Happy New Year! I’ll kick off 2016 with my first Friday Five of the year.
1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens: my husband and I saw this box office record-breaker at a theater in Connecticut on Christmas Day while we were on our mini getaway…and I loved every second of it! (Zero spoilers ahead.) We saw it in 3-D, and by pre-purchasing reserved seats we also unintentionally bought tickets for D-Box, which are “immersive” theater seats that tilt, bump, shake, and vibrate in concert with the film action. I’d never heard of these seats before* and at first I thought all the motion would be annoying, but I got used to it quickly and it turned out to be fun. My husband and I both managed to completely avoid spoilers and I think doing so enhanced our enjoyment of the film. Now I totally want to see it again! Also? John Boyega is the best.
2. Making a Murderer: Netflix’s new documentary series is all anyone is talking about, and for good reason. I’m only halfway through the series so far but it has shades of the Paradise Lost documentaries, The Jinx, Capturing the Friedmans, and Serial—all of which are highly acclaimed “did they or didn’t they” pieces of journalism. For the record, I’m totally sold on the framing/police misconduct theory, but we’ll see if my feeling still stands by the end of the series.
3. My new specs from Warby Parker: these frames are my first foray with the eyeglass industry disruptor. I wear contacts but I take them out every night, so I wear glasses daily, albeit for a short time. My old glasses are about eight years old and are pretty beat up so it was time for a new pair. I thought about doing Warby Parker’s home-try on, where they send you five frames for free to try out for five days, but once I started browsing their site I realized I needed to try frames on in person. So I went to their Greene Street location and tried on what felt like a hundred pairs; I finally settled on the Annette frames (color: Striped Sassafrass). They arrived this week and I love how they look! I do need to take them to a store to get them adjusted, because they’re pretty loose on my face, but they’re very cute and shockingly affordable ($125 including anti-scratch, anti-glare prescription lenses as well as shipping).
4. New Books: I recently discovered that I had a Barnes & Noble gift card that still had a full $100 balance on it, so I did a little online book shopping to treat myself. Here’s what I selected: The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling’s nom de plume), Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson by Jeff Guinn, Yes Please by Amy Poehler, and The Girls in the Spider’s Web by David Lagercrantz (the continuation of Stieg Larsson’s Millenium series). I accidentally ordered a large print edition of the last one, so I’ll be exchanging that for a regular version. I’m very much looking forward to diving into these books this year!
5. Cribbage board handmade by my father-in-law: we received a lovely surprise Christmas present this week. My husband’s dad made us a beautiful cribbage board, complete with two packs of playing cards—one of which is zombie themed. He sure knows our tastes. 🙂 We’ve already played one game and will play many more.
*I keep wanting to call them D-Bag instead of D-Box! Maybe not the best idea for a name…
