Currently: June 2015

Celebrating lots of time with old friends. This past month, I visited college friends in New York City and had a dinner party with a bigger group of my high school friends than we've been able to gather for years. Which has meant a lot of time eating, drinking, and laughing hysterically at jokes old and new. No complaints here.

Planting my garden. It took me until late June, but I've now got seedlings in the ground! When I plan to hit the garden after work, I always find myself extra eager for the clock to hit 5:30 so I can get outside and get dirty. On the flip side, I forgot how much I worry about my plants when I'm not at the garden - either that they're getting fried by the sun or battered by the derecho-like storms we've been having in DC.

Drinking lots of tea in the evenings. Not seasonal at all - maybe it's the air conditioning that makes me want it? - but it's nice to have something to sip on.

Playing Sims for iPhone - the newest obsession to liven up my short commute. It's funny - when I played Sims in middle school, I spend most of my energy creating perfect families (albeit with the occasional pool accident, as you do). Now, my Sim is mostly interested in barging into people's houses and doing sexy dances for them. It's rather poorly received.

Adding books to my library cart. It is seriously addicting - it's all the fun of shopping and getting new stuff with none of the cost. I'm on the waiting list for All the Light We Cannot See and Station Eleven and I check my library account almost daily to see how I'm progressing. Currently my eyes are bigger than my stomach and I have a growing stack of library books, so hopefully I will have a summer full of reading.

Planning our travel for this summer and hoping to squeeze in a couple trips. When you're a kid, summers feel totally endless - but nowadays I am all too aware that there are a finite number of weekends to make it all happen. I can't believe it's July already - I'll blame it on the fact that I was gone for most of May, so I missed that gearing-up period and got plopped back in the country in full-on summer.

Feeling a sort of balance. Life is full and fun and good, as the summer should be. This time last year, when I was traveling most weekends, I felt like my life was out of control if I hadn't packed myself a lunch or done laundry. (And that would worry me even more, because let's face it, I currently have as little responsibility as I will ever have until my kids are grown up and I have retired.) This year, it's like "sweet, let's get Chipotle." I don't know exactly what the difference is, but I'm glad that I'm learning to let it go and roll with it.