This year May Day 2017 came on April 30 and we were blessed with beautiful weather. If it had rained like it did last year, then I probably would have stayed at home and slept through it (like last year haha). But it didn’t! Of course, now that I’m living off campus, the experience was a little different. Instead of waking up to May Day gifts from seniors, I told my beloved seniors that all I needed was their love (because that’s true, and because I was too lazy to figure out coordinating gifts and too lazy to carry them back home), and instead of having a strawberries and cream breakfast, I made do with a banana peanut butter chocolate smoothie I made at home. We also made a pit stop at La Colombe for our daily dose of caffeine on our way to campus.
April
Omg I can’t believe I forgot about getting this blog post up at 10AM EST, but hey I’m only 40 minutes late. Thank goodness I draft these blog posts early. Yesterday was May Day at Bryn Mawr College (yes, May Day arrived on April 30 this year). When I got back home, I watched Criminal Minds whilst editing photos and a vlog. The blog post with the photos will go up on Wednesday, and you can view the vlog here! (And you can view 2015’s May Day vlog here.) I won’t say too much else about it; you’ll have to wait for the blog post!
The Blog Connect 2017 recap | PHLbloggers
This past weekend I was at The Blog Connect conference, which was hosted by PHLbloggers at Saxbys Coffee’s HQ! I first heard about The Blog Connect and PHLbloggers as a reader of Amber’s blog Ember + March. Last year (2016) was the first year of The Blog Connect, and Amber was part of the core team who organised it, and also a speaker at the conference, so naturally she shared about it on her blog. Reading the post, I remember thinking, okay I’m going to that next year! I signed up to join the PHLbloggers network after checking out their website and then kept a look out for The Blog Connect 2017. When it came time for PHLbloggers to announce The Blog Connect 2017 and start promoting it, I bought my ticket right away (and got the early bird discount!) before I could talk myself out of it. Something I’ve come to learn about myself is that I will never feel prepared enough (in general) and I will always feel like I can prepare more (in general), so I just need to get a move on and dive head first (in general) (except for in the case of a shallow pool).
Incendiary by Michael Cannell
– I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review. –
To be published by St. Martin’s Press on 25 Apr 2017
Goodreads | Amazon
Long before the specter of terrorism haunted the public imagination, a serial bomber stalked the streets of 1950s New York. The race to catch him would give birth to a new science called criminal profiling.
Grand Central, Penn Station, Radio City Music Hall―for almost two decades, no place was safe from the man who signed his anonymous letters “FP” and left his lethal devices in phone booths, storage lockers, even tucked into the plush seats of movie theaters. His victims were left cruelly maimed. Tabloids called him “the greatest individual menace New York City ever faced.”
In desperation, Police Captain Howard Finney sought the help of a little known psychiatrist, Dr. James Brussel, whose expertise was the criminal mind. Examining crime scene evidence and the strange wording in the bomber’s letters, he compiled a portrait of the suspect down to the cut of his jacket. But how to put a name to the description? Seymour Berkson―a handsome New York socialite, protégé of William Randolph Hearst, and publisher of the tabloid The Journal-American―joined in pursuit of the Mad Bomber. The three men hatched a brilliant scheme to catch him at his own game. Together, they would capture a monster and change the face of American law enforcement.
Startup by Doree Shafrir
– I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review. –
To be published by Little, Brown and Company on 25 Apr 2017
Goodreads | Amazon
Mack McAllister has a $600 million dollar idea. His mindfulness app, TakeOff, is already the hottest thing in tech and he’s about to launch a new and improved version that promises to bring investors running and may turn his brainchild into a $1 billion dollar business–in startup parlance, an elusive unicorn.
Katya Pasternack is hungry for a scoop that will drive traffic. An ambitious young journalist at a gossipy tech blog, Katya knows that she needs more than another PR friendly puff piece to make her the go-to byline for industry news.
Sabrina Choe Blum just wants to stay afloat. The exhausted mother of two and failed creative writer is trying to escape from her credit card debt and an inattentive husband-who also happens to be Katya’s boss-as she rejoins a work force that has gotten younger, hipper, and much more computer literate since she’s been away.
Before the ink on Mack’s latest round of funding is dry, an errant text message hints that he may be working a bit too closely for comfort with a young social media manager in his office. When Mack’s bad behavior collides with Katya’s search for a salacious post, Sabrina gets caught in the middle as TakeOff goes viral for all the wrong reasons. As the fallout from Mack’s scandal engulfs the lower Manhattan office building where all three work, it’s up to Katya and Sabrina to write the story the men in their lives would prefer remain untold.
Adidas x Kat – 4/12
I’ve been [lovingly?] teasing Kat about how she’s a walking Adidas ad. So when it came to an idea for this month’s photoshoot, we (I) thought it’d be a fun thing to do (an Adidas “ad”). We were going to have Jennifer join us for the shoot and do an Adidas vs. Nike (or some other athletic brand) “face-off.” I threw that idea out there randomly, mostly just to mess with them, but they were totally on board (except Jennifer had lab so couldn’t make it) (but it’s the thought that counts). They’re crazies for being my friends and I appreciate them very much.