Books I'm reading currently:
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The Kid, Dan Savage
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Wonderful Tonight, Pattie Boyd
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The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion
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The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Jean-Dominique Bauby
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A Cook's Tour: In Search of the Perfect Meal, Anthony Bourdain
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I'm a Stranger Here Myself, Bill Bryson
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Fun Home, Alison Bechdel.
I alternate between them, sometimes landing on one and finding myself sufficiently absorbed so that the rest retreat from my interest. I'm fickle, though, and after devouring one for several days in a row, I abandon it - seemingly for no reason - and dive into another. Pattie Boyd's fun little autobiography is dog-eared at page 295 (out of 307) and has been since Monday or Tuesday, when I started
The Kid with the same immediate enthusiasm I'd had for the former. Meanwhile, others have barely been opened, and their pages remain as crisp as the day I bought them (except the ones from the library, which are of course pre-broken-in). It's not that I'm not eager to read these, too, though. I'm just waiting until I'm in the right frame of mind for their respective atmospheres.
This cool chick I've been chilling with lately is insisting that I'll like Ayn Rand and promises me that
Atlas Shrugged is not
the worst book ever written. Maybe I'll choose that for my light summer reading. I hope my poor atrophied brain can handle it.
Speaking of which, being 21 has been consistently as delightful as I'd expected, and as merciless to my bank account. Atlanta is brimming with excellent bars/pubs and I've still only been to a few. My favorites are MacCracken's, in Marietta Square and conveniently located within walking distance of my buddy's apartment, and the Brick Store, which is allllll the way in Decatur, but worth the trip for their super-nice bartenders and awesome beer selection.
Today, on the way to my car after a particularly shitty day at work, I stopped in a little wine shop and stumbled into a wine tasting. WHICH WAS GREAT. God knows what all I sipped at. Some tasty South African things. I got a rosé and, at the counter, tried a chocolate/red wine concoction that tasted more like Bailey's than anything else. ... I'll probably go back and buy that sometime in the not-too-distant future.
So, I'm using the last paragraph as a segway to my current work situation. (I did mention my shitty day at work.) I'm at the bank Monday through Friday, and I've moved to a location in Midtown, a couple blocks away from SCAD. Yeah, driving there is total balls. On the weekends I'm at the Australian Bakery Cafe in Marietta. This I'm having trouble with right now. If it were circa-2006 Laura working there, I'd have busted out already. Circa-2009 Laura has reservations. I guess I'll have come to some form of a conclusion at least by the end of the weekend. It's tempting to follow a certain historical habit of mine and give this thing up somewhat prematurely. This option has its downsides - mainly that the guilt and regret inevitably will come back to haunt me in a couple of months, or sooner.
Well, on a cheerier note, I'm going to make for myself a fabulous night tonight by drinking my rosé and smoking my beloved Kamel Reds with Holly at her new apartment. (This is the same one close to MacCracken's.) I love the building she lives in now - it's old, filled with mysterious nooks and crannies, dusty and smelling of lacquer and trees. We've heard rumors that you can somehow get up on the roof, which I imagine would be a lovely place to sit and smoke and talk and take pictures. We'll see if that happens.
I felt like ending this with a bunch of macros and gifs that I've accumulated in my internet travels, but that will have to wait as I am lazy. Anyway, I hope everyone is well. Enjoy your Saturday night.