I almost forgot to post tonight. I was getting ready to go to bed to hopefully beat this cold/allergies when I gasped. I didn’t post yet! Thank goodness we are almost at the end of March.
Today was my dad’s birthday, so after rushing home and walking the dogs I headed back across the county to my parents’s house. We had pizza and cake, and it was nice to see my family. I am the oldest of six, and we love all over NJ (and one brother is in Pennsylvania), so we don’t see each other a ton. Everyone except the Pennsylvania sibling and his family was there tonight.
After that, I drove home while listening to a very frustrating Gotham FC game that they lost 2-0. At least it’s a 3-game week, so they can redeem themselves this weekend. Once I got home we watched Abbott Elementary and The Masked Singer. Yes, I love The Masked Singer and never miss a ridiculous episode.
Now it’s definitely time to get a little more sleep than usual. Less than a week left of Slice of Life!
It’s starting to look like spring! You can’t tell from this picture, but there are buds on the trees and flowers popping up out of the ground. We still have a few weeks until the last frost, but it’s officially spring on the calendar.
There are no men’s or women’s March Madness games on tonight, so I’m catching up on TV. First up was this week’s Jon Stewart episode of The Daily Show: hysterical, as usual. After that we got back into season 2 of Paradise. I can’t really talk about the show without spoiling it, but season one was amazing (the twist!). I’m really enjoying season two, even though half the characters make me angry.
I love Marc Madness, but it does mean falling behind on everything else I watch. I need to watch the latest episodes of Shrinking, Ghosts, and How to Get to Heaven from Belfast. I am also dying to start the new version of Jury Duty: Company Retreat. I’m also weeks behind on the latest season of Law and Order: SVU, but that’s one I’ll catch up on during spring break!
Only about a week left of Slice of Life! I love the annual event, but I’m getting to the point where I feel like I don’t have anything to write about. We are also still a week away from spring break, and the days are crawling. I think everyone at school is more than ready for break. Once we get back from break it’s practically the middle of April, which means it’s almost May, and that means it’s almost June and the end of the year!
I don’t have any specific plans during break, but I’m looking forward to relaxing. Watching the news and seeing all the long lines at the airports is making me glad I’m not flying anywhere. Hopefully, things will get better and the security lines will get shorter.
In the meantime, I have lots of books and TV shows to catch up on after watching hundreds of hours of basketball this weekend.
Today I saw Project Hail Mary. I read the book a few weeks ago and highly recommend it. The only reason I hadn’t read it earlier is because everyone said the audiobook is incredible; unfortunately it’s an Audible exclusive and has been since it was published in 2021. Audible exclusives aren’t even available for libraries to purchase!
The movie was great! I think the book is slightly better because it goes a little deeper into some aspects, but the film is a really good adaptation. Visually it is stunning. The music is perfect. And the acting is top-tier. I’m shocked they didn’t wait to release this closer to the next Oscar season because Ryan Gosling gives an Oscar-worthy performance. Hopefully, they campaign for the film next year. The score should also be nominated!
As an adaptation, they kept the heart of the story and added a few scenes I think make the story better. There were a few changes I felt less positive about, but overall it’s worth seeing.
Since coming home I’ve been watching basketball. There’s nothing better than a 9-seed knocking off a 1-seed!
Today’s games have been great. Maybe not great for my bracket, but the magic of March is the madness! We got some madness this weekend and came close to chaos!
Iowa just made the Sweet Sixteen for the first time in 27 years. No one on the team was alive the last time the team made it that far. Incredible!
At least my women’s NCAA bracket is doing a little better.
The day started with a 3-mile dog walk at Allaire State Park. We hadn’t been there in a while, so it today was a perfect day to get back there. The village was just getting set up for Easter; they had some Easter bunny decorations and some spring decorations.
After the walk I decided to try a new coffee shop in Brick. I had seen some reviews on social media, and it lived up to the reviews. I tried the After Dark, an iced mocha with mint cold foam and it was great.
On the way home I dropped off a few donations at Goodwill. Then I made it home to eat leftover pizza and watch March Madness and Gotham soccer. Texas’s win wasn’t great for my bracket, but an 11-seed winning is always fun! Hoping High Point can bust a few more brackets tonight, too.
Between games I had to go food shopping and make dinner. I watched Gotham play to a draw and now I’m flipping between games. I almost fell asleep before posting this, but thankfully I remembered!
Woohoo! Yesterday I scored Banana Ball tickets! I’ve been trying to get tickets for almost three years and finally got picked in the lottery. If you aren’t aware of Banana Ball, it started with the Savannah Bananas, based in Savannah, Georgia, who play a variation of baseball that features unique rules and in-game entertainment. You might have seen the Savannah Bananas players on social media- they sing, dance, and do trick plays during games. 2026 will be the league’s inaugural season (previously the games were more like exhibitions), and they are playing all over the country.
Back in October they announced that the Party Animals would be playing against the Loco Beach Coconuts at BlueClaws Stadium. I entered the lottery and waited. And waited. And waited. I justly figured I hadn’t been picked again when March came and I hadn’t heard anything. Then I got an email a few days ago telling me I was picked to have an opportunity to buy tickets. This was farther than I’d gotten in the past. The email listed a specific date and time when I could try my luck at getting tickets.
I was stressed and set up an account with my payment info on their website before the purchase date. At the prescribed time I clicked on the link they sent me, and it took me to a countdown page that said I was in group 3 of 6, so it seems like they stagger the purchase time for groups of people. It did say there might not be a lot of tickets available, so I was a little worried. Then the website refreshed and asked me how many tickets I wanted. I said 2, hit pay, and was done in about 10 seconds. You don’t pick seats – I guess they are randomly assigned later. Every seat was $35.
It was pretty stress free, though I’m sure being in an early group helped. I was shocked with how smoothly it ran. The organization created their ow ticket app this year, so that’s probably part of it.
So in June I’ll get to see some Banana Ball up close! We have Phillies tickets in May, August, and September, so it will be a baseball-filled summer!
Imagine that black square is a game on YouTubeTV (which doesn’t allow screenshots)
Happy March Madness! As of 9:32pm my bracket is perfect. That will change in about 5 minutes when SMC loses, but I should get the rest of tonight’s games (barring anything crazy happening). Until the SMC game ends I can revel in the fact that according to ESPN only .86% of brackets remain perfect, and I have one of them!
I’ve been a March Madness fan for most of my life. I love college basketball, I love making brackets, and I love watching a mid-major take down a Power 5 school.
I also love the memes.
But truly, there is nothing better than hours and hours of basketball. Watching 1-seed Duke almost lose to 16-seed Siena. Cheering for a random guy no one had ever heard of 10 days ago who suddenly is an American hero. Yelling at a guy making a million in NIL money who misses multiple free throws in a row. It’s March, baby!
We watched the first games during period 5 today. Then I raced home and walked the dogs while flipping between multiple games on my phone. The only downtime was between 6-7 when I was making and eating dinner. It’s almost 10pm and there are still a few games to go today.
Yes, I am a Miami Ohio alum. I earned my MA degree through Project Dragonfly; more specifically, I participated in the AIP program. As the website explains, “Advanced Inquiry Program (AIP) is an accredited master’s degree program that fosters professional leadership, participatory education, sustainability, and conservation in the U.S. AIP students combine online courses from Miami University with extraordinary learning experiences and field study at premier zoos and botanical gardens in select communities across the nation.”
So no, I have not actually visited the Miami campus. However, that’s because my campus was the Bronx Zoo (and the other zoos in the Wildlife Conservation Society)! My online classes were through Miami while all my in-person classes took place at the zoo or aquarium.
A photo I took during class. I got to know the gorillas really well because our main classroom was in their exhibit!Tracking diamondback terrapins at Jamaica Bay
Miami also has another hybrid program, called the Global Field Program, where you earn your MA by traveling to different conservation projects around the world. There are sites in Borneo, Australia, Mongolia, Belize, and much more. You can check out the field programs here. Just something to keep in mind when you are looking at grad schools…
So that’s the long story about why I am rooting for Miami Ohio tonight. Rutgers is (once again) not in March Madness, so Miami is my emotional pick. Until a few days ago they were undefeated for the season! Here’s hoping they can make it past the first four game tonight.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I saw a post on social media that reminded me that 3 years ago today the Eras Tour began in Glendale, Arizona.
I had already lost the Ticketmaster war month earlier, so I was happy to discover a bunch of TikTok lives late at night where I could watch the stream. Thus began my almost nightly watch of the surprise songs section. Months later, I would start playing some of the guessing games about which color dress she’d wear and which 1989 set she’d choose, and soon I build a whole online community around the concert. I’ve been a Swiftie since debut (yes, I am that old), and I’d been to previous tours, but watching the streams made me even more determined to witness the Eras Tour in person.
A few months later, while on a nature walk with my summer camp kids, I scored a single ticket to the Eras Tour in Dublin, Ireland after losing the war for Edinburgh and London. My seat at Aviva Stadium was in the 100-level, which never would have happened in the US, and cost less than $150 USD because Europe has such strict rules about ticket sales and resales. We could learn a few things from them!
Me, moments after securing a ticket.
The concert was a year later, but it didn’t matter. I spent the year planning a trip to Iceland with a stop in Dublin for the weekend so I could see the show. When school ended in June, my husband and I headed to Iceland for a few days. It was incredible and quickly became my favorite place in the world. Maybe I’ll reminisce on that later this month…
After three days in southern Iceland, we hopped on a plane for the quick flight to Dublin. We’d been to Dublin a few times before, so when I managed to get a ticket to the concert I immediately reserved a hotel room. By a stroke of luck we had stayed down the street from the stadium years earlier when we got engaged in Ireland, so I booked the same hotel. We were literally a stone’s throw from the stadium!
We were only in Dublin for about 48 hours and arrived a day before the concert. I was afraid any delays would mean missing the concert, so better safe than sorry. We had already done most of the touristy stuff in Dublin, so I booked a kayaking trip in Dublin Bay for the morning of the concert. We picked up some concert merch (the blue crewneck!) from the store set up in a local venue, and then we headed to Dublin Bay. Kayaking was awesome! We paddled around the bay and even got to see a bunch of the resident seals! We als
And then it was time for the concert!
It’s so hard to describe how amazing the concert was. I could only get one ticket, so I went alone. My husband hung outside and went back and forth between the park around the stadium and the hotel. I’m not exaggerating when I say the hotel was a 3-minute walk from the stadium!
I met some nice Irish folks sitting near me, and once the concert started it didn’t matter who you were with- the entire stadium was a huge community. There is absolutely no feeling quite like screaming “All Too Well (TMTV)” and “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” with thousands of fans. The last time I saw Taylor Swift in concert was the Red tour, so this had “been a long time coming”, to say the least.
My surprise sings were “State of Grace” and “You’re On Your Own, Kid” on guitar, followed by a mashup of “Sweet Nothing” and “hoax” on piano (the first time “hoax” was played on tour). If you had asked me my dream surprise song I would have told you “You’re On Your Own, Kid“, but I never thought she’d play it. I almost lost my mind when she transitioned to the chorus!
Over 3 hours of singing, dancing, and friendship bracelet trading later, it was over. Somehow, time flew by. There’s actually some research about why we sometime experience “amnesia” after long-awaited events, and the psychology behind the phenomenon is really interesting. Luckily, I have lot of photos and videos, plus tangible reminders like friendship bracelets. On the plane home the next morning, a lot of the flight attendants were talking about listening to the concert outside the stadium and lots of passengers were wearing their blue crewnecks! A sweet girl from Ireland walked up and down the aisle trading friendship bracelets with passengers, and the flight attendants were also trading! It was magical!
So happy anniversary, Eras tour! Thankfully, we have two concert movies to watch and a behind the scenes documentary. I still miss the fun of watching livestreams and predicting the surprise songs, though! And the cities that hosted the tour certainly miss the massive amounts of money they made!
Earlier today, the weather forecasts seemed pretty dire. Heavy downpours, gusts up to 70 mph, and potential tornadoes were being predicted. The district canceled all after-school activities, so I rushed home to squeeze in a dog walk before the storms arrived. It was humid and windy when I got home, but I was able to get a 1.5 mile walk done. Right as we finished up, the raindrops started to fall. We ended up getting some torrential downpours before dinner, but then it quieted down. It looks like we may get some wind and rain overnight, but the forecasted tornadoes seem to be less of a risk. Now it’s back to cold weather (at least overnight) for a few days.
I’m glad spring break isn’t this week! The weather caused a ton of delays and cancellations at the airports, and the partial government shutdown has made security/TSA lines hours long at some airports. It sounds like a nightmare.
Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day, so I need to go find my outfit. I’m very Irish, so this silly holiday is always fun. Plus, it falls in the middle of the longest month of the school year- March. March rarely has any breaks and it’s months away from the last break (winter). I’ll take any joy I can during this month!
The Reading Zone 
