{"id":2197,"date":"2021-05-17T13:19:41","date_gmt":"2021-05-17T20:19:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/digitalmanticore.com\/?p=2197"},"modified":"2021-05-17T13:19:41","modified_gmt":"2021-05-17T20:19:41","slug":"a-week-in-the-life-may-17-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitalmanticore.com\/?p=2197","title":{"rendered":"A Week in the Life: May 17, 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"a<\/a>
feast and fiction!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

What a week! I celebrated my thirty-fifth birthday, received and rejected a job offer, and met a kitten that we might adopt! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

May 11 was my birthday, which is something that gets a little less exciting every year (what’s great about 35? nothing in particular), but we tried to make a good time of it. We booked a night of Feast and Fiction<\/a> at Capital Books on K, which was a lot of fun. They let you rent the bookstore for an evening. It’s not a restaurant, so they encourage you to bring your own dinner, but they do provide desserts. I really enjoyed taking my sweet-ass time browsing the store and buying all the books I wanted. It’s basically a perfect birthday for me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Kirk<\/a>
happy birthday to me!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

As for the job offer: I applied to a job in a neighboring department once I heard my boss was retiring. They were super keen to have me, but I realized that throughout the process, the potential manager didn’t ask me anything about myself, what I want from the job, or where I am going with my career. I decided that was too much of a red flag for me. For now, I’m going to stay and see how things shake out with whatever new boss we get.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consuming<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Here are some things I’ve recently read, watched, or bought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Books and Other Words<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I’ve been trying to pick up the pace on reading because my reading app is reminding me I am four books behind if I want to reach my goal of 100 books this year (which, honestly? kind of rude). I’m trying but I keep reading such long books, like The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue<\/a> by V. E. Schwab. This started a little slow for me and I admit I almost gave up on it, but I am really glad I didn’t. The story follows a woman, Addie, who makes a deal with a devil to live until she’s tired of living so she can avoid being married to a random man in her small French village. She gets what she wants but at the cost of anyone being able to remember who she is. This book is good and it ends with an emotional gut punch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In less good books, I read Leave the World Behind<\/a> by Rumaan Alam. I heard a lot of good reviews of this book, and it came in my Powell’s Indispensable<\/a> subscription, so I was optimistic. Unfortunately, it’s kind of a weird book and nothing comes of the weirdness. The story centers on a family vacationing in an Airbnb, when the home’s owners show up fleeing some unnamed calamity. Most of the book is about these two groups of people navigating each other and their expectations. I thought this book would have some kind of wild ending like everyone turns into flamingos and returns to the woods (I know flamingos don’t live in the woods. Don’t @ me.), but no. It ends much like it started with a bunch of people being kind of insufferable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n