The happiest of Fridays to you! How was your week? Mine was short, following a long holiday weekend, and busy. It’s been forever and a day since I’ve done a Five Friday Favorites, and it’s weird to think about that when it used to be the post I could most reliably crank out week after week; they don’t take as long as most other posts and tend to be pretty off the cuff. I mean, they’re about exactly what is going on in my life at the time. Easy peasy.
Well, then I started an internship that means I can’t really talk about what’s going on in my life (not that you would particularly care about the details). As you know, that’s not the whole reason for the hiatus, though. The schedule change took/is taking some getting used to. Yesterday, I worked 11 hours. That’s not completely normal, but it’s likely to happen increasingly often.
But all is well and I’m back for now, and I apologize in advance for the lack of pictures. That’s another habit I need to get back into. Now, let’s start the weekend off on the right foot by chatting about some of our favorite things from the last week(s)!
Watermelon
I’ve told you before that I used to pretend to hate raisins because of my mom and my aunt. Well, even more recently I convinced myself I don’t really like watermelon because my dad hates it.
Then, on Friday night I ordered crab cake lettuce wraps at 101 Beer Kitchen, and they came with a watermelon salad. Frankly, I planned to try the salad and probably not eat it all. Then, I devoured it. Oh my goodness it was delicious. Unbelievably yummy. I bought a giant watermelon the next day for snacking and also plan to recreate the whole meal when I’m actually home early enough to make a fun dinner, and I’ll share the how-to soon.
IcyHot
My injury progressed from not being able to walk to being 85% better in about 4 days. However, it hasn’t gotten much better since then and I’ve had to reschedule a couple PT appointments. IcyHot and calf massages save me when it starts hurting a lot. Perfect relief, no. Help, yes. I am the queen of topical pain solutions.
Chocolate Berry Bars
I made these bars from Bakerita for our Fourth of July dessert and they were a total hit in this house. I topped them with strawberries and blackberries and they were perfection. Naturally, they’re gone now.
Website Building
One day a few weeks ago, I was planning out the content for a website our team needs to build and then my manager decided to just teach me how to build it (mostly) myself. Within a few hours, it went from idea to actual sort-of-working website, and I apparently learned a bunch of HTML and CSS in there. Not saying I can build you a website from scratch now, but it was a fun little project.
Reading
Until last week, I hadn’t read a book for pleasure in… a really long time. I’ve listened to a few audiobooks, but it’s not exactly the same. The childhood version of me would be astonished, but all the reading required in late high school and college really put the brakes on my book addiction.
Plus, many of those weren’t “fun” books. Unless you think Marx and Aristotle are fun. And if so, could you teach me how to think that way? Not reading books you really want to read has a way of making you think you don’t actually love to read.
However, I was thinking a lot last week at work (it was a slow week till Friday) and something that flashed in my mind was, “My ideal me reads.” I’ve been pondering this construct since and have decided it is a blog post in itself, but for now it has manifested itself in me reading books in the evenings when I would otherwise be scrolling through Instagram, reading “just one more blog post”, and getting annoyed with people on Facebook. Now, I close my computer by 8:30 and read until I’m ready to go to bed. Simple. And sometimes I get so into a book that I want to read during the day, too. Crazy.
I flew through Violets of March in a couple nights and am currently reading Anna Karenina. I’m thinking of a monthly reading review post where I talk about the books I read that month à la Julia. Look at me getting all ahead of myself with my goals.
Your turn:
What’s your favorite summer fruit?
What are you loving lately?
Any fun weekend plans?
I used to not like watermelon at all, but over the past few years, I’ve found that I really like it! But you know my fave summer fruits are stone fruits! Peaches and cherries all day errrrrrrrday
Not a fan of Marx and Aristotle, but I love reading. I think different people enjoy different kinds of reading, and that’s totally cool! 🙂 I’ve been reading a book called ‘Redemption at Hacksaw Ridge’ which is a really amazing true story. True stories are probably my fave.
I TOTALLY understand your frustration with your injury. My right IT band is acting up again (I strained it 4 years ago) and it’s really hard to not just want to cry out of frustration. Fingers crossed that we’ll both heal soon!
Love you. <3
I always try to read in the evenings, but if I am laying in bed, I get so cozy that I want to close my eyes. I need a different reading spot to stay awake in.
Cool that you picked up on some HTML/CSS through your work project! I’ve actually been doing something for work this summer using some CSS and I happened to already know a little CSS from blogging, which ended up really coming in handy!
Watermelon salad? That sounds like my kinda dish! YUMMMMMMMMO!
My favourite summer fruit… that’s a hard pick because I get obsessed with so many 😛 Probably cherries or mangos…
Building/editing websites is super fun! (Never thought I’d say that as I hated the computer science classes I took in college, haha). But I really get where you’re coming from–I learned a fair bit of HTML and a little CSS during my internship last summer and it was weirdly enjoyable!
No special plans for this weekend, but next weekend my dad, stepmom and little brother will be in town, so they’ll get to see our apartment and explore SF a bit together. I’m excited! 🙂