Happy July!

Ugh!

So here we are, in the thick of summer. My least favorite season. And as a new month begins, as if to really hammer the point home, we've had one of the hottest days here in New York that we've had in quite some time. It reached 100 degrees today. Arrghhh!! I'm so mad. That is just not civilized weather for this part of the world. And this was actually the 3rd day of 90-degree+ temps here, with two more still to go. It's official: we're in a heat wave!

Yay.

Still, I'm trying not to let it get me too down. Luckily our Independence Day is this Wednesday, so that's nice. The holiday will help break up the week, plus I'm taking an additional two days off after to give myself a really long weekend. That helps improve my mood greatly. Although, it will still be ass-crack hot in this city during those days, but at least I can go to a movie or something. Someplace indoors with copious amounts of AC.

Anyway, how are you all doing? Pleas let me know. I hope you're off enjoying holidays of your own, wherever you are.

I'm going to try to use this month to do more writing on my spare time. And, sure, I'll get in a little photography here and there. I'm debating whether I should splurge to upgrade to a new camera. It's going to cost me over $800, and I'm just procrastinating over pulling the trigger on such an expensive purchase. I mean, I already have a camera, right? I've been using it pretty heavily for the past 3 years, but alas I just feel I've maxed out its limitations. It's really meant for an amateur, and I feel that my skills have taken me beyond that level by now. I guess I have a few weeks with which to make a decision. Dilemma, dilemma.

Speaking of which, I took this photo of myself in my apartment just to test out a few new editing techniques. Pardon the flexing, I'm not great at posing myself and I didn't really know what to do with my hands. Also, I had just finished watching the new season of Luke Cage on Netflix, so was feeling a little "extra" with myself, LOL!

Stay tuned this week as I'm working on a long travel piece about my trip to the rainforest of Panama. It will basically be a day-by-day account of all the fun I had and adventures I went on while vacationing alone in the province of Bocas del Toro. There will be plenty of pics!

So anyway, that's going to be coming here to this space soon. But in the meantime -- I hope you're all having a great summer so far!