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Infinite Country by Patricia Engel | Thoughts

   Published : 2021   ||    Format : print   ||    Location : Colombia ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆   What was it about the country that kept everyone hostage to its fantasy? The previous month, on its own soil, an American man went to his job at a plant and gunned down fourteen coworkers, and last spring alone there were four different school shootings. A nation at war with itself, yet people still spoke of it as some kind of paradise.. Thoughts : Infinite Country follows two characters - young Talia, who at the beginning of this book, escapes a girl’s reform school in North Colombia so that she can make her previously booked flight to the US. Before she can do that, she needs to travel many miles to reach her father and get her ticket to the rest of her family. As we follow Talia’s treacherous journey south, we learn about how she ended up in the reform school in the first place and why half her family resides in the US. Infinite Country tells the story of her family through the other protagonist, El

Back to the Pen and Paper | The Sunday Salon

The Sunday Salon

After all the time I spent on my Day in the Life post, I should have realized that a long blogging break was on the horizon. Honestly, it was unplanned. I just didn't have any posts typed up and every free minute I had, I chose to spend it reading. Until the great virus outbreak of last week. Which, I'm excited to announce is now behind me. It took three whole days. That's all. Just three miserable days when all I wanted to do was bury my head in the sand and hope that the world moved on and chores got taken care of.

But enough griping for now. We are just done with lunch and settling in for a lazy afternoon. The husband is traveling to Cincinatti this week so I had just dropped him a few minutes ago at the airport. He will be sorely missed but I will gladly take these occasional and short travels over the regular weekly travels that he had to do in our first year of marriage. Besides, my dad is here so I will still have plenty of help with Shreya and food. Remember I mentioned how much my dad loves cooking? He has made some amazing dishes so far and it's hard to do any kind of portion control when food tastes that good.

Last week, I got an email from Doubleday books saying that I had won this month's Chatterbox. I don't ever win stuff much nowadays so it was a pleasant surprise. The box had a copy of The Translation of Love by Lynne Kutsukake, a calligraphy pen (which was so wonderful to write with), a pair of chopsticks, and a wonderfully fragrant candle. The book itself is one that I hadn't heard of previously so I am looking forward to reading it.


Spending four days at home can make one antsy and I spent a good chunk of my time trying to be feel more organized. It started with a realization that I didn't know how many reviews I had pending to write. Depending on what kind of day I am having, this realization either won't bother me at all (usually these are the 'yeah, that's life' kind of days) or I will start hunting for yet another system that I will try to adapt and usually fail at. The past four days were the latter kind of day. I started looking for a Trello-like app where I can get notifications and have a calendar view on my phone. Trello has worked amazingly well for me... when I remembered to use the app. What I wanted was Trello + notifications + calendars without having to download extra integration apps that did it. (Also, I have been trying to KonMari my life lately so the less apps, the better.)

Zilch. Would you believe that there was nothing out there? For the briefest of moments, I considered writing my own app but ditched that option right away because I didn't have that kind of time. I eventually downloaded Remember the Milk and made it do what I was envisioning but it was still a frustrating system. That's when I thought of giving bullet journal a try. I had been wanting to go pen-and-paper for a long time but looking at all the beautiful planners out there made me somewhat hesitant. I don't have an artistic bone in my body but that's the beauty of bullet journaling - you don't have to be artistic. So that's where I am right now. I have a book and a pen - I just need to start writing. The husband has been beyond amused by this recent craze of mine. He and I are such opposites when it comes to a need to plan.

Anyways, while I set my journal up, I'd like to know if you bullet journal or keep planners!

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