Hover over the photo or click through to Flickr to see the very short or unhelpful titles they might have.

(The word “suddenly” reminds me of one of my favorite poems “Tension” by Billy Collins. You can read it online here.)

My life has changed quite a bit this year, and with it many of my habits changed too. For example: I now make my bed. Every morning. I never used to be a bed maker, except when I had to put on clean sheets. Now I’m a bed maker, and I can’t really explain why. That’s one example of the hundreds of little things that have changed, and those things accumulated into quite a lot of change in my daily routines.

My goal is to find a way to make this blog fit with my life a bit better – I don’t want to feel stressed because I am behind on reviews or posts. That means I need to change the way I write posts and use this blog. I’m not sure if it will be a good change or not, but I’ll figure that out later.

I’ve still been reading a lot, and buying towers of books. I’ll find a way to continue to post about those activities, but in a new way. Right now, I’m a little more than halfway through Vaclav and Lena by Haley Tanner.

Last thought for this post and the most important, how excited are we all for this?:

I had lived in my old apartment for 5 years, so it was quite a task to go through all the stuff and figure out which stuff to donate, which stuff to throw away, and which stuff to keep and pack up. Especially when there’s well over 1000 books to factor in.

I edited my book collection quite a bit before the move. I donated a lot of books that I’m less interested in now, or don’t think I’ll ever read. I didn’t count, but I’d guess that I gave away about 200 to 300 books. Most of them went to Symposia Books in Hoboken, a non-profit, community used bookstore. The others went to the book exchange at my work.

I now live in an adorable 1 bedroom apartment in Brookyn. I’m still getting settled, but I’m loving it so far. I have two new Billy bookcases from IKEA in my bedroom, and my living room has built in bookcases along one wall. I now have more than enough room for all my books! Yesterday I unpacked all my books, and before I put each book on a shelf, I scanned it with with Delicious Library so that I have a completely accurate catalog of all my books. This makes the librarian in my soul incredibly giddy.

Here’s a photo of some of the books in my Billy bookcases:

Once I’m more settled I’ll take photos of the entire apartment and post them here. I’m finally buying grown up furniture (as opposed to the cheapest available stuff at IKEA, which is how I had to furnish my first apartment out of college), and I’m really excited about how it’s coming together. My new Crate & Barrel couch arrived yesterday, and it is also a queen size pull out bed – so visitors are welcome! My brass bed arrives on Wednesday, and I’m super excited because it reminds me of Samantha’s bed from the American Girl doll books. :)

Additionally – I’ll be catching up on all book related posts soon too – so keep an eye out for Polysyllabic Spree posts. I need to decide where in my new apartment my stacks of books bought and read each month will be photographed!

~

These observations, and indeed the greater part of the observations made that evening, were interrupted by Mrs. Micawber’s discovering that Master Micawber was sitting on his boots, or holding his head on with both arms as if he felt it loose, or accidentally kicking Traddles under the table, or shuffling his feet over one another, or producing them at distances from himself apparently outrageous to nature, or lying sideways with his hair among the wine-glasses, or developing his restlessness of limb in some other form incompatible with the general interests of society; and by Master Micawber’s receiving those discoveries in a resentful spirit.

-David Copperfield, page 527, by Charles Dickens

So here is my year, minus any of the boring stuff. :)

Broadway Shows:
1. Wishful Drinking
2. Mr. and Mrs. Fitch
3. Next to Normal
4. Promises, Promises
5. La Cage Aux Folles
6. Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson
7. A Little Night Music
8. The Merchant of Venice

Favorites: La Cage Aux Folles, The Merchant of Venice, Promises, Promises, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson

Traveling:
1. Philly
2. Atlantic City
3. Michigan
4. DC
5. Connecticut
6. Boston
7. Ireland (Dublin, Cashel, Cahir, Dingle, Galway, Spiddle, Sligo, Dublin)
8. Philly
9. Orlando
10. Michigan

Movies in the Theater:
1. Up in the Air
2. A Single Man
3. The Young Victoria
4. Crazy Heart
5. Alice in Wonderland
6. Hot Tub Time Machine
7. Alice in Wonderland
8. Kick-Ass
9. Toy Story 3
10. Despicable Me
11. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
12. Morning Glory
13. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1)
14. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1)

Favorites: The Young Victoria, Despicable Me, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1)

Concerts:
1. The Swell Season – Radio City Music Hall 1.19.10
2. John Mayer – Madison Square Garden 2.25.10
3. John Mayer – Madison Square Garden 2.26.10
4. James Taylor & Carol King – TD Bank Garden, Boston, MA – 6.19.10
5. John Mayer & Train – Jones Beach 7.21.10
6. The Swell Season – Prospect Park, Brooklyn 7.30.10
7. Amos Lee – Hiro Ballroom 9.28.10

Misc Events:
1. Conan – Radio City Music Hall
2. Mets Game
3. Mets Game
4. Phillies Game
5. Prairie Home Companion – Town Hall, NYC

Museums:
1. Morgan Library – NYC (Jane Austen exhibit)
2. The Met – NYC (The Art of the Victorian Collage exhibit)
3. Museum of Natural History – NYC
4. National Air & Space Museum – DC
5. National Museum of Natural History – DC
6. National Museum of American History – DC
7. National Gallery of Art – DC
8. Guggenheim – NYC
9. Morgan Library – NYC (Mark Twain exhibit)
10. Grand Rapids Art Museum – Grand Rapids, MI (Princess Diana exhibit)

Other Stats:
15 Netflix DVDs watched
34 Movies/DVDs watched (not Netflix)
20 New Recipes tried
6 Parties hosted
1 Thanksgiving hosted for family
1 Amazing Race at work
1 Kickball Game at work
7 Flights
11 MSU Football Wins watched

In the meantime, remember that you can still enter my giveaway to win a signed ARC copy of Packing for Mars by Mary Roach, right here. It will be open until August 18th.

Below are some vintage postcards from Ireland, found on the Library of Congress’s Flickr page.

Sláinte!

But by far one of the biggest pieces of our friendship is our love (obsession?) of the show Gilmore Girls. Between us we’ve watched the entire series over and over again an alarming number of times. We quote lines from the show at every opportunity. Luke is our dream man, and we are firmly pro-Jess.

So when we were planning a summer road trip from NYC to Boston (we were headed there for the James Taylor & Carol King concert, which was incredible), we knew a visit to the town (Washington Depot, Connecticut) that inspired Amy Sherman-Palladino’s creation of Stars Hallow was an absolute must. For those who do not know: Stars Hallow is the fictional town setting of the show Gilmore Girls. It was like planning a visit to our Motherland.

We started off the weekend by staying Friday night in Litchfield, Connecticut, a town about 20 minutes away from Washington Depot. We stayed at an adorable inn called Tollgate Hill. Our room reminded us of Lorelai and Rory’s room at the Cheshire Cat (see photo below). However the floral motif is where the similarities ended, the Tollgate Hill inn was very lovely.

The next morning after breakfast we packed up and drove to Washington Depot, or what we now mainly refer to as “Stars Hallow.” We started our visit at The Hickory Stick Bookshop. It is a completely adorable independent Bookstore, and in our minds it is, of course, Stars Hallow Books, run by Andrew.

After a decent amount of book shopping, we began to walk through town and were immediately charmed by the group of signs advertising upcoming town festivals and events. At that moment Emma and I looked at each other and we knew: we were in Stars Hallow.

We then walked toward the center of town and saw the adorable Town Hall.

Here’s Emma by the Washington sign near Town Hall:

Next up was the discovery of Washington Food Market, which of course is Doose’s Market. We went inside and bought several necessities including Whoopie Pies and Havarti Cheese.

Inside Doose’s Market:

Next door to Doose’s Market is the Post Office:

We then noticed Gypsy’s Garage:

A little ways up the road is the Gunn Memorial Library:

We explored the library thoroughly, because we’re pretty nerdy and love visiting libraries in other towns, even if we can’t check out any books. The main floor is full of windows that look out into the leaves of the trees in the back, and on that sunny Saturday morning provided the loveliest shady light to browse books in. It has a wonderful children’s section in the basement. But the most spectacular part of the library was the top floor. It was a reading room & events space, and it was one of the most beautiful & peaceful rooms I’ve ever been in. Here are some photos:

We didn’t find an exact match for Luke’s Diner, although there was a cafe with a similar yellow sign. It had a completely different feel inside though. We plan on looking more for Luke’s next time we visit. :)

We reluctantly left town Saturday afternoon, we had a lot more ground to cover that weekend including a reunion with the third member of the Red Shoe Cult and a date with James Taylor & Carole King that evening. It was a fabulous visit though, and we can’t wait to go back someday.

Congrats Mia! Your book will be on its way to you soon.

Thanks so much to all who entered!

I’ve used a random number generator to find the two winners from the fans on Facebook and the comments below. I’m pleased to announce that they are: Annina and Kelly!

Congratulations! I will contact you both to confirm which book you’d like and to get your mailing address. :)