Life Lately | May 2022

Hey guys - God bless it, it's finally summertime. Happy white pants season! I wake up so delighted each morning to see it already light outside around 5:45 when I finally give into the alarm that's been going off for half an hour. It really does make it so much easier, and nicer, to roll out of bed. 

The big news around here is a bear. I'm going to back up to the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, when we had apparently more than a houseful of guests: people were sleeping out in a hammock in my backyard and we joked - joked! - about bears specifically. The next morning, I had a text message from our neighbor a couple houses down that she pulled in her driveway around midnight and met a bear with 3 cubs searching for snacks in her garbage. In the meantime, I had people in hammocks, a veritable hotdog in a bun, peacefully snoozing away in my backyard. Everyone woke up healthy and unharmed, so alls well that ends well I say, but I'm taking my dogs very seriously lately when they bark at the backyard. So far it's been only bunnies and robins trespassing on the dogs' territory (which is a very bark-worthy violation), but my eyes frantically sweep the entire yard every time they so much as grumble. 

So May wasn't quite as consistently warm as I would have liked (June hasn't been either frankly) but there were lovely pockets and for that, I am grateful. I figure if it's over 65, I'm opening windows and doors and that's all I really live for. I did hope that the cooler nights would have kept the mosquitos at bay, but sadly, not so. I feel asleep after dinner on the deck a couple nights ago and when Ryan woke me up from my appetizer nap to head to bed for a full meal of sleep, I found my arms had been a mosquito buffet. They are covered and since I have zero self-control with regard to itching, they will soon be patina'd in various stages of recovery. 

Memorial Day weekend though, holy shiz, was at least 90º so Duke and I packed up for our first real beach day. He got in the water with not a single bemoan about how cold it is, and I stayed perched up on the beach with Nine Perfect Strangers, which was the perfect beachy weekend read. 

In other news, we bought a trampoline! I've wanted one for a bit and had been searching the FB Marketplace casually since last fall. Then one day I realized that $150 or so is the going rate on FB while you can buy a brand spanking new one and have it delivered to your front door for roughly $170. Seemed like a no-brainer to me. So we pulled the trigger and then one sunny Sunday afternoon, Ryan and I decided it was a lovely day to bicker for 3 hours and we set it up. Happily it was an hour, roughly 2 beers apiece, and hardly a bicker at all. Much easier than I expected and worth all the trouble anyway. Duke loves it and we bounce most evenings before and after dinner, and then because Duke believes there's no harm in asking, he usually propositions me for a 7am bounce before we go our separate ways for school/work. 

I will say that I participated one hungover bounce and that is not something that I am looking to repeat. 

It's the season that I move out to my deck. I really do think I'm "outdoorsy" but in a lounging sense, rather than an adventurous one. I want to be outside all of the time, but basically doing outside what I usually do inside, which is to say, laying around. I like to drink my coffee at the patio table in the morning and lay on the wicker couch, reading until I fall asleep at night (covered in bug spray as I learned this month). On my WFH days, I set up my office under the patio umbrella and I've mentioned it before, but I'd really like to get a projector so I can watch movies out there too. June always feels like the Friday of summer and I'm just so happy to have a nice full weekend ahead of me. 

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Some other nice things -

Mother's Day muffins with Mom at Duke's school. 

I wore that dress twice and like a ding-dong, tossed it in the dryer and now it's a shirt, and I'm still devastated at my lack of attention to detail. 

I might have been aghast, but instead I laughed...hard. Some people have true ingenuity when it comes to making money. 

As usual, Duke and I are playing LIFE. In other news, it seems that he finally understands what I for a living. He pulled the "salesperson" card at the pick-a-career pitstop and promptly handed it to me. "This one's yours mom," he said. He also pulled a small salary card and tried to hand that over, but I was less willing to accept. I guess he was angling for a commission-only structure.

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I think that's just about it for us in May. June kickstarts my favorite part of the year and I'll be happy straight through to Christmas (please enjoy this break from me whining about the weather). I'm looking forward to a nice slow, right-lane cruise into summer. Also, right lane because I'm probably going under the speed limit - holy hell gas prices these days!