Tuesday, July 22, 2014

July, how do I love thee?


July has been a fantastic month so far. In addition to the lovely anniversary trip to Kentucky with my husband, this past weekend my dearest friend K and I drove down to Cincinnati to visit with T, one of our favorite people and oldest friends. We were all together at OSU back in the day. We had a lovely lunch at Melt, which is a fantastic place we love, and then we headed to the Cincinnati Museum to the Princess Diana exhibit.

Though none of us is a "royalist," by any stretch of the imagination, we loved the fancy dresses and shoes and tiaras. The exhibit's "narrative" is interesting, too, because, as K so aptly noted, we go from Princess Diana's birth to her marriage to her being a "single" woman to her death. No mention at all of her divorce and little mention of her sons.

I shared my memory of how, on the night Princess Diana was killed in that terrible accident, I had been on the city desk at the newspaper I worked for in Puerto Rico. I was already home when I turned the TV on and saw the story about the accident. I remember calling the late night editor to make sure we didn't go to press until we had the story on the front page. (Our newspaper already had the dubious distinction of having totally missed the story of the fall of the Soviet Union, likely being the one newspaper in the world whose front page the next day didn't have that story.) Even though I was just the local news city editor, on that night I knew we had to make darned sure we didn't make the same mistake and definitely not under my watch. So that's a night I won't readily forget.

July's greatest gift has been the unscripted time I've been able to enjoy. I am working on my research projects, especially on reconceptualizing the book manuscript, and have started to get organized for the fall semester, which will begin in about a month's time. But I've had what feels like oodles of open time to read for fun, to work out at the gym, and to take the occasional nap, when I get tired. Health wise, I've been doing great, even after stopping one of the two heart meds I was taking a week or so ago. So far, all is more than good. And July isn't even over! Hail to July!

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