September has been one mother of a month and despite a few awesome moments, I’ll be honest – I’m ready for it to be over. So let’s take a look back and then stand up straight and look forward to October. I’m linking up with Leigh Kramer today – check out her blog for more participants and to link up yourself.

LIFE

September began with a trip to the renaissance faire – a first for me – we saw some pretty cool things and got to hang out with good friends, but it was hot and a lot of walking and although my kids had a great time, I’ll be honest – I would have had more fun without them.

I also got my first pedicure ever this month. I went with a good friend and we were thoroughly pampered – my feet were as soft as a newborn baby by the end and that rocking red nail polish on my toes is still going strong!

I’m the first grade librarian at our kids’ school this year, which just means that I read a book to the first grade class once a week and then help them pick out a book to take home for the week and stamp stuff accordingly. I won’t lie, it’s kind of my dream job. Too bad I’m not getting paid for it.

BOOKS

I spent most of the month reading Evicted by Matthew Desmond, which my book club discussed last night. In all honesty, I haven’t finished it yet. It’s a great book and it sheds a stark light on evictions and poverty in the U.S. but I’m slow as molasses with most nonfiction.

Other books I finished this month:

Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson – I got sucked into this story really quickly. The main character, Emily, is extremely shy and totally oblivious but you love and root for her anyway and Frank is just allllll the things. I loved this book. The list of items that Sloane left for Emily to do really made for a funny and interesting book and the characters are all very fleshed out. I liked that the book felt real and honest – characters felt authentic even when you sometimes wished they wouldn’t.

Emmy and Oliver by Robin Benway – I liked this one but didn’t quite love it. Although the plot was interesting and the characters were pretty well fleshed out, I couldn’t really lose myself in this one. I kept relating to the parents in the book instead of the teenagers which doesn’t happen often with YA novels for me as I have a tendency to get swept up in books and kind of forget myself as a reader. So good – but not quite great.

TV

Thank god for Fall TV coming back because I was starting to circle the Netflix drain. New shows I’m loving are This Is Us (but my heart can barely handle some of these twists) and The Good Place (TV is better when Kristen Bell is there and this show is smart and funny). I’m also watching season two of Scream Queens against my better judgement (so suspenseful!) and continuing to slowly work my way through The Office and the last season of Gilmore Girls.

Also, Project Runway is back and I’m there for it, but I have to say, I was really disappointed by the last episode. For an episode that was centered around designing for women of all body types, there were a LOT of crop tops and jumpsuits happening. The designs that got high scores seemed almost the least practical while several of the low scores or outfits that received no comments were the closest thing to being plausible for non-skinnies to pull off. And I don’t understand why they didn’t have real women modeling the clothes instead of the usual army of 5’10 size 2’s.

MOVIES

I’ve been watching a lot of movies on Netflix during breakfast lately – some better than others. Mostly indie romantic comedies. I won’t bore you with the whole list, but here are the movies I genuinely liked:

One Small Hitch : On the way to a wedding, Josh and Molly agree to be “fake engaged” to make his dying father happy – you can probably guess what happens next. This movie isn’t perfect but the chemistry is on point and it was really funny.

Begin Again: I’m not sure why I waited so long to watch this because I love Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo. It wasn’t quite the movie I was expecting, but I loved it. I loved that James Corden was in it and he was perfection. I love that they didn’t go for all the predictable twists that romantic comedies usually would. I love that it wasn’t even really a romantic comedy at all.

In Lawfully Yours: This one caught me by surprise. I really wasn’t expecting to like it, but the cast is excellent and the writing is on point. Super cheesy but so cathartic.

The Truman Show: I finally watched The  Truman Show! I’ve been meaning to watch this for years and it was amazing, way better than I was expecting. I think this was Jim Carrey at his best and the story is just fantastic.

MUSIC

I’m kind of obsessed with Twenty One Pilot’s new song, Heathens. It’s from the Suicide Squad soundtrack which I haven’t seen yet but I’m looking forward to it.

What have you been into lately?