I’ve had both a stressful and eye-opening July in my real life. First, the writing job fell through because we had lost our client who is moving out of state, so I’ve technically been out of work for the past month. At least from that job. I still have my part-time retail job, but I’ve not had the best time there, and I’m coming up on my two-year anniversary there. So I’ve been job-hunting yet again, this time for a full-time job opportunity, and it’s been taking a toll on me because there are times where I don’t know where I’m off to next. And I know it’s supposed to take time, but I wish I could see a way out of this.
On a positive note, I caught up with Sourav, an old friend from college, and I forgot how liberating talking about how crappy your life is! At least with a friend whom you haven’t seen in forever, like 3 years! But anyway, we had a great conversations about relationships, work, careers, family, just all-around things going on in our lives. He’s a tech/ public policy guy, so everything he says comes from an analytical perspective, so very straight-to-the-point, which is not a personality trait I’m used to from my friends. A lot of my closer friends are more passive-aggressive and you have to work around their walls to know what they’re saying. But with Sourav, it’s both challenging and inspiring to talk to him because he helps break me out of my shell. He’s moving to Washington, DC in August, and I’ll miss him so much, but that just shows that I need more friends like him in my life.
Additionally, I started doing yoga. I’ve never been a person who liked working out; I’ve tried the gym a few times, and it never stuck to my daily routine. I also did dance when I was in college, but that ended when I graduated last September. However, since talking with my other friend Angela and her yoga experience, she had inspired me to find a good yoga studio in my town for beginner classes. I take them from the Satsang Yoga Studio in Westfield, NJ and the teachers there are really nice and helpful.
While my personal life has been really ridiculously overwhelming, my blogging life has somewhat been flourishing! Not only have I had time to read 2 audiobooks and an ARC, but I curated my first roundtable with my new friends for Do Negative Reviews Mean More Attention? At first, I didn’t think I’d ever do it, because I was supposed to go on another platform. But when my time with them ended, I had to make a choice to either scrap the whole thing or post it here. And I’m so glad I did it, because it showed that I do have what it takes to make original content.
I’ve been sort of hiding behind weekly memes and occasional discussion posts, that after 4 years of writing on this platform, I just needed something different. Even if the topic isn’t popular or relevant on the outside, it’s still important to me. And it can also be important for someone else.
Weekly Prompts
Book Blogger Hop – Each week the hop will start on a Friday and end on Thursday. There will be a weekly prompt featuring a book related question. The hop’s purpose is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, befriend other bloggers, and receive new followers to your own blog.
POSTS
july-13-19: a clean-blog-is a happy blog
july-20-26: my-biggest blogging moment
Top 5 Wednesday – Created by Lainey from GingerReadsLainey and now hosted by Samantha from ThoughtsonTomes, this week’s entry describes our top 5 favorite fandom items.
POSTS
future-classics
books-ive-removed from my TBR
my-fantasy-road trip books
Top 5 Tuesday – Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme where I explore different topics. If you are interested in participating I would love to have you! Here is a list of my Upcoming Topics in July – please remember to ping back a specific post of mine so I get a notification and I will add you to the participants list!
POSTS
books I want to reread
books-ive-read-because-of booktube/blogging
IHeartCharacters Meme – My new friend and name-twin, Dani from Perspective of a Writer, has created a new weekly meme to share our favorite characters.
POSTS
irene-from-the sun is also a star needs more screen time
Coming Next Month
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Fragments of Ash by Katy Regnery (Xpresso Tours) – August 3
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Audiobook Review: Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older
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ARC Review: Nocturnal Meetings of the Misplaced (the real review, this time!)