July Reflections
July in Review
It’s been a long, lonely month. I’ve been at my new job since April and the initial novelty has worn off, not to mention that business has slowed to a halt and won’t pick up again until September. My southern roots are proving useful in this unusually hot mid-Atlantic summer.
July started with the America 250 experiment. A heat wave settled over the city ruining most of the planned outdoor events. I couldn’t sleep the night of July 3 rd and walked to work at 5:30 am the next morning. It was bright and hot and my eyes stung from lack of sleep. The only group we had were marching band kids who were supposed to play in the parade. They were livid it was cancelled. They felt it was their right to march in stuffy uniforms in 101-degree heat.
Our friends bought DIY brewing equipment from an ad and their apple cider finished its fermentation process on Independence Day, as promised. Other than that, almost none of what was planned happened as it was supposed to. The skies turned in the evening and it stormed overnight. They projected AI images onto the Washington monument. The 800,000 promised fireworks didn’t start going off until July 5 th . I watched from the roof of our apartment for 15 minutes before I got bored and went to bed.
The next morning the skies were orange and the air quality index was 171. I couldn’t stop thinking about what it must be like to be a bird when we set the sky on fire.
Kenny and I celebrated 2 years (!!) on the 11 th . We got breakfast at this insanely overpriced bakery in Chinatown and then went to the Apple store so I could get a new laptop that I’ve been saving up for. We spent the rest of the day at the International Spy Museum (which was admittedly awesome). Now that I’ve written that out it doesn’t sound particularly romantic but I promise it was what we wanted to do.
I got a new haircut with a new hairdresser who I really liked but I found out he’s younger than me and I still feel weird about it. The new haircut high is starting to wear off.
Books & Movies
I read three books this month. Flesh by David Szalay was July’s book club pick. It follows a Hungarian man from age 15 though old age. There are big gaps of time in between the chapters, giving the experience of repeatedly meeting an unknown version of the main character, István. I loved the sparse writing style. I like how the reader is left to fill in the blanks of what isn’t said and come to their own conclusions. I can see why some people don’t like it (The dialogue is very repetitive and borderline boring). Do not listen to this as an audiobook.
I only read The Crucible by Arthur Miller because I had read about his marriage with Marilyn Monroe. I bought a copy a couple months ago for a dollar at a library book sale. It wasn’t something I read in English class but I can see myself enjoying it more in that setting. I sped through it to get it over with. I was moved in the end by Elizabeth and John.
White Teeth by Zadie Smith was my favorite book by far this month. I won’t say too much about it now because I can see myself making a longer post about it eventually, but I highly recommend it and will be reading more of her work in the future.
Here’s a ranking of the movies I watched this month:
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind
- The Odyssey
- Bring It On (rewatch)
- David Byrne’s American Utopia
- Toy Story 5
August TBR: The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister, which I’ve had on hold at the library since March and just got a copy of, and Words Are My Matter by Ursula K. Le Guin. I’ve been itching for writing about writing recently and this has been sitting in a stack on my floor for a couple of months. I don’t normally pick out books to read in advance (whatever book I’m reading influences my next pick), so we’ll see if I stick to this or not.
What now?
When I was little and August rolled around I would start having nightmares about going back to school. I wasn’t scared of school (I loved school), I would just make myself so anxious over what I was going to wear, what school supplies I should bring. I loved Open House Night. I loved having answers.
Now that I’m done with all of that August holds very little power. This year I’m having a hard time believing this extra month of summer has always been here. It feels like they snuck it in and thought we wouldn’t notice. But it does contain my brother’s birthday, August’s one special event (now that back-to-school day is gone).
It’s going to be August and I’m going to force myself out of the house more. I subscribed to a bunch of RSS feeds for events in the area. I need to get back into the habit of spending lots of time outside before fall starts and I’m losing daylight. Or worse, when it’s my first winter in a place that gets real winter weather. There are so many beautiful places to walk in DC and I’ve been missing out lying in bed on my laptop.
My little sister is coming to visit me the first week of the month and I think it will give me a much-needed boost. I need girl time bad. I want to try and make a friend here in DC (or at least make an honest effort). I’m also going to try and focus on spending more quality time with the lovely friends I have and not being a shut-in.
I’ve caught myself opening my phone when I have nothing else to do, a habit I had successfully broken a couple months ago. I am going to have to re-evaluate what little I have access to on there. The amount of time I am spending on my laptop is also getting a little ridiculous, but it is a shiny new toy so I don’t think that will last forever. We will see how it goes.
As always, I will try to write more and read better. I have to remember that I’m doing really well. Whenever I reach a goal or see a positive change I move the finish line before I have a chance to be proud of myself. But I’m doing really well.