Summertime

It's about that time to start wrapping up summer vacation.  Tomorrow begins my 9th year of teaching, and I admit I've been excited about starting for about 3 weeks now.  I love my job and am thankful how it provides the opportunity to start fresh every school year.

I am still going to miss these summer days, though.  This was probably the most relaxing summer I've had so far.  I didn't teach summer school for the first time ever,  and I didn't stick to my To-Do list as diligently as in years past.  I gave that list a glance from time to time, but I ended up just shrugging my shoulders and leaving it there on my desk, sad and lonely and aching to have just one more item crossed off of it.  Not going to happen!

What went down:

-Spent about two weeks doing NOTHING but watching TV, reading (I highly recommend reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close),  and surfing the internet.  I watched the Panda Cam more than anyone should ever watch it and viewed about 15 TedTalks.  I felt ashamed for the first 4 days, but that quickly passed once I realized how good it felt to not have to change out of my pjs.

-After those first two weeks, I made plans for some quality friend time.  The girls and I met weekly to have brunch and work in our Smash Books.  There were also BBQs, pool parties, a painting class, going out for drinks + dancing, celebrating birthdays, lunch and dinner date catch-ups. My dear friend Jolene gave birth to her first child, Ray!  I must say that having wonderful friends to hang out with is the key to having a great summer.

             

-My sisters and I had a date night and went out for dinner and a Jewel concert.  It was an intimate venue, but I am sad to say that it felt like she didn't want to be there.  I meant to write a post about this concert but we missed the first 20 minutes of it and I could not find a set list anywhere on the internet.  I did enjoy her storytelling, especially the story of having prostitutes determine the fate of "You Were Meant for Me."  This was her "Greatest Hits Tour" so we heard all of our favorites.  

 

-Justin and I bought tickets to see Neil Gaiman do a book reading/signing for The Ocean at the End of the Lane.  We sat very close to the stage and unfortunately couldn't hear very well as the speakers were behind us.  He mostly spent his time on stage doing a Q and A session before reading from the book.  I would have liked to have heard more on the process behind writing the book but luckily I was able to read all about it on Amanda Palmer's blog.  Poor guy, each book signing on this tour lasted well into the early morning hours.  I made the hard decision of just swapping out my copy for a presigned copy.  I didn't want to add to the queue and from what we saw he wasn't able to chat or take photos while signing anyway.  Supposedly this was his last book tour ever.  But they all say that, don't they?  I wished for this day back in November after seeing Sherman Alexie.  And it happened!! Maybe I should wish a Kurt Vonnegut resurrection and see what the Gods throw at me.  Zombie Kurt Vonnegut would probably still be a sweetie-pie old man telling crazy sci-fi stories including the planet Tralfamadore and
Billy Pilgrim.

-We planned a last minute vacation to Makena Beach in Maui.  All school year we went back and forth between wanting to go on vacation or putting money into savings.  Or if we did go on vacation, would it be Hawaii or Mexico, OR save up and go to Ireland?  We absolutely could not make up our minds.  (I know, bullshit first-world problems.)  Of course the beach vacation won, I can't deny that beautiful ocean.  Justin found a great deal with a fab hotel in south Maui.  We had stayed on the other end of the island during our 2009 trip and we wanted to stay somewhere that was more secluded this time around.  The Makena Beach and Golf Resort did not disappoint!  I was in love with the hotel's beach.  It was tiny and closed off, minimal waves, and great views of the surrounding mountains.  With every vacation there is that one special moment that strikes you, and for this vacation it was simply enjoying time on this beach, rolling around in the waves washing up on the shore.  We also met up with one of Justin's friends from work for a sushi dinner, went on a Road to Hana tour, and of course had our traditional Hawaii vacation happy hour for two on our lanai while we watched the sunset.  On our last day we spent the morning in the ocean and I said my goodbyes to Maui.  We decided we probably will not be visiting the island again and will focus all of our future Hawaii trips on our favorite island, Kauai.

-I got to babysit both Annette's kids and Jackie's kids a handful of days.  But not at the same time!  I'm sure everyone is tired of me gushing over the adorableness that my nieces and nephew spout out on a daily basis, but that's just the reality of things, folks!  We celebrated Isabella's 4th birthday, Evan's first birthday, and Jackie's announcement of yet another little one on its way to our family in January!!  And that will bring the count to one dozen amazing kiddos in our family.

I do wish I would have gotten around to repainting the kitchen and crocheted more than two baby blankets.  The start of the school year means exhaustion, staying way past contracted work hours, zero free time, and my family hardly seeing me around for the whole month of August.  And I love this exciting time anyway!  Adios, Summer!