the summer has taken a strange turn for me. i feel like i’m in this state of constant disappointment and i’m trying to shake it, but the facts are there.

on the job it’s there with our staff cutbacks and people just not working much during the summer, while i feel a bit buried alive. maybe that’s not a new story (as miki would say, since he thinks i only talk about work on my blog!), but it’s more acute these days. the unique thing about this disappointment is that it’s happening a lot with friends. dates get canceled, invitations lack responses and it takes days to respond to e-mails. on top of that, i’ve had a lot of people ask about keith spending the summer with us, and really he’s just become a teenager and is completely focused on himself. leith is bummed and so am i, but that’s life. these series of experiences remind me why couples tend to withdraw into each other and spend all their time together. it’s because the more people you connect with, the more they can disappoint you. with leith and family, there’s not that disappointment because you come through for each other and keep your commitments. sorry for the bummeronis, but that’s just where i am right now.

on a more positive note, i’m excited about going to renegade craft fair this weekend. leith and i are hitting up a mostly veggie breakfast place beforehand, so it should be a fun date. we haven’t been up to the city for awhile, and i love being surrounded by indie crafters. it’s festival season right now and there’s arts festivals left and right, so my spirits are up for those!

summer reading is also in full effect. i’ve flown through a few texts and i’m now reading about this california japanese farmer’s experience on a peach farm. it’s one of those books i picked up when browsing randomly through the library shelves. the writing is more like poetry, so it’s a slower read, but still worthwhile. i just powered through sense and sensibility - the first jane austen book i’ve read. it was actually difficult for me with my summer attention span because my eyes were so intent on reading quickly that i’d miss some of the interesting language nuances. i’ll need to re-read it sometime in the future, or at least conquer another one of her books so i appreciate it more.

what else? we had a blast last weekend participating in a survivor game put together by chris and kim. it was like a lab reunion for leith’s friends and i fared pretty well. leith turned out to be the ultimate survivor. i think he has a healthy competitive edge, but he really won because he’s always competing with his own best and giving his all and it really showed. it’s such an admirable quality and made the game a lot more fun. we made a banner in the morning (tribe menolo parko - sounds intimidating, huh?), wore buffs and came to play. anyways, it was awesome and tiring. my dedication to the game over the years must have played some role in helping my team. :) hopefully we’ll have some pictures to share of the experience, because it was a blast.