monday happy to you m’loves.
i am home and already swimming seamlessly with my fellow southern californian guppies.
school is out and it’s time to play.
i have many bull’s-eyes on my 2012 summer dart board, but my largest target is to take a little more time off, spend less hours priming and prepping for work {ie stressing}, and more minutes telling the people i love how i feel.
by the way, i love you dad.
and of course, any chance i can get to share a curb or stoop with my sweetheart, sucking down on something icy and fruity, or even just a snuggle on a street corner as we wait for the light to change…..i’ll take any one of those.
my favorite summer nights are the ones where hh and i hop on our beach cruisers, and bike down the street to our favorite mexican joint for fish tacos and buckets of chips and salsa.
i’m hoping for more of these wild-haired winded evenings, where it’s still warm enough after dinner to retrace our steps back to our favorite frozen yogurt shop, chocolate for him, tart for me, heath bar topping for both.
this summer i hope to stop and pay attention to moments like these: minute, easy to miss, but acutely potent to my feelings of gratitude. these little glimpses of beauty, flash by in seconds, at light speed, and then, they’re…….gone. i wan’t to stop missing out on the all the beauty.
this summer i hope to find my inner key west. that spot, maybe even in my backyard, perhaps somewhere farther away where men speak with accents and ladies carry parasols, where i’m more robust, less of a people pleaser, and my pen lassos marlins with my prose.
and this record never stops skipping: i will forever be seeking that midday, hot-summer, afternoon nap.
it’s an opiate whose fix can never quite satisfy my unending jones for complete and total dormancy.
i long for the days of a sea of crisp, white sheets tumbled to all four corners of a bed, the harmony of ceiling fans whirling above, mingled with the pulsating beats of flies losing their stalwart battle to bulwark screen doors, and the sweet spike of a lusty, orange blossom candle enveloping each room from upstairs to attic; the perfect serum for sleep when the pavement outside starts to smolder.
dressed in my vintage nightgowns, i’ve been sauntering the halls and stairways of the house, all norma desmond-like, waiting for this perfect napping opportunity to strike.
tell me m’loves, have you any summer check-off items you’re looking to accomplish?
katie, your prose is unbelievable! that i would ever meet much less be friends with someone who uses stalwart to bulwark in a sentence pleases me to no end. so glad you're back! you have been missed and even if i barely see you because you're busy napping–that's ok by me.
p.s. i have yet to try the jcrew vintage tee, it's on the list.
xo mary jo
This is a beautiful post! I agree with you, I would like to be certain I embrace the beauty of the summer and lives sweet little moments that can easily be missed! Your blog is lovely! Would love for you to stop by The Jem Journal and say hi Have a great week!
-Morgan http://www.thejemjournal.blogspot.com
Hmmm. The last time I read the word "stalwart" I was helping one of my teenage boys "suffer" through one of their high school English novels and had to look it up! 🙂
Anyway, the beauty is there…I did a swim all alone this morning and noticed all the leaves and trees that were just there for me to look at like little presents. When the focus is turned up to the beauty around me I am so much more at peace. Always a good thing.
right? in the mornings i typically have my "favorite" morning news show on…..but for the last week, it's been the birds in my neighbor's tree. their sweet little chirping far outweighs the nasty politics of the day, and leaves me feeling so much serenity…
hope you're great miss stephanie….loving all the renovation.
I miss summer days in LA… I loved driving to Malibu and enjoy some time reading on the beach and the surfers on the ocean… So jealous of you!
well, i'm definitely NOT doing the malibu thing….that sounds tremendous.
maybe that will be in next summer's wish list…
hope you're off to a good start too.
love,
katie
Beautifully written, Katie! I hope your summer is full of all these things (and that you write about them so I can vicariously experience them all)!
thank you sweet mugdha….
it's slowly {is there a slower word than slowly} happening….
love,
katie