Never Not Tired

One of the things I enjoyed using this space for was tracking my reading. It’s ebbed and flowed over the last year, but I’ve read some awesome books, so a little catch up, shall we?

Let’s shall. Moving backwards from most recent…

•The Lola Quartet by Emily St. John Mandel (4/5) •Wool by Hugh Howey (5/5) •The Twelve by Justin Cronin (5/5) •The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta (5/5) •Act of God by Jill Ciment (3/5) •The Passage by Justin Cronin (5/5) •The Secret History by Donna Tartt (4/5) •The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes by Diane Chamberlaine (3/5) •The Dinner by Herman Koch (4/5) •The Likeness by Tana French (5/5) •The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins (4/5) •In the Woods by Tana French (4/5) •The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman 4/5) •The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta (3/5) •The Secret Place by Tana French (4/5) •The Three by Sarah Lotz (4/5) •Find Me by Laura van den Berg (3/5) •Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan (4/5) •The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker (4/5) •Dare Me by Megan Abbott (3/5) •St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raises by Wolves by Karen Russell (4/5) •O, Democracy! by Kathleen Rooney (4/5) •Ugly Girls by Lindsay Hunter (2/5) •Dark Places by Gillian Flynn (3/5)

Yesterday MK’s daycare was closed. Three has been a rough year so far, so a one-on-one date with Mommy seemed like just the ticket. Dad took older brother to day camp. We dropped the baby off at her home daycare and set out to the children’s museum in a nearby city, about 25 minutes away.

We arrived in good time and parked in the public lot. As I went to pay in the machine for parking, I could not find my debit card. I started flipping through everything in my wallet to no avail as a line started to form behind me. As the other parents became impatient, I cancelled my transaction and took MK back to our van.

She was climbing all over the back, acting crazy, as I repeatedly went through every card in my wallet to no avail. As I’m frantically sorting she said, while swinging from the seats, “Is it yellow, Mommy?” “No, sweetie, it’s not yellow.” Flip, flip, flip. “Does it have your picture on it?” “Yes it does, but that’s my license you’re looking at.”

No luck. I logged onto my bank account to see if there was any activity on my card, as now I’m worried that it’s stolen, and remember that I purchased something online on Friday night. I must not have put my card back in my wallet, I think to myself.

Luckily, I had cash on me. So we drove around the block to a parking garage that takes cash and had our day at the museum.

We get home, I still can’t find my card. I am frustrated with myself. I get my daughter settled with a snack and sit down to pump, and suddenly, everything swirls through my head…

“Is it yellow, Mommy… Does it have your picture on it...I used to be in a barbershop quartet in Skokie, Illinois.”

6 books, 2450 pages:

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman (4/5)

Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes (5/5)

Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix (3.5/5)

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (5/5)

The News Sorority by Sheila Weller (3/5)

The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell (5/5)

Another month filled with good picks! Even got a little non-fiction in there with Weller's book about Katie Couric, Diane Sawyer, Christiane Armanpour.

If I had to pick I favorite I would have to say it's still Station Eleven although I deeply deeply enjoyed both Broken Monsters and The Bone Clocks and am looking forward to reading both Beukes' and Mitchell's back catalogs as that was my first exposure to either of them.

Currently reading: The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey

Pinky is A’s most favorite lovey. My dad bought him for A at the airport and Pinky quickly usurped the nice, small, easily washable lovey I had previously picked out. Last year A wanted nothing more than to be Pinky for Halloween and his grandmother made him a costume (which btw glowed in the dark!) A totally rocked it.

Flash forward to today. It is “spirit week” in his pre-k class, which I suspect only serves to make us moms feel guilty when we inevitably forget (nothing like walking in on Monday and seeing all the kids in crazy hats, sigh).

Today was mix and match day. Seeing as it is now cold, A doesn’t really have any bottoms with a pattern to mix with something else, so he wanted to wear the pants from his Halloween costume. We paired them with a blue striped rugby shirt over a yellow striped t-shirt. Mission accomplished.