One of the Kat Bouska prompts this week is: List your top 6 summer moments so far.
Here are mine:
The Orlando Fringe Festival
My son, daughter-in-law and I went to the Orlando Fringe Festival in May. (I know summer doesn’t technically start until June, but it was so hot that weekend, it must have qualified for faux summer.) It was such a treat to be with them, to see MiserABBA, Shakespeare’s Aliens and The Untold Story of Hansel and Gretel, which starred my dear friend, Katie Parsons.
Global Coptic Day
On Global Coptic Day, I fulfilled something I had talked about in a previous blog — a desire to visit churches of other denominations. Thank you to St. Mary & St. George Coptic Orthodox Church for the warm welcome and for this memento — my name in Coptic.
No phone, no Apple watch for hours
When we were in Michigan in June, we stayed out on Lake Goguac with friends for hours. I had put my phone and watch away. Hours flew by, then I grabbed my phone and saw that it was 9:30 p.m. — and still light outside! Good friends, seemingly endless daylight. Perfection.
(I don’t have a good picture to share of that, seeing as how my phone was put away most of the time!)
Time with family in Michigan
Wayne and I traveled to Michigan for a week last month for a family reunion on his side (this is how we ended up at the lake mentioned above; it was a visit to friends). The family members we saw were his mother’s sister, her husband, and many cousins we had not seen for quite some time. Ever since we lost Wayne’s brother Pat in February, we’ve been even more cognizant of the need to be with family. It was worth the drive and the expense.
IKEA with my daughter
My daughter and I took a trip to see my father for a Father’s Day lunch at his assisted living facility, then to Jacksonville for her to pick up a bridesmaid’s dress she had gotten altered. We also made a little trip to Ikea (is any trip to Ikea little?). It’s so fun to be with her for this type of thing. It’s always good for a laugh (I mean — neither one of us is a genius at estimating whether a huge box will fit into an Altima (spoiler alert: it did)) and it’s so interesting to see her approach to putting her house together. Most of all, time with kids is time with kids, no matter how old they get.
Watching the circus at the Ringling
My husband, sister-in-law, brother-in-law and I were at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota on June 16. We had already bought our tickets for the museum and the house on the property when we realized there was also a circus show. We got three of the last four tickets (my husband didn’t want to go). It was such a delightful show. The performer on the rola-bola was so good. I just kept thinking of the intersection of balance and confidence — if you overthink, you’re going to fall. It seems like such an allegory for decisions I’ve had to make lately.
It’s July 17 and there’s a lot more summer left. I’m looking forward to experiencing at least six more positive things!
Wife of one, Mom of two, Friend of many. My pronouns are she/her/hers.
What fun!
Yes!
It looks like your summer is racking up nice memories for you, and it’s only half over!
And good advice – I’ll try not to overthink 🙂
That learning not to overthink thing is a perpetual project!
Wow! I love summertime with family and friends!
And I had to look up what a rola-bola was. Yikes! (I can’t even stand up on a paddle board!)
Sorry about that (on the rola-bola). I looked for a video of that specific performer on YouTube and unfortunately couldn’t find one. He had such presence. Thanks for dropping by!