New Month, New Goals: August

I think that July might be my favorite month of 2015 (so far). I mean, really, what was not to love about it? Summer Fridays started at my job, so I’ve been getting out of work at 1:00PM. I have no idea why this makes the week feel significantly shorter, but it does. I also spent the bulk of the month preparing for my trip with the zeal of…someone zealous? I don’t know where I was going there. Then, I left for my vacation on July 26th, and I’m still in France as you read this! Current location: Nice. Anyway, it’s been an eventful and exciting month for me. How about you?

How was your July?

Duolingo Review or Die. I did some Duolingo-ing, but definitely not as much as I would have liked to have done. I was bitten by the writing bug this past month and spent my train rides (which is when I usually use Duolingo) drafting short pieces of whatever popped into my head.
Get some reading done.  Again, I definitely didn’t do as much as I would have liked, but I did read a bit. Hopefully, I managed to get some reading done on the plane ride and, if I did, expect a book review sometime in August!
Buy the last of my advance tickets. Done and done! Everything was booked and paid for by the time we headed to JFK airport.
French Trip. Currently a work in progress, but I’ll cross it off my list anyway. By this point I’ve been to Paris, visited London, and am now in Nice. Today, however, I’ll be day-tripping in Provence and evening-tripping (I’m aware that’s not a real thing) in Monaco. Sadly, this means that my trip is almost at an end.
Make a blog queue. Done! I did manage to set up a small queue so that new content (like this post) would go live while I was away.

AUGUST GOALS

• Print & frame photos from France. I have a gallery wall that is devoted to photos I've taken on my travels that is slowly but surely growing in size. There are currently pictures from my time in London, Bath, and Windsor in 2012 and others from Rome, Florence, Venice, and the Amalfi Coast in 2014 up there, so my new photographs will be in good company.
• Schedule dinner dates with friends. I've been horrible with making dinner plans with friends of late, and I have several friends who are long overdue a catch-up dinner. Hopefully, I'll be able to make up for this in August and September.
• Go see Minions. Yes, I'm aware that I am 25, but who can resist the charm of those yellow, pill-shaped cuties? I have an unhealthy obsession with them and have watched the trailers so many times that it wouldn't surprise me if I could recite them. I even had my friend who works in the film industry send me the Minion 3D goggles...which I proceeded to wear around the house saying "Banana!" Basically, I need to see the movie before it leaves theatres or mope around until it comes out on bluray.
• Clean my room. I have been saying that I need to clean my room for months but haven't gotten around to it. A two day weekend hasn't been long enough to clean, blog, and plan my trip, so cleaning--the least fun of the activities--has been put off time and time again. My room is a disaster area though, and it really is starting to make me twitchy.
• Do some re-decorating. I spent months pinching pennies to save up for France, so I haven't gotten around to working on making my room the little oasis I've intended. I'm intent on making it the perfect little "studio apartment" in my parents' home, so it's time to start visiting Ikea, Home Goods, and H&M to get the things I need.

Do you have any goals for July?