Entrench myself in summer

This was extremely worthwhile. I feel that I really did my best to try and hold on to summer as long as possible. This weekend we took a road trip down to Memphis to see my favorite band (The Avett Brothers). Along the way we camped, hiked, went to a fair, ate at places recommended by Alton Brown in his most recent Feasting on Asphalt…it was the perfect summery ending. The world is getting dry and dusty and the leaves are starting to turn crunchy. Now it’s time to enjoy fall!

This weekend we went to cornfest, one of the pivitol moments in Normal-life that signals fall. As does the start of school today. But the world outside still reads as summer, so I’m sticking with it.

My most recent summery escapades include:
Noticing that it still smells green outside. The spice of fall hasn’t entered the air quite yet.
Eating shaved ice and sharing with Max
Appreciating that it is still light out at a reasonable hour
Sleeping with the windows open
Listening to the college students stroll (drunkenly) down the block at 1am

Include many entries for this goal and I could have…I think this is a goal I kept experiencing but, rarely wrote about here. I tended to put the entries in other locations. Either way, the goal raised my awareness and I really did have a great summer this year.

I know summer isn’t technically over yet, but working and living in a University environment has me feeling like we’re onto fall. Fall semester starts on Monday, and I’ll be taking two classes. This was a great summer, and I feel like I made the most of it. I hope the rest of the year continues to be fun and productive.

The vegetables at the market last night were deep purples and yellows. It’s late in the season and most things are past their prime, but I love these deep aubergine colors that signal the winding down of summer.

Eggplant
squash
onions
corn
tomatoes
cabbage
okra

to get outside more, have the windows open more, go to the dog park more, get out during the day more…

It’s getting more difficult, but I am committed!

We took a break from Pottering to walk to uptown for lunch. We went to a burger place that smelled AMAZING. The Cubs game was on as we were in line. The announcer started talking about the new Harry Potter book. Ray and I both plugged our ears, turned around and walked out. We discussed if we should go back in, but decided we should go elsewhere. We ended up at a place neither of us is crazy about, but we ate enough to keep going.

I love that I live walking distance to two movie theatres, at least 10 restaurants, a music shop, 2 college campuses, a post office, a florist…it’s lovely and I want to walk places more..

I think I’ve done well with this goal so far. My problem now is that I’ve entered the time of year when I feel like time is running out. Since I work in an academic environment, I feel summer winding down the gearing up for the new semester. I’m realizing what projects won’t get done. I’m realizing what we’ve accomplished. It’s all pretty great, but I’m worried that suddenly school will be here and summer will be gone. I need to make sure that I take time to really embrace summer more than ever right now.

I love taking Max to the dog park. He’s a big, black dog and many people think he’s a bit scary looking. Someone even told their kids not to go near him because he didn’t look like a petting dog. The kids ran up anyway, grabbed Max’s face and pet him for 10 minutes while he just basked.

I love to see him find a playmate and frolic and jump and run.