Hello, hello! How have you been? August is coming to a close, and so summer comes to an end. Having had things on my plate and the inability to write about all the things and trying to be slightly content with what I’ve put out, the recaps have been put on hold. So here we go, a full blown summer recap. Slightly doom-and-gloom, as per usual, but I really tried this time.
Well, ok, let’s not start of all self-deprecating. But for real though, it was a weird summer! It all started for me with a week of suicides. Several public figures like Kate Spade, Anthony Bourdain and other committed suicide at the start of this summer and people were shook. Me? Well I was triggered as fuck, but I also felt relieved that this was a thing now that people (even only temporarily) talked about. It made the rest of my summer all that more memorable I think.
You see, this summer was about opening up, getting more conscious of the seriousness of mental health (and my own in particular), realising…a lot and well — getting out and about with my friends and family. I think getting out and about despite work, insomnia and feeling miserable 80% of the time was some kind of breakthrough for me. Aaaaaand sure, it had something to with the damned heat of this summer. Whoever claims that climate change isn’t a real thing should educate themselves a bit more broadly.
At the end of summer there was a death in the family, so we drove to a little countryside-town in the Lorraine region of France to attend the funeral. It was all kinds of special and interesting, especially when we had a little reception after the funeral and an 98 year old man poured my sister and me a glass of white — which I both drank because my sister doesn’t drink — twice. Basically because politeness, funerals and soaring surges of unhandled feelings. Alcohol is never the answer, but it made me sleepy on the way home so that was pretty great.
I am wondering if I was being too sour in this recap, but really… sometimes it’s hard to write about the hard things. Yet it is better to try than to only write about the good things and ignore the storms inside and act like all is fine.*
So, onto the books I read this summer! Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut, Secrets for the Mad by Dodie Clark, The Undervalued Self by Elaine N. Aron, I’ve Got This Round by Mamrie Hart, The One that Got Away by Melissa Pimentel, Fully Functioning Human (Almost) by Melanie Murphy, Utopia by Thomas Moore, How To Live Like Your Cat by Stephane Garnier, The Shape of Ideas by Grant Snider, Perfect Timing by Jill Mansell, Immortal Poems of the English Language (edited) by Oscar Williams and The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down by Haemin Sunim. See more over on Goodreads.
Films seen:
1. Before We Go
2. Le Ballon Rouge
3. The Incredible Jessica James
4. The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
5. Demi Lovato: Simply Complicated
6. Paul
7. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
8. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
9. Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things
10. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
11. Crazy Rich Asians
12. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
13. The Girl On The Train
14. Set It Up
No re-watches this summer surprisingly, see Letterboxd for more details.
Also yes, that means that only this summer I have seen the LOTR trilogy for the first time in my life, ever.
Yes. Let that sink in.
Most listened-to tracks of the summer:
Childish Gambino – Summertime Magic
Tom Misch – Disco Yes
Neil Frances – Teardrops
Emily King – Sleepwalker
Electric Guest – Bound To Lose
Matt Maeson – Hallucinogenics
*PSA to myself.
