welcome to elaney!

We love to travel.  We love everything about it, and we’re not only referring to visiting new places…we love the experience of traveling from one place to another.  Early morning coffee from Starbucks at the airport.  The little escalator walk-y things.  Take off.  Haribo gummy bears at airport newsstands.  Sheepish men waiting for their loved ones with flowers.  Heightened senses.  Getting our passports stamped (and don’t think we don’t ask for the stamp if the customs attendant attempts to forego it) (also, as a side-note, one of our favorite things about America is that when you renew your passport, the Passport Office sends you your old one.  That’s quite a bureaucratic effort in the name of posterity, and we celebrate it).  We’ve just arrived in Canada and are exploring Montreal and Mont Tremblant for the first time.  So far it’s lovely (and even better than just getting Starbucks in the C terminal at Atlanta Hartsfield).  More to come!!

xo,
elaney

View from an afternoon run

Bar at the restaurant

Charming little town

Ten years.  Hard to believe it’s finally here.  We’re pretty sure Reader Isa and elaney spent many afternoons on the floor of their rooms decorating things with paint pens and speculating about what life would look like at our ten year reunion.  And here we are!  In all of our beautiful and imperfect glory.  So the other day, per the aforementioned brilliant idea that took place while running and rapping (there really should be more of that in the world), we immediately offered (re: demanded) to put a playlist for the big event together.  Here’s what we’ve got so far…please help us other high schoolers of the late 90s-01!  Help us make the (30ish) Brookstone Cougars that will be at our reunion proud (Sidebar:  and if you don’t, we promise not to shake our clipboard at you.  We’ve really matured.  We swear.).

Ps:  the Spanish version of “Come on Over” by xtina was extremely intentional.  Just because we weren’t allowed to use the Spanish version for the cheerleading pep rally dance doesn’t mean it’s not the best.  Escucha me.

Okay, here it is.  Everyone’s favorite post of the month (and the last one for awhile, because after we finish The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing, we are going to tackle Anna Karenina with Reader Betsy).  (And yes, we realize that we’re about 7 years late on The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing.  Might as well read Into the Wild and The Year of Magical Thinking while we’re at it).

The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance, Edna Baker
Memoir of a standup comedian’s experience of dating in NYC as a Mormon.  It’s pretty hilarious, and this Southern Christian girl could relate to her efforts of reconciling religion with dating.  The story about how she tells a guy that she’s never seen snow so she can spend three hours in the car made us laugh so hard it hurt.  It’s smart and funny, but the end is weak and shows her inexperience as a writer.  Bottom Line:  Worth the Wait, er Read

The Sixes, Kate White
You girls know that Kate White, Editor-in-Chief of Cosmo, is our favorite mystery writer.  We’ve read everyone of them, and her latest, The Sixes, did not disappoint.  Set at a college where the protagonist is a disgraced famous writer doing a guest stint, it’s probably not going to win a Pulitzer but it kept us up until 3am one night.  Bottom Line: Better than Cosmo.

Heaven Is for Real, Todd Burpo
Sure, you have to give into the fact that they sell it at Publix and every Southern Baptist in America is doing it for their book club this fall, but it’s a sweet story.  Bottom Line: It will make you cry (probably not as hysterically as Same Kind of Different as Me), and long for the days that childlike faith was easy.

The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing, Melissa Bank
Not quite finished, so can’t speak to every bit of it, but it’s delightful.  Written as a collection of short stories, it’s a coming of age story of book editor Jane living in NYC.  A touch dark, quite witty, Jane will capture the heart of any girl that has ever wondered…”what does it all mean?”  Bottom Line: A great catch!

And we’re off to finally earn the right to have Anna Karenina on our coffee table.  Wish us luck.

We love these heels from J.Crew (“I live” as fashionista Reader Ellie tells us that NYC women say when they love something), but they are $250, and that’s ridiculous for shoes from J.Crew.  Anyone seen some comparable heel / boot tan shoes for fall?

Glasses without lens.  Glasses without lens.  What to say.  What to say.  Over breakfast last Sunday, we stumbled into an interesting conversation with a self proclaimed “redneck” (ew) about the trend of glasses without lens.  We probably don’t need to elaborate on the redneck’s stance, but (as Carrie Bradshaw would say), “later that day, we got to thinking” about said trend.  And we can’t lie….and we know we are about to get scalded in cyberspace…we think it’s kinda fun, funny, and playful.  Sorry!  Sorry it’s true!  Curse me and my 20/20 vision.  I want glasses!  Sure, we get that it’s ridiculous, and we’d never do it (chill out emum), but there is something so ridiculous about it that it’s endearing (like Jersey Shore).  And yes, it’s only for hipsters, and yes there are entire forums dedicated to how much people hate this trend, but let’s hear it ladies – what do you think about glasses without lens (even if you are actually not a hipster, except a little bit in your head)?