This Sunday, June 21, is the the summer solstice, the official end of spring and start of summer. It is also the longest day of the year. I find this exciting, like I get extra time in the day. A Super Sunday. I hope that I do something productive, or perhaps celebrate the solstice in some way. The Santa Barbarans know how to high five summer. A big party. How fun does that look? Everyone loves a good parade. Well, everyone who counts does anyway.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy your longest day of 2009 this Sunday and if you want to learn more about the solstice here is an article aptly named “Everything You Need to Know: June solstice 2009.” I suppose can also just go here, since I know that’s what you did anyway.
After two solid weeks of traveling, this week was the first back to the office and back to the same ‘ol same ‘ol. Vacation, as we all know, is a break. A time to step out of the normal routine and relax. My vacation certainly fulfilled those criteria and allowed me to also take some stock in my normal routine and my day-to-day life. I have been discussing/complaining/contemplating/lightly to heavily researching moving for years to my friends and family. Summer 2009 is it. I am so looking forward to the changes it will bring. Yes, job and apartment searching is a pain, we all know the trauma of moving, but is there ever a truly ideal time for every big decision? When there is not a thing that disrupts your plan? Yeah, doesn’t exist.
I’ve realized that all I can do is try. People with less have done more than what I am attempting to do. And what is the worst case scenario? Having to move back to my hometown? Maybe even in with a relative or friends? While not ideal, certainly isn’t that terrible of a worst-case scenario. I’ll take it.
Where have been some of your favorite cities to live? Perhaps a city you have always wanted to try?
Mental Floss is one of the best web sites out there. If you enjoy quirky, random and interesting topics this site is for you. Whenever I check it out, I almost always end up spending at least an hour jumping from article to article. Interested in learning about early jobs of famous people? Perhaps a fascinating story of a man who took a polaroid every day for almost 20 years? Maybe take a quiz on Frank Sinatra’s music? It’s all there and then some. Mental Floss is a terrific site that has me constantly engaged and easily engrossed.
Got a favorite site? I’d love to hear it. I’m always up to expanding my bookmarks.
I should have posed this question a few days ago, but, what are some of your favorite books to read on vacation? I’ve got a few going with me but am always open to suggestions. And if I don’t get ahold of them while on vacation I’ll be ready for some new reads when I get back! Thanks!
With Memorial Day on Monday and our company “reduced work week” aka forced non-paid day off last Friday; the past week has been rather unstructured. I went into work yesterday for a one day workweek. I’ve been losing tracks of days with the jumbled week. It’s sort of vacation season around the workplace anyway, with it being right after the kids get out of school and before all the summer camps and activities begin.
So when in Rome- I’m taking mine. My trip coming up is part vacation part graduation. My sister is graduating and the family is building it into a beach vacation! I cannot wait. This also means that I will be offline for virtually 8 days straight. Although I have no problem being outdoors and taking myself away from the computer, I certainly enjoy being more or less “forced” off of them.
Anyone else have any trips planned this summer?
Happy long weekend! Planning to continue my online hiatus for the rest of the holiday time. Hope you have a great break and get to truly relax. Any special plans?
Keeping with the topic of Summer 2009, I helped to kick mine off with a favorite childhood treat: Push Pops. Not to be confused with the hardy candy variety, this baby was all sherbet. While in my mind, Flintstones are the original, I had to settle for Scooby Doo because that is all the Circle K had to offer. (After I had already tried another gas station. I was not giving up on my dream!)
Thanks to those who appreciate ice cream in its Push Up form
Fun fact: Push Pops are the only artificially flavored orange treat I enjoy. Learn something everyday, eh? I learned, thanks to this image to our left, these seem to go by Push Ups as well.
What is a summer activity that you do every season? That without it, summer just seems…incomplete?
For those who aren’t familiar with the Kindle yet, here is Amazon’s description of their product. Basically it’s a handheld digital reading device. You buy a book and its delivered electronically for you to read. It comes with all sorts of features: wireless Internet, no wires, rechargeable battery, etc. You can read their page for more info.
Amazon has over 7,000 user reviews that have given the an average Kindle 4 out of 5 stars so this badboy is getting some mileage. I came across this review on CrunchGear by a Kindle user who provides 10 pros and 10 cons to using the Kindle. I enjoyed his breakdown of the good and the bad and think he has a pretty good overall prediction for the device eventually being implemented into schools in the near future.
The truth is we live in an age of booming technological advances and while this allows the world to seem more personal; it also denies us some of that former personal space. For example, I think the iPhone is amazing. It literally astonishes me what can both be invented and utilized on something so small, so compact. But Google’s Street View feature? Not my favorite. I don’t like being able to see my sister’s car in our driveway on the Internet. That’s just me, as some of my friends cannot get enough of Street View (maybe that’s because one accidentally made it into a shot). I know everything has two sides and one can argue these topics back and forth until both parties realize there is no clean cut answer. For as much amazement, genius and growth technology brings, it can also create paranoia, controversy and a lack of intimacy.
I’ll keep my feelings on the Kindle as short and sweet as I can. It is a sneaky form of evil. To me, books only come in one form: paper. I can smell it, touch it, feel it. I can pass it on to my friends and get back a more loved and broken-in object. Trading Kindles? Doubt that trend is going to start anytime soon. Reading a book is one of the only practices in my life not invaded by a screen of some kind. I plan to keep it that way.
Would you buy a Kindle? Did you? Do you still use it? What do you see as pros and cons?
Last week was the graduation weekend of my alma mater and many, many other schools and universities around the country. It got me to thinking about how much I loved college, how much the stress and the anxiety of finals and projects are worth the immeasurable amount of fun and personal growth I experienced.
It also reminded me of the the time when I realized summer was going to change forever. Summer was no longer three months of unsupervised (well, mostly) and unstructured (the majority) independence. It was just another three months of the year. Work didn’t care if your friends were going to the lake or having beers on the deck listening to their outdoor drinking play lists. Summer was now when you had to be horribly confined wearing long pants and business casual clothing regardless of 80° heat and humidity when all your bones told you to do was put on shorts and flip flops. It felt like summer no longer loved you the same.
This year, I’ve decided to change my feelings on it. Of course I have long realized that I need to work and that I’m no longer a student, but I’m not going to dwell on the summers I used to have. I will cherish them and look back fondly, but I am going to do my best to spend as much time outside as possible, being active and doing things that I enjoy whenever I can without moaning and groaning everyday the sun comes out that I can’t just sit outside all day next to a pool.
What are your favorite summer activities? Does life change much for you depending on the season?
Tomorrow, we embark on Crawl for Cancer. Roughly six hours of pub crawling with hundreds of my closest friends. Tonight, I will be hydrating and resting. I believe it was Shakespeare who said it best, “Life ain’t a track meet; it’s a marathon.” Okay it was actually sub-par 90’s rapper Ice Cube but the sentiment is the same. Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!
