What inspired me in July

Space stories, smoothies, requests fulfilled, a happy channel, and Sunday Scaries

🚀 Space Stories

July 16th marked the 55th anniversary of Apollo 11’s takeoff into space before its historic moon landing. It's something I always think about during the summer — imagining what an incredible night that must have been for Americans, everyone watching the same thing at the same time.

I also imagine it through a romantic lens: a hot summer evening, everyone’s eyes on the stars. Can it get more magical?

This year, my love affair with space travel stories reached a new level as I made my way through the audiobook of Challenger by Adam Higginbotham. Last week, I also saw the film Fly Me to the Moon in the theater, which was a delight.

Both experiences made me want to revisit other stories set against the moon landing: The Summer Wives by Beatriz Williams and Summer of '69 by Elin Hilderbrand (also love that Elin was BORN on the night of the moon landing).

🍹 Piña Colada Smoothie

After chatting about Piña Coladas during our recent podcast episode about 13 Going on 30, Laura shared a recipe for Molly Baz’s Virgin Piña Coladas. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I’ve made them at least five times since.

They are refreshing, flavor-packed, and quintessentially summery. Plus, like any good smoothie, you can make it your own. Sometimes I throw in spinach. I’ve used Greek yogurt instead of coconut yogurt and tossed in a scoop of protein powder to make it a well-balanced breakfast.

📚 Library Requests

I briefly mentioned this in another Substack post, but I’m having such a moment that I thought it was worth mentioning again.

Earlier this year, I started requesting new books from the library — not placing a hold on books in their existing catalog — but asking them to purchase ones that had not yet been added.

And I ended up going on a power trip because they approved every one of my suggestions. All of those requests started rolling in this month — most of them within the same week. Now, I’m deep in a stack of romance reads written by some of my favorite authors.

📺 PlutoTV

This is a discovery from last year, but this month I’ve started venturing into new territory. If you’re not familiar, PlutoTV is kind of a hybrid between the old cable model and streaming, but it’s free to use.

There’s a “guide” where shows are scheduled to play at certain times, and there are commercials. However, what makes it special is that there are dedicated channels that play certain shows all day every day, like Jeopardy, which is the channel that hooked me and my husband.

I also watch the I Love Lucy channel occasionally, but in July, I stumbled upon the Happy Days channel, which plays reruns of both Happy Days and its spinoff, Laverne & Shirley.

One of my favorite parts of summers as a kid was watching Block Party Summer on Nick at Nite, and having all of this great classic TV at my fingertips as an adult is a dream come true.

📱 Sunday Scaries

There’s a popular Instagram account called Sunday Scaries that I’ve been following for a while, but their summer content has been so enjoyable, especially their “Slams Laptop Shut” Friday posts. If you’re a self-deprecating millennial with a pulse on pop culture, you’re probably already following, but if not, you’re in for a treat.

✍️ Creative Exercises/Journal Prompts

1. Revisit a historical event that took place in the summer and use it as a starting point create a new piece of art or a short story.

2. Make a summer recipe using in-season ingredients.

3. Request a few new books from your library.

☀️ Five good things

When we can recognize the things that bring us the most joy, we invite more of them into our lives. Here are five things that made me happy this week. Share yours below!

Five good things that happened this week:

1. I finally got around to watching the movie Challengers (not to be confused with the book I’m listening to, Challenger), and it’s my favorite movie that I’ve seen this year. It’s beautifully shot, stars beautiful people, and I enjoyed the structure of the storytelling — a trifecta for me.

2. My sister Laura is the best at sending surprise packages, and I was enchanted by my latest delivery: a vintage French magazine she picked up on a recent trip to Lyon. The typography is unreal. It is also tres risque and I’m wondering if it might be a 1927 French version of Playboy. 😂 See below.

3. On Thursday, I got to meet up with my local creative friends Muriel and Brooke for a pool hang. Half of it was spent trying to find a place to keep dry after the sky opened and a major storm descended upon us, but that’s Florida for you!

4. I had an impromptu phone date with my sisters on Friday night, which was a rare treat. Plus used my time to multitask, which means all of the bathrooms in our house are now sparkly clean.

5. I’m still in my red era and have been wanting to get a fun pair of sneakers, but kept putting it off until I came across this pair for under $25.

💬 Share your intention

Whether it’s a giant leap, a tiny to-do list item, a habit change, or something else, there is power in accountability, and this is a safe space to share your aim. Some weeks, we’ll fail, others we’ll soar, but with support, we’ll always keep going together.

Until next week, get out there and make something beautiful.

Michelle

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