Safe behind your teeth.

I meant to write about last weekend all week, and now the next weekend is upon me! In sum, I had a wonderful night on Friday celebrating my best friend Kelly's birthday, and then I headed to Massachusetts to spend the weekend with my dad. My dad and I are in similar situations right now: our spouses are oceans and continents away! So, naturally, we got together and watched movies, put together a puzzle, and ate ice cream cake. It's what we do. After a stressful work week, it was definitely a necessary and relaxing getaway for me. Thanks Dad! (And Buddy, pictured above!)

This week was also steeped in stress at work, but I've been trying to keep up with daily workouts and healthy eating. Like I'm an adult or something. My dad is going to be revolted by this, but I learned how to make really delicious brussel sprouts! Thanks to Kelly for showing me how easy it is. I think Instagram has made me despise non-professional photos of food, so I won't even post that here: DON'T WORRY.

Jesse's been quite busy across the world, and I'm so excited for him to come back next week. It's hard not being able to see and hear and touch someone for an entire month. I went to see Jack the Giant Slayer with my dad this past weekend and when the lead characters went in for a smooch I nearly sighed. And then I almost slapped myself. Get it together, Parker. Sad truth!

I decompressed from work most days this week with my commute reading. I finished Mary McCarthy's The Group, which apparently had quite a following in earlier generations of women. It still speaks to female friendships, and I liked it a lot. Then I read/edited a manuscript for a friend that wrote a novel that I cannot talk about at all until it's ready for publication, but it's awesome and I'm sorry I have to be vague and also for this terrible sentence. I just finished reading Sylvia Plath's collection of poems Ariel, and I think I re-read some of the poems three or four times before I was ready to put down the book. My favorite was "Lady Lazarus." I don't read much poetry, but I love Plath. Bleak but strong, melancholy but assertive -- I love her voice.

The rain's banging against the windows behind me, and I'm waiting for a call from Indonesia before I head to sleep.

I'll sign off with a few lines from Sylvia Plath's poem "You're"... I'm sure you can guess who I was thinking of while I read it:

Vague as fog and looked for like mail.
Farther off than Australia.
Bent-backed Atlas, our traveled prawn.