Summer (Rain)

Today was a jeans day.  I wore jeans, to work, which I rarely do, and everywhere I went people wore jeans.  Sweaters, too.  I saw a woman in tights, and two in boots (not rainboots).  It's the middle of August.

Remember all that summer music?  Yeah, not so much did so much of it happen.  Rain, children, a lot of wasted money.  Ugh.  S says we will never buy concert tickets again.  (Remember the Madonna tickets?  Turns out S can't go.  But M can.)

Speaking of rain...one thing there's been a lot of this summer is driving.  Somehow we didn't really plan a vacation, and instead we've been doing lots of mini-trips, which have been lots of fun, but a little discombobulating.  And then there's the driving.  Which seems to happen more often than not in the rain.  I'm a little over it.

For the last many summers, I've spent at least two weeks in the country.  After spending all last summer in the country, I was OK with not really being in the country this summer, since it wasn't going to work out.  Or rather, I was OK with not having a big chunk of time in the country.  But I think that ended up discombobulating me too.  We've actually been to the country four times (driving--and rain) (also the lake, Country Town, the beach, and New York, each once, most involving driving in the rain), but not for longer than 48 hours, and when I get there there's that funny feeling of being there and not quite there, when usually I am so deeply there in the country.

I did get to spend one afternoon in one of my favorite summer-afternoon places: the grass down by the river behind the drive-in, where the girls play in the water and I lie under the tree and close my eyes and let the sun dapple my eyelids.  It was bliss.  And then it rained, and I had to drive back to East Coast Big City in the rain (this sounds like a joke, but it's totally not).

I have just finished a big chunk of work that was hanging over my head.  Next week one last trip that should be really a vacation, at least that's the plan: three days camping in the mountains, two days in our favorite bed-and-breakfast at the beach.  S and I just agreed that if it rains we're checking into a motel.  With an indoor pool.

(More summer pleasure: the pond.  More summer discombobulation: renovation, which is going swimmingly, but still entails noise, clutter, decisions--I had no idea I cared so much about doors, but I do.)