what's new?

• ✓ aug. 1: emily's 23rd birthday!!
• ✓ aug. 1: happy birthday sam mendes!!
• ✓ aug. 3: happy birthday to the love of my LIFE !!!!!!!!
• ✓ aug. 4: leave for solo research trip !!
• ✓ aug. 7: come home!
• ✓ aug. 17: mr. de niro's birthday.... (ꈍ ᴗ ꈍ✿)
  • imagine being absolutely the greatest actor who ever lived as well as being my entire world... thank u robert
• ✓ aug. 21: new killers album !!!
• ✓ aug. 28: flash fiction contest deadline

goals

• ✓ keep pushing on endymion
• ✓ reorganize research...... again!
• ✓ complete project checklist on trip (and drink a lot of iced lattes)

obsessions

• french new wave cinema
• michel legrand as the pianist in cléo from 5 to 7... i can't believe how long it took to realize it was him. that's literally my baby?
• long walks in the evening :0)
• edmund blunden... big surprise dana's fallen in love with another war poet...
  • i've been exclaiming "such damask! such vermillion!" for the past five months straight and never knew how cute he was. i hate it here

moments

• that photograph i found of elsie standing exactly the way george mackay does on the red carpet... when i say i lost my MIND
• just busted the calculator out and uhh. i've written 100k+ words during quarantine... start the cameras....
• justie calling me and holding the phone up to the radio (playing "drive" by the cars) and yelling in the background "LISTEN IT'S OUR SONG" and making me listen to the whole song...
  • imagine being in love with your best friend in the entire world?

good things about the month

• butterflies in the garden; the heat breaking, goodbye headaches; the weather holding off for my trip!! and all the happiness the trip entailed: writing and writing and writing; finally having the chance to do some research in the field; the blissful cool + quiet of my hotel room; long hours of walking, sunrise to sunset; buying bouquets of flowers every morning at the grocery store; nostalgia, walking old paths with new perspectives; sitting in the grass; sunflowers and dianthus; seeing new towns and falling in love with them; endless lattes; pink cheeks from too much sun; collapsing into bed every evening to watch films; lew ayres + agnès varda; the simple joy of writing with pen and notebook rather than staring at a screen; the shady tree on the hill; oh, the view!! how beautiful, the entire green valley spread out below; taking pictures; muffins and fresh fruit; learning the best way possible, through experience; impromptu used book sale at my favorite old bookstore; the good ache in your bones after a long day spent wandering; coming home to justie!; picking my way carefully through the thorny patches of the french language; organizing research (again), this time with a much better app; wandering around plant nurseries with dad, him stopping to explain in detail every little flower along the way... i seriously have the most brilliant and passionate father in the world; cool evening walks; my sweetest mutuals; committing to an hour of academic reading a day to aid my research; croissants + coffee in the morning; the soft comfort of j's bed; mama's homemade peach pie; susan sontag's notebooks; making long lists of books to read; falling head over heels, as i always do, for charles sorley, my darling scholar and soldier; poetry and letters; spending mornings in the garden, weeding while dad's away at the farmer's market; gathering tomatoes for supper; edmund blunden; new killers album!!; going for walks and admiring the clouds; weeding amongst the squash and pumpkins as the rain drizzled