June 2024 | Life Lately
We’re really into summer now, aren’t we? I have spent months in the lead up, longing for warm weather that just hasn’t appeared yet. I wonder, is it rainy everywhere? This is how self-centered I am; I spent most of June feeling personally victimized by the weather, as if it was out to get me. It rained most weekends and I’ve been a little sour that there hasn’t been any beach days that coincide with weekend days. I looked at the weather for the 4th today and what do you know, rain all weekend. The bad luck of it all finally got to me - all I could do was shrug. Can’t control the weather, I thought. I guess that’s healthy, getting to a place of acceptance. I’ll try to enjoy any pockets of sun and be grateful for it.
I’m not particularly woo-woo, but every once in a while, I think the universe teaches me something. Like this. You get what you get. Anyway, onward!
Highs and Lows
High: I picked up running at the end of May and really stuck with it in June - and I’m proud of that! For a long time, I prided myself on managing my body/weight with diet, but as I get older (and with my birthday coming up) I’m really feeling the “use it or lose it” adage. I found a couch-to-5k program to follow on Pinterest and while I”m nowhere near being able to run a 5k, I’ve stayed consistent, getting 5 days of exercise in every week. It feels good! I was shaving my legs a couple days ago in the shower and was like, wait, is that a…..muscle….in my calf?! Friends, I think it is.
Low: Work, and it’ll stay that way through the summer. I have a somewhat seasonal job and summertime is our busy season, so it’s just a stressful, power-packed couple of months that I need to suffer through. Is what it is!
Reading
Summer is my reading season. I just manage to consume a lot of books at the beach, or sitting on the deck. You’d think winter time would be good for that, but maybe because there’s no new TV in the summer? Idk. Anyway, I read four books in June -
The Woman in Me by Britney Spears | Look, you don’t read this because it’s a literary masterpiece. You read it because here’s a person with a whopper of a story to tell. It reads like one long Instagram caption, covering Spears’ childhood in Louisiana, through the early 00’s at her peak, into motherhood and marriage, and that horrible conservatorship that was such a blatant and obvious conflict of interest. It made me sad honestly, which seems par for the course whenever I read about pop stars. Just seems like being famous is not as shiny as it looks.
No Country for Old Men by Corman McCarthy | I mean, it’s a good story, but I think I’m too stupid to really read this kind of writing. It’s just complicated and made even more so by the lack of GD punctuation. I don’t understand that stylistic choice, but whatever. The movie is good and that’s my preferred method for consuming this particular tale about Llewelyn, a man who stumbles on a drug deal gone wrong, grabs the money, and spends the rest of the book running from a crazy person who is trying to collect that money back. The hook is good, right?
The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls | A strong B+. I came in a big fan of Walls from having read The Glass Castle, which was top tier, so my expectations were really high. But it is a good story! Liz and Bean are two sisters, abandoned by their flighty mother in California, so they hop on a bus to the only place they can think of: their mother’s family home in one of the Carolinas (I forget where exactly). Their Uncle Tinsley is still in residence and takes them in. The book feels like a warm cozy hug.
The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris | In the final days of the Civil War, George employs two recently freed brothers, Landry and Prentiss, to help him grow peanuts. His own son, Caleb, is believed to have been killed in the war, but all is not as it seems. It’s not quite a saga, but a lot happens in this book and it’s very engaging. One silly thing I loved was the polite dialog even when two people were arguing. Gentlemen in verbal battle!
Enjoying
LOL at me, trying to “get dressed” and feel cute more often. I noticed that I definitely have a uniform: t-shirt of varying sleeve lengths, tucked into jeans. Add in flip-flops and off we go.
I guess there was that one day I put on a skort. Wild day, ha!
But it was fun! And knowing I would snap a picture did give me motivation to branch out of my uniform stuff and actually wear some of the things I impulse buy when I think I might feel like a different woman some morning. I’m particularly proud of the tank + white kick flares get-up I wore because it’s a real break from skinnies + t-shirt that I usually gravitate to.
Oh and PS, since I’m a runner now (lololol) I also have a running uniform. I guess I’m still learning about myself, and one thing I’ve picked up this summer is that I’m a gal who figures out what she likes and then goes for it 100%.
Can I share with you one of my great loves? Maybe a lot of people’s great loves - it’s not that unique - but GD do I love going out to eat. Or get a drink. Or just a snack or something. It feels so luxurious to sit somewhere and enjoy an ambiance. I can center my entire day around something like that, even if it’s small.
There’s this great meadery/brewery a few miles away from home that serves flights of mead and beer, makes pizzas, and has a big lawn with a bazillion picnic tables all over the place. It’s awesome. Sometimes they’ll have live music out on the lawn, and there’s always a bunch of kids running around. Super family friendly but with booze. So obviously we love it.
I guess it’s helpful to mention that I live in a really touristy area too. I’m in Northern Michigan, really close to Lake Michigan, so I’m pretty lucky in that there’s a lot of really cool places to hang out. They’re meant to attract the tourists, but I don’t mind the crowds that much, so I’ll barrel right on in. I will say that May and September are the best months here, because it’s usually nice weather, but tourist season is slowing down and that’s when locals can really enjoy our local spots. Not complaining about the tourist culture though - tbh, I live in a beautiful place and if I didn’t, I’d want to visit too!
LOL at this tip jar. Very Michigan on-brand.
Shopping
You know, I feel like shopping slows down a lot in the summer, and that’s probably not just me. I guess Circle Week, Prime Day, Way Day and all the other bananas sales that pop up in July are big corps trying to hype up some kind of shopping frenzy while we’re all just trying to get a buzz on a boat or whatever.
Anyway here’s a couple things I bought without regret this month -
This Bistro Table set from Target | I have tiny front porch and I usually set up shop on the stoop with a book and a drink to watch my kids play in the front yard. This table set is relatively small and fits on the porch perfectly, giving me a slightly more ergonomic place to set up and enjoy my book + bevvie.
Hydrapeak 32oz Mug - Amazon | I didn’t plan to become a big cup girl, but the efficiency is unmatched. Fill ‘er up twice and consider my job done for the day.
Carnival of Snackery by David Sedaris | Not new, but new to me and I enjoy every single word that David Sedaris puts on a page, as evidenced by viciously consuming his book of diary entries at warp speed.
Muk Luks Rubber Slides from Amazon | Bought on a rec from My.Sister.Made.Me.Buy.It and Sarah was not wrong. They’re rubber, so I tromp around to the beach and equally, the grocery store in these. I don’t have to care if they get wet. They’re so comfortable. These are the shoe of the summer for me.
Proof of enjoyment: the bistro table and the book I’m obsessed with right now -
Plus the sandals I don’t take off.
Happy July, friends! I leave you with this promise from the Chinese buffet I went to last week -
IDK what my goal is exactly, but GD it, I shall focus!
