Check out my first letter to Lindsay at Wild Ginger!
Author: Trish
Traveling Alone: Day Trip to Asheville
I don’t know exactly when I started wanting to visit Asheville. I think I heard it described as The Hipster City of the East. And I know it’s meant to be beautiful. So when I realized that Asheville was only an hour away from Spartanburg, I knew I had to check it out, despite the fact that I didn’t know anyone there.
In general, I don’t mind traveling alone. I like the endless stretches of road with just me and my music (or audiobook). And while I really enjoyed my day in Asheville, I think I can pretty conclusively say that I would rather explore a new city with someone beside me. For one thing, it divides the responsibility for deciding where to go and how to park.
I found hourly parking downtown, and while I had made a list of places to visit, I had no idea how close any of them were to each other. So I wandered around, which was made infinitely better because the sun was out in full force. It was an absolutely stunning day. I visited the St. Lawrence Basilica, then stumbled across not one, not two, not three, but FOUR used bookstores within a couple blocks. Now that is a city for me. One was even a bookstore/champagne bar, but since it was 11:30 a.m. and I was alone, I thought getting a drink might seem a little pathetic. Continue reading
What Are You Reading Wednesday #WAYRW (4)
What Are You Reading Wednesdays #WAYRW is a weekly feature started on It’s A Reading Thing. Everyone is welcome to participate. You can answer the questions in the comments section of the weekly #WAYRW post or link back to your #WAYRW post on your blog via the link up. You can grab the image above or create your own, just please make sure you link back to IART as the host for this meme.
How to participate:
Grab the book you are currently reading and answer three questions:
1. What’s the name of your current read?
2. Go to page 34 in your book or 34% in your eBook and share a couple of sentences.
3. Would you like to live in the world that exists within your book? Why or why not?
1. What’s the name of your current read?
Call of the Mall by Paco Underhill
2. Go to page 34 in your book or 34% in your eBook and share a couple of sentences.
Suburban subdivisions segregate people based on how much they can spend on real estate. Everybody knows that wealth and poverty exist, but many suburbanites get no closer to either end of the spectrum than their television screen. We humans seem to find comfort in economic homogeneity, and the mall does its best to preserve that condition.
3. Would you like to live in the world that exists within your book? Why or why not?
Underhill is a shopping anthropologist, so… a world exactly like ours but where I can get paid to over-analyze human behavior? YES.
Butter by Erin Jade Lange
It’s been way too long since I’ve read a book of fiction, so when I got Butter, I devoured it (hah) in one evening. This was not just because of my fiction-fast, but because the book is really good. I loved the themes of popularity desperation, the nuanced portrayal of bullying, and the dissection of eating disorders and obesity.
I don’t know if I’ve ever read a YA book from the perspective of an obese teenager. I liked that Butter was a typical teenage boy in a lot of ways – crushing on the cute girl, making friends at summer camp, desperate for attention. I also liked that he’s a saxophone player (like I was!), and that his musical talent is central to the plot. Butter’s relationship with the kids at school is where the big drama is, but we also get to see the way his obesity affects his family, his teachers, and his doctors. Lange doesn’t blame Butter for his weight, but she also doesn’t hold back from showing the consequences of being young and overweight.
I can see this book being hugely influential for those who read it. There has been an uptick in discussion on fat shaming culturally, and I hope books like Butter encourage readers to be empathetic toward overweight people. And I hope it encourages readers who are overweight, that they will feel understood, validated, and inspired. Continue reading
From Maryland to South Carolina: Off to See Stephanie!
After five days in Rockville with Elizabeth, it felt incredibly weird to do laundry and refold my clothes into my suitcase. This first week was definitely more fun than fundraising (although I did make four new connections!), and everything in my experience told me that I ought to be going home. I worried a little, while fitting things back into my trunk, that I wouldn’t have the emotional energy to continue.
But then I got up at 6:30, fought the DC traffic, and escaped into the hills of Virginia. The open road brought all my excitement back. I miss hanging out with Elizabeth, but I’m really excited to keep going. It certainly helps that my eight hour drive was through steep hills covered in trees, some of which were just beginning to change colors. It was absolutely beautiful, and I was reminded why I had decided to have a road trip, and not just fly to see people (plus, obviously, the expense). Continue reading
The Story of a Friendship: Stephanie and Tricia
I met Stephanie on a college trip to Turkey. I made a lot of friends on that trip, but she was a soulmate. She was weird, creative, spontaneous, and always optimistic. When we returned to Tennessee, we kept hanging out, and she quickly became my college bestie.
Having started our friendship while traveling, we continued to roadtrip together – short trips to Memphis, longer trips up I-55 to my hometown, and longest trips to Savannah where we both had family to visit. Long car rides with Stephanie were easy. We shared a love of 90s pop songs and modern musicals. We were both obsessed with A Very Potter Musical, and we perfected our duet to “Granger Danger.” We also used those long rides to craft the most absurd and delightful iMovies of our adventures. We loved over-documenting ourselves, with pictures and videos and dumb clips, and we proudly showed our creations to anyone who was unfortunate to be around us for more than five minutes. The most tragic thing in the world is that I cannot seem to find our 1-55 Adventure video, which was at least 15 minutes long and was totally awesome. Continue reading
Cookie Gets Blessed: The Feast of St. Francis
Today is the Feast of St. Francis, and the Episcopalian church near Elizabeth’s house was celebrating the Blessing of the Animals. We decided to take Elizabeth’s dog Cookie, and I loved the service so much.
There were around fifteen dogs present, two cats in their carriers, a guinea pig, a terrarium with hermit crabs, and one kid brought two of his stuffed animals. We met in a church alcove, and for the first five minutes, chaos reigned as the dogs asserted their dominance and the owners struggled to quiet them. The lovely thing was that no one cared – we were here for the animals, and their chaos is part of their character.
Two reverends came out to lead us in a hymn and some responsive prayers. One woman read Genesis 1:20-25. Then came my favorite part, as we prayed collectively for the pets specifically and animals in general. Continue reading
Faith, Hope, and Love
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:13
During a conversation with Elizabeth, I said, “One of my favorite things I learned at DTS…” which, to be honest, I say about almost everything. If I’m thinking about it, it’s my favorite! Anyway, during this particular conversation, I said, “You know that verse about faith, hope, and love, but love is like, the best of them all?”
“The greatest of these is love?” Elizabeth asked.
“Yes, thank you. I promise I went to seminary.” Continue reading
A Harry Potter Festival in Chestertown, MD
Every other event of my road trip will just have to fight for second place, because I cannot imagine a better day than today. Elizabeth, her sister Natalie, and I drove two hours to Chestertown, a real life Stars Hollow that went all out to throw a Harry Potter Festival. We parked on the outskirts of the cute bay town, and freaked out when we saw the “Hogwarts Express” sign on a train, with a Platform 9 3/4 nearby. Little did we know what awaited us when we got into the town proper.
Dozens of local businesses participated in decking out their storefronts with wizarding goods, and the town square boasted a market of Harry Potter-themed foods and merchandise. There were hundreds of people there for the celebration. One of the things I love most about the Harry Potter fandom is that it is ageless. There were kids, teenagers, young adults, and seniors there in varying stages of costume. Families and friends walked the sidewalks, some with babies dressed up as owls. Continue reading
Book Day in Baltimore
It’s been raining constantly for the past two days, which is….fine. I wanted fall weather. But my rainboots are not quite waterproof, and I have to admit the cold and the wet put a damper on Elizabeth’s and my Book Day in Baltimore trip.
We started at the Peabody library, which was stunningly gorgeous. All the books are behind locked glass doors, which we agreed showed proper respect. You also weren’t allowed to go upstairs, which was kind of annoying. But let’s be real, if I’d been able to browse the five stories of library, we wouldn’t have done anything else. Continue reading
It Is Trish 