Wednesday, July 10, 2013

the cold summer

I've been a little bit of a bloggy failure as of late.
I've had all sorts of fun mini adventures and have tons of pictures as proof of my activity, and somewhere along the line I got overwhelmed and every day I think I might blog, I end up not blogging, and letting more and more adventures pile up without sharing them.
Sometimes I think it's nice to just let adventures be a secret.
That being said, I still haven't even blogged about our last day in Paris! Like. 4 months ago. Yikes.

Besides that, I need to tell you about Cleveland, about saying bye to my brother, about the drive back and getting back to life in an empty apartment. Funny how two adults and two cats in a teensy apartment can feel "empty" after having the warmth of family there.
I need to tell you about being homesick and going out on date nights to reconnect, about starting the new season of The Bachelorette because we're just those kinds of people.
About starting the fabulous summer tradition of playing beach volleyball with our friends, about Lynchburg Restaurant Week and beer cheese soup and how our life group at church is doing, and about having one of my lifelong friends come and visit for a week.
I certainly need to tell you that my lavender latte is alive and well and that I made a bacon-wrapped, blue-cheese topped grilled peach that changed my life.
I need to tell you about the fourth of july and about the amazing weather and about listening to a book on tape with the windows down, and about our amazing trip this weekend to Richmond that was full of childish glee on roller coasters and dancing to music and eating ice cream and eating a fancy dinner in a movie theater. About how Bread & Wine by Shauna Niequist is lovely and all of you lady loves of my heart need to read it.
I feel far away from you all because you don't know any of this very vital information.


For now all I'll really say is that this summer couldn't be more different than last summer.
Last summer we went home in late June, came back to Virginia and it was stifling hot, we almost died in Washington D.C., we had an endless string of family visitors, we went on an amazing cruise, to Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, and ended with Disney World and Harry Potter world...

This summer, we went home in May, had all of our visitors come and go before July, and it has been steadily rainy/stormy/in the 80's all summer long.
Yesterday it was 84 degrees and I wore a sweater. Today is overcast and 70 degrees and I'm wearing long sleeves and wishing I had worn socks because my office is even chillier.
The weather forecast is cloudy and thunderstormy until further notice.

Dusty and I often refer to last summer as the best summer of our lives. He even had t-shirts made for us at the end of it, because it was one of those rare moments when we actually knew we were living the golden days and cherished it appropriately.



This summer is so different that it's hard not to compare and say, "What the heck are we doing in this cold summer? Get us back to Summer Tweeeeelve!"
It's an oxymoron, really. Cold summer. Psh.
But the grass is always greener, and blah blah cliches, and we've chosen to absolutely enjoy the beautiful weather. Because how can anyone be upset about 70 degrees in July?
We play volleyball with our friends, the gorgeous breezes and sunsets as our natural accessories, and find other ways to cook dinner besides our go-to summer grilling when the week is full of rain.
Summer Treize (every summer has to have a nickname, amiright?) is turning out to be mighty fine.
Now we'll just pray that August doesn't sneak up on us, roasting and killing us with belated heat.

The bottom line is, to bequote my new BFF Bread & Wine, 

It seems like most of the things we try to make profound never are, 
lost in our insistence and fretting and posing. When we want something to be momentous, it rarely is.
Life is disobedient in that way, insisting on surprising us with its magic, 
stubbornly unwilling to be glittery on command. 


I have a love/hate relationship with that quote. It boths speaks to me and slaps me in the face, because I do that all the time. Oh, everybody pose! Everybody look happy! This party has to be the best ever...this summer has to be like Summer Tweeeeelve. Pout, stomp, fist-shake: why isn't this perfectly the way I envisioned?
I'm sure I'm not the only one with control issues. I didn't think I had control issues until recently, so coming to the realization that I have a whole new giant flaw is upsetting in and of itself. 
Let's make a toast to summer, and not just this summer, but every summer, every season. 
Cheers to letting go and enjoying the ruined plans, the bits and pieces, the chaos that makes life all the merrier. 
Life is just better with toasts and cheers. 

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