July Favorites
A few things I enjoyed this month
Aw man, July is one of my favorite months of the year and I’m so sad it’s over. It feels like it went so fast, but then again, do you remember that week when it was Prime Day and Circle Week, and Way Day and - and - and? Doesn’t that feel like a hundred years ago? Time is fickle and so weird. July was busy and our weekends were packed with plans. It went quickly. It always does.
But now we’re landing softly into the Dog Days, which is my favorite part of the entire summer. Whatever plans I had for keeping a summer routine is completely out the window. Pringles can constitute an entire meal. My kids are sleeping in late and staying up late and playing outside all day long. The afternoons are hot and sweaty and endless. The kids are bored. Whatever, it’s great. The front end of summer is so busy, but August is for resting and being bored and in that, I’ll find my craving for structure and routines and you know, when school starts back up and the weather gets crispy, I’ll be so ready for it. That’s the magic of everything in its time.
Everything in its time. I’m keeping this mantra on top of mind because I can get so worked up, scared that summer is slipping by too quickly. Antsy that things are not progressing at work as quickly as I want. Anxious about this or that, but really, the timing has never ever failed me. On anything. It all generally happens when it should, and if it doesn’t, how would I know anyway? Onward!
1 - Rereading a few old favorites // Not so much in a reading rut, but I just didn’t feel the motivation to read lately. The phone beckons and nothing I read captivated me enough to ignore the siren’s call. So I decided to pick up and reread a few old favorites, knowing that I could slip right back into the groove with a verified slam-dunk. It did the trick! It’s so silly, I thought, to enjoy really great books only once! I reread The Good Earth by Pearl S Buck and Calypso by David Sedaris and positively tore through them like it was the first time.
2 - Banana Pudding Balm Dot Com // We all know and accept that banana laffy taffy’s are the best, right? Ha! It’s controversial because either you like them the very best, or not at all. I am a true fan of Glossier’s balm-dot-coms and added this one to my collection as a birthday gift to myself. It smells exactly like a banana laffy taffy and I am hooked!
3 - Season 6 of Sex and the City // I’m a serial rewatcher of seasons 1-3 mostly. I’ll dabble in season 4 here and there. Didn’t care for season 5 and never watched season 6. For as many times as I’ve watched the early seasons, it’s absurd that I never made it to the final. My husband was traveling for a few days and I had some TV time that didn’t require any compromising, so I binged every single episode of the last season and boy, what a treat! I find AJLT to be a total abomination that is ruining the characters (strong feelings, I know, I just hate it) so it was especially delightful to get to enjoy the original four with the original vibe, but new-to-me storylines. The Russian! I really liked him, but that sure unraveled fast!
Related: A fun read! All the boyfriends who deserved a second chance on AJLT
4 - Starting hilariously small // It’s dorky, but you know, write one sentence every day. Do five sit-ups every day. Send one text message to a friend you haven’t talked to recently once a week. We can commit to that, right? Small things, but they snowball into big things. I’m really trying to apply this to big dreams/goals and just accept that baby steps are still steps in the right direction.
5 - The Decameron // Related to my uncompromised TV watching, once I finished SaTC, I was on the hunt for something new to binge. I landed on The Decameron, which hit Netflix last summer, but I’d never seen it and folks, it’s so perfectly up my alley. It’s like 1300 or something in Italy and we’re dealing with the bubonic plague. A handful of nobles and their servants wind up at a villa in the country and as confined groups often do, they go fully buck wild. Very much black comedy because we’re obviously dealing with death, but hijinks ensue to keep it light and hilarious.
6 - Fleetwood Mac Radio // I’ve been listening to the Fleetwood Mac radio station on Spotify a lot this summer and I feel like for the rest of time, whenever I hear Dreams, I’ll think of summer 2025. I love that about music. Even if we accidentally associate it with a memory, it lives there forever. After graduating high school, one of my friends made us all a disc of pictures (lol, 2006) and had Chasing Cars as the background music. I cannot hear that song without getting emotional about the last summer all my friends lived in the same zip code.
7 - Sticking with it // Wow, what a concept! Last month, I made a goal (and printed this habit tracker) to do a quick arm and ab workout every day, and meet a 120g/day of protein intake. I guess this is related to starting hilariously small, but doing what you say you will do is such a rush! I stuck with it and dare I say I see some tone taking place in my arms? Are those mine?!
Bestsellers // I finally took myself to the doctor for an annual check-up and she told me I need more protein. Since this Marshmallow flavor was my best seller of the entire month, I’m wondering if your doctor told you the same thing? Propaganda?! IDK but it does taste delicious. A very close second is this $8 tank top we’re all wearing from Target. I have a handful of colors and it is not an exaggeration to say I wear them every single day. Glad to see so many of you taking my word for it on azelaic acid. As my internet friend Sara said, it really is THAT BITCH. My skin is changed. Oh and this is just fun - I love to see this beautiful green notebook in your cart! Finally, I love this book. I mentioned it earlier this month and a few of you took it home to enjoy too. Let’s bookclub on this one.