July was a month of travel and transition.
The "instagram" moments were traveling to Las Vegas on July 1 to road trip to the northern rim of the Grand Canyon and camp in Zion National Park during the 4th of July. We hiked the Narrows and Angel's Landing with very little planning and preparation–I don't recommend this–and we didn't die.
This kind of last minute vacation is one of those things that's possible because you're young and relatively unattached. While I'm young and unattached, I'm going to take these opportunities as they come, even though I do get slightly stressed and often think about cancelling several days before flying out for trips like this. One day, I think I'll be proud of myself for taking advantage of this season of life I never imagined I'd have or even wanted.
Raised in the deciduous forests of the northeast, I was captivated by the Southwestern vistas. Nevada, Utah, and Arizona are other-worldly to me. We might as well have been on Mars. I'm so glad I let my best friend Alli convince me to do this trip, and have now made it a life goal to visit all of our National Parks, especially the ones out west.
I also moved into my long-term housing in Lynchburg on a Monday night. With help from my brother and my new housemates, we got the job done–load in and load out–in about 4 hours total, and feasted on frozen pizza after. But the week before moving in, I prepped and painted my room, which made the moving process feel drawn-out. With much anticipation, I was finally settling in during the last week of July.
And after a week of travel to Vegas via Richmond, in the midst of getting ready to join the Riverside household, I started a new full-time job. All of this transition has made me eager to set daily and weekly rhythms again.
Still, in spite of all the logistics, change, and new information to absorb, I managed to read one short contemporary novel, listen to a few podcasts, try not to binge the second season of my favorite teen show, and watch several movies long overdue on my watchlist. There was one album on heavy rotation that I discovered in the Las Vegas terminal before my flight home, and feels defining for this moment in my life.
So here they are!
Book: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
This was my travel/plane book, discovered as one of Jamie Knox's green lights on The Popcast. It wasn't a perfect novel, but it was good and all Haig is a Brit and I love contemporary books by Brits. Two other quick reads from the Brits that I love are Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (which I would put in a slightly higher category of literature) and The Cactus. Midnight Library was humbly poignant, about how to live well even if we have regrets, and there were little philosophical treasures throughout. I would lightly recommend this one.
Podcast: The Naked Gospel
This is the podcast of Proven Ministries, the non-profit I now work for! I'm a big fan of it. Episodes are not usually more than an hour, and Shane interviews a wide range of authors, thinkers, and everyday people. I'm trying to catch up with it, and am hopping around based on interviewee and topic. A few standout episodes are–an interview with C.S. Lewis scholar Michael Ward, an interview with Sheila Gregoire on the orgasm gap, a pre-marriage conversation between Shane and Kaylee, and, most recently, a conversation with Marshall and Cale about resources to break pornography addictions.
Show: Never Have I Ever
In the words of one of my BFF's Laura Bradshaw, Mindy Kaling's teen comedy is "the BEST SHOW to come out in the past two years, bar none." My only exception to her assessment is The Crown, but since that masterpiece lives in a completely different genre, I think they can both be the best shows to come out in the past two years.
I love everything about it. Instead of trying to convince you, why don't you just give it a try?
Film:
Audrey–a documentary on Netflix. I watched it on the plane and had to hold in my tears during the ending as we took our descent to Vegas. It's so beautiful and inspiring. I want to watch all of Audrey's films now.
Promising Young Woman–a hard watch, but not as suspenseful as I thought it was going to be. It was bright and funny, but with a dark undertone and a shocking but very good ending. Apparently the ending received criticism, but I say, sometimes we just want wrong to be made right and won't be satisfied with anything less. I like a tidy ending that's wrapped in a pretty bow.
Barb and Star go to Vista Del Mar–I will always love Kristen Wiig. This movie won't be for everyone because, boy, is it weird. But watch it with a cocktail and one of your goofier friends, and enjoy the ride.
The Boy Downstairs–for my indie friends, strictly a nostalgic film that reminded me of late nights walking through my Ft. Greene neighborhood after dinner with friends or a night at the theater. Ah, New York.
Album: Desire like Dynamite by Sandra McCracken
I discovered this early Sandra through a Rabbit Room headline. I had never heard it before, but it quickly became my favorite album of hers. I downloaded it before my flight home from Vegas, and "Go" became my anthem–for hiking Angel's Landing, for my trip out west, for my recent move and big life change. I listened to it every day for at least two weeks.