Booked and Busy

Carly Martin

30 May 2025 — 4 min read

Hi folks, happy Friday! As you're reading this gorgeous edition of The Overthink, I'm en route to Acadia for bestie Juliana's bachelorette weekend. Hit us up if you have recs for downeast or midcoast Maine.

Musings

A few weeks ago, Nat and I were lucky enough to be snuck into a Muse Paintbar class for free taught by none other than bestie Matt Baynes. This was an extracurricular experience like no other. Not only were we given a highly personalized lesson, but the teacher kept slipping us tastes of the best and the worst drinks off the non alcoholic menu. None of them were good but the cherry punch was next level awful.

Our lesson was supposed to be for a couples painting of the city skyline but our instructor encouraged us to do whatever we wanted with our time. Telling the class to "take the paper towels," he didn't care. "They're not mine!" he told the room.

This is what we ended up with:

Now, we had a great time because we had bestie Baynes as our instructor, but this was a couples class and we noticed that at least a few of the couples in our class were definitely on first dates. IMO, this is a terrible first date. You don't really get to talk, you're trapped in this activity for 2+ hours, you're stuck with half of a group painting at the end, and if there's a big discrepancy in ability it's maybe not a fun time for at least one party. Sound off with your worst first date ideas in the comments.

The Reading Nook

Folks. Since we last spoke, I've finished not one, but TWO books. The first was Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid and the second was The Last True Poets of the Sea by Julia Drake.

Daisy Jones and The Six – The plot of this book followed the formation of a band in the late 60s through their short lived but successful career. The concept was interesting, the documentary-style narrative structure was kinda fun because I could see the confessionals and the live shots and everything in my head, but it did almost feel like it was written with the intention of it being picked up and made into a movie or tv show. I felt that the characters fell a little flat and overall I could see the vision but was kinda dull for me. I watched the limited series that came out in 2023 with Riley Keough and Sam Claflin which I thought was going to be made more exciting for tv but I ended up bored. I give the book 3/5 stars.
The Last True Poets of the Sea – This book was a YA coming-of-age about a troubled sixteen-year-old girl from NYC who's sent to live with her uncle in northern Maine for a summer in the wake of her twin brother's suicide attempt. This one was very sweet and beautifully written. The book is from the perspective of Violet, the troubled teen in question, as she navigates her unexpected summer getaway in the wake of this awful familial tragedy. I loved Violet's voice as the narrator throughout, I felt like the writing was very accurate to the inner world of a young girl without crossing into any over-exaggeration of the high-school experience. This was very touching and I would highly recommend to anyone looking to get the warm and fuzzies with their beach read this summer. 5/5 stars.

Garden Ho(e)s

Nat and my apartment has a little woodchipped yard on the side and we have jumped into the deep end with gardening as we have finally entered into real spring. We have some spinach and arugula, two tomato varieties, a blackberry bush, some jalapenos, and a litany of wildflowers that we are attempting to grow throughout our few garden boxes.

The oldies might be onto something with the gardening thing. I love sticking my hands in the dirt. Don't get me started on how satisfying filling a leaf bag with weeds is.