Sculpting Nothing [Daily Prompt]

I’d feel sorry for any sculptors who came to be my personal sculptor, however if they were going to pick something from the last year to immortalize in stone I’d want them to undertake the random road trip my friend and I went on this past summer. That trip pretty much sums up how I feel like my life is: A rough plan of what should happen with some detours along the way, a little stress and a lot of laughs all stuffed into one week. That week was fabulous. My journey began in Story City with the first ‘leg’ of the trip going down to Kansas City to meet up with my buddy who then embarked on this trip with me (something we both had on our bucket list – to go on a random road trip). We hit up St. Louis, Indianapolis, Chicago, Naperville, Dubuque, and Cedar Falls before I returned home. That’s kind of a lot to cover in the span of a little under a week in the middle of summer in a car whose air gives out after about 2 hours of driving in the sun. (Allie and I learned our lesson, drive in the evening/night NOT the middle of the day. Who knew? Well, besides my brainiac sister).

It was hard to choose just one subject. I had three other jump in my head:

1. Shedding Weekend – my immediate family re-sided and reshingled our back yard shed. This is of significance because we haven’t done a project like that for 15 years or so (if you’re doing maths that puts me around age 10 which may be generous. My family built a garage with a crew of husband, wife, & 3 daughters (14, 11, 8). It took us a couple summers to finish the monster but it’s still standing to this day so not so bad right? This project was a much smaller scale and we were much bigger. It was fun putting those old skills to use again, and we had two other adults to help.
2. First birthday party – my nephew had his first birthday party this summer, and although not directly a milestone in my life it was nice to be able to experience it and be a part of it.
3. My Best Friend’s Wedding – again not directly a milestone in my life, but one of my best friends was married this summer and I was honored to be included in the festivities. She was the first of my gal pals to get married so that’s special, right?

As always fun prompts. Check out what other people are doing over at the Daily Post

Book Review: The Best Night of Your (Pathetic) Life

So I finally got to reading my advanced reader copy of The Best Night of Your (Pathetic) Life by Tara Altebrando. I received it some time in May but my stubbornness trying to get through my summer reading list has postponed it a bit. Currently my schedule and more so 1984 have me a bit behind. Not sure what it is about that book but I have yet to get gripped by the story yet. Not the case with The Best Night of Your (Pathetic) Life. It was an easy and entertaining read. Perfect for a rainy day or a car ride. I didn’t have the former (far from it, it was nearly 100 today, if not actually that hot) but I did have a car ride home from my sister’s place.

Anyway (Tread carefully, Spoilers ahead) the book takes place all in one day, the weekend of senior week. Four friends are out to prove themselves against the jocks (and other social groups as well). The story it told from Mary’s point of view-and she is the one that eggs the others on to join the unofficial annual scavenger hunt. She is joined by two guy friends (Patrick and Dex) and one gal pal (Winter). They all have their battles to face, and some come to light throughout the day. Winter has to deal with feelings she has with a guy Mary has been crushing on for years. Especially when said guy actually breaks things off with his girlfriend mid-hunt and switches teams. Dez, whom all the friends know to be gay, has to deal with the bullying that the jocks constantly give him. (The king of the bullies has also gotten in to Georgetown ‘over’ Mary – or at least that’s how she sees it. The principal only gave one recommendation to the college and gave it to the bully and couldn’t pick Mary out of a line-up). Patrick comes clean about his feelings for Mary after something arose during prom the previous week. This gives Mary more than enough to consume her mind all while trying to juggle point totals and items they are suppose to be finding. Adding in her drunken little sister and a missing family heirloom you have the perfect recipe for multiple meltdowns. End spoiler section.

I hate to use mindless, but this book was an easy read – which is an underrated necessity to life. Sometimes you don’t want to read the heavy hitters (hence I’m still only like 7 chapters in to 1984 for instance). I did enjoy this book, and now that it’s on my shelf can see myself reading it again. It comes right in time though because mid-July a high school buddy and I plan to go on a random road trip (one thing to check off the bucket list!). We were thinking of all the little quirky things we could do while on this road trip and a scavenger hunt came up. I might just siphon off some of the suggestions (like a cardboard Witch Halloween decoration – the car needs a mascot). Overall an easy enjoyable entertaining (easy and entertaining are the buzz words people) read about 4 high school students who are facing saying good bye at the end of their senior year. Until next time~Q