July: What new thing will you try this month?
I made a tiramisu with some of the marsala wine my sister brought back from Italy. I’ve made several tiramisu cakes that came out lovely, but this tiramisu wasn’t as photogenic. However, it was much lovelier than my first ever tiramisu that I made when I was 15. Nothing bruises your foodie ego like a leaky spring-form pan. Luckily, I have more marsala left, and I plan to buy some more mascarpone at my next earliest convenience.
August: Describe an unexpected moment, activity, sighting or conversation that touched you during July.
July was quite eventful for me, and my regular readers definitely knew something was up because my website went down for roughly half the month. The root cause was an unexpected moment that touched me negatively. However, that wasn’t the only unexpected event of July. I wasn’t expected for my whole family to contract ear infections. I wasn’t expecting to get both an ear infection and bronchitis. I wasn’t expecting that I’d have to ask the ER doctor to prescribe one inexpensive prescription. Economic hardship plagued the month of July, and living so poorly took an understandable toll on my self-esteem. It probably didn’t help that a major retailer called me back simply to tell me that I’m overqualified didn’t help — I’d become more or less accustomed to no call backs at this point. However, that month inspired me to write a book, so July couldn’t have been all bad if I still managed to glean inspiration from the negative events.
