Date: July 16th, 2007

Friday, July 13th, 2007*

Summer, summer, summer time

I'm sitting here watching my brother pack for Ghana while writing this. He's going for five weeks as his summer vacation/study (but they never really make you do so) abroad and I have the dubious honor of telling him that he probably won't need an outfit for each and every day of this five-week stay. Thus far his summer vacation is looking far more 'vacation-like' than mine, but I'm not bitter of course, because at least my pseudo-vacation will not require taking malaria medication

Over the last few years, as I've become acclimated to being an adult with a full time job, I've realized that summer comes with no fanfare. I'm just like "Hoo boy, It's hot" and that's all. I don't really ever vacation over the summer and then soon enough it's September and the days go by all the same. There's no longer that elation of it being summer and the subsequent three months of leisure and sitting on my ass. Instead I work and then work some more and take the occassional long weekend. But anyway, enough of me because Hey, Y'all! It's SUMMER!

Summer means camping. Something that I've missed doing over the last few years. I was a Girl Scout and though my enjoyment of using the bathroom outsside and tipping canoes over and cooking over a fire are not inherently learned, they're actually still some of my favorite activities (ok, maybe not the whole going to the bathroom outside thing, but whatever). Thus my jealousy when reading that Princess Pointful got to go camping. I got a little teary eyed:

I'm a little curious as to what to expect from this trip. My friend's boyfriend and his friends are the most Italian of all Italians-and apparently their camping dining consists of elaborately made pasta! Whatever happened to hotdogs? Isn't camping food supposed to be as low effort and as full of preservatives as possible?

And for the record, though I've made some rather exquisite meals while camping (Pesto anyone?) I don't remember elaborately made ravioli with spinach and mascarpone cheese or home made fusilli with fresh vodka sauce. But if one can do it, then embrace it and enjoy it.

My other stark reminder of summer was always the onslaught of tourists. Like one day I'd be walking down Independence Avenue minding my own business, enjoying some coffee. The next day there would be like 17,000 8th graders from Jackson, Mississippi who all think that congregating directly in front of the entrance to the Rayburn building would be a nifty idea. In short: Tourists are not a city dweller's best friend. Tourists make me want to puncture the tires on the 19 foot bus they rode in on. Apparently the influx of tourists is just as painful in Chicago as it is in DC:

It would just be so nice if my train wasn't 25 minutes late due to "heavy passenger loading," which means all you people with picnic baskets and strollers and American flags and sleeping bags clogging up the aisles.

I actually feel bad about that given that I'll be a Chicago tourist later this summer, but I promise to stick to cabs and walking. Pinkie promise.

I'm still sitting here watching my brother (nowhere near finished of course) and just remembered that other crappy thing about summer; the grass. The way it grows like there's no tomorrow and how thankful I am that he is around to do the cutting. But now that he's leaving, my mother has enlisted the help of a very handsome man to do our landscaping. Did I mention that sometimes the landscaper takes off his shirt? I am not one to do landscaping or mowing or anything of the sort. Funny, because I like nature and peeing over bushes and such but I refuse to mow the lawn. In fact my experience with a lown mower would probably go something like the Red Head Next Door's experience, except someone would probably lose a foot:

It was like the machine had a mind of it's own. Plus it was heavier than a dead body (or something). So I could barely move it around. I was throwing my whole body into getting it to move - then it turned into this pendulum-esque swinging motion. Back and forth, back and forth.

And people wonder why I generally tend to stick to my office during the summer. But of course I'm like the only person who is all "Vacation? Que es?" Unlike the others in my office who have families and free time and generally enjoy a little fun in their lives. So when I saw the mastery that Chickadee concocted, I suddenly came up with all sorts of ideas:

So naturally the first day he was gone, I got on his computer, opened up Word and added a new AutoCorrect setting that would replace his name with the word "diapers" each time he typed it

To recap; I don't take vacation and I'm also plotting evil against my vacationing coworkers. I am the most pleasant person EVER!

And finally the packing has finished and my brother has escaped to Manhattan and I am sitting here watching the fireworks on television because it's raining and my hair is fragile. Besides, last night I had my own personal viewing of fire works (which are illegal above the Mason-Dixon line) right outside the window of a child I was trying to get to bed. There's nothing more enjoyable than a crying five year old who can't sleep because some jackass is blowing off illegal paraphernalia right outside of her bedroom window. But I can't be too upset because like Love Monkey, at least it was my own private show. I should be appreciative:

So it's the 3rd of July, officially the night before July 4th or -Independence Day Eve. There's something about the night before a holiday that we Americans seem enchanted by-you know, First Night (aka New Years Eve) and of course Chiristmas Eve...Well apparently July 4th Eve has become a holiday in it's own right. The fireworks festivities have just concluded right outside my living room window.

So do I seem bitter? No, I'm not bitter, I'm just a bit on the cynical side. Give it a month and I'll be all, "let's drink beers on the deck! Whoot." Until then Happy Summer, party people!

*post originally written July 3rd, but due to my mad HTML coding skills, or lack thereof it didn't get posted until July 13th. So a big ass, mea culpa, on my part