Nine Things About This Summer

Summer is winding down, both fast and oh so slowly. What will I recall from these eleven weeks? Can I make poetry out of school vacation? The neighbor beats out a rhythm on his drums, a helicopter just stopped flying in place on Phinney Ridge, and a car just drove by and gave two long honks, surely in protest of the entire idea of driving.

Today I counted out the days left before the kids return to their previously scheduled program but one year ahead, and I came up with nine. So here are the first nine summer snapshots from my brain:

  1. Reading an advice column from the amazing book Dear Sugar out loud to my dear friend Christina as we sat in lawn chairs at Cama Beach. I told her she would cry as I read it, and promised I would cry, too. She cried. I cried. There’s nothing like reading meaningful words out loud to those I love. There’s nothing better than whiling away 3.5 days with friends and family at Cama Beach.
  2. “I don’t know what to do.” The phrase of the summer from KK and Annie. Not said too often, probably because most of our days were chocked full of activity. And if they asked this question “What’s next?” I always said, “We are going to Africa!”
  3. Boulder. Quick. The moment moment is this: reading Waiting for Alaska on Mary Fran and James’ couch while they watched a super bad movie. I love that James told me ahead of time that Mary Fran would watch the entire movie no matter how bad it was. I recall eating a chocolate chip cookie or two while reading, as well as exclaiming over the fine book.
  4. Dishing with Laura (who now lives in France) late into the night several times during her family’s nearly two week stay at casa Alton. My favorite life/gossip discussion happened after her all day beach party. We chatted for hours while Thierry read on his phone. He looked up now and again to roll his eyes at us or crack a joke. We teased him about his mistress who he hung out with while Laura and the kids were in Denver for one month staying with her mom. Touché.
  5. Sitting on my front stoop taking in my wild garden. I’m not sure if I love it best when the weather is cloudy or sunny, but adore it I do.
  6. KK and Annie taking breathe defying leaps off the backyard’s brick wall on the rope swing again and again and again. Partner this with a bit of arguing over whom gets the swing now and I mean arguing with each other and/or guests. And marry this with KK craving alone time on this swing pretty much on a daily basis. My girl is so ten.
  7. Fish. Chris. Chris. Fish.
  8. Glorious runs. And then not running, due to weird injury. No cure or replacement for running found yet. But I did place six in my age group in a tiny 5K race at Gasworks Park, and I sweated through a grueling Boulder 5K race at altitude near a wildfire at a remarkable pace for me. Sigh. I miss the run.
  9. Green Lake. Lake Washington. Pop Mounger pool. Slip and slide. My girls and Chris and water. As often as possible. My fish. My family. They float.

And that’s all she wrote.

 

 

 

 

 

1 thought on “Nine Things About This Summer

  1. Nancy, my heart sings and my smile widens while my eyes after with ech the your entries I read. You are fantastic.

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