Happy Spring Break! We made it! As of 2:30pm today I am on spring break until April 7th. I’m not going anywhere over break, but I have a long list of things to do: books to read, hikes to take, and coffee shops to visit. Plus, there’s a lot of March Madness remaining.
After work I took the dogs for a walk before ordering dinner. Lenten Fridays mean no meat, so tonight’s dinner was fish tacos. We tried a new place, though what I really wanted was Surf Taco. Sadly, the Surf Taco in Jackson closed and the remaining locations are all at least 30 minutes away.
Dinner was good, and now I’m settled in watching basketball. I’m looking forward to a bunch of days ahead with similar plans!
Happy Spring! The flowers are starting to bloom in the yard, and today it was 80° when I got out of school. A more average spring temperature would be nice, but I’m happy to see the flowers.
We have one more school day until spring break! The time between winter and spring break is the longest part of the year because we have so few days off, so everyone is very ready for some time away from the building. I’m not doing anything crazy for break- just enjoying time at home- but I’m ready to forget about work for a few days!
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.
The Reading Zone 