A Trip to the Seagull

I have mixed feelings about the end of summer. While the weather for the last couple of weeks has indicated that Fall is clearly on its way, and I do enjoy the fresh start that comes with the beginning of the school year, I'm also not inclined to willingly give up any days of the short warm season we get here in New England. Tomorrow it's supposed to be 91 degrees, so I'm inclined to believe that summer hasn't left us yet. Which means that the trip we took to the Seagull Inn last week was more just a summer trip than a "goodbye to summer" trip.

My mom wanted to have a trip with Dewey and me, and since Dew's about to marry Will, we invited his sister, Kathryn, along, too. We were at the Seagull for less than 24 hours, but it was long enough to feel like a vacation. I took two beachy novels out of the library, and I read for hours; first on the lovely lawn, and the next morning, on the steps up to the roof deck with a cup of tea. We had fried fish sandwiches and paper cups of pink wine on the beach at dinnertime, and the next morning, we took full advantage of the generous breakfast the BnB offers. I may have had second breakfast ten minutes after finishing the first one.

Happy Happy, Dewey!

 

Today is Dewey's birthday. Dewey is warm, loving, creative, and hilarious, and I'm SO glad she's my sister.

Happy happy, Dewey! I'm so glad you were born.

#CincinnatiVacay

One of the best parts about getting older is that the friendships you made in college gradually get more weight, more history. There is nothing better in the world than a friend who you've known for more than ten years; the sort of ease and comfort that happens when you're around people with whom you have a common history is just my favorite. When those people have a baby, it's even better.

I have known Lisa since freshman orientation, and Charlie since about two weeks after that. I was in their wedding, and when their son was born, I was honored to be asked to be his godmother. Teddy takes after his parents- he loves books, he's almost always happy (unless you're denying him goldfish), and he's generally a delight to be around. Unfortunately, the family lives in Cincinnati, which is altogether too far away from Boston, but I tried to make up for it by visiting them last week.

It was the perfect kind of visit; we visited the most amazing playground I have ever seen, went to a truly charming bookstore/cafe, ate delicious barbecue, and played with lots and lots of trains. It was relaxed and relaxing, the kind of vacation you can have with friends you've known forever. We cooked lots of food and drank plenty of pink wine, and spent lots and lots of time talking when Teddy was sleeping.

It should be noted that Lisa and Charlie just moved to Cincinnati from St. Louis, so Ferguson was on the forefront of all of our minds. We spent a lot of time talking about it; about where we go from here, how we deal with the fact that we live in a world where it is fundamentally dangerous to be black and male. I don't have any answers, but it's something I grapple with a lot, especially now. Talking about it with friends who have lived in St. Louis (Lisa is from there) gave me a new perspective.

Doing and Seeing

(I'm taking a little break from scenes like this for three weeks. I'm pretty excited.)

 

Historically, I have blogged the most prolifically during times of transition. When I graduated from college, when I moved to San Francisco, when I moved back from San Francisco, when I worked at a really awful job for six months, when I turned 25 and freaked. the eff. out. Those times, blogging gave me a different perspective on all of the changes that were happening. People spend a lot of time talking about how blogs make people feel inferior, how by reading blogs, you are giving yourself the opportunity to compare your very real life to a made-up ideal. Real always loses out.

Here's the thing, though: I think blogging can be really good for you. When I post on the regular, I am constantly looking for things to write about. I go on adventures and I bring my camera, I look for little moments of beauty in the day-to-day. I do more and I see more. My blog is like a gratitude journal and a little personal motivator, all in one tiny page on the internet.

Now, my life is changing once again. After working for six years, I am starting graduate school in the fall. (Well, actually, I started this summer. ) I'll still be working, but much less so, and I'll be in classes full time. I'm mostly excited about this transition, but I'm a little nervous, too: nervous that I made the wrong choice, nervous that graduate school is going to be awful, nervous about finding a job once I'm done. I hope that by coming back to my blog, I'll be able to see beyond the scariness of the transition. I hope that it will inspire me to do more and see more once again.