Weekend Things

LaurenLeave a comment

Confession: Our friends Josh and Fletcher have been in town since Saturday, so the weekend was full of fun dinners out, lots of Mason time, Super Bowl party food, ice cream and me not taking any pictures.  What is wrong with me?!

I started out with good intentions!  Friday, we had dinner at Pizzeria Lui — I deem this the best crust in Denver — then headed over to the Alamo Drafthouse to see Phantom Thread.  Not gonna go into detail about how much popcorn we consumed but I will tell you that we really enjoyed the movie.  The way it’s shot, how the actors say so much by saying nothing at all, the tension throughout and that final twist (which we did not see coming!) was so so interesting.

Mostly though, I AM REYNOLDS WOODCOCK and this is not a good thing.  Joey and I both turned to each other and stifled laughter after Lesley Manville, who plays his sister, said something along the lines of “if breakfast is disturbed, it’s very difficult for him to recover” because that is me to a T…

Saturday started with hot yoga — not my favorite class, but it’s still nice to start your day with a good sweat sesh — then I grabbed a latte on my way home and here’s where my picture taking plans derailed.  We hit the grocery store, watched a billion episodes of The Mindy Project and knocked out laundry before heading into Erie to meet up with Hannah, Fletcher and two Joshes.  From there we hit up The Old Mine for dinner then went next door for dessert.  They serve Little Man Ice Cream and really, you can’t ask for more than getting to eat Little Man without having to stand in the Little Man line.  Space Junkie for the win!

Super Bowl Sunday!  We did normal Sunday things — pancakes, SNL, gym time, salad prep — then headed over to Darron and Karla’s for the game sangria and snacks.  Guys, these Bronco die-hards hate the Patriots just as much as they love the Broncos.  There was a lot of yelling.  More importantly, there were chips and dips and meatball sliders and then shrimp tacos came out at halftime and I died of happiness.  Not messing around with the spread this year.

I wish I could tell you anything about the game, but I cannot.  Instead, I can tell you I was pretty into the Tide, Alexa and Dirty Dancing commercials.  Was that an ad for the NFL??  Not as into JT’s performance.  He’s still got the moves, but I was sort of distracted by how he seemed to be traveling from place to place the entire time and also that hideous outfit.

Had to make it through Monday at work then we headed over to Hannah and Josh’s — I could get used to this seeing Mason every day thing! — then all of us went to Community for dinner.  We ordered a whole slew of stuff but my favorites were the Brussels (gah!), the juiciest roast chicken and the mac n cheese.  If you live in the area, I highly recommend this place!  We’ve been impressed every time.  To top it all off, we ended up at Sweet Cow — had to compare to Little Man, of course — then sadly gave goodbye hugs to Josh and Fletcher, who leave today.  This Tuesday already feels like a Monday but it was fun feeling like we were on vacation for a few days 🙂

Book Review: Exit West

Lauren5 Comments

I finished this book last night and wasn’t sure what to make of it.  It is billed as the story of two young people, Saeed and Nadia, who fall in love just as their city erupts into civil war and daily life becomes increasingly violent, unpredictable and unsafe.  Rumors of doors that lead straight to faraway places start to circulate, then prove to be real when Saeed and Nadia step through one.  To me, it sounded like magical realism, but that turned out not to be entirely true.

Yes, walking through a door and finding yourself in Greece or London or Marin County gives off some fantasy vibes, but this book is so much more about the brutality of life as a refugee than it is about magic doors.  These doors are purely a plot device that allow author Mohsin Hamid to skip over the journey from one country to another and focus more on what happens to and between Saeed and Nadia when their surroundings change.

The magic of this book is how real it is.  It is fixed in real locations (well, except for their home country, which is never named) and depicts real life so clearly.  Saeed and Nadia go to school, they eat together in cafés, they have jobs, they scroll through social media and it’s impossible not to relate to all of this or to imagine yourself dealing with what they deal with.

I struggle to decide if this novel is a commentary on refugees and the migrant experience or a love story, but in the end, I guess it doesn’t have to be one or the other.  I loved how subtle this book was.  It is moving in a quiet way and the eventual break-up between Saeed and Nadia is both heartbreaking and expected.  Despite the relative sadness of this book, it ends on a somewhat optimistic note and I really appreciated that.  In the end though, I still feel like I have a lot to think about on this one.

What are you reading now?