Cape Cod vacation: Josh and I went on our yearly week-long vacation earlier in the month, and we went to Cape Cod! I was excited to go regardless, but I was really excited because we didn’t have to fly. It was a perfect week, and we had so much fun. Here’s a list of recaps for each day:
Hartford Yard Goats baseball game: As we’ve done in past summers, Josh and I went to a Hartford Yard Goats game with my parents and family friends. It was a Saturday night game a few weeks ago, and because New England is gonna New England, the weather was cloudy, mid-60s, and a bit breezy (meanwhile the next weekend, it was 90 degrees and hot). The Yard Goats ended up losing 7-1, BUT I caught a baseball!
We normally sit on the first base side, but since no tickets were available at the time my dad was buying them, we got seats in upper right field. I think it was at the end of an inning, and the right fielder tossed the ball up into the stands; it was coming in hot and bounced off the row in front of us and back onto the field. Then, like a minute later, the player throws the ball up again, and, somehow, I reach in front of Josh to my right and catch the ball with one hand. So not as impressive as catching a homerun ball, but I did beat out a kid for it.
West Hartford, CT afternoon: On one of my summer Fridays, Josh and I headed down to West Hartford. We walked around the West Hartford Reservoirs (about a two mile walk) and then got dinner at Gastropark, which is a really cool place that has an indoor bar/kitchen but also local food trucks and live music. We each got a beer, chicken quesadillas, and ice cream.
Trip to Tanglewood: Earlier in the month, Josh sent me a screenshot of an ad he saw on Facebook for a John Mulaney show at Tanglewood, and after double-checking that it was, in fact, real, we immediately bought lawn seats. We were both fans of John Mulaney before dating, and we saw him together in September 2023 when he was on tour with Pete Davidson and Jon Stewart.
Tanglewood has an indoor/outdoor space where the show would be taking place. Since we bought lawn seats, it was basically first come, first serve to get a spot. Gates opened at 3:00 p.m., and we got there around 3:45 p.m. and easily found a spot in front of a screen. You can bring lawn chairs, blankets, coolers, etc., so we packed our beach cooler with sandwiches, chips, snacks, and, of course, a bottle of wine.
The show started a bit after 6:00 p.m., and Langston Kerman was the opener. We hadn’t heard of him, but he was pretty funny. John Mulaney did about an hour and a half and was really good. It was cool that he started off the show with some local jokes (like about the area, which was The Berkshires), then moved on to telling some of his stories.
Unfortunately, it took us about 45 minutes from packing up to finally getting out of traffic, which we expected because there were a ton of people there. The opener did say something about performing in front of 9,000 people, which I wouldn’t doubt; according to the Tanglewood website, the indoor part of the theater sits 5,000 and the lawn can hold 15,000.
Miscellaneous:
- I bought a total of 20 books this month: 11 in Cape Cod and 9 at the town library’s annual book sale. Don’t judge.
- I had dinner with two friends last week! We hadn’t seen each other—all three of us—since January, so we were due.
- I also got my first piece of permanent jewelry; I know of a place in Maine that offers it, but I wasn’t sure how busy they would be when we eventually go to Maine for vacation. So I found a local small business that does a lot of pop-up events, so I dragged Josh along to a brewery so I could get a bracelet. It’s a dainty silver chain with a “B” as the connector; I like that it’s water and sweat-resistant, considering I can’t technically take it off.
What I’m Watching
TV
- The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
- Resident Alien
Netflix
- Younger (S4E2-S5E4)
- Titan: The OceanGate Submersible Disaster
- Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy
- Trainwreck: The Mayor of Mayhem
Hulu
- Bones (S6E11-S8E2)
Peacock
- Law & Order: Organized Crime (S5E6-S5E7)
- Below Deck Down Under (S3E1-S3E17)
- The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets
Prime
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail
YouTube
- CohhCarnage – Kingdom Come: Deliverance (Episode 30ish-70)
What I’m Reading
- The Favorites by Layne Fargo: 5 stars
- My Friends by Fredrik Backman: 5 stars
- The Good Detective by John McMahon: 4 stars
- The First Gentleman by Bill Clinton and James Patterson: 5 stars
- Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo: 4 stars
- Enough by Cassidy Hutchinson: N/A
- The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman: 4 stars
Strikeouts + Sprinkles 