Take a peak behind the scenes of Hello Little Home in my July 2022 Diary!
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July 2022 Diary
Welcome to my Diary. This monthly series (lol, not quite) gives you a peek behind the scenes of Hello Little Home. I’m sharing all the things I’ve been up to that don’t make it on the blog. Hopefully, we’ll get to know one another better in the process.
Whenever I start a series here on Hello Little Home, I inevitably struggle to keep up with it. I'm not 100% sure why that is (perhaps my inner rebel is resisting?), but this Diary series has been no different, ha!
It has been over a year since my last Diary, and I thought this month would be the perfect time to catch up. The past month (and year, really) has been filled with the highest highs and the lowest lows.
Ready to catch up?
Highs
My husband and I love traveling, and over the past year we've been dipping our toes back in with trips to see family, Maine, the Smokey Mountains, Alaska, Charleston, and more. I also visited Puerto Rico to see my photo in an exhibit at the new El Yunque National Forest visitor center (a highlight for sure).
Traveling right now definitely has an added layer of stress, and we've cancelled some plans along the way. But it has been so fun to start exploring again!
We had been (almost jokingly) talking about traveling to Spain to see Pavement (and a lot of other great bands) at the Primavera Festival a couple years ago, but then 2020 happened. Last summer though (in a rush of optimism after getting our vaccines), we bit the bullet and bought tickets for the 2022 festival.
I had my doubts if this trip would actually happen, but at the end of May, we were headed to Spain ... and it ended up being one of the best trips of my life!
We flew into Madrid and quickly fell into the relaxed Spanish lifestyle, seeing lots of sights, but also stopping to enjoy lots of vermouth, espresso, and tapas / pintxos along the way. From there, we traveled to Bilbao for a few days, which was also amazing (I wish we'd had more time there). Next, it was on to Barcelona for the festival and more sightseeing.
I'm definitely a night owl, but that festival was no joke. On the first day, we arrived around 6:00 PM and didn't leave until after 4:00 AM! The festival was very poorly organized (ridiculously long lines, harrowing staircases, etc.), and there were many jokes made about how we were way too old for this lol.
But of course, it was also super fun, and we saw some amazing bands, including Pavement, Kacey Musgraves, Beck, Big Freedia, DJ Shadow, Yo La Tengo, and more. By the third night, I was out and spent the evening catching up on sleep at the hotel (and did not regret it, ha ha).
After Barcelona, we flew down to Granada. We stayed about 20 minutes outside of the city at the Cortijo del Marqués, a 19th century villa turned boutique hotel, which was the perfect place to wind down our trip! The hotel was truly magical: secluded, yet close to Granada, with amazing food, a beautiful room and grounds, and the most relaxing atmosphere. It was dreamy, and I can't wait to go back one day!
We spent our last few days in Spain enjoying the hotel and exploring Granada (including the breathtaking Alhambra), Córdoba, and the nearby pueblos blancos (gorgeous). It was the perfect way to end our trip.
If you're interested in visiting Spain, stay tuned! I will definitely be writing more about this bucket list trip in the future.
Lows
Where to start ... shortly after getting back from Spain, my sister called to tell me that my Aunt Jo had passed away. She hadn't been doing well for a while, but she'd just had surgery and seemed to be in very positive spirits. So while her death wasn't super surprising, I wasn't exactly expected it either.
Our families spent tons of time together while I was growing up. Plus, both of my parents passed away when I was in my 20s/30s, so my aunt really was like a second mom to me. It has been really hard and almost feels like the end of an era in a way.
The one highlight of all this was getting to spend time with my cousins and other family that I hadn't seen in a long time.
This all happened in June, and then within a week it was off to Alaska for a cruise to celebrate my in-laws 40th anniversary. The cruise was my husband and I's idea, and we were definitely looking forward to it. However, shortly before we left we read multiple articles about recent cruises had turned into super spreader events (not surprising at all, I know), so we were approaching the trip somewhat cautiously.
All was well on the first few days of the cruise, but on the third day, I felt sick and tested positive for Covid. I had somehow avoided catching it over the past two years (and had been very cautious, even wearing a mask in crowded areas on the ship), but it finally caught up with me. To make matters worse, the ship's medical personell separated me and my husband since he didn't test positive right away, and I ended up in a very isolated room by myself for the rest of the cruise. Did I mention that I was super sea sick this whole time, too? Yeah.
My husband and his sister and her husband also eventually tested positive, so not quite the trip we all hoped for. Thankfully, my in-laws stayed healthy, and they were able to continue enjoying the cruise, which really was the best possible outcome.
While I never got super sick (a terrible sore throat was the worst part), I'm still not feeling 100% either. Hopefully, I am on the mend, although I can't say I'd recommend taking a cruise right now!
And then on top of this, there's all the horrible news in the U.S. lately. We are truly in a dark time right now, and it's just been overwhelming with nonstop tragedies and increasingly terrible political news. Of course, I definitely realize how privileged I am and that my problems are minor compared to so many.
What I'm Reading
One major highlight this past month or so, is that I've been able to do a ton of reading. Having a good book on hand has kept me occupied on all those flights and as I've been recuperating, too!
My favorites have been Velvet Was the Night (I really love Silvia Moreno-Garcia's writing ... I've already ordered and can't wait for The Daughter of Doctor Moreau!), as well as Pachinko (an epic family story that also covered lots of history I didn't know a lot about) and The Truth About Melody Browne (I'm really into thrillers/mysteries lately, not my usual genre, and Lisa Jewell has been a great discovery).
I also loved Conversations with Friends (not exactly uplifting, but I really like Sally Rooney's writing), Golden Girl (after that cruise, a lighter beach read was needed), Violeta (similar to Pachinko, this book also covered lots of history I was unfamiliar with), The Cartographers (the unique story line kept me hooked throughout), Arsenic and Adobo (ideal if you're looking for a light, fun murder mystery ... I already have the second book in this series cued up), One Italian Summer (the perfect escape reading, definitely will make you want to take a trip!), and Book Lovers (a super enjoyable, not cheesy, romance that would also make great beach read). The Sentence was also very good. It's a somewhat humorous, but also fairly dark, ghost story set in current times. To be honest though, I've read one too many books lately set during peek pandemic times. It's hard to relive all that, especially when you've just been diagnosed with Covid lol.
Two books I did not like? The Last Thing He Told Me ... from the start, everything about this (highly hyped) book struck me as totally implausible and honestly kind of annoying (not even sure why I kept reading). And this might be an unpopular opinion, but I didn't enjoy A Visit from the Goon Squad. Yes, I know it won a Pulitzer, but the story just didn't grab me. My plan was to read this book before The Candy House, but now I'm not even sure that I'm going to read that. To each their own, I guess!
Let me know if you've read any great books lately. It's been quite a while since I've had any five star reads that truly blew me away.
What's Coming Up
The next couple weeks will be busy. I will hopefully be fully recovered from Covid (crossing my fingers), because we're heading to Ireland and Wales at the end of the month. I'm looking forward to it, but with everything going on, I have done zero planning. Please send me any tips you have to share!
After that, I'm looking forward to (hopefully) relaxing and enjoying some downtime for the rest of August and into September. I honestly can't wait to have zero plans.
What have you been up to recently? Let me know in the comments!
I hope you enjoyed reading my July Diary. If you liked this post, you can read all of my Diaries here.