This Summer, So Far

And there went a month! This summer, more than others, I’ve really been appreciating how great summer is. I think doing it right has a lot to do it with, doing summer-specific things and not just living the same way in warmer weather. There have been a lot of highlights, but the quiet quality and enjoyment has been the best. In the past month of summer, I…

Drove up the Pacific Coast Highway in an orange Camero convertible.

Had a fire and drank wine at the ocean.

Walked bare-armed and sun-kissed home.

Ate tamales and fish tacos with a view of the Pacific.

Trained tomato plants into a trellis cage.

Walked dogs after work, enjoying the extended light.

Hung out by the lake in Michigan.

Read 5 paper back mysteries in a swing over 4 days.

Had two milkshakes one day, and then two rootbeer floats the next.

Drank hard Arnold Palmers at dusk.

Suntanned my legs.

Whacked weeds, watered raspberries, moved indoor plants outdoors.

Wore skirts and dresses to work, most days.

Drank drinks on a patio.

Shopped the farmer's market.

Stopped by, “just for gelato…”

Picked blueberries.

Watched a hula.

Celebrated national Hot Dog day.

Saw old friends, saw new friends, made even newer friends.

And probably a lot more. And still it seems, none of these things enough—but trying and succeeding in being present and thankful and enjoying life, are good things to do in any season.

House Woes

You know how homeowners are always like, "oh! groan! owning is a house is such a pain and so expensive!" And how potential homebuyers are like "renting is such a waste of money! how bad could it be?" I am transitioning from the latter to the former, quite quickly with the below-pictured jacking up of the kitchen/bedroom area of the house to replace all the rotted wood underneath in the addition that the former owners seem to have completed themselves. "I hope you guys got a good deal on this place," says handyman Jim. Jim, I am less and less convinced of that with every $1,000 we pay you....

Compost and Shit

Here I will quote myself, to my mother on the phone last night, in honor of Earth Day:

Composting is like flossing your teeth; once you start doing it, you realize how gross it is not to do it.

I am so right. Once you see the crap you pull out of your teeth, it becomes horrifying no to do it. But back to compost, we've been doing it since right around the time we moved/Januaryish and have reduced our garbage output dramatically. It also really reduces the guilt of letting fruits and veggie go bad. Plus we have a plastic storage bin full of rotting food in the backyard-- win-win!

Jolly Roger

Have I mentioned our family crest? Whenever we see skull & crossbones out in the world (which happens more and more often, the world is getting creepier?) we say "he's in our family!" "she's in our family!" It's just a little thing we do...

Dog collars and keychain from here, dog tags from here.

House!

We closed yesterday-- finally! And so we have a house. In preparation, we've been watching lots and lots of HGTV. Um, that channel is deceptive. This was all way more agonizing and complicated than they make it look. Apparently you can't believe everything you see on television. But now it's over! Our realtor and I hugged twice when he dropped off the key...
Last night we had a snowstorm. We took Aberdeen, subway sandwiches and the bottle of wine from the realtor over to the house (the moving is happening actually right now, while I type.) We got giddy, we made plans. We tried to make rules about the number of functional repairs we'll do per cosmetic change. "But... um, painting doesn't count as cosmetic, right??" Charlie teased me for postulating that MAYBE under the carpeting in the other rooms on the first floor, there would be beautiful, pristine hardwood floors like there are in the kitchen and living room. He suggested it's also possible there is gold under the carpeting. We laughed at the weird parts of the house (why does the carpeting in the bedroom make crinkling noises??) and realized we like the kitchen cabinets more than we thought. We experienced a bit of the reality of single-pane windows and no heat source in the master bedroom. We talked islands and banisters and dog gates and patios to barbeque on.
And, at about 9, we went back to our rented house. And made a fire. And watched more HGTV.

Ten Years?

Hard to believe it's been ten years since high school-- time has gone very fast and very slow. Actually, exactly ten years ago I suppose we were preparing for our first round of college exams. Although when I think about college, especially the first couple of years, I don't remember the school work at all.
Anyway, like our cohort across the country, the Minneapolis Southwest Class of 1999 had our reunion over Thanksgiving weekend. And it was so fun. No, I mean SO FUN. I was looking forward to it already-- not in some weirdo Romy & Michelle way where I was going to finally prove to the world I am a worthwhile person now, afterall (because, let's be honest, pretty sure I was cool then, pretty sure I am cool now.) But the event totally exceeded my expectations. Everyone was so nice and happy to see each other and... adult. Everyone was relaxed and really in the moment, also so nice to see and be a part of. I was so impressed by what people were doing-- thankfully pretty varied but mostly all interesting and pursuing some kind of passion. It was great to see. Interestingly, there are a glut of attorneys in our class, but as far as I could tell, no medical doctors. I guess we can credit Minneapolis Public Schools for turning out cool kids... just not necessarily on its science curriculum.

ps. I may have tried to get two classmates to make out by tapping one on the shoulder, asking if he is single and suggesting he make out with the other one. Erm... some things never change? Go Lakers!

Dear Cake Batter Ice Cream,

I didn't know it was possible to love a non-chocolate flavor of ice cream this much. You've opened my eyes and made me a more accepting, worldly person.

Your friend 'til the end,

Sarah

ps. I have been home alone since Saturday night with very little interaction with other people... except for store clerks. It's been weirdly nice, but also has me cracked up. Writing love letters to ice cream flavors, for example.

Faith

I went to the Dominican Republic for 8 days and then I came back and had Christmas and now I am housebound because of an ice storm. It's me and my 93 yr old grandma here. It took most of lunch on Christmas Eve to get my dad to understand that this was actually her 94th Christmas. Not even me saying, "ok, I'm 27, but let's count my Christmases-- 1981, 1982, 1983... see, 28!" convinced him. I come by my fear of math honestly, I guess.

On the way home from the DR I arrived at SDQ intending to go standby at 8:50 (my original flight left at 4:30pm.) The man at the counter squeezed me on to the 9:20 flight and told me to run. And then said it again for emphasis. I looked shifty and sweaty going through Dominican immigration/customs. I got to Miami at about 10:30am Miami-time (the DR is an hour later than that.) The SDQ man told me I would have to stand by in Miami for 2:55. By the time I cleared customs and immigration it was almost noon and I was sweaty and shaking. I think because of no food, so I have some chicken nuggets at Burger King, with lots of BBQ sauce for energy. Then I got myself on the standby list for the 11:55 flight which hadn't left. That flight was pushed back over and over until it finally left at 3, with me on it. The 2:55, a 4pm and my original flight at 7:30 had all been canceled.

I arrived in O'Hare to a fresh kind of hell. But one I wasn't really involved in... I was just there long enough to wait for the parking shuttle. People were tired and crazed and were running up to car rental shuttle vans desperately asking if they had cars available. I shared my parking shuttle with a guy who had spent all day trying to get to Phoenix. Eventually they told him he wasn't going the 23rd and he wasn't going the 24th... so he was on his way home to open a bottle of wine and make a new plan for Christmas.

Anyway, the point of all this is such:

1. Lots of bad travel things happened to people over the holidays (like the guy who fell 40 feet off the overpass in his car??), but this is a good story.

2. Standby travel is amazing. I haven't ever really done it before, but I am a convert for sure.

3. Maybe we all do a lot of bitching, but this all worked out very well for me. I was very lucky-- if I hadn't made that early flight in SDQ, I would have spent Christmas in Miami.

4. I am stuck in the house because of an ice storm... why was it again I didn't want to spend Christmas in Miami?

5. Happy belated-Solstice, Happy Chanukah, Merry Christmas, Happy Boxing Day, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy New Year.

Levee Ride

I went for my first bike ride in New Orleans today. It was 91 degrees, I was out for about an hour and came back wondering if I was dead. BUT, it was very nice. There is a bike path that runs along the top of the levee along the river. The New Orleans streets are so shitty and pot-holes and full of clinically insane drivers... that riding on the street is stressful and rather slow. So it was great to get up there and just ride, and not even have to stop. This city also doesn't really maintain public anything-- parks are threadbare and scary and obviously we know about silly things like schools and hospitals. But it was great to be on a rather nice road, ride along the river and explore. I passed countless bullhorns, elevated houses along the river, ports, families out riding.

On my first trip here, a speaker referred to the need to return to ones roots, especially those who "grew up drinking the water of the Mississippi." Well, I was also raised drinking Mississippi water... although long before it made its way all the way through the country. And I've been to the mouth of the Mississippi and grew up riding my bike along the very same river, 1200 miles north. So I had a very nice time, riding along, sweating profusely and thinking about all this and more.

Freakin Weekend

In other activities, it was a good weekend. Friday went straight from executing a good direct examination in trail advocacy class to admitted students dinner where I identified another Wesleyan alum at the law school (a clinical professor, we were both very excited to discover this. Obvi) and talked to people about coming to school here. Then I saw a concert, Bon Iver. He's a friend of a friend here from high school, a Wisconsin falsetto that will break your heart. It was awesome and they came out and played the last song right next to us in the audience. Then we drank beer.

Saturday Charlie's roommate made us a surprise brunch and I transitioned straight from that to talking to admitted students some more. OH-- and sending on applications for an apartment. Assuming that goes through, we'll have a cute place with a lot of built-in shelving near the capitol next year. There is also free laundry.

Later Saturday a banquet and after party, which both ended up being a lot more fun than anticipated. Today we cashed in coupons like crazy, got 2-for-1 lunch, a free do-it-yourself dogwash and 50% off dog treats.

Was there some minutiae I missed? I sure hope not.