Summer Favorites 2016!

Fall is here which means it is finally time for me to share my favorite things of the summer! Go ahead and click play on the video above to hear my explanation of each of these items, but if you just want a quick rundown of each of my favorite things this season, keep reading for the list! Happy fall, everyone! :)
Home & Office Favorite Moleskine Grid Notebook
TV Favorite Gilmore Girls
Podcast Favorite Gilmore Guys
Book Favorites She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie This One Summer by Jillian Tamaki & Mariko Tamaki Nimona by Noelle Stevenson
Movie Favorite The Little Prince
Event Favorite Rio 2016 Olympics

Beach Weekends

These last two weekends Brett and I have been soaking up summer like it's our job! I was sick with a migraine on the 4th, so I think we felt a sense of obligation to make up for it these last two weeks. Each weekend has been gorgeously sunny and 80+ degrees so we've taken advantage and made sure that we made time to be out on the water and laying in the sun as much as possible. Needless to say, my summer-loving soul has been very happy.

It started last weekend when we ventured north to visit my parents & pups on the lake. I picked up Brett at his house after work, and we enjoyed the Undisclosed podcast (which studies the same case that Serial covers) on our ride north (already addicted). When we finally got into town we came across the Raymond Town Fair in full-swing, so of course we had to stop for fried dough.

Pretty much all of Saturday and Sunday we were at the beach or on the boat. There were some paddle boards on the beach on Saturday so of course we had to try them out! (So fun!) We got a solid stick-throwing session in with Kiwi, and capped off the evening with a fire in my dad's new fire pit, s'mores, and Not Your Father's Root Beer floats. Absolutely perfect!

After my #SundayRunday of 9 miles (and where I accidentally wound up becoming part of a 10k in the town center... hilarious), we went back to the beach for a few hours to bake in the sun and swim around some more. The weather was unbelievably perfect and I'm still so confused as to why summer isn't EVERYONE'S favorite season. After getting home and showering, Brett and I made our usual pilgrimage to La Festa and chowed down before returning to MA.

*drooooooollllll*

This past weekend was our trip to our friend Ashley's Cape house! We really couldn't have asked for a better weekend for it either. We spent most of the day Friday and Sunday just lounging on our floaties in the water, which was actually bearable for being the Atlantic Ocean! Because I'm a huge wimp to being cold, I was thrilled that I was able to float and swim around all weekend. I brought my GoPro to take some fun pictures and videos, so be sure to check those out below! :) Huge shoutout to Ashley for having us to her house for sunshine, good food, fun times, and great company! <3

We only really have two more weekends before Brett reports for football camp, so we're really trying to pack as much summer as we can into the month of July. This upcoming weekend we're headed back north to hang out with his family in Ossipee, and the week after that we're planning (as of now) on taking a trip all the way up to Maine to see my extended family for our annual family camping trip! I have a few more beach days planned with some friends after Brett's life is taken over by football, and I'll likely be taking at least one more trip home to NH before the school year takes over mine, but for now I'm trying to take full advantage of this extremely relaxing summer!

Serial and Cereal

The last few weeks before students returned to the three campuses I work at were pretty low-key. I started and finished Yes, Please (if you love Amy Poehler you will love her book), finished watching House of Cards (honestly, not my favorite show in the world - I'm not hugely interested in politics - but I'm going to give it one more season before calling it quits), and have continued to clear out and organize my apartment for the impending clutter of the new semester. My final semester of graduate courses start on Monday and I'm feeling ready!

Over the weekend, Brett and I took a road trip up to New Hampshire to give my parents a visit before classes start up again and swallow me whole. On the way up we decided to give the Serial podcast a shot and it hooked us and hooked us hard. We listened to about two or three episodes in the car, but when we got to the house we replaced our Netflix-before-bed ritual with listening to Serial 1930's style. It was a cool change of pace!

New program idea: Serial and cereal!

The podcast revisits a true murder case out of Baltimore, Maryland that occurred in 1999, and outlines some of the major holes that weren't filled in before sentencing a teenager to life in prison. Brett and I managed to finish up the entire podcast in one weekend and we are both SO FRUSTRATED by the ending! I won't post my thoughts on what I think the outcome is so I don't spoil anything for those of you that are interested in checking it out, but I highly, highly recommend listening to this true story in your spare time. I guarantee it will leave you wanting more when you finish it!

We also spent a lot of time these last few weeks cheering on the Patriots and watching them punch their ticket to Super Bowl XLIX. I think my face in this photo really sums up how I feel about it:

I'm so excited but SO NERVOUS! The Seahawks are a scary team (we were rooting for Green Bay to win), and I really don't want to come out of a third Super Bowl feeling deflated. We'll just have to see how it all plays out on February 1st! 

GO PATS!!!

A Few of my Favorite Links {#8}

(Trigger Warning: sexual assault/misconduct)

Over the past couple (extremely busy) weeks, my friends, students, classmates, and colleagues, have done a solid job of hooking me up with some awesome internet content to peruse. This comes with some serious gratitude, because I really haven't had all that much time to skim the web myself for links to share with you all. Here are some of my favorite internet findings of the past few weeks!

"Not Too Deep" with Grace Helbig

I'm in the car a minimum of 90 minutes each day, commuting here, there, and everywhere. When you're driving, you can't really do much else but drive and listen to whatever happens to be coming through your radio. I've become a huge fan of podcasts, and this is definitely one of my favorites. (I listent to many podcasts, but this is one of my top 3 at the moment. Maybe I'll share a list of all the podcasts I listen to in a future post! #postidea) 

"Not Too Deep" with Grace Helbig is pure, stupid humor. I know that's not for everyone, but I definitely need something mindlessly entertaining to listen to as I drive from workplace to workplace. I must look crazy to the drivers around me when I'm listening to this podcast because I laugh so much when I do. If you're a fan of stupid humor and jokes that go on for way too long (which I find hilarious), then definitely check this podcast out. Here's my favorite one that I've listened to so far, featuring Mitchell Davis!

Prints of Love Charm Bangle

This Alex and Ani bangle is currently on sale and donating 20% of its proceeds are being donated to the ASPCA! And, bonus - it's adorable. I'm definitely hoping to snag a few of these as holiday gifts (can you believe I just said that? It's October...) for friends and helping out my favorite causes - protecting animals!

Colleges Walk a Fine Line When Athletes Are Accused of Sexual Assault

If you've seen the news at all this fall, you've likely seen a huge spike in reports of sexual assaults on college campuses. To me, this is a bittersweet situation - bitter that there are still so many cases of assault and misconduct on college campuses, but it's great that those who may fall victim of these situations are now feeling more confident to report what's happening and getting the awareness out there of this epidemic. However, as someone who works at multiple institutions, there is a lot to consider when it comes to situations such as this, up to and including making sure the accused is also being protected (false accusations have the potential to ruin an individual's life). 

This article has recently come out on The Chronicle of Higher Education, and shed a little light on what an institution has to go through if one of their students is accused of sexual assault. I can't stress enough the importance of continuing education on this topic. I feel like I learn something new in every article and that's something I hope continues.

20 Courses Missing from Your #HigherEd & #StudentAffairs Master's Program

I saw Paul Gordon Brown speak at ACPA in March and I have fallen in love with his blog! He's always coming up with clever and hilarious posts that those of us in the HESA field can relate to. This one in particular was just TOO real! If you're currently in a HESA program, have been in a HESA program, or are considering going into one in the future, definitely check this post out for a good laugh!

There is FINALLY an Answer to the "HIMYM" Pineapple Mystery

For those of you who are HIMYM fans, you'll remember that in the first season, there's an episode called "The Pineapple Incident". The entire series goes by without ever giving us an answer to where the pineapple in that episode came from. With the release of the final season on DVD, there's FINALLY an answer! Check out the video under the link for some explanation if you're a HIMYM fan like me!

What links have you been loving lately?