So today with this being the last day in May, I thought I’d look back at the month for me (and my wife, in a couple of instances):
Reading

I began the month by finishing a book I had been reading over a few months, The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You by Elaine N. Aron, Ph. D. I shared my thoughts with two posts: Exploring Being a Highly Sensitive Person, Part 1 and Part 2. The posts were about two weeks apart as while I was drafting the first part mid-month, I learned of the unexpected death earlier in the year of a friend, who had recommended the book to me several years ago. I was so shocked and rocked by grief that I was “out of it” for at least a week. To some degree, I’m still out of it and I still am “processing” as much as I can process such a senseless event (he was killed by a mentally unstable individual).
Watching
Kim and I watched a lot of different things this past month, from comfort rewatches (Tacoma FD) to dumb comedies (Bridesmaids) to documentaries (Moonage Daydream). However, for me, the standout watch came at the end of the month with the sitcom Primo available for free on Freevee. It’s about a teenager growing up with a single mom and his five uncles and was very funny but also poignant and sweet at times, especially at the end. I also rewatched The Straight Story with my mom and dad (their first time seeing) on Mother’s Day when I went to visit them. It’s about a man in his 70s taking a trip from Iowa to Wisconsin via lawn mower to visit his ailing brother and is based on a true story. It is one of my absolute favorite movies of all-time and I highly recommend it.
Listening to

I began the month by listening to (and watching) the repeat performance on YouTube by Skrillex, Four Tet and Fred Again.. at Coachella in April. In between, I settled into a smoother electronic groove with James Holden’s album Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space of All Possibilities (link to review by Pitchfork), which I am listening to as I draft this post. I stayed in that groove pretty much for the rest of month as I also listened to (and watched) house music mixes by Flavour Trip, two deejays from Luxembourg, Amii Watson and Jimmi Harvey, who travel throughout Europe, sharing music and food via their YouTube channel.
Besides going to visit my parents for Mother’s Day, the other main highlight of the month was going for a walk through our town this past Sunday. I’ll leave you with a few photos from that walk:


So, how was your month of May 2023? Read, watch, listen to, do anything good? Let me know in the comments.
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