Lazy Summer. EEK.

This is the first summer I haven't worked since I was sixteen. I have spent summers camp counseling, resident advising, baby-sitting, being a glorified chauffeur/errand girl, and working as an interior design company office bitch (I folded a lot of fabric). Not once since 2001 have I had a jobless summer.

I had written a long, whiny, annoying post, and when I realized that even I didn't want to listen to me blather on, I promptly deleted it. So let me summarize it for you here: I hate not having a job. It makes me feel spoiled, lazy, poor, aimless, and disorganized. And then bratty for complaining about it on my blog. Logistically, between Preston's job, my school schedule, our honeymoon timeline, and our week in Richmond in August, it just didn't work, and even though I have plenty of projects for the summer (none of which have yet enticed me out of my chair today, where I sit nourished by Diet Root Beer (after I had almost entirely given up artificial sweeteners, the store was having a sale on Diet A&W. They caught me in a moment of weakness) and Trader Joe's Mini Rye Toasts (I went through a whole bag in two days. OOPS), it just makes me feel itchy and embarrassed not to have a job. And after a week of bumming around, spending too much time on the computer and too little time in THE REAL WORLD, avoiding my laundry, and only half-heartedly going through a month's worth of paperwork on my desk, my lazy summer is starting to seriously nauseate me.

So I have decided that I must make a plan. And I am determined to stick to it. Or at least determined to try to stick to it. With great expectations, I am hopefully that by this time next week, I will have:

1) made an appointment with doctors here to finish my Bryn Mawr medical forms

2) gotten started on changing my name (for real this time, not just on facebook)

3) gotten started on registering the car in Pennsylvania

4) gone to Target with A LIST IN HAND

5) finished uploading honeymoon pictures

6) looked through our wedding pictures (this might take a glass of wine or EIGHT)

7) made a training plan for the half marathon in September and actually STARTED RUNNING

8) registered for the Philadelphia Half Marathon in November (I ran this last year and had such a good time...until mile 10, when I realized that maybe only training up to 8 miles was not particularly sage)

9) reorganized the study and the entertainment center

10) and finally, posted pictures of OUR NEW PUPPY (who will hopefully be born in the next day or so...the mother is nesting like crazy, but contractions still haven't started).

I have doubts that all of this will get accomplished. Serious doubts. But nevertheless, it makes me feel less spoiled and bratty and lazy and whiny at least to have plans, goals, and a purpose. And at the end of the day, even though lazy summering still terrifies me, it's still SUMMER, which means sun and flip flops and wildflowers and green leaves and strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, tangerines, tomatoes, mangoes, and melons; it means late sunsets and early sunrises; lightning bugs and stars; hazy skies and open windows. It means no papers, exams, grade reports, or faculty meetings. And I think both Preston and I would agree that that is pretty spectacular.