T G I F

Yesterday was the first Thursday that wasn't a Things I'm Loving Thursday in...a long time. We're going to try this Friday thing out, name pending of course. Here are just some of the things that have tickled my fancy over the course of the past week, so much so that I am now the type of person to say "tickle my fancy."

Glossier Super Pure Serum

So, I've already talked about this, in great detail, but I figured it deserved another shout out and some more encouragement to keep working for me. This is a serum that helps reduce redness on your face, whether it's acne or in my case, acne scarring. A lot of the facial scarring creams from my dermatologist are considered cosmetic and therefore are (1) not covered by insurance and (2) pricier. I'm on my second bottle of this already, which is my only complaint about the product, which is not actually about the product itself, but how small the proportions are. I have a couple of period breakouts at the moment, which is pretty normal, but this combined with my oral medication made the perfect team to tackle my active breakouts and the scars left my breakouts of the past.

Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia

For a split second, I thought I wasn't going to finish this book like I did with the two other library books I have at the moment that I could not get into no matter how hard I tried. It reminded me a bit of Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell and I wasn't sure if I could handle reading that book again. Also because I'm not really into comics or anything of that sort, which is a fairly big component of this book. Fear not, for you do not have to be interested in comics to like this masterpiece, you just need to like to read. Go figure. 

Eliza Mirk is Hannah Montana. Just kidding. Kind of. In real life, she's just Eliza Mirk, a shy high school student who is trying to breeze by unnoticed by absolutely everyone. She spends most of her time in her room, on her computer, which seeps into the other side of her. She's also LadyConstellation online, an anonymous illustrator and writer of a worldwide phenomenon, the Monstrous Sea webcomic, read by millions across the globe.

Eliza's bout of loneliness is interrupted by a new student, Wallace Wardland, a fan of Monstrous Sea and one of the biggest and most popular fanfiction writers of the webcomic. They become friends, naturally, and Wallace begins to draw Eliza out of her shell, introducing her to his friends (fellow Monstrous Sea fans) and subsequently keeping her from her online friends and the very thing that acts as their common thread: the comic itself. All the while, Eliza's anonymity is still kept in tact until...well, you'll just have to see.

I think this book handled a lot of things really well. First and foremost, mental illness and health, which was not overbearing, but was so subtle that it almost slipped through the cracks like it can in real life. I also love how "internet friends" were portrayed in this book, especially in a conversation at the end of the book that Eliza has with someone (gotta keep some parts of this book hush hush, right?).

Anyways, I liked this book. It was a little bit geeky and I like that sometimes. I mean, I wasn't the coolest chick in the place when I was a teenager, so sometimes it's nice (weirdly enough) to relate to a character on that level.

"Too Much To Ask" by Niall Horan

I don't even know if I'm emotionally ready to talk about this song yet. It came out at midnight and I fell asleep listening to it and woke up listening to it. Niall Horan's album Flicker comes out on October 20th and I'm not confident that I will be coherent enough to ever talk about it. Anyways, someone described this song as two drinks away from a drunk text and phone call and I have to agree. Also, he's living out my dream #Fall aesthetic in the album artwork so, yeah, another great tune from Mr. Horan, even if it wasn't the studio version of "On The Loose" that we all deserve.

Home Again

I, like the rest of the internet, am officially and undoubtedly in love with Pico Alexander. That's right, I saw it. Not the creepy clown movie It, no, Home Again starring my darling Reese Witherspoon amongst a plethora of other actors that I have collectively decided to adore because of their performance in this movie. Sure, Nat Wolff has been a low key fave since The Naked Brothers Band and a high key fave since his stints in John Green film adaptations and Jon Rudnitsky had a brief stint on an always favorite Saturday Night Live.

The film follows Alice Kinney, a woman recently separated from her husband. She relocates from New York back to Los Angeles with her two daughters, moving into her late father's house. While she's out celebrating her 40th birthday with her friends, she meets Harry (Pico Alexander) at the bar where a little bit of flirtation goes on. Or really, enough that she and her two friends end up at a table with Harry, George (Rudnitsky) and Teddy (Wolff). After a night of drinking, everyone ends up at Alice's house, where her mother discovers them. One thing leads to another and she convinces Alice to let the three struggling filmmakers stay at the house while they figure everything out.

This movie has everything my weak heart could ever want. Budding romance with Pico Alexander (y'all, he's SO HOT), brotherly love between not only the boys, but also the boys trying to take care of Alice's daughters and help them when they can, and did I mention that the freaking movie ends with "Home Again" by Carole King playing over the scene? I LOVE CAROLE KING, I WAS NOT WARNED.

It's pretty clear I can't talk about why I like things, but this movie made both me and my mom cry in the movie theater and my mom is cold hearted and never cries so...take from that what you will. (Just kidding mom. I know you're reading this. I don't think you're cold hearted. Just lukewarm hearted. LOVE YOU).

Anyways, what are some of your recent favorites?