Sunday Salon: November 13, 2022

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz hosts The Sunday Salon. 

• Bitter by Akwake Emezi 
• The Elephant Whisperer: My Life with the Herd in the African Wild by Lawrence Anthony

For the past week I have been in New York helping my daughter move into her new apartment and get settled in Ithaca. Here's how the week has looked:

Sunday I flew to NYC. I got to have dinner with my best friend from when I lived in London (in 1978!). It had been about 15 years since we've seen each other and it was as if no time had passed. I loved spending time with her. She is smart and super interesting.

Monday I met up with my daughter and we drove the rental car up to Poughkeepsie where she went to college at Vassar. Along the way we picked up her (new to her) Subaru so we actually drove in a caravan. I saw a teaching friend from home who has moved to the area with her professor husband while my daughter visited friends. And yes, there were work meetings, Slacks, and emails along the way.

I officially took off from work forTuesday and Wednesday so that we could drive (in caravan again) from Poughkeepsie to Ithaca (about 3.5 hours) through rural NY, which was beautiful. We managed to see some of the last Fall foliage, but as we got closer to Ithaca the trees were bare since it's further north. However, there are maple trees with red leaves that are still in full "bloom." We cleaned her apartment and moved in all her stuff that we'd gotten out of storage in Poughkeepsie.

Wednesday the movers showed up with her U-Haul box so it was a long day of unpacking. Even though I took the day off, I ended up in work meetings. Thursday through Sunday we shopped, unpacked, organized, and I worked. It's been fun to explore the town and discover some yummy restaurants, cute bakeries, the best niche grocery stores, etc. There was so much recycling that every night we drove to a recycling dumpster behind a large commercial business and snuck our recycling in with their's. Is that illegal?

Today we're headed to the Farmer's Market, we'll visit the Cornell campus, relax, then tomorrow fly home. I am sure my condo will feel empty with her gone.

This is only somewhat related to "Bookish thoughts." I have been on Twitter for a long time, first because it was so useful for education and my job and then I discovered book-related posts (CYBILS, Kirkus, and many of you). But I am sick and tired of being added to really weird groups without my permission and getting creepy messages from men who are probably bots (they also seem to be on Instagram, what is with that?!). I realize I scroll aimlessly each morning and don't really get anything out of it anymore. So, to simplify my life, I deactivated my account. This has nothing to do with Elon Musk (he is so not my favorite person, but I own a Tesla so really cannot be all high and mighty about this). I am also not going to move to Mastadon or Tribel. Are you on Twitter? Are you staying?

Here is is the current state of my 2022 challenges. The image is a link to my challenges page.