Backyard Parties and Rihanna

According to the calendar, it's May 1st. According to the weather, it's more like March 1st. It snowed yesterday. SNOWED, you guys. Regardless, the museum switched to summer hours today, and there are RVs (being driven by people with no business driving RVs) on the road again, so it must be almost summer.

No matter what the forecast says.

A few weeks ago it warm (read: warmish) and sunny enough for the first backyard party of the year. Okay, so the lawn chairs were buried half way up their backs in the snow, but we take what we can get around here. (Not to mention, the snow kept the beer cold)

Sure you could use tablecloths (or even just tables...) and string up twinkle lights and serve things that start with the word "deconstructed". Or you could just throw some chairs on the grass (or snow) and tell everyone to bring a dish and their own beer. That's the joy of a backyard party.

This week's hot jam is Stay by Rihanna and Mikky Ekko. Let's be honest, Rihanna needs a Sassy Gay Friend to help her make some life decisions, but Girl knows how to sing a pop song. In fact, she just broke the record for the most #1 songs on the Billboard Pop Chart. Stay is haunting but somehow still catchy. It's been playing on the radio here like crazy and I'm not sick of it yet, (unlike some songs, I'm looking at you Bruno Mars,) so that certainly qualifies it for hot jam status.

PS Was anyone else surprised by Mikky Ekko? Did not expect him to look like that.

Potpourri and Rihanna

I couldn't decide on one thing, so it's potpourri week!

Hot beverages – It’s that time of year again. Actually, it’s always that time of year in Alaska, but it seems so much more appropriate when it’s not summer. If you walk into my kitchen and head towards the microwave you’ll find a cabinet I like to call the “hot beverage cabinet.” Now that I write that, I see how hopelessly unclever it is. Maybe Elation station? Or Lionel Richie (Hello, is it tea you’re looking for)? I’ll work on it. Regardless of the cleverness of the name, the cabinet is great. It smells like coffee and mint, you’ll find a mug featuring rabbits wearing jogging suits in it, and in the wee hours of the morning it’s nice to have all the coffee accoutrements in one place. Excellent kitchen planning, if I do say so myself.

My desk looks like this everyday. Coffee mug, tea mug, water bottle. I have to pee every 3 minutes.

Using my ID badge – Certain areas of the museum require keys to access (like my office,) other areas require waving one’s ID badge in front of a sensor. I LOVE doing that. It makes me feel like I work at the White House or some top secret government building. Mondays are so much less lame if you are pretending to be in a heist and/or spy film, amirite?

This is how I walk around the museum. In my mind.

Season Premiers – Fall season premiers have been happening for the last couple weeks, and I couldn’t be happier. A girl can only watch so many Magnum P.I. episodes on Netflix. I always like watching the new shows, figuring out if they are going to be any good. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by Matthew Perry’s new show Go On.  This week he kept getting mistaken for Rachel Maddow. They really do look oddly similar.

Dreamland – It’s been awhile since I’ve done a book review, so I guess I’m due. I just finished Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep by David K. Randall and I highly recommend it. David is not a neurologist or a sleep scientist; he’s a writer who woke up in the middle of the night after he ran into a wall in his apartment. One his quest to understand his sleepwalking, he started investigating sleep science as a whole, and somewhere along the way decided to write a book about what he found. I spent 2 nights staying up too late reading it. Even my sleep deprived state, the irony was not lost on me.

Full disclosure – this week’s hot jam was inspired by TheVoice. Don’t judge.  It’s Only Girl (in the World) by Rihanna. As much as I appreciate classic rock and jazz and weird hipster music, I have a giant soft spot for pop. (No surprise there.) I love that Rhianna unapologetically sings dirty pop songs to fist-pumping beats. She knows her audience. Also, this video is awesomely bad.