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Friday Fun! (August: First Anniversary! Beaches! Ok, ok, and also orientations and tooth extractions)
A seagull at Revere Beach.
Hello my lovely readers!
August is always a bit of a tough month for me, because it’s when the students arrive back at my university. I wind up teaching a lot of orientation classes and also just flat-out am much busier doing one-on-one orientations to the library. While I truly enjoy teaching, I’m also an introvert and, thus, interactions with people drain me of energy, so I come home and collapse in exhaustion at the end of these days. A friend who also works in academia joked that everyone in academia runs around for the month of August yelling, “The students are coming! The students are coming!” in a Paul Revere voice. Very true.
I also, unfortunately, had to have a medical procedure this month. My dentist deemed it necessary for my wisdom teeth to come out as soon as possible, so I managed to find the one slow week at work and booked the appointment to get them ripped out. I only had three wisdom teeth, the fourth never developed (yay for being 25% more evolved woooo). They were all fully erupted, though (fully came in, not impacted). The procedure, thus, was quick and simple, although it still was bloody and painful, and I had to convalesce for a few days. The worst part, by far, was having to eat soft foods for a minimum of 3 days. I work out a lot and am a hungry panda and frankly I just like crunching things. I was very happy to be back to eating! My partner took great care of me, and I laid around watching old movies and playing Harvest Moon while I was recuperating.
This month wasn’t all difficulty and stress, though. It was also mine and my boyfriend’s first anniversary! We went away for an evening to an inn in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. Our room had a two-person hot tub and was truly divine. Plus, the inn had 5 star dining, and my partner called ahead and told them I’m vegetarian, so the chef prepared a full 4 courses of vegetarian options for me, which was the first time I ever got to actually have 5 star food. He’s so thoughtful. 🙂 It was so wonderful to get to actually get away to celebrate our first anniversary. I’m glad we were able to get out of the city, even for one night, but I’m even more grateful to have found my partner. 😀
We also finally got a chance to go to the beach. We went to America’s first public beach, Revere. We took the motorcycle there, and stripping out of motorcycle gear down to a bikini underneath was hilariously awesome. I was really impressed at how nice Revere Beach is!! It has a lovely boardwalk and plenty of room for how popular it is. Everyone was nice and polite, and it was wonderfully relaxing. We’re going to have to plan more 2up beach trips in the future 🙂
As for the blog, I managed to mostly catch up in book reviews. I now am only one review behind! Woohoo!
As for my writerly pursuits, I’ve figured out a method to work more writing into my day, and I’m really glad to be back in the saddle. It helps, of course, that my partner and I are now living together. It’s so much easier to plan for things when you’re taking care of one house instead of two.
How was everyone else’s Augusts? What was your biggest stress and your best relaxer?
*waves*
Book Review: Siren by John Everson
Summary:
Evan walks the seacoast of his small town every night reliving the horror of watching his son drown. But one night he hears a beautiful song and discovers a perfectly naked, perfectly beautiful woman attached to it. As he begins an affair, willfully oblivious to anything about the woman beyond her beauty, he fails to realize he is falling for the siren of Delilah.
Review:
I picked this up during one of the monthly kindle book sales on a whim, and am I glad I did! This book was simultaneously terrifying and electrifying. The flip-flop between fear and titillation was a truly delightful reading experience, and it came with a well thought-out plotline and delicious settings to boot.
Evan is not a likeable guy. In fact, Ligeia, the Siren, is more likable than he is, and she routinely rips people’s throats out with just her teeth. But disliking Evan works for the story. It lets the reader invest in Ligeia and see her side of things. There are ways in which she is a monster, yes, but there are also ways in which she is quite human. Having a deeply flawed male “victim” to her charms allows the reader to see the monster in us all.
Both the horror and the sex scenes are adeptly written. The sex scenes are titillating without being too much, and, similarly, the horrific scenes are grotesque without going too far. The presence of both in the story makes for an ever-changing, exciting read. Similarly, the plot is complex without being overly so and managed to keep me guessing. It also strikes the balance quite well.
I also really enjoyed the light commentary on hunting and eating another species. It provides a depth to the story beyond simply lust leading one astray.
Kind of puts a whole new spin on fishing, doesn’t it? Here you men are always out there reeling in the fish, and here’s a half-fish woman who’s reeling in the men. (page 146)
Of course, there is also commentary on cheating and the other woman. There has to be, since Ligeia is Evan’s mistress. I must admit that that basic plot can sometimes upset me, so I do think it distracted me a bit from enjoying the book as much as I would have otherwise. On a similar note, the ending is not quite what I would have hoped for, although it did make sense in the context of the story.
Overall, this is an interesting mix of horror and erotica that is fast-paced and enjoyable. Those sensitive to cheating as a plot device or explicit deaths may want to exercise caution. Recommended to those who would enjoy their horror and erotica together.
4 out of 5 stars
Source: Amazon
Friday Fun! (Provincetown)
Hello my lovely readers! Last weekend, two of my friends and I decided to take a one night vacation to Cape Cod–Provincetown to be exact. For those of you who don’t know, Ptown, as it’s more commonly known, is not only the first landing place of the Pilgrims before they moved on to Plymouth, but also is the gay mecca of the Eastern seaboard. Coastal town plus fabulousness everywhere? What more could we ask for?
My lovely weekend included wading in the Atlantic, a run along the beach, flipping off a lighthouse, hilarious window shopping, hot tubbing, some whiskey, and possibly the best knock-off of a chain restaurant ever–the Burger Queen, which included Larry the most fabulous gay man I’ve ever met. We became their first customers to get our picture taken for their book. Every time I go to the ocean, I know I’m going to end up living on it eventually in my life. It was exactly the vacation the doctor ordered. Thanks, ladies, for the epic weekend!
This one won’t be quite so epic, but it will involve a charity walk, meeting GameCouch, and a party for a Team Unicorn member. What are you all up to with your weekends?
This work by Amanda Nevius is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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