What happened:

• I received a long-awaited promotion & title change from Software Developer to UX Designer. I knew it was coming (I’ve been working in UX since August), but I’m proud and grateful!
• Moved out of my Center City apartment
• Started a committee at work to improve Appdev culture from onboarding to special events. I’m really excited about this because I’ve gotten to work closely with the Director of my department, who I really admire. And I love thinking about branding and company organization, and this kind of lets me play with that even though it definitely doesn’t fall under the purview of my position!

What I read:

• Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo | ★★★★☆

Review here

• Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo | ★★★.5
• Killing and Dying by Adrian Tomine | ★★★.5

What I couldn’t finish:

• The Umbrella Academy on Netflix | ★☆☆☆☆

Big bored thumbs down from this My Chemical Romance fan. Gerard Way has cobbled together a presence in comics in spite of having no prowess with narrative and nothing new to bring to the table, character wise. Because I know that it was always his dream to make comics, I’m disappointed but not surprised that this foray into the superhero genre didn’t work for me. We don’t need another gang of (mostly) white (mostly) male antiheroes. One star because I did watch a couple episodes and didn’t bail outright.

• The Clockmaker’s Daughter by Kate Morton | ☆☆☆☆☆

Writing: way too flowery. Protagonist was very clearly Morton’s imaginary version of herself, complete with trite bookish romantic ‘not like other girls’ nonsense. Also: plot was nowhere to be found. Hated it, bye!

• The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah | ☆☆☆☆☆

Y’all call this writing? don’t know if it’s because I’ve lived in France and find the depiction of French living to be embarrassingly heavy handed, or that the characters feel like they belong in a moody teen fan fiction, or that events feel as though they are being listed, ad-hoc, rather than narrated according to any standard expectation of linear time progression. Such an awful read tbh I will judge other reviewers on the basis of their reaction to it.

What I watched:

• Russian Doll on Netflix | ★★★★.5

I watched this in its entirety in one night. I love Natasha Lyonne and this show really got me in my magical realism happy space. The way it went from kind of goofy dark comedy to real heavy trauma work was impressive. The portrayal of a hip, metropolitan, over 30s group of characters felt very believable. It was sexy and silly and sad and it was not precious and passed the Bechdel test and I loved it. Loses points because I didn’t find the relationship with Charlie Barnet’s character very compelling.

• iZombie on Netflix | ★★★★☆

I’ve already seen this but it’s a comforting show, especially when everything is in chaos and boxes.

• Battlestar Galactica on Amazon Prime | ★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★

I’m introducing E to this masterpiece...it’s my 5th or 6th time through! This is literally the best show ever made  ¯\\_(ツ)\_/¯ maybe one day I will write more about it but...okay it’s imperfect, the 3rd and 4th seasons get a little weird and more importantly, Kara Thrace should’ve been cannonically queer, but it’s a show with SO MANY AMAZING FEMALE CHARACTERS and the plot is so good and every time I watch it I just love it even more so if you need me I’ll be over here screaming happily.

Words for March:

• Patience
• Forgiveness
• Acceptance

Goals for March:

• Return to exercise | I was sick and busy and chaotic so I fell completely off the exercise wagon, but I know I’m happiest when I’m doing something with my body regularly.
• Have clarity of focus with social media | I’m not enjoying trying to post every day on instagram, and I’m realizing that I don’t really feel a connection to accounts that post every day and discuss something random just to get engagement. I’d prefer to post less frequently and more thoughtfully.
• Find a rhythm | I’m an early to bed, early to rise ass bitch, but between moving and my night owl boyfriend, my schedule has gone sideways. It’ll take time and effort, but I hope to feel settled again soon.
• Prioritize learning to drive | Haven’t you heard? I’m the literal oldest person who doesn’t know how to drive in the entire world. Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration. But now that I no longer live downtown, I’m really feeling hampered by not being able to get where I need to go without leaning on E or calling an Uber. I’m too independent for this!