Summertime Meh
Grady and Bean prefer to be indoors as well (not really- but we tell them it’s for the best).
Honestly? I find summer to be hard. The weather, when it isn’t insufferably hot, presents an invitation to constantly be outside, which is nice except for those moments where I just want to stay indoors. I love me a rainy summer day, when the air feels and smells so nice but you can still spend most of the day inside with a book. And I love me a cozy winter day. But too much winter, with too little sun? Not great. The stress of HAVING to get outside and enjoy summer? Not great.
And the dance that takes place with older kids around this- trying to get everyone on board with going out versus staying in versus hanging with friends versus sticking with family (on and on and on). Add in the dozens of appointments that fall in the summertime, and there is just a lot of decisional fatigue (speaking for myself!). And I am saying this and I am not working a 9-5 job this summer either! Though, if I did, then maybe there wouldn’t be as much decisional fatigue because I would just have to work. There wouldn’t be as much to decide.
I remember reading that some people experience seasonal affective disorder in the summer over the winter, and this makes me chuckle a little when I think about myself, as I may have a bit of both. And where does one go from there?!
Maybe it’s because of my mixed summertime feelings, but I have had an uncanny experience of reading two books and viewing one movie these past few weeks that got amazing reviews, yet when I read them I thought, ….meh. Now, is my…meh because of my summer meh? I’m starting to feel a bit out of place about these impressions:
-Theo of Golden by Allen Levi- A lovely story, very warm and comforting. But, for me, it was too gushy for too long, and three-fourths of the way through I was ready for it to move along. I’m not sure what this says about me (I’m heartless!)
-Project Hail Mary (the BOOK) by Andy Weir- Oh my gosh, guys- I have never read a book with such unbelievably overwhelming five star reviews on Goodreads and then not liked it! But the book is just not written with much heart or emotion. The main character is undeveloped, Rocky is also not described well (I just couldn’t form him in my mind), and the emotions are described with such practicality that I couldn’t feel it (Main Character: I sobbed.).
I remember when I was in the fifth grade and we had our young author’s project, the teachers that year decided that we all needed to write about a natural disaster (which is so weird, really). But I wrote about a family stuck in an earthquake, and my eleven year old self wrote it like this: They dove under a table as the room rumbled. Pieces of ceiling came crashing down. “I’m scared,” said Sally. “I know,” said Mom. The sounds were loud. Glass fell off shelves and crashed on the floor.” (and on and on and on). Basically, the book Project Hail Mary reads this way, for 500 pages, but with math and physics added in.
If anything, we needed a Theo of Golden/Project Hail Mary mashup in terms of plot and character development. Both books would have been perfect then.
And the movie Project Hail Mary is delightful. Watch the movie, skip the book.
-The Sheep Detective- I was really excited to see this movie. I had wanted to see it in theaters desperately because it got such great reviews (again, the reviews!). It’s finally on Amazon Prime and we caught it the other night and….meh. I didn’t care for the sheep! I didn’t feel like those characters were very endearing and lovable.
What have I LIKED?
The movie Project Hail Mary, as I state above.
The book Yesteryear was fascinating.
We went and saw Toy Story 5 and it was sooo good! We’d go back and see it in theaters again. They did such a lovely job with it. 100% recommend.
My daughter and I ended up with last minute tickets to see the musical Kinky Boots, which was really fabulous. It’s such a great show about self-expression, authenticity, and love, and was very fun as well.
I finally read The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai. Oomph, that book was incredibly good and well-written, but just heart-breaking as well. Its sadness sat with me for several days.
Aside from that, we’ve watched almost every World Cup game here, and I have been grateful to have had them to organize our days around. It’s why I’ve read so much, I’ve been sitting there with my book and the games on the background.
