Designing My Summer
Every year around this time, Gretchen Rubin and Liz Craft have an episode of the Happier podcast called “Design Your Summer.” It always sounds very luxurious and exciting! They talk about trips, museum visits, and things like “The Summer of Proust” or “The Summer of Virginia Woolf.” Today at work one of my clients was telling me her plans for the summer, which included an Alaskan cruise. Then she asked what I was doing. Er… well, I’ll be spending a day in Tallahassee? My summer probably doesn’t sound super-exciting. My job doesn’t give me any PTO, so I’ll mostly be working (I can get as much time off as I want- without pay. So I’ll be at work.) Our family is borderline dysfunctional when it comes to trips (it’s a long story) so we won’t be taking any together. But! I do have a couple mini-trips planned. At the end of June, my daughter is going to sleep away camp at FSU for a week. She and a friend are doing it together, so I’ll drive them both up to Tallahassee. I’ll be honest- I’m not especially looking forward to the trip there, for various reasons. BUT! After I drop them off, I’ll have the rest of that night and the next day for a little mini-break. I’m not exactly sure what I’ll do for that day and a half, but the important thing is I can do whatever I want. My husband can’t come with me because he’s working, so I’ll be on my own, and I’m looking forward to it. Then, at the end of July my son and I will be making our annual drive to Texas. He goes to school at Baylor, in Waco. His freshman year we decided to drive because it was easier to transport all his stuff. Sophomore year we had to drive his car there, and now this year we once again have to get his car to school. Believe it or not, I’m looking forward to it! I’ve come to really enjoy this road trip. I get to spend two solid days with my son in the car, and we get along well. Then I’ll spend a couple days in Waco, helping him move into his house and getting everything set up before I fly back to Florida. So those are my trips. Additionally, I have a couple themes for the summer. The first one is “The Summer of Strength.” I need a theme to keep me on track. This week, I plan to go to the gym on Tuesday and Friday for leg day. Sunday I did a ten mile trail run, and my legs are still a little sore from that, making me question my strength schedule for the week. Why did I do a ten mile trail run? Do I have a long race coming up? (Nope- not till the winter- more on that decision coming soon!) I have to scale back on my longer runs if it means my legs will be fresher for my strength training. It’s not “The Summer of Long Runs,” it’s the “Summer of Strength.” I also WANT it to be “The Summer of Reading.” My fantasy is to have a week all by myself in a remote cabin, where I just read and read. Hahahahaha! Obviously, that won’t be happening. But I’m going to declare the week my daughter is at camp, “The Week of Reading.” I’ll still be going to work and doing my usual activities, but I can definitely carve out extra time that week to just read. The only problem with that is, now I feel like I need extra amazing books for that week- I don’t want to waste the week of reading on anything so-so. The pressure is on. I’m linking up with Kim and Zenaida for their Tuesday Topics! How about you? Do you have any themes for your summer? Any trips planned? Do you think about designing your summer? Do you have any great book recommendations for my Week of Reading?