Love, Laughter, and a bit of Light Reading

My life in Post-Grad

[being-here-now-blog]

Take the Night Off

My mind is an active one. Turning it off completely at the end of the day is something I am still striving for. When offered the chance to try a sleep-aid I had to say yes. 

In the past I have tried different products but instead of repurchasing them I look to others on the shelves. So why not give the ZZZ Quil Sleep-Aid a try?

After a long day nothing feels better to my aching muscles than an epson salt bath. Lights low, and a few candles to fill the room with the scent of lavender oil. I typically stay in the bath for about forty minutes. The one rule for myself is there’s no technology allowed, no phone, no laptop, not even music. Instead I tune in with my body and pay attention to where it’s hurting. It’s important to have these conversations with ourselves and give it the undistracted time it deserves. 

The effect this has paired with the mineral bath makes me feel weightless after. I take the two tablets and allow them twenty minutes to kick in as I tuck in for the night.

- I received these products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes.

[being-here-now-blog]

Summer Reading

Sometimes we avoid something for the sake of how overwhelming popular it is. maybe it’s the hit film being praised by all, the new restaurant with a waiting list it takes three weeks to get your name on, or in my case the new book being praised across the media. upon it’s release it topped the most noteworthy charts, and is heading to the silver screen within the year. self-proclaimed avid readers can’t seem to tell me anything else worth reading. Surely in reading this book I too won’t fall into the hype, completely in denial of my experiences.

 One thing I could not resist was popping the title onto my christmas list, as if allowing someone to gift it to me tricks my stubborn nature into wanting to read it out of good-nature over my own curiosity, which is, of course, complete bullshit. What was the book? Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train.

I let life distract me for a few months and in my newfound time freedom of post-grad life I came across the trailer for the upcoming film. This of course caused me to pluck the novel off of my shelf and give it a read, which took me all of a day and a half. I was pleasantly surprised to find it full of some of the things I love most in a story: crafted by a woman, strong narrative voices, flawed characters that flit around unreliable, and full of enough detail to create vivid scenes in the readers’ mind. Even now I can’t pass by tracks or hear the whistle of a train and not be brought back into the lives of Rachel, Megan, and even Anna. 

It’s lingered in the best way possible. I still have so many questions I’m not sure I even want to know the answers to. That’s how you know a mystery is good, even when it seems to be solved there’s things left unknown. 

What I can be sure of is I will be seeing the film. That’s another common trait, comparing the book with the film that inspired it. I love stories. I enjoy seeing how different mediums can tell a story in a different way from it’s other forms. I look forward to seeing how The Girl on the Train translates onto the silver-screen.