Already Seeing This

 Yes, it always seems to happen this early. The first two photos are from the TJ Maxx that opened in my hometown last fall. I have not yet bought anything form the store, or any of the other new stores that opened last year as well, including Ross, Boot Barn, Ulta Beauty and Famous Footwear.

And I don't know what I am doing just yet!  But I have already been looking at the Barbie costumes that will be for sale on Spirit Halloween. Though I could easily do one myself I that is what I choose to do.  Someone I know from school went to the Barbie movie last weekend with others. They all wore costumes. She posted a video on Facebook and Instagram. They are standing in front of the movie poster at our local cinema.

I almost want to steal one of these ideas! But that remains to be seen.

Barbie or Oppenheimer?

Which, if either, did you see this weekend? For me it was Barbie. As the release date for the two films neared, photos like these were all over the web:

After seeing the Barbie trailer several months ahead of time, I began to get tempted to see the movie. And as last Friday neared, I got more into the idea of seeing Barbie and began looking up Barbie stuff (more on that to come). A film like Oppenheimer is way out of my league of interest. I'm not going to bother with that one, at least not now. Maybe not at all...

After doing laundry on Saturday afternoon, I went to see Barbie. On a side note, I went to a play in my home town that night. Our local stage company is currently putting on Footloose. It was fun to see and to get out. This was the first play I went to since the one I saw in 2020 just before the pandemic shutdown. (I never saw that movie, BTW). 

And now there are Barbie movie costumes for sale. I now wonder how many, if any, of these I will see this year. I can't imagine Oppenheimer as a costume, though.

Getting Back to My Writing

It's been so long since I attempted writing something new, or even attempting to submit what I have already written. I last submitted about a year ago, with yet another rejection.

A fellow mental health client has recently self-published a book of poetry. As such I now want to consider this path for my memoir, though I'm quite hesitant about doing such. I also realized I had last added to the memoir around 2017 or 2018. With so much having happened since then in both my person life and in the world in general, including the pandemic, I decided to write an afterword to recap such events. I just read it over and am proofreading and adding and subtracting items. 

The aforementioned client self-published his book through Amazon which he pointed out is free. I'm now even more tempted to do it this way. If I do, I will have a book under my belt, one thing I have hoped for. As far as self-publishing my 80s-set book is concerned, that remains to be seen. Right now, I'd like to at least have one. 

And on a side note, I haven't been able to come up with anything new to write. Every time I have a dream I think will be a good source of a novel, I can never remember the dream. I have to wonder how those who have written books based on dreams were able to remember those dreams.

July Bookish Bingo

 The yearly emoji-themed card for July is here.

My Books:

1. Tales From the Arabian Nights--Anonymous (6 squares): Audiobook, Foreign Country, Adventure, Short Stories, Travel/Journey, Snazzy Dresser
2. Calypso, Corpses and Cooking--Raquel V. Reyes (5 squares): E-Book, In a Series, Cake/Pie/Dessert, Shock/Fright/Wit, LOL
3. Big Summer--Jennifer Weiner (8 squares): Library Book, Physical Book, Not in a Series, Book Club Read, Beach Read, Red/White/Blue on the Cover, Free Space, Eye Roll
4. 50 Harbor Street--Debbie Macomber (1 square): A Favorite Author
5. Claws For Alarm--Cate Conte (2 squares): Animal/Pet on the Cover, Shelf Love
6. The Garden of Small Beginnings--Abbi Waxman [re-read] (1 square): Debut Novel
7. The Adventures of Augie March--Saul Bellow (2 squares): Free Book, Award-Winning

25 squares completed on July 27