Coffee: Starbucks' new mocha chai is wonderful. Overly sugary? Yes. Definitely. But I've never loved a chai before, but I am loving this combo. (How did I never try this while working there?? Bizarre.) A short might be my go-to holiday indulgence this year. At Starbucks, anyway. Josh and I are loving exploring fantastic coffee shops in Nashville - so fun! We still need to try food at Frothy Monkey, same same at Crema, I need to get him to my beloved Bongo Java, and we both need to brunch at Fido. Asap.
MusEd blogs: I don't know how this is the first time I have ever thought of this, but the other night I googled "music education blogs" and got tons of results! I have barely seen any such things through Pinterest so I didn't think there was much out there in that vein, but MAN was I wrong. I was also thinking I'm disappointed in myself for not receiving any publications. I feel a little torn on what I should be getting, but I could at LEAST have scoured the old NATS editions that I have in the attic. They're a few years old but less out of date than I am for not having read them! How have I spent time reading home decor or fashion blogs and magazines when this is out there? Crazy. Also considering joining a Kodaly chapter, but we'll see. Tangent: I want to start grad school in January, but am rapidly finding that scholarships happen ONCE a year, not again for second semester-starters. What the heck? So uncool. Anyway, getting over it nnnnnnnnnnNow.
Friend conversations: the best conversations involve sharing things. "You have to check out this ______" (book/movie/article/radio show, etc.) -like homework from a class, and things to check up on until next time. "Send me pictures when you get started!" Or "I'll call you to discuss further once I've finished it." Etc. I had two great friend conversations the other night and it made me decide I probably need to make that an at-least-weekly call to one of a few dozen fabulous folks in my life.
Currently reading: The Book Thief and Watership Down. Loving both. A book discussion group at our church is reading Searching for Enough in a Culture of More, and I would say that it should have been read over the course of maybe a month, discussing sections, rather than individual essays, each week. If you have a strong church group looking for a book, check it out. If you're starting a new group like ours was, reading one essay at a time is a nice, low-commitment way to go. Anyway, I'm very happily surprised at how bright and engaged - and consistent - the group has been so far!! Verrrrry cool.
Veterans Day: with school and Army out, I get that there are a lot of people out and about today. But the hours-long wrapping-around-the-building lines at Olive Garden, Texas Roadhouse, Starbucks, and Cheddar's are just totally depressing. The sight of it all just feels so sad (especially since I'm not even talking about dinner, I'm talking about 11 am!! Ewww!) and lemming-like, it's enough to make anybody all snarky and superior. Bah!
Issues: on my mind a lot lately? Sexism. There are a lot of -isms out there, totally worth fighting over, but the one that I feel I see and can personally fight over is sexism. Feminism is for Everybody, as I agreed as we read that book in Pluralism, but especially since I read How to be a Woman by the genius and irresistibly charming Caitlin Moran (self-read audiobook SO HIGHLY recommended!) I can't seem to get her mantra out of my head. We're all just the guys, and should treat each other as such. So fair! So easy! There are specific issues where I could see people disagreeing with her, but by and large, I'm in her boat. Love.
Okay, enough random thoughts for today. Hopefully I'll let contemplations that don't really fit into status updates spill over here. Thanks, blog! Happy Veterans Day, all!
