Golly gosh darnnit. I swore to you guys I would start the last book of the Off-Campus series, The Goal, after I finished Twisted Love, but I’m literally hooked so hard I can’t let this series go. I swear, I really wanted to follow through on my promise, but I’m just so in love with this new series and I have to see where it goes.
So, like I explained in my book review of The Score, the Twisted series has been on my TBR for so long and I’ve also been seeing lots of stuff on my socials saying it’s a great read, so I just had to check it out. Anyway, I did, and I’m so pleased with it so far, I’m definitely going to continue—sorry Elle Kennedy, I also loved your series!
The Twisted series, as far as I can tell, centers around a girl friend group, which is a pleasant change from the Off-Campus series, which centered around the main hockey boys and their respective love interests. I love the group and they’re all such wonderful girls as far as I can tell. But, Bridget is definitely my favorite. As I suspected, I’m currently loving her POV and story in Twisted Games. Shhhh!
Back to Twisted Love, Alex is definitely the most intense and psychopathic love interest I’ve ever encountered, but that somehow makes his adoration of Ava so much better. It’s a brother’s best friend story with *steamy* scenes that totally left me speechless. No literally. I read the most steamy section late at night (ofc) and I was shocked. As y’all know, I’m not the biggest fan of smut, so it was definitely not a draw, but I’ve never read the kind of smut that was in Twisted Love. Highly recommend a trigger warning.
Ava is the first friend in the group we follow and she seems sweet so it’s awful all the stuff that happened to her, but I’m so happy she has friends like Bridget, Jules, and Stella. Alex, on the other hand, really puts the cold and hard in the rich, corporate boss. He’s such a powerful guy, not just physically, but also emotionally—he never lets anyone see his history or feelings. But, Ava slips beneath the surface when the two start spending more time together while Josh, Ava’s brother and Alex’s best friend, is away.
Such a great book, but definitely some trigger warnings. Not just smut, though that felt so dirty I feel like I can never walk into a church again, but also with blood and language. So, yeah, have a fun read!
Genre: romance, dark, fiction (not even going to consider Y/A—that’s how dirty this book is!)
Age: 16+ (honesty, older, but I can’t condemn myself)
Wow. I think this one may have been my favorite. I swear, I’m going to dissect why I think that is, but first I just need to acknowledge how much I love romance (for the 100th time).
So, y’all know why I love the romance genre so much and it’s not because of smut. I actually am not the biggest fan of smut—it just feels like way too much information sometimes and it pales in comparison to the actual draw of romance books: attention. We spend way too much time on our phones, either doing mindless activities or working towards an end. Don’t get me wrong, I’m totally fine with people who shun romance or love or fun in their life (I can change him, honey) but I think even the people that claim to love friendship and being focused on others and the beauty of the world don’t do it as well as book characters. Book characters just care and that’s so rare in the real world.
But, why do I love the way romance characters care? Well, because of how they care. When they fall in love with their person, it’s the most beautiful thing—reading about the way they see this person feels like invading the most sacred and beautiful part of humanity. You know the person they are in love with doesn’t actually have eyes that sparkle or pull the character in or burn with desire and something deeper, but you aren’t focusing on the person described, your focusing on the person describing. That’s what I love about romance books: getting to watch how a person sees the one their in love with and what love feels like for both people.
Okay, enough with the tangent and trying to make you guys understand my obsession (“spent my whole life trying to put it into words,” Swift, Taylor, ‘Clean,’ 1989, October 27, 2014)—onto the book review!
I said this book was my favorite of the series and I have some elaboration on that. I think, generally speaking, The Deal was super high on the list because it checked all the boxes—to die for characters, the smut scenes, the traumatic pasts, the things they love about each other, the healthy way they heal, and even the “point of tension” or Garrett’s dad threatening Hannah. Also, THE FREAKING NICKNAME!!!! Kill me and call me a hockey stick because I would let Garrett Graham manhandle me.
But, I also have tons of reasons why The Mistake was a favorite, and now I’m like 100% sure I would die for the The Score. So, Elle Kennedy, you’ve succeeded in making me fall in love with every single one of your books in the Off-Campus series (except for a certain one we’ll get to later). In The Mistake, like I stated in it’s book review, I loved how normal and totally basic Grace was (no hate), because Logan viewed her as the most amazing person ever. It always makes me kick my feet when a book guy just looks at his gf and marvels over how gorgeous and awesome she is (*butterflies!!*).
In The Score, things were a bit different. I loved the book because of the leadup that Dean’s character had. He, as well as Allie, had been in the series since book one, so I liked getting to see his manwh0re ways knowing he’d turn into a complete goner for his girl. Can confirm, I was not disappointed. He was totally smitten with this girl and didn’t touch anyone else after they slept together for the first time—completely reformed. Allie, I wasn’t too hot on. She’s okay, but I think I’ve been spoiled by how cool and weird Hannah was and how sweet yet independent Grace was. So, compared to them, not my fave book girl in the series.
The Score, as you’ve probably picked up on, follows Dean, another hockey player in the friend group with Logan and Garrett, as well as Hannah’s bestie Allie, who we met in the first book. They’ve known about each other for a while and have met before, but never spent much time alone or getting to know each other until Allie spends a weekend at the guys’ house. Then, things get hot and heavy and they end up sleeping together while also falling in love while also keeping everything secret from Hannah and Garrett.
Yeah, I think when I lay it out, The Mistake, aka Lograce, is my fave of the series, but Hannett and Deanallie are close runner’s up. I just loved the series in general…though I do have a confession. I know there’s a fourth book, focusing on the fourth friend Tucker but, hear me out, I got distracted. Here me out, I swear! Okay, I’ve had the Twisted series on my TBR for ages and I’ve also been seeing it on my FYP, so, superstitious person that I am, I finally decided to go for it. I’m currently only on the first book, but I have so much to tell you guys—stay tuned for my book review in a little bit!! Anyway, I feel so bad for cheating on Ms. Kennedy but Ms. Huang was calling so I promise to pick Off-Campus Book 4 up after I’m done with Twisted Love. Pinky promise!
Oh my lord! I swear, I finished this book less than two hours ago! I have literally gobbled up the first two books in this series, and I’m pretty sure my FYP knows it because it’s only been feeding me Off-Campus TikToks. I’m not complaining, cause I love seeing my faves GG and Wellsy, as well as Johnny and Gracie!
Anyway, I started reading this about two/three ago, and now I’m finished. That’s it. End of story. That’s how much I like these books. My review of The Deal was literally me just ranting about how much I love the romance genre—did you think this review was going to be different? Honestly, who do you take me for? An academic?! BS!
I absolutely love this series and I love escaping to my little world at Briar. Even though the series is a realist genre, I still feel like I’m leaving my world behind whenever I go back to those books. I also heard that Elle Kennedy has another branch series called Briar U; is that still about all the characters in Off-Campus? Idk, but I’m down for the count.
Okay, well getting on the actual point of this book review—the book review—I’d like to start by saying that I am not sure about my ranking of the two Off-Campus books I’ve read so far. I think I may need to read more…No, I just mean that I loved both of them, and even though there were more identifiable favorite parts in The Deal than in The Mistake, I still think I grinned at fictional characters equally overall—good going, Jade.
The Mistake starts basically where we left off with The Deal, leaving Garrett and Hannah for Logan’s POV and a new girl we don’t know yet called Grace. Grace is a new freshman at Briar, a cautious, more shy girl than most of the other girls in the book. Logan and Grace happen upon each other by accident and hookup, then can’t stay away from each other. They’re an unlikely match but fall hard for each other, while Logan has a difficult decision to make this year.
Loved the dynamic, the pet names/traditions (especially “question—hit me”), and just how smitten Logan is with Grace. Seriously, she’s just such a regular girl, unlike how awesome and colorful Hannah seemed, that it made me love how focused Logan is on her.
Anyway, as you can see if you look at my Current Reads page, I’m already fully obsessed with this series and I’m on the third book, which I feel may be my favorite, just because I’m interested in how Dean’s story is going to play out. He seems like an *interesting* character. Hmmmm. I’ll let y’all know in the next review how it goes!
Okay, so now that the school year has begun again, I’ve taken it as my cue to fill my free time with all my favorite things to make all the difficult work I have to do more enjoyable. You know, a reward system; a certain amount of tiring and frustrating school, then some time with all the things that destress me and make it all worth it, namely, reading super fun romance books.
In all seriousness, romance books are my love language. Many people have told me that my love language is words of affirmation, but I think that’s just me on the surface. Underneath that, I secretly love reading romance books and people who love them feel like my soulmates. So, they are absolutely what I look forward to at the end of a long day, and sometimes, if I am not able to get a new one that’s been on my list, I re-read my faves. I crave those little romance tropes that make me scream and smile into my pillow—ugh, the best feeling. All I need is that little boost of serotonin and I’m back to my usual self after being bogged down by *adulting*.
Anyway, enough ranting about why romance books are superior, let’s get down to business. So, The Off-Campus series has been in the back of my head since I saw it on BookTok a few times, and my family just got a trial of Kindle Unlimited, so I was able to download The Deal! I was immediately in love, even though it didn’t have the attraction-at-first-sight trope that I love. Still, I liked the build-up and the pet name I didn’t know I needed. Also, I’ve mentioned this before, but I don’t love super intense smut in books. Physical stuff is okay, but when it gets way too intensely graphic, you’ve lost me. And, boy, did it get graphic—those children need to learn abstinence! So, that was one part of the book I didn’t love, but other than that, it was exactly what I needed this week.
I’m still technically reading Metamorphoses, though I haven’t picked it up in ages. I just got distracted by The Deal and now, oops, I guess I’ve become obsessed with the whole Off-Campus series. Oh well, I’m already on book 2, so I guess I have to finish the whole thing. Bummer.
Alrighty, here’s my annual summer post detailing all the shenanigans I got up to this summer! You’re in for a ride, as I was traveling the whole summer and had a lot of excitement. Also, this is going to be a long post, so get comfortable—you know what that means: extra fluffy socks, a hot drink, something sweet, and T. Swizzle blasting. I mean, that’s my idea of being comfortable, but you do you.
I finished school during the first two weeks of June and then had about a week or so to relax and hang out with the family in the Caribbean. Stella flew in and stayed on the boat with us, then Cleo left to work in LA, and then, drama started happening.
So, hurricane season in the Caribbean was starting, and around the 20th of June, a tropical storm began to brew kind of near where we were at the time, which was St. Vincent. We were worried because we weren’t covered by insurance in St. Vincent, or anywhere other than Grenada. So, we made some quick plans and I packed extra speedily, then went to a hotel with Stella’s friend who had been visiting to wait out the storm on St. Vincent, while my parents and Stella sailed up to Grenada.
We had about two days to wait out the storm and then, thankfully, our flights were still on. It was a long tough haul, but we made it to our final destinations. I swear, after spending a night camping in an airport and then landing in LAX (aka the worst destination on the planet), I wasn’t in the best mood. But, I sucked it up and luckily had a day to relax before I headed over to camp at UCLA.
A few months before, I had been applying to camps and decided I wanted to apply to the UCLA Theater Summer Institute, which would give me college credit over three weeks of camp on the UCLA campus. For three weeks, we spent about nine hours a day in classes (two of which were college credit, and the rest were ensemble and workshops of different theatrical aspects), and had two days off. Yeah, I was dead the first day in. Keep in mind, I just spent five days traveling, not getting nearly enough sleep, and having to stay chipper while being filled with stress. So, yeah, I was definitely feeling run over by a train by the time I got to camp. Though, that didn’t make it any less fun. It was amazing to go to such cool classes, and I made some awesome friends that I’m still keeping in touch with. Plus, I found those Swiftie friends I talked about in “Speak Now (Tay’s Version)”.
Anyway, at the end of those three weeks, we got graded (ofc, ur gurl got an A+), got college credit for two of our classes, and put on a devised piece (that just means we made tf it up)! After all that, I spent another three weeks with family friends still in LA, recuperating, sleeeeeeping, doing summer school to prepare for the fall, and taking advantage of being in LA.
Then, on Aug. 3, ur gurl’s life changed FOREVER:
That’s right!!! I went to THE ERAS TOUR?!?!?!??!? I still literally can’t believe I can say those words, and I’m so incredibly thankful to our Lord and Savior, Taylor Swift, that this tour was created (and that I didn’t experience any amnesia). It was the most magical 3.5 hours of my life—it was actually way more than that, cause we were waiting in line, wayyyy too early, and saw the openers, too. Anyway, I have an instant smile anytime I think about it, and I feel so lucky that my parents did this for me. (Side note: the TET movie that’s set to release [!!!] was partially filmed on the night I attended, I think.) Here are some pics from that wonderful night:
I know, I know, she looks so gorgeous, right? Plus, just look at that smile—so cute! Safe to say, I think I’ve been blessed by God/Taylor that the movie was partly filmed on my tour night—it’s going to be so fun to try to figure out which clips were filmed at my show and if I can spot Cleo and me in the crowd. OMG, what if they do that thing they did in the reputation stadium tour where they zoomed in on people’s faces? What if they did that to Cleo and me??!?! OMG, I would dieeee!
Anyway, enough of getting sidetracked by Taylor, it happens too often. Back to my summer. After the concert, and getting lots of sleep, my parents and more family friends arrived for a fun weekend together in LA. Then, I flew to Nashville to meet up with a close friend who had invited me to spend time with her and her extended family, who lived about an hour outside of the city. We had such a fun time and I’m really thankful I was invited to explore Tennessee, which I’ve never visited before! Also, shoutout to the lovely extended Hornsby tribe!! Y’all are so welcoming!
After that, we all flew to Philly, where I spent about two weeks with my grandparents, hanging out, seeing family, and going up to their lake house for a while. While I was there, my parents, who were still in LA, moved Cleo into her dorm at Pomona College for her first year there!! Finally, I got on a train and I came up here to Connecticut, where I am now, to spend the last part of my trip with my other grandparents. My parents were here for a little bit but then flew to Bolognia, Italy, where Stella’s spending her semester abroad to move her in.
Now, I’m still in CT, spending time with family, but, most importantly, preparing for the coming school year. I’m getting in touch with all my teachers, setting up meeting times, getting all the physical materials I need here in the US, and one of my classes has even started (my history class). Also, my b-day is coming up, which always sneaks up on me, but I’ve planned a super fun weekend with two friends here in CT before we head back to the US! I’m literally so excited, cause they’re arriving today, so wish me lots of fun birthday wishes and I’ll post pics from the weekend soon. Love y’all and hope you had as exciting a summer as I did!
Alright, halfway done with my book revie—oh, hey guys! ummm…what are you doing here? Oh, riiiggghht, you’re here for the review; ofc, I’m so stupid! Anyway, let’s get started, I’m sure you didn’t see what I was writing *awkward laugh*
Okay, so, as I’m sure by the title, you already know what this review is about: Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. I read this about three weeks ago and finished it about a week ago, so not my best length of reading, but I was busy, okay! I’ve been traveling the whole summer, and I’m going to be taking three AP courses this year, so I’ve been preparing for school as much as I can.
Back, to the review, this book was probably the most confudling, confusing book I’ve ever read. It was super difficult to decipher the hidden layers and the general story just jumped around so quickly that I struggled to understand anything. I didn’t even know until I was about halfway through the book and my grandfather told me that Vonnegut had been a veteran in WWII that S5 was even about him! To be sure, it made a lot more sense once I knew that information, but I still had trouble deciphering it. I think this would have been easier and better to read in class with my ELA teacher and to slow down while reading it (even though I was going abominably slow, I know).
I can’t really do a normal overview because I had such trouble understanding the book, and I’m going to probably re-read it again later in life. But, I can tell you what I do know and test my comprehension. So, basically, the book begins with what I presumed to be first-person narration, with Vonnegut as the voice. He talks about his experience coming back from the war and acclimating to regular life. He also talks about his goal to write a book about his experience in the war. Eventually, we get to a point where it seems the narration shifts to talking in the third person about a person called Billy Pilgrim, often referred to by that full name. It isn’t immediately clear that this shift is into the very book that Vonnegut describes wanting to write. Billy Pilgrim we follow through his odd and roundabout life, one part of which is that he time travels within his memories. Yeah, Billy’s pretty cool—he also is friends with some aliens. I don’t want to spoil it, but it’s way wack. Anyway, Billy was also in the war, and his story sometimes seems to cross with Vonnegut’s, seeming to reflect Vonnegut’s own life story, though way more cool than Vonnegut’s life. I think the best way to sum it up is that Billy Pilgrim is Vonnegut’s cooler, celebrity version.
Wow, okay, that was a pretty good explanation, and I think I said everything well. Huh, I surprised myself with how well I did. Anyway, that was the overview I could generally understand, and I have a strong suspicion that, upon re-reading, I’ll be able to glean a good amount more, especially if I let some time pass.
Age: 14+
Genre: Semi-autobiographical, fiction, historical fiction, dark comedy
Hey, guys, sorry for not posting in a while, I finished Passing a while back but was wrapped up in my summer travels and couldn’t find the time to write this review. I have another review coming shortly, as well as a summer review post. Also, hold tf up, cause about two hours ago, Tay announced The Eras Tour movie, and my sanity has been unstable ever since!! I’m literally so excited and glad that all our clowning was not in vain. Plus, I think the movie was filmed on the night I attended TET (yeah, I got tickets back in December and sometimes my brain just goes !!!! from that night), so I’ll be famous *mwah*
Anyway, enough about that, I’ll include my summer Tay activity in the summer post coming soon. For now, let’s talk about Passing, besties. To be honest, this book was not my absolute favorite. I liked it well enough, and there were certain parts that were gorgeous and just touched my nerves, but all in all, I wouldn’t say it was my favorite summer read—I’d say that was Emma (it just got me, y’know, and was a happy place).
I read Passing about a month ago, and I liked that it was a shorter read (around 150 pages), and the story was great. I actually watched the movie (I didn’t know it was a book too, don’t kill me!) before I read it, and found that I like the movie better now than the book. It was beautifully done.
Wait, I’m like 100% getting ahead of myself—let me back up and give y’all an overview of the book. So, Passing is set in the 1920s/30s and focuses on a woman called Irene Redfield. We meet Irene as a middle-aged woman, married, and with two kids, though none of that is the center of the story. No, the story centers around the melting of something in Irene’s past—an old friendship unexpectedly rekindled and the dangerous implications of it. Irene unexpectedly reunites with her childhood friend Claire, who is “passing” for white. “Passing” was one of the aspects of the book that really drew me in, and it’s explained in the book as being relatively common for lighter-skinned black people. Both Irene and Claire are light-skinned, though only Claire is “passing”—she’s married to a racist white man. The book follows Irene’s feelings as she and Claire grow acquainted again after all these years, and how different the two women are.
Some things I liked about the book: 1. The concept of “passing,” as I stated above. I read The Vanishing Half a few years ago and absolutely loved it. It was the first introduction I had to passing, and I was fascinated by it. So, that was one of the reasons that compelled me to pick up Passing, though I was a bit disappointed by the lack of content on passing itself. The story focuses more on who the two women are themselves, not exactly the implications of their differing races, though that does play an important role in the end…
2. Claire’s husband. This wasn’t exactly something I liked, but it did create a feeling of fear I’ve never come across in a book. Books don’t usually make me feel afraid, but this character certainly struck that in me. Just wait ’til you read it and you’ll understand what I’m talking about. Irene’s emotional reaction to meeting him = intense.
So, yeah, like I said, this book wasn’t especially jaw-dropping to me and didn’t strike an intense emotional cord in me, though I could tell that was what it intended (especially the raw ending). But, no flack to Larsen, I didn’t feel those intended emotions. I liked those certain parts, and I’m glad I read it, but I wouldn’t rank it as a favorite.
I don’t remember whether I’ve told you guys this, but I really love summer reading. Now, don’t get it twisted, I didn’t say “summer”; I said “summer reading.” Summers are usually just as busy and hectic if not more, than school years. But, the one perk is being able to read whatever I want and visiting a lot more bookstores—which are my happy places—than I normally do. Of course, the summer is also when I get to visit friends and family, but that can be super stressful and tiring. So, I find as much solace and peace in exploring my literary interests, some of which are anything but educational…
However, in the case of this book, I really did continue my educational reading spree into the summer. I’m preparing to take AP English Lit in the fall, as well as two other APs, so I’m trying to get ahead of the class by reading a lot of educational books over the summer. This will help when I begin to prepare for the test in the spring because it centers around having a wide knowledge of many books. My headstart this summer is to read as many classic, great books as I can. I’m sadly a bit behind, as “smart” books are more difficult and longer to read than my usual fun, summer reads. I’ve managed to get through Emma, about a third of Metamorphoses, and now Of Mice and Men.
I loved Of Mice and Men, and it was such a great second Steinbeck read. I read The Pearl a few years ago, and I remember it being so incredible and beautifully terrible at the end. Of Mice and Men had that same feeling and was such a testament to a great writer and the power of stories. I’m constantly blown away by books, but especially in this one, being so short and yet still so lovely.
Its length was actually exactly what I wanted. It’s an amazing book to have under my belt, but I didn’t want to sacrifice so much time to read it, especially when I still have so many books left for the summer. It could be read all in one sitting, but because I’ve been rather busy, it took me about three days to finish. Highly recommend!
So, this has been a long time coming! I’ve hinted so many times that a lengthy post of everything I’ve picked up while living on a boat for almost half of my life was coming; but, as I’ve been barely able to post all my travel and book review posts, I haven’t had the time to reflect and draw up a list of everything I want to explain to you guys about my life. That’s what this post is for!
Here I’m going to be talking about nautical terms that I may have mentioned in previous terms vaguely but was never kind enough to elaborate on, or just interesting, little-known facts about boat life that you guys might find fun. Let’s get into it!
So, if you didn’t know by now, my family and I have been sailing around the world for the past decade, off and on. Actually, we just hit a pretty big milestone—we just circumnavigated, which means we’ve sailed around the entire globe. We started in the Caribbean when I was five, then sailed for two years to Australia, then sold our boat and moved back to the US for three years, before continuing our journey again in Australia on a different boat—Dafne II. We’ve been sailing on Second Dafne for about five years and plan to continue until I head off to university.
Phew, now that that’s out of the way, we can get down to defeating the actual Huns: boat structure! Now, even though I’ve been sailing for almost half of my life, my boat knowledge is not as expansive as I hoped it was. However, we’re going to attempt this.
This, my dear friends, is my best friend and favorite thing in the world: my home, Dafne II. She’s a beauty, isn’t she? I know you don’t have to tell me twice. She’s a 50-foot Lagoon—which is a French boat—(or a Lagoon 500, as some call it), and she’s absolutely the “condo of boats,” as my family likes to call her. We love our girl though, she’s just not as sleek or fast-moving as some other boats. That’s generally the rule for most Lagoons; though they can be fast, other, less comfortable and made for living in boats may be faster, like this one.
Notice anything? That’s right! This is Dafne I, our first boat. She was a Leopard, which is a South African boat that’s a really nice make. However, she got a bit tight with the five of us on there, so we definitely needed that upgrade to Dafne II when my sisters and I got to be a bigger size.
Now, to get into more specific facts about both of the boats my family and I have had, both Dafnes were/are catamarans, which means they had two hulls. This is different from monohulls (one-hull) and trimarans (three-hulls). Whenever I get too confused, I always think of the numbers hinted in the names: MONO-hul and TRI-maran. CAT-amaran is slightly less obvious, but I think it may be helpful to think of it like a cat, which walks on four legs, but two lines of legs. Does that make any sense? IDK, but it works for me.
Our boats also had masts (which balance the boat, as well as hold the sails when they’re up), a rigging system (a system of lines and ropes to hoist sails and keep the mast and other parts of the boat in place), rudders (balance and steer the boat beneath the water), propellers or props (to drive the boat when the engines are on), and many other various parts that drive a sailboat.
These parts and the many others I haven’t listed are essential to most of the boats within our genre, but boats like motorboats, industrial tankers, or racing boats, have other systems, so don’t blame me if you hear things you’ve never heard before about boats from me. I’m just trying to share my boat!
Okay, moving on, I thought it would be fun to move away from monotonous and boring boat facts and instead talk about some interesting facts about sailing and cruising the world I could tell all of you guys about. I’ve created a list myself, but please drop a comment for anything specific you would want to ask me. I do better when prompted than when asked for my own creation—that shows my convergent thinking mindset!
The Daily Rotation (of Not Only the Sun!)
While we’re actually sailing (by which I mean our anchor is pulled up and we are fully in transit between places), we usually have a watch schedule. “What, like the kind on your wrist?” you may ask. No, like the kind that rotates between people that happens in the military or in sci-fi novels. The kind during the night in most of these examples, but also happens during the day for sailors. Our kind of watch is similar to this in that we divide the hours of the day and night evenly between all on board unless some are crew or not capable of being in charge while everyone else is asleep. Then, everyone else is allowed to sleep or rest or do whatever they please, while one person is awake and alert to the happenings of the boat and our geographic surroundings.
The person on watch holds the world in their hands, but it doesn’t really feel like it. Every 15 minutes, they scan the horizon, looking for anything out of the usual (lights, boats, storms that could be dangerous), as well as check the electronics (the autopilot, the engines, if they’re on, the wind speed and direction, etc). Both of these things check that the boat is going in the right direction, is moving at the right speed (not too fast or slow), and nothing amiss is happening within eyesight of our surroundings. The on-watch person also checks our radar chart, which is on my dad’s iPad, and shows our direction, speed, and the location of any weather problems or boats. We use this to see in advance any nearby boats that we have to adjust away from or to prepare for a weather increase ahead of time. Where would be without our radar? Probably at the bottom of the ocean by now, sorry for being morbid.
The person on watch also has to do one other thing: fill in the log every hour. I know, I know, this is so old school; but my dad has insisted that on every major passage, we fill out the log. The point of a log book is to show our most recent location in case our electronics konk out and we’re lost at sea. Of course, we have many electronics that are kept up to standard and it’s very unlikely that the log book will be put to good use, but my dad insists. Recently, the log book has become almost full, so we’ve taken to filling it out at the end of each of our watch cycles, instead of every hour.
As I said, the cycle of watches and watch lengths changes boat-to-boat and case by case, depending on where you are and how many capable people are on the boat. When Dafne was fully crewed, we would have five people on the boat, but only four were able to do watch—that’s right, your girl was only 11-12 and couldn’t be trusted with a half-a-million dollar boat. So, the cycle would be three hours each. But, when Stella and eventually Cleo left, we were cut down to just my parents and me. Now, I am fully capable and trustworthy, so I’ve taken a watch schedule, but it is difficult to split watches three ways. We’ve also only had two or three serious watches where we’ve needed a watch schedule, but we’re still figuring out how that’s going to work moving forward.
Chores of Your Local Boat Girlie
So, who woulda guessed, that not only land kids have chores? That’s right, your girl has a lot of chores she has to do and knows a lot of other boat kids who are the same. However, boat chores, as you can imagine, are super different from land chores. Also, I am not a whiny child, and I understand the responsibility and work needed from me to help my parents run the boat, as they’ve done so much for me. So, I’ve never viewed my chores as “chores” and hated them, but have instead known that I contribute equally to all the work we have to do.
My chores, unlike other kids, change day-to-day. I usually do a lot of the cleaning, mostly because I enjoy it, but also because I don’t want my mom to be working so hard. We have a rotating schedule of cooking and dishes, so I do my share of those, though I do understand that my mom is a much better cook than me, so I usually do dishes more often than is equal. My dad usually puts the dinghy up and down, but sometimes I do it with him, or on my own. I help him with his repairs when he needs me, as well as carry or hold all the parts he asks of me. Many of his jobs require help, and my sisters and I have been his trusty assistants since we were little. I also do a lot of washing of the boat, as it’s a big job when we do it, and really requires the most amount of manpower. All-in-all, I am mostly the assistant and intern to my dad and try to do as much work as possible for my mom, though I leave most of the complex cooking to her.
Well, this has been my relatively brief explanation of all things boaty from a boat girlie! If you have specific questions or want to remind me of something I’ve missed, please, PLEASE, drop a comment below. Also, I would love to know if you have a fun fact you want to ask me about, as these two are the only ones I could come up with. Love y’all and hope you like my experiences as a boat kid!
O.M.G!!!! Guy’s it’s finally here! Of course, I was counting down the days, but it still felt like the SNTV release snuck up on me. Taylor’s big releases always do and I am always mind-blown by listening to them like I haven’t been given time to adjust. I’m writing this about a week and a half after the album has come out (it feels unreal to say that!).
I should start by confirming that this album has knocked my socks off and I love it forever & always. To me, that’s a given for any TS album, but it’s especially true here because Speak Now is my fave album and I’m devastated to learn that some people…don’t like it? Can that be true?! Anyway, it’s not my job to force people to appreciate a banger album when they hear one. I’m actually kind of happy SNTV hasn’t been “TikTok-ified” or popularized by the media; it means I can enjoy it without fake Swiftie trying to make small talk with me about the album. Ugh!
The album came out while I was away at camp, and leading up to the release, I did a mini countdown, as well as set up a plan for a listening party with some fellow Swifties I had discovered in the wild. It was so fun and exciting getting to camp and noticing Tay merch on some of the other students there—it immediately made us notice each other and start talking about all things TS! I’ve never really had intense Swiftie friends and it was so much fun!
We planned in advance to set up a small listening party, but a minor problem occurred. You see, we had night classes almost every day, and on the day of the release date, we were going to be in class when the album dropped at 9 PM (the camp was in LA). So, while in class, I kept sneaking looks at my phone, counting down the minutes until 9…and then had to wait another half hour before I was let out and could race back to the dorms!
Thankfully, though, my Swiftie besties and I raced back to the dorms listening to the stolen version for the last time *sniffle* and then set up camp in the communal hallway in our dorm in front of the vending machines. We listened to the first 6 or 7 tracks there before we were kicked out of the way and had to move into an empty conference room.
I will never forget listening to those first few notes of Mine and hearing her old woman vocals….agh! It was perfection and with every slight change, we freaked the frick out!! I filmed the whole thing and will include snippets of it in my podcast (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAorbv8M26I6NOgkWrDIQLw) so check that out!!
To set the record straight, I highly approve of the BTR lyric change. Taylor realized soon after releasing the OG version of the song in 2010 that the song carried the wrong message. It’s a banging song, and whenever it comes on, my feminism immediately turns off, but that one line in the chorus just isn’t the feminist queen we know Blondie is. So, I approve and support her mature decision to change it—isn’t that a perk of re-recording, that she gets to re-do things she messed up when she was younger?
Anyway, our listening party was a total bop…until we had to head back to our rooms for bed checks at 11 PM. Ugh! By that time, we had only managed to listen to the whole original tracklist and didn’t have time for the vault tracks, which sucked! But we promised to listen to them first thing tomorrow by ourselves—and that’s exactly what I did! I remember, the next morning I was so excited to listen to them, I forgot to film my reactions. But, my roommate was there watching me and I couldn’t hide how much I loved each one. They were all the exact opposite of what I expected. I totally thought Electric Touch and Castles Crumbling would be pop-rock, grungy bangers—and they were absolutely stunning, but weren’t those styles I was expecting. I Can See You on the other hand….I freaking gasped! I loved it—it gave me such hard reputation-core, I couldn’t do it. And the music video?? Per.Fec.Tion!! We love an ex-bf cameo (stan Taylor Lautner or die). I’m obsessed with Emma Falls In Love and Foolish One (they own my soul now), and Timeless is just perfect and I can’t wait to listen to it more. I can’t wait to listen to them all more!
I love that the vault tracks absolutely fit the Speak Now vibe check. Like, they’re all different from each other (some are pop, some rock, some country), but that’s exactly what the rest of SN is as well. And, the important theme of the album is storytelling—which is carried on in the vault tracks! Absolute perfection and my heart is captured by how enchanting the album is. 10000/10
