Sometimes I don’t want to remember.
Other times, I try to forget.
Inevitably, the reality comes back. A nagging sense of something happening on this day, but not always or clearly, consciously knowing what it is. Then, I recall.
This day, always, and others, often. I think I’ve moved on and resolved myself, then I don’t. Fours years later.
In all, I miss her. I still hurt.
It’s been a summer of travel getaways this year, packing in as much as we can and unofficially trying not to spend any weekend in The City, especially in August when our Summer Calendar suddenly went blank. After our July in East, we quickly booked some other trips for August – The Lake and Grammy’s House are done. Skip and I head to Indy for MotoGP weekend and then we’re headed to a place called the Great Wolf Lodge for Labor Day.
In the absence of a “real” camera, we’re now both shooting with iPhones and here’s some stuff from mine shot this summer. I’ll try and get some from The Girl’s camera, too.
to The Lake. Family, food, fun, friends, cousins, golf, speedboat, jet skis and maybe even some fireworks. Doesn’t get much better.
See ya next week…
I got my iPhone4 the Friday before vacation. Being awestruck and treating new things as I do (I baby anything *new* for as long as I can), I took extra precaution not to expose the phone much while away, at the beach. I left it in the house most of the time (and I was avoiding emails along the way) and did as little as possible with it the first week or so other than show it off and download some apps.
Then, back to work and real life. In a matter of days, a small scratch on the front and a another, a bit larger, on the back. HEY! Waitaminute! I thought this was highly scratch resistant gorilla glass!? WTF!? I went to AT&T, got a case and they threw in some screen protectors (their version of empathy), but a big wrapper masks the ultra-glossy totally-freaking-cool design aesthetic and ruins my own fetish relationship with the object.
I was taught to write about these things for it not to become a scratch on my mind nor further feed my perfectionist distortion of things, because otherwise the device is totally freaking cool!
Being on vacation gives me the time and, thus, the kick to get back to running. Yea, I’m enrolled in this year’s NYC Marathon but I’ve given that zero mental space, and even less planning or specific training. Over the last couple months, work has taken over and my evening “Run Home” program, and I haven’t had any consistency in my exercise regime in the last year. When we were out East, I got back into a vacation groove running four times in the week, but any sense of a program got erased with last week’s return to reality schedule.
This weekend I was determined to get out both days and did so, capped with a 6.25 miler today under cloudy skies. Part of why I run is the (usually) instant mental/emotional payoff even if the physical returns take more time. Today’s payoff came in another form when I found $41 in the street along Avenue A.
Over the years, across many routes in many places, I’ve often found money. See a few dollars here, find a a fiver there, but today’s find has to the the most ever. I spotted a $1 bill while in the intersection, then , as I stooped to pick it up, it saw a twenty here and, oh! another over there.
Running pays in many ways.
We’re now a full week out after our “vacation” but the good memories carry on. There are many stories to be told, anecdotes to recount, thoughts to share and quotes to capture, but the endless string of events kept us moving and left little time to put it all together.
Being in a rental house with small children brings a whole different meaning to vacation. Sometimes, it’s a week without having to go to work, or that “work” still exists in the form of parenting, but it’s not an office and the children aren’t disguised as “professionals.” Bottom line, we did have fun and I managed to meet my three objectives (i have such the western, project manager mind, ugh!): 1) Disconnect from work a little, 2) Run and 3) Eat well. The first took more days than hoped, but I did avoid work email and phone for nine whole days; I got in good early AM running and even enjoyed those when I was pushing the baby jogger (a whole other sport from Running). We ate like kings and queens.
I’ve done my best with a set of iPhone images here to at least get something out here for you all. Here’s a gallery:
In one of the quite moments, I realized that I mentally collect topics and generate ideas for this blog, but never seem to get them down into anything. I know I’ve said it before, but the practice of writing needs practice and I want to, hope to do that more again. Here. If nothing else, I’ve started using Evernote to capture the thoughts that will then get to be posts.
Skip has notched it all up a level this year – jumping, cannonball-ing, vest-less, going under, full-on swimming. She’s amazing, exhausting and sometime frightening to watch, but she loves it, and so do we.
Happy summer!