July Mishmash

My own personal carnival ride!

July has been a roller coaster. Starting with explosions in the sky and ending with my hair falling out.

The 4th of July is just not fun as an adult. Am I just grouchy about the very loud fireworks that are set off in our neighborhood randomly throughout the two weeks leading up to the 4th, and then what sounds like a war zone outside my house on the actual date, and then residual explosions every few days for the week following? Maybe. Now that I have a dog, I feel for the dog owners that must hate this even more than I do. Luckily, Remi is not too freaked out by the fireworks, which is shocking to me, but I know that she is an exception in the dog world! For more on the shaved head, keep reading.

Also hi to the new subscribers!!! I am so glad you are here.

Food!

• Quick Zucchini Saute from Smitten Kitchen is a great way to eat a heap of zucchini without even blinking an eye. I love it as is (it is SO fast), but recently made it with chopped walnuts instead of slivered almonds, and didn’t use the cheese because I just didn’t have any, and it is still so dang good. You could add in some herbs or lemon zest to amp it up or change it up, and it’s also good tossed with pasta! I don’t cut the zuccs into pretty matchsticks like Deb, I just use the big holes of a cheese grater to shred it. Don’t skimp on the pepper! This is one of my favorite summer veg recipes for sure.

• Fancy iced tea! This is something I saw on instagram and have been making it often! For one person: Scoop about a tablespoon of whatever fruit jam you like (I have been using peach or strawberry) into a large mason jar. Boil some water and pour about 6 ounces into the jar with the jam and throw in whatever tea you like. I’ve been using mint, lemon, ginger, or a combination of 2 of these. Let it steep double long, remove the tea bags, fill the jar with ice. Top with some sparking water if you have some but it is not required, just makes it feel extra fancy. Toss in a fresh mint spring if you like.

• Chickpea Salad with Cilantro and Lime from Alexandra Cooks is a delicious and easy make-ahead lunch. We ate half the dressing with chickpeas and some quickly cooked zucchini. The other half of the dressing I tossed with de Puy Lentils, and added some chopped up snap peas and topped with feta. You could also throw it into a pita or mash it on toast! I have saved this recipe to my faves and will likely make it again very soon because it is very nice to have something on hand to eat in a pinch!

Books/TV/Movies!

• https://bookshop.org/shop/michelleflook Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org and I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

  • Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon is my fave of the books I read in July. It’s a unique story featuring a pregnant escapee of a religious cult, an unexpected sci-fi aspect, a lot of heart, memorable characters and imagery, with a pretty good ending. If you like your summertime reads to be a bit out of the box, I would suggest picking this one up!

  • The Maidens by Alex Michaelides. I also really liked this one! This book is slightly slow to start, but it has everything once it gets going, and really sucked me in: a weird cult situation with a charismatic young teacher at the helm, Greek mythology, a serial killer murder mystery, really great descriptive and immersive setting of Cambridge University, characters dealing with grief, and a twist ending. Great summer or vacation read!

• I finished Better Things and I already feel like I want to re-watch the whole series. Definitely one of my absolute favorite shows of all time. Someone asked me what TV show cast I would want to be a part of, and Better Things is the answer. Please watch this show if you haven’t!

• Two movies I wanted to mention this month that Matthew and I really liked:

  • Everything Everywhere All At Once (we rented it) deserves all the hype it has received. I laughed a lot, I teared up a bit at the ending, it’s super interesting and brainy, all at once. A really special and unique movie!

  • Last Night in Soho (streaming on Hulu) is a movie that surprised me in the best ways. I didn’t know much going into it, but it is SO much fun right from the start, has some twists and turns, and then it turns very dark, but is not too scary, bits of campiness, great soundtrack, I really loved it!

Projects!

• A very generous and kind friend gave us a pergola for our backyard, and even came over to help get it set up. Our backyard gets so much sun in the late afternoon/evening that is very difficult to enjoy sitting/reading/working/eating in the backyard. This pergola provides a lot of shade and makes the backyard a lot more enjoyable for working from home and for lounging after work!

  

• The neverending puffy quilt saga continues. I finished sewing all the puffs into a quilt top and it is glorious. Doesn’t it look good with the paint color?? Now to figure out the backing and binding. I might have to sew the rest by hand. I broke 4 needles sewing this quilt top on my machine! Will I ever move onto another project? I do have some plans and ideas, quilt patterns and lots of fabric just waiting to be cut up.

  

  

Miscellaneous!

• I chopped off all my hair at the start of July, so that when it starts falling out from chemo it won’t be as gross/scary/traumatizing. The last time I had my hair this short was almost exactly 10 years ago when I was first growing out my greys. I said I would never cut my hair this short again, but this will be a reminder to myself to never say never!

  

• Then at my first chemo in mid July, the nurse suggested to shave all my hair off before it starts falling out because the weight of the hair makes the sensitivity even worse when the hair starts falling out, so here you have my new look. I bought a few head wraps, a couple baseball caps, and a satin pillowcase, wigs will follow soon. It is very sparkly, and strange to see this in the mirror!

  

Medical!

• I had my first chemotherapy infusion on July 14. The two weeks following were an unpredictable rollercoaster. There are so many side effects that could pop up at any moment. I had a couple of bad days, but mostly good days. The first Sunday after treatment, Day 4, I felt very out of it, groggy, and like I was fighting off an illness. Day 7 I didn’t sleep enough or eat enough and I had a really bad headache accompanied with a very scary episode of ‘chemo brain’ where words were not making sense, it was like my recent memory was erased, and I couldn’t trust my brain at all. It scared the hell out of me and I have been very vigilant about eating regularly since that happened.

• Every other day I have felt pretty “normal.” I know it is a false sense of normality though because inside my cells are all fighting, and my immune system is reduced, so I am basically on a prescribed quarantine. Sort of feels like the early days of COVID, when we were scared to go anywhere, except it is not just COVID we are nervous of, but ANYTHING at all that could make me sick or cause an infection, because we don’t want any delays at all to this treatment plan so that it will be over as soon as possible.

• My taste buds are a bit messed up. I can only really taste sweet, and so far other things just taste bland, not bad. Things that would normally taste very balanced, such as the dressing in the chickpea salad I mentioned above or peanut butter cookies, I can only taste the sweet element. It is strange, but manageable. I have never really loved bananas, but they taste great to me right now, so we are keeping them stocked. The injections that I had to give myself for five days went fine. The steroids that I have to take the day before and the day after the infusion are also not great, as they just mess with my sleep. I haven’t had any nausea yet, thankfully! My hair just started falling out on Saturday July 30. I’ll spare you the details that have to do with bowels. 😑

• Only three more infusions to go. I’ll share my experience here month by month. I have two treatments in August (8-4-22 and 8-25-22), so next month expect more of an update on that. The infusions are spaced three weeks apart, so having gone through one full cycle, I feel like I know what to expect, but maybe I’ll just be more tired throughout? It’s a mystery. So far throughout this whole experience, expecting the worst has worked out for me, as nothing has been as bad as I expected. Hopefully that will continue!

Remi!

Backyard cutie 💜
Remi got attacked by a raccoon this month in our backyard (on my same horrible Day 7), so she was temporarily grounded from the dirt piles she loves so dearly for about a week. That jerk raccoon got her good, she had three puncture wounds on her back leg and it was so so scary. She is doing well though, didn’t even seem to even know she was hurt after the first couple days. She was very confused about why we kept carrying her up and down the stairs and taking really short walks, and why she had to have the cone on, which she hates of course. Getting her to take medication was a struggle too, she can be quite stubborn. Her wounds are healing fine and she’s back to her usual goofy self. My baby!

How has your July been?

Goodbye, until next month!

xoM