August is softball tournament season around these parts. The first three weekends of the month, I have softball tournaments pretty much all day, every day.



The first tournament was last Saturday for my Senate league team. I've played on this team for five years now and have coached it the last two (or maybe three?) years with my friend Jon.

This year's tournament was fun, but in terms of playing to our potential, it didn't go well.



Our first game was at 9:30, and we beat the team we played pretty handily. It wasn't a blow out, but the other team never really threatened.

We had a three-hour break in between games, where we set up a nice tailgate, grilled some food, tried to not melt in the sun, etc.



Then we played our second game, where we managed to blow a 10-run lead to lose and get knocked out. Needless to say, no one was happy about that.

If we had won, we would have gotten a re-match against the team we lost to in the finals last year. Bleh, what a disappointment.

I'm actually pretty sad the Senate league season is officially over. This was my very first rec-league team I started playing on, and the team is full of some of my favorite people, that I pretty much only see during the season.



But tournament season in general is far from over. In fact, this weekend is the first weekend of my alumni league tournament, and I've been counting down the days til our first game all week! I have good feelings about my team making a good run!

Ever since I got back from vacation, getting out of bed before work to run has been a struggle for me. But somehow this morning, I mustered enough will power to drag myself out the door for a sweaty four miler.



It was a Garmin-less run so I have no idea on my time. Probably for the best, I'm sure it was slow with the humidity. Glad I woke up and got it done though.

Now... on to a totally unrelated topic.

Last week, I was having a pretty meh week. Catching up from vacation, trying to juggle a bunch of softball logistics for tournaments, not sleeping well, etc. I was not in the best of moods, and I'm sure I was just a real doll to be around.

And it's like the universe knew I needed a little bit of a reminder that not all people suck and are actively trying to give me massive headaches. I had three of the most simple, kindest gestures dropped into my lap from friends over the last couple of days.

DC gets a lot of flack for being a city of power-hungry jerks, who march around with their speedy powerwalks, faces pointed down staring at their phones, firing off quick emails and grumbling at tourists who don't know that you should always "stand right, walk left" on the Metro escalators.

Sometimes I think people get the impression that common courtesy and manners get totally thrown out the window here, so I figured it's worth sharing those three random acts of kindness.

1. The other day I was out to lunch with a colleague who opened every door for me between our office building and the lunch spot. It was the tiniest little thing, but was the third in a string of people doing nice things for me, so I happened to notice it more than I might have normally.

2. Monday night I was walking with one of the guys on my softball team from the field to the Metro, and all of a sudden he moved from walking on my left side to walking on my right side because "ladies should never walk closest to the traffic." I didn't know this was a thing people still did but again, just a small, polite act of kindness.

3. Friday night I was catching a ride with a friend from an event we were at to a friend's birthday party. When we got to the car he opened to passenger door for me, let me get in and then closed the door afterward. Who does that anymore? Apparently nice, polite people with manners actually do exist in this city.

Yes, the gestures were small, and to my friends they were probably nothing more than their normal nice-person behavior, but when you're having a meh week like I was, little things like that really add up.

So that's all I've got for today. Not everyone in DC sucks and sometimes when you're having a rough week, the universe throws good things your way.

I've been back from vacation almost as long as I was actually on vacation, and boy do I wish I were still at the beach.



Living is just a little bit (or a lot) better there.

I'm always amazed how at the beach I can wake up every day at 5:30 or 6 a.m. without an alarm, but once back at home, I struggle to drag my butt out of bed by 7 a.m. I'm going to bed at literally the exact same time, if not earlier, back in DC, and still find waking up to be a challenge.

Such is life I suppose.

Anyway, while I was on vacation I had really big plans to do nothing but relax and catch up on a ton of reading, and that's exactly what I did.



Here's a quick look at some of the things I read (in the order I read them):

Go Set a Watchman - Harper Lee



I've been wanting to read this book since I heard it was coming out. To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my all-time favorite books, and I felt like I had to see how the story progressed, even though this book was probably never supposed to be published. And I'm glad I read it, even though I didn't love it. The book tackled a complicated subject, but I felt like the ending was just too neat and basically a cop-out.

The Rocks - Peter Nichols

This was one of my book club books and spoiler alert, I hated it. The first 50 pages and the last 50 pages were kind of interesting. I thought the 300 pages in the middle were way too long and drawn out, focusing on stories and details that I felt didn't really add anything to the book.

Summer Secrets - Jane Green

This was another book that I really enjoyed. It's the story of a young alcoholic woman, who struggles time and again to get sober and in the meantime learns some secrets about her family and her past.

Saving Grace - Jane Green

I love Jane Green and her books. This told the story of Grace, a woman who is married to a famous author and seems to have the picture perfect life. But in fact she doesn't. Her husband is emotionally abusive, and when his assistant leaves and they have to replace her, all sorts of problems arise. Spoiler alert: The new assistant is a con artist who basically tries to steal all the family's money and steal Grace's husband too.

Grey - E. L. James

Feel free to judge away friends. I definitely picked up the trashiest book I could find at the library because it's not a beach trip without one trashy book. This book had slightly more plot than 50 Shades of Grey, but I mean, it's still a 50 Shades of Grey book, so yea.

China Dolls - Lisa See

Out of all the books I read on vacation, this one might have been my favorite. The book is told from the perspective of three different Asian women living in San Fransisco before and after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The women are all trying to make careers as performers, while dealing with the negative perceptions and attitudes toward Japanese people (one of the girls is Japanese, two are Chinese). One of the girls is sent to an internment camp and the relationships that were built between the three begin to crack and crumble.

Nantucket Sisters - Nancy Thayer

This was the last book I read on vacation, and I'm actually glad I saved it for the end. It was a pretty easy read. The story follows the lives of two girls from opposite ends of the socio-economic spectrum who met on Nantucket when they were five years old and were inseparable as children. Throughout the book you get glimpses of their lives as they grow up, move away, marry, have kids, face deaths in the family, and become their own people.

So that's all the reading I did at the beach. I also hit up the bookstore at the beach and grabbed a copy of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, which came highly recommended from a coworker.



And just so you don't think I keep my nose buried in fluffy fiction all the time, I'm currently reading Ghettoside and it's fantastic. (Though I'm only 130 or so pages in. My reading rate plummets when I have work and stuff to deal with).