ray or walk through a glass tunnel within a massive shark tank. Instead I turned a corner and found more stinky fish pools and more plastic replicas of nature's aquatic wonders. But I will say I was thrilled to finally discover (1) the world's smallest species of monkey, the pygmy marmoset (this image doesn't do him justice so please feast your eyes upon this google image search); and (2) a group of lizards is called a "lounge."


And (drum roll please), during my most recent trip to Vegas for the lovely Jan Smith's nuptials, I arrived early and managed to rent a car and drive out to see the Hoover Dam! Holy smokes! This place is one huge terrifying mass of huge-ness and I loved every minute of exploring it! 

Above is a picture of the dam, which I took while dangling from the newly-opened Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge below (seriously scary y'all):

 
And there you have it folks:  American History Friday Series.  Though admittedly most of this has little to do with history.  American Friday Series?  And there goes my writing bug because I'm fresh out of narrative and giving bedroom eyes to my big, comfy bed at the ripe hour of 8pm. 
 
Sweet dreams darlings!
 
xo