Weekly Journal 7.13.26
Reading
After a few days of walking past my remaining To Be Read books from the library and not feeling drawn to any of them, I decided to trade them in for something new. Surprisingly, I picked up another novel from the library and enjoyed it from the beginning. It's a story about an alien abduction ... maybe. So far we've identified two characters who reportedly were seduced by a mysterious beam of light from the sky before they disappeared. The book is called Take Me With You by Steven Rowley.
The online literary mag Five Minutes has begun posting the winners of this summer's micro-memoir marathon contest (into which I entered six or seven stories, none of which won). I loved this 100-word beauty called "I Already Ate."
Narratively mag also published an essay that I enjoyed: "You've Got to Keep Going Till It Bleeds."
Watching
I've been rewatching Girls 5eva as comfort food. It's extremely silly and quippy, like all shows produced by Tina Fey and Robert Carlock. Sara Bareilles plays the most grounded and therefore least funny (to me) character, but she may be my favorite part of the show because she is a gem whom I admire a lot as an artist. She came out of Humboldt County, California, when I was attending college there and I remember when her first single, "Love Song," started to get radio play. Power pop music has never really been my thing, but I've grown to love the clarity and passion of her singing voice.
Cooking
I'm addicted to making galettes with our homegrown berries. Their shape is more forgiving than a pie's trim top and bottom crust, and their size more manageable for my small family. I had a near-fail with my last one. I lined the baking sheet with a silicone mat instead of parchment paper, trying to produce less garbage, and used a different baking sheet than usual for no reason at all. I don't know which variable caused the underside of my galette to be raw after 40 minutes in the oven. I cooked it for longer, then longer again, and still it wasn't right. I transferred it to another sheet, using two spatulas because of how floppy it was, and wishing that I had a pizza peel. It broke into several irregular pieces, but I put it back in the oven at a slightly lower temperature until the edges appeared crisp enough and the fruit filling was cooked to hell. The result was delicious anyway.
Doing
This week I "graduated" from physical therapy to remediate a flare-up of problems with my IT band. I've had off-and-on pain and reduced range of motion in my left knee for years. Daily exercises have helped. I'm also trying to modify some everyday habits like crossing my legs while sitting in my office desk chair. I'd noticed that that caused some discomfort in the outer part of the crossing leg, but physical therapy helped me see the connection between that and my chronic pain. So I'm training myself to keep both feet on the floor as much as possible when sitting.
Listening
Here's one of those songs that is not completely my cup of tea, but I still think it's wonderful.