I am a summer baby, a Leo if you believe in astrology, and when the sun shines, so do I. How I love the heat, the green, the grassy smells, the cool lakes, the chirpy nights, the hum of a fan, the flip-flops... even the skeeters are fine by me. I find myself drunk on my love of summer, peachy and positive on days when I should be downright miserable.
I want to keep this brief, as another perfectly comfortable night's sleep is calling me from the other room. But I couldn't bear to be absent for another month without at least attempting to recap all of the blissful moments I've been fortunate to live this past month:
- weekend of entertaining for good friends, cooking and crewing on the production of The Brave and the Kind
- buying a bikini for the first time in my life, and christening it in the great Lake Ontario on the 4th of July at Hamlin Beach
- hot-tubbing and scoring pitchers of Red Bull with Mark and Courtney in Rochester
- catching up with RIT professors at Jack Beck's wedding
- having an impromptu living-room dance party after shooting, one that involved me and Meghan and Holland piled on a wheelchair (and yes, we have it on video)
- taking care of Sarah and Bryan's kitties for much of July while they had urgent family issues (thankfully, her Dad is recovering...)
- watching The Dark Knight with Tom and Zhenelle, and joining them for delicious faux-sloppy joes at their camp in Warrensburg
- watching Lewis Black at the Palace Theatre with the Yosts
- making a website for my nephew, Gavin's first birthday
- spending a week in the 1000 Islands, doing yoga on the grass, cooking for everyone, swimming in the lake, and staying up all hours of the night drinking ice cold beers under the stars (and squashing swarms of mystery bugs) with the Brave and the Kind crew - and Susie, of course! I'm so glad she came!
- getting spoiled on my birthday... presents from Mom and Natalie, and a surprise birthday haircut from the always-amazing friend Trina
- taking a life-altering two-day fling to Montreal with my honey, where we saw Radiohead and figured out our lives
- salsa-dancing the night away at Ben y Tamara's fabulous wedding in Rochester
The Brave and the Kind cast and crew in the Thousand Islands, NY
I am blessed. I am truly, utterly, wholly blessed. Throughout all of these wonderful experiences, and each and every day in between, I've been deepening my yoga practice and practicing the art of presence: breathing, pausing, and acknowledging each moment as it exists. Summer is not quite over, but I feel that I've lived this one as fully as one could, joyfully drinking up each second and allowing it to wash over me, feeling all of it absorb into my well of memory.
Lucky, I am, but ungrateful I am not. I will remember this summer always, and this spirit of gratitude and awareness will not slip away as the summer eventually will.
