A Table of Contents for July
Summer is officially here. I return from runs at any point in the day drenched as if I ran through a jacuzzi. My daughters tell me I smell. I believe them.
I ran no races this July, but I do have a ten-miler coming up in August, which is really in preparation for the three half marathons I’m attempting within 60 days of each other this fall.
Our nephew is getting married this weekend. That’s fun and important. He’s also looking to enter the teaching profession this school year. That’s also important.
I’ve been going to the movies a lot more this summer than I have in a long while. It might have something to do with working from home.
My parents, who have been married 44 years, tried to see the new Indiana Jones movie this week, but apparently the ceiling of the theater had caved in, postponing all future Dial of Destiny showings. It seems fitting that the ceiling would collapse on Indy and not say any other movie people are currently interested in seeing. He’s used to that sort of thing. Almost any other movie audience might drift into conspiracy theories as to why that ceiling collapsed. The real answer is that movie theater is old. I first saw Speed 2 in that theater when my parents were moving us from Georgia to Virginia and looking at houses. We ended up living five minutes from that theater, and in a way, it feels like an extension of the family home. I’m drifting but getting back in the theater has reminded me that these movies shouldn’t be taken too seriously — they’re not going to do the work for you. You have to allow yourself to enjoy the thing.
Lastly, though, I want to give thanks to Carlee Tressel for all the help and suggestions given to “Bucky’s 10th” in the editing process that led up to its inclusion in Issue 8 of The Under Review this summer. What Carlee did was primarily ask me questions about the story, which helped me to see what I had written more clearly. I also believed in the story more as a result because I understood Carlee was paying attention even when I as a writer was drifting.
“Bucky’s 10th” (a short story in The Under Review’s Summer 2023 Issue)
“Bombshells: ‘Asteroid City’ and Henry Adams in the Age of Barbenheimer” (July 24)
“How ‘The Dial of Destiny’ fits perfectly with ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’” (July 19)
“A (delayed) Table of Contents for June” (July 9)
