I traveled in both June and July, recklessly spending my two weeks of vacation for the year within the span of weeks. I was seeing family members both trips, including two different sets of people who had moved during the pandemic and who's new places I hadn't seen yet. Very relaxing and enjoyable. Then I fled the heat (temporarily) and went north to see family and some very long acquaintances (I would call them very old friends, but they aren't really *that* old).

I got back from my second trip a week ago Sunday, and started feeling icky on Monday. A COVID test turned up negative, but I have an extremely pernicious head cold and I'm exhausted.

However, I've consumed lots of media in the course of my travels and illness!

Movies

• Faraway - the person I was with when I watched this one prefers to watch rom-coms because they are a romantic. I loathe rom-coms. We settled on Faraway, which is set in Croatia, has subtitles (some of the time) and is a bit of a riff on Under the Tuscan Sun. It was a weird and quirky little movie that made both of us happy. Highly recommend. Available on Netflix


• Elvis - everything I would expect from a Baz Luhrmann movie with a musical subject. Tom Hanks, for all he is/was America's boyfriend, does very well in the roles were he's the villain (see also: Cloud Atlas). The movie was just so very sad though. HBO Max.


• Nimona - I watched this one with zero expectations or information, other that it had started life as webcomic (?). Wow! What a brilliant movie! Highly, highly, recommend! Netflix.


• Knives Out and The Glass Onion - Yes, I've watched both of these movies before. However, we watched with the one person who hadn't see either movie and it was so much fun to sit there with him while Benoit Blanc did his thing. I also enjoyed watching the movies again to make sure that the writers and directors did the work - meaning that they showed their hand when they claimed they did. I can confirm that we saw everything that Blanc did. Amazon Prime.

TV Shows

• Julie and the Phantoms - this is my go-to comfort show. It's only 9 hours long. I still love it.


• Outer Banks S2 - I watched some of these episodes with the person referenced above, and they had this to say, "This show is exhausting." Perhaps that's why I can't seem to binge this one. I like this show a lot, love the treasure-hunting, mystery-solving, Scooby Gang aspect of it. I'm impatient with the romances, especially the central one (this is my big complaint about Shadow and Bone also). My pattern is - I get through one season, watch the first ep of the next, and then drop it for a while. However, it has inspired me to write, and I've signed up for the iddyiddybangbang with the fic.


• The Witcher S3 - apparently just part one of season three, which I did *not* realize going in and was extremely confused about where they left things. I'll have to weigh in once the season is complete.


• Never Have I Ever - I'm up to season 3 on this one. I'll have more thoughts once I finish, but I'm loving it so far.

That's pretty much it. I'm reading two books simultaneously: The Witchwood Crown by Tad Williams and Leviathan Wakes by James Corey. I'll have thoughts once I finish.