Ideally this is how I’d like to spend my summer (add catering and it would be perfect). As it is, if we open windows mosquitoes come in (although they get in anyway; the opportunistic little critters zoom in as soon as a door is opened, knowing that I, ripe, juicy and desirable, will be their dinner). If I put flowers in a vase I’d have to clean off the table first. Heck, I’d have to clean off the sofa first.
I don’t know if I could live with that wallpaper, though.
So how am I spending my summer?
Job hunting. Yes, my job fell apart in July and I really, really need work–I just don’t function well without it. It’s not as though I have set myself up a rigid routine (exercise! write! read! do good works!) although I probably should. My routine generally goes like this: get up early because I’m used to it, fiddle around reading email, run errands if there are any to run, write a bit, apply for some jobs, avoid the siren call of the tv and the hundreds of cable channels that still don’t provide anything to watch.
I also do odd bits of housework but god knows I don’t want anyone (spouse) to take this sort of thing for granted or, worse, that I start to think this sort of thing is essential. It’s a fine line.
So what are you doing this summer?
Right now I’m prepping like a mad thing for Burning Man. I bought a cargo rack for my Jeep and a used trike to replace my two-wheeler (all the better for drinking and pedaling; no falling over!). This is every important as The Paddy Mirage is back this year (30 Irish boys who fly over and build and Irish Pub on the playa, complete with endless whiskey and Guinness *sigh* We’re talking heaven here).
My summers pretty consistently run towards RWA and Burning Man. How’s that for a crazy juxtaposition?
Right now I’m trying to decide just how Tank Girl my hair and clothes will be this year (it varies). I’m thinking it might be extreme this time around . . .
Darn on the job thing, Janet! I hope you land something cushy and air-conditioned soon.
For me, I’m running Camp Mommy for my son, who is just as happy to be in Camp Video Game.
The highlight of my day will be going to Target. Yeah, that’s a good time.
In a week or so, however, we head to the beach. Yay!
I’m trying to transition to East Coast time. I think I was meant to live in California, because my body wants to function three house later than it should.
I’ve done a couple of good things – got five bags of old clothes donated to charity and – here’s the biggie – cleaned up my Book Room (I never call it an office because no work is possible in there) so that it can be vacuumed. I would not yet call it neat but it is vastly improved.
Good luck with your job hunt, Janet!
I’m trying to get the rough draft of my WIP finished by the end of the month, so right now that’s eating a lot of my time and energy.
Other than that, I’m working, watching the Olympics (and crushing a bit on Michael Phelps), reading to and solving puzzles with my daughter, and commiserating with my husband over the beastie (raccoon? bird?) that’s sneaking onto our deck in the dead of night and eating his tomatoes as soon as they show a hint of ripening.
You sound like me when I’m between-jobs, Janet! I always think I’ll get so much writing done, then end up hanging around futzing away the day. Good luck on the job search. 🙂
And, Megan, of COURSE Target is good time! I get unreasonably excited about going there.
And right now my summer is about finishing writing projects ina timely and somewhat-coherent manner.
Job hunting…yuk! Good luck on that front.
I’ve been busy working while my brother sipped Pinot Noir in Oregon. He calls it a conference. Yeah, okay. I’ve spening a lot of time driving the kids to their various camps. Stringendo, Jujitsu, tennis, golf and swimming. Okay, my DH did the last two when I was in San Fran. He was more than happy to hand over the keys when I got back.
I am now in full fund raising mode. It’s time for our annual family fun day. We raise money for diabetes education in the Hudson Valley. I’m the GC for it and am in charge of the Silent Auction. Oh, and I have two hundred more addresses to print out….
Guiness and 30 Irish lads sounds pretty good to me. Do you think they’d take me to Target?
Hmm…let’s see:
— first, got new kittens, and wrote like a mad thing when they would let me;
— then I went to two conferences, and came back with lots of books, bookmarks, elvish pottery, and t-shirts that say things like “Aren’t you a little short to be an imperial auditor?” 🙂
— then I had several days of migraines, interspersed with migraine-medicine-wooziness.
As for the rest of the summer…hopefully more writing like a mad thing!
And reading like a mad thing.
And movie-watching like a mad thing.
Okay, let’s just say it: whatever I do, it will have a tinge of insanity…
Cara
Guiness and 30 Irish lads sounds pretty good to me. Do you think they’d take me to Target?
I’m guessig Home Dept is more likely, but Target isn’t out of the question. *grin*
Janet, so sorry to hear about your job. Hope you rustle up something interesting soon.
This summer has been filled with constant traveling from Memorial Day to Labor Day. I’m already mucho tired of the thought of another outing. Used to be, I looked forward to going somewhere every few weeks. Now, I dread it. I don’t care whether the table in that picture’s dusty or that wallpaper’s hideous. All I see is that comfortable couch-like thing and bookssss. That’s what I want to do.
Kalen, you need a Segway, not a trike. I know many here who’re busy getting ready for Burning Man, too. For a couple, it’s their first time, and they’re nervous as all heck.
Target holds all kinds of fun for every member of our family. Have you seen the HK notebooks and schwag??? Heaven for two particular someones I know.
Can’t use a Segway on the playa, it’s not legal (any motorized vehicle larger than a teeny-tiny scooter [the lawn-mower engine ones you stand up on] has to be a “mutant vehicle” and have a Dept of Mutant Vehicles’ license). Besides, there’s nowhere to recharge it, LOL!
Your friends will be fine. The beauty of Burning Man is that it’s a gift economy. If you forget something, someone will have you covered.
Remind them to bring along a little cash so they can buy ice (and coffee if they’re so inclined). At some point in the week an iced mocha just seems like a necessity.
Thanks for the info, Kalen. I’ll pass it along.
Photos of the Tank Girl persona, if you please, Kalen!! Have fun (with 30 Irishmen and some Guinness that should NOT be hard!)
Hope you find the perfect job, Janet.
Cara and Keira, sounds like you two have the traveling covered for all of us!
Susan, have your dog pee around the tomato plants (not on them, but around the part of the deck where they are located.) Sounds nasty, but makes tomato pirating critters think twice. No dog? Borrow a neighbor’s. Cat pee works, but it has to be male cat pee. Don’t ask how I know this. I live in the country remember? And it worked around my rose beds like a charm. Of course the very best is wolf hybrid pee. Good grief! I sound like peeologist!
This summer I am frantically writing my considerable posterior off to finish my second book!! And biting my nails down to the quick and beyond waiting to hear from all of the requests I sent out after Nationals!
I hear you, O Divine One! I LOVED California and the time change definitely agreed with this late to bed, early to rise former opera singer!
Hi to all from Berlin! It’s been a lovely 10 days, staying with our nephew, his wife, and gorgeous tiny kids — the free accommodations help make up for the exchange rate, even if the kids get up VERY early (and marched into our room with flutes and tambourines one morning when we didn’t). Fantastic museums and such, and a very wonderful laid-back sort of post-ideological vibe (in a city that’s seen all too much ideology). Today we have brunch with Kris Alice Hohls from the German romance magazine Love-Letter, and with an editor from Cora (the house that published the German edition of Almost a Gentleman). Makes me feel very writerly and international ;-}
And then, this afternoon, home — well, to NY anyway, to try to sleep off the jet lag and hang out with our son — we head home to San Francisco Monday.
Summer? What summer? Classes start again on the 25th! How did this happen?!!!
Todd-who-wants-his-summer-back
Ah, Todd. I was wondering you’ve been quiet this week. Too much fun at Devention.
Target! Ooh, Target. I love Target altho their fat girl clothes aren’t too great this year.
I’m also spending my summer moving my MIL into assisted living, aaargh. Spent much of yesterday watching cute young Russian guys load and unload and then negotiating a final price (I got them down $85!!). Then we found the furniture won’t fit in the space… And I’m dealing with a cat with a bladder infection who has now graduated to wet cat food (ugh) and pesters us for more, more, all day.
Kalen, Burning Man sounds so cool.
Diane, I had trouble adjusting to east coast again. I’d been practising for the west coast by staying up until about 1 am but then getting up at about 6, so my clock was way off even before I got there.
Susan, if you have a meat-eating male human around the place, remember that guys love to pee outdoors.
Pam, you win the prize for the most glamorous and writerly summer of all.
It’s actually not a glamorous city. Quite scruffy, in truth (which is great when one is travel-stained and wrinkled and hates one’s most comfortable shoes).
But yes, we’ve had a lovely, fascinating time — and it was great to talk to Kris this morning at length (she loves loves loves The Rules of Gentility, Janet) — and to find out that the German translation of Almost a Gentleman is being reprinted. THAT did seem pretty glamorous and international.
(Love your graphic, btw — I’d quite live with the wallpaper to get that mood. Where’s it from?)
Keira wrote:
Ah, Todd. I was wondering you’ve been quiet this week. Too much fun at Devention.
Well, it was fun. But now they are expecting me to work! The nerve!
Of course, I should be grateful to have a steady job that I like, so I guess I’ll stop complaining now. 🙂 Good luck, Janet!
Todd-who-wouldn’t-mind-working-if-it-didn’t-involve-any-actual-work