Avant garde marketing

Today I received an issue of Gourmet (a magazine I've never subscribed to) in the mail. Every so often I receive just such an unsolicited magazine. I'm assuming that's because I'm part of X magazine's target audience and they want to lure me into becoming a subscriber to X by flaunting all of its goodness in my face. But that's not really an option with Gourmet, since they're on their way out - the November issue, which I received today, is their last. And here's the kicker: the magazine was wrapped in plastic, and inside the plastic was a piece of paper that says this:

"Give the gift of Gourmet - only $4....Use the Card [yes, they capitalized Card, but I won't dwell on that] below to send a holiday gift to your favorite epicurean!" The detachable card shows all of the rates and options (12 issues, 24 issues) and even has a "Bill me after Jan. 1" option.

What is this all about?! Were these all bundled up and ready to go before Conde Nast announced the closing of the magazine and they just decided, "Who cares that we're promoting lies? We're sending them!"? Because a lot of people might take this offer and send in their little Cards. And then Conde Nast or whoever deals with these things is really going to have a mess on their hands. I think current subscribers are being bumped to Bon Appetit, or something like that. They'd have to do some serious bait and switch with any newbies.

The sad thing is, I really like what I see in the magazine. If they weren't already out of here, they might have won me over. Bad timing, I guess.

When the living's easy

My brain is tired! My brain! I just started two posts that I then discarded when I decided they were stupid. One was about riding my bike to work. The other was a few delicious recipes. Both of them seemed like a waste of everyone's time after about thirty seconds of writing.

So, instead, what? I'll just say that I love this summer. I've never had such a free, uncommitted, easygoing summer before. Last summer was technically just as free time-wise, but I had just left the bank, and readjusting to a whole different style of life was still overwhelming.

This summer is different. I have loved reading on the front porch, waking up early and running, hanging out at coffee shops with my laptop and attempting to write (sometimes I've also hated that), checking out more books from the library than I could ever read, getting ice cream at The Scoop, biking to work, hanging out with high schoolers, watching Alias, reading and praying and being quiet in the morning times, writing articles about rodeos, and just having TIME to do whatever I want with.

When school starts again in September I know the stress and the pressure will be back, and I'll be short on sleep and generally unrelaxed until June. That's because I'm a perfectionist, not because my program is trying to beat me to a pulp. And it will be good for me in some ways and exhausting in others and it will all work out okay eventually. But I want to remember how restful (even though, honestly, I haven't been sleeping all that much) these few months have been, and how rejuvenating this time off has felt (even though this heat is trying to melt me). It feels good to love life.

Summer reading

My goal is to start posting some book reviews soon. I checked out (another) big stack of books from the library today. I don't know when exactly it is that I think I'm going to read them all, with a lot a lot a lot of work to do this week and Westport coming up very soon, but I just can't resist library books. As soon as I see something interesting, I grab it, because it's free! And because it's a book! And because just having a big fat pile of them around makes me feel smarter.

Books currently in my stack of summer reading material:

• Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith, Anne Lamott
• The Undertaking, Thomas Lynch
• I Feel Bad About My Neck, Nora Ephron
• Julie and Julia, Julie Powell
  
• Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, Chuck Klosterman
• Jesus Wants to Save Christians, Rob Bell and Don Golden
• Ex Libris, Anne Fadiman
• Everything is Illuminated, Jonathan Safron Foer
• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz
• Gilead, Marilynne Robinson

And so many more that it makes me feel both excited and a little nervous, because who am I kidding? There is absolutely no way I'm going to read all of this stuff (especially because of Brad's and my "summer project": watching endless episodes of Alias on DVD. Choose Vaughn! Choose Vaughn!). But, I can try. I recently finished both Plan B and I Feel Bad About My Neck, so further thoughts on books written by women over fifty will be coming up soon. Both books are great, but I think I've read enough about stomach pooches and saggy necks to last me quite a while.