Cool jazz, hot jazz

John and I rented a car and drove to Newport for the jazz festival last week.

The upside is that most of the weekend we had fantastic weather for lazing on the beach and listening to some great music.
The downside is that even with all the public transportation options here, there are obviously still too damned many people with cars. Traffic was horrific getting in and out of the city, and a cold, unrelenting rain on our drive out didn't help.

But by Saturday, it warmed up. Surprisingly so. We were roasting at the jazz festival, which thankfully had a shade tent where we lounged and just enjoyed some downtime.

We had a fantastic time, even if next time I might be willing to pass on the Mustang convertible John scored in favor of a leisurely train ride and walking around the downtown of Newport.












Promgate


I've been really busy at work, and probably will be for another month or so, with a huge project that's due mid-September. It's interesting stuff, really challenging and I hope worthwhile, but it's meant that I haven't had tons of spare time evenings or weekends.

I tried my best to leave work behind while we were in Newport, so instead of reading financial forecasts for the media industry, instead I read a draft of Lara's new novel, Promgate.

I won't spoil it for you, but suffice to say that Lara could become a later day Judy Blume. It's a young adult story with scandal, intrigue, conflict and yes, even sex. It's still in its early stages but already it's such a good read that I tore through nearly the whole thing on our four-day weekend.