In my quest for the perfect workout music, I rediscovered the late 90s and early Aughts, which right now means that if I had a band I would only be singing covers of Fall Out Boy (deal with it) and some Jimmy Eat World and, I dunno, The Killers, probably. My Younger Self from college is cringing, despite the fact that Present Self is having a blast.
Mostly I've been doing a lot of reading and bingeing on television shows when I'm not slaving away at the restaurant to support my debilitating book habit, which I have tried extra hard to keep in check this summer. You would think that free books from the library and recycled books from used book stores would sound appealing to a grad student on a tight budget, but no. I itch for new things, all the time, and I can't help it. Soon soon I should be getting review copies (I hope), which gives me little cartwheels of happiness. Cartwheels!
I made it a goal to start reading more non-fiction, especially science-y non-fiction, so I've been reading Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which is such an impressive mix of biology and ethnography and investigative journalism. Of course, I still have a soft spot for huge nerdy tomes about the origins of ideas, culture, & modernity, so I've been reading Peter Watson's The German Genius and Christine Stansell's American Moderns, too. Both are way more fun and interesting than they sound, I swear. On the poetry front, I read Ben Lerner's new book, Mean Free Path, and I like it so much I want to take a bath in it. Or steal it from the library. Which I won't, but I'm definitely not ready to give it back yet. I love in a very different way Amanda Nadleberg's Isa The Truck Named Isadore, which I'm reading for the first time in its entirety. She was long-listed for the Ruth Lilly Prize this year, which is pretty awesome. 
All my projects are coming along at a snail's pace. Turns out the longer thing I've been working on all summer has segued into a rather complicated story (who knew?) and so not that long at all and kind of a side project in the end. One day I swear all the loose bolts rattling around in my head will make a book instead of morphing into other things.
Only a few more days left of writing and finishing up half-read books before I head south on the train for a week of sun and Thomas Jefferson theme rides. Though the air is starting to feel so lovely in Massachusetts--at nights it almost feels like fall is here.
And now! Your promised pictures of cake:
(Hot Milk Sponge Cake with Vanilla Custard and Dark Chocolate Icing=Boston Creme Pie, YUM.)
(So this is a tart, but you know. Peaches and Plums. No Pears.)
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