Jul-Sep 2022

 July

1: paying respects to the rare pigeon
2: trying to uncover the life of the enigmatic (and beloved) author LJ Maas
3: dodging an irrepressible new coworker
4: climbing up the foothills & looking out over the city 
5: the start of Zak George's RV life adventures
6: letting Tim (my native New Mexican coworker) read over my Spanish-language book review
7: taking the pups for a walk in the bosque
8: a quick ice cream sandwich
9: Taco Cabana for lunch 
10: lamenting that someone willfully gave up an autographed LJ Maas book (but amazed I got it for such a steal)
11: digging up some Alan Singley
12: an unconventional book repair (involving many layers of color-matched cardstock)
13: interview practice on my breaks
14: What If You & Me
15: their faces for treats
16: tallying what 501 Must-See movies we've seen & what 501 Must-Read Books we've read
17: Matt finding Yusuf/Cat's TikTok
18: park picnic
19: the (as I'm coming to recognize) signature sarcastic humor of LJ Maas
20: when Inclusive Ninja is still problematic
21: running to escape the sprinklers
22: tidbit writing inspiration 
23: running inside to escape the sudden downpour (with the girls stopping to shake off every three seconds)
24: Matt asking my permission to eat the vegan ice cream 
25: Dora nosing and chewing her way to the treats hidden under the shirt
26: the critique group raising the important question of why my characters are always meeting over food
27: a staff run-through of the escape room my coworker put together
28: encounters with polite men out with their dogs
29: the spooky jazz-sesh journey of 50 Words for Snow
30: "eavesdropping" on a fraught relationship conversation (so, like lurking on relationship_advice irl)
31: nighttime playground hijinks

 August

1: flipping between the audiobook and ebook depending on my work station (or if I'm on break)

2: getting unreasonably riled up about an epilogue (which concludes the stories of all the trilogy's characters)

3: jamming to my brother's newest album, "odyssey"

4: a hike in the eastern Sandias

5: braiding my hair with beads

6: the trilogy not ending as badly as I remembered

7: tracks 4-6 from Pagans in Vegas

8: the slightly entertaining parallels between the neighbors and our old roommates (re: stupid fighting)

9: a coworker fangirling over Bridgerton

10: Tim modeling the squid hat I got in the summer reading staff prize goodie bag

11: the sound of a sudden downpour (& hailstorm)

12: tinkering with the resume 

13: cookout + game night @ Jeremy's (or, hanging out with coworkers outside of work)

14: a walk around a downtown block to pass the time

15: helping pick tomatoes from the free-range library vines

16: generously interpreting a story as "a character study into an unlikable man"

17: journaling by booklight & candle ambiance

18: the... range of talent on Junior Bake Off

19: audiobook while hair styling

20: a skunk standoff (luckily through glass)

21: chatting with my grandma over the phone

22: gold evening light shimmering through rain-studded leaves

23: that the dogs got to have their fun tearing into a trash bag

24: the student loan forgiveness news

25: the gremlin spying on me from down the hall

26: "Misty" & others matching the vibe of a cautious, contemplative drive through a downpour

27: retail therapy at Goodwill & Lowe's

28: sufficiently entertaining distraction, even if the story's pretty meh

29: spending almost $10 to send a debit card through certified mail that will no longer be active by the time it reaches its recipient

30: one year at my current workplace

31: a lunch-break stroll to the Walgreens for some lunch accoutrements (i.e., chips)

 September

1: an unaccounted-for blip of oblivion

2: a well-wishes text from a coworker

3: Walmart skeleton photo edits

4: family Costco outing

5: rewatching The Vicar of Dibley after so many years

6: yet another killer Goodwill work outfit

7: Celeste raving to me about Van Leeuwen vegan ice cream

8: purging yearbooks

9: Paul Giamatti narrating an audiobook

10: staff run-throughs of the '80s trivia

11: some of Matt's writing enthusiasm rubbing off & getting inspired for a new tidbit

12: feeling justified about a DNF (after scouring for negative reviews)

13: taking bets on which patron put 25 volumes of a manga series on hold

14: Jeremy making vegan apple cake

15: recollection of the Beyond coming back to me in spurts of muscle memory

16: dogs leaping through the desert brush

17: being invited back for a cuppa after the end of the 'making masala chai' class

18: crouching before the window, chin on the sill, to take in the night breeze, and the mournful windchime, and to be wrapped in the billowing curtain's soft shroud

19: swapping out the first consonant of different names with "J" (but still loving Jimothy and Jassachusetts most of all)

20: the inevitable last minute packing rush

21: the furthest Izi & I have ever traveled together

22: overlooking the valley of chirping prairie dogs

23: seeing my grandma after seven years

24: hiking up the wooded hill to take in the valley views

25: deer-watching from the deck

26: touches of fall color in the Grand Teton Nat'l Forest

27: a hike autour du lac (the String Lake Loop, to be precise)

28: spooky cool photo-op at the Frontier Prison Museum

29: riding an e-scooter around downtown neighborhoods & along the creek trail

30: return to familiar roadways