1. CW and I just celebrated our one year anniversary last weekend — or, more correctly, the one year anniversary of our second first date. Our first first date was over three years ago. Back then, things didn’t work out quite perfectly, but this time we’ve got it right. I always think we are like Harry and Sally, in some ways. We opted to stay in and cook together, which is something we both really enjoy doing, and the night was completely lovely. Also, if you will pardon the tooting of my own horn, I make a pretty damned fine romantic mixtape.

2. I got some pretty flowers. They’ve now been in my house for over a week and they’re still looking great. Flowers! For years I tended to date the kind of men who thought giving women flowers was silly, overrated, or otherwise somehow unnecessary. Before CW, the last guy I was dating who gave me flowers was my highschool boyfriend, circa 1995. Flowers, welcome back into my life.

3. I have been really enjoying using my new fitbit, but it has not magically led to me losing the extra 5-10 lbs I’ve been carrying around. Go figure. I immediately dropped about 3 lbs the first week, then another two, then gained two back, and have been sitting steady at the same number for weeks. I am working out 5-6 days a week and counting my calories, but my body is not being very cooperative. Why is losing 5-10 lbs harder than losing 100, sometimes? HMPF. Well. I’ll figure it out.

4. My summer class is starting soon (the 24th), and I will be reporting for duty, slightly-too-tight pants and all. I’ve been diligently doing all the reading, but I still have to do some of the thinking and course design/planning before day one. I guess I’ll be spending some time at the office next week. I’m giving myself until Monday, but after that, I suppose vacation is… over. Hold me.

5. I had grand plans to pack up all of the household things I won’t immediately need before classes started, but now it looks like that won’t necessarily happen. We move into the new place sometime around July 15th (depending on how long it takes the property managers to do all the carpet cleaning, paint touch-ups, and so on), and I haven’t packed a thing yet. I did manage to unearth a dozen or so broken-down boxes from my last move, helpfully stowed away in my spider-infested storage shed, so I’ve got that going for me. Maybe this weekend I can pack up the books and winter clothes. We’ll see, Internet.

6. So. Who else has read J.K. Rowling’s grown-up book, The Casual Vacancy? I am working my way through it right now, about 2/3 through, and so far I’ve only heard from people who hated and/or abandoned it. It’s not exactly gripping, I’ll say. But I think the plot might be picking up a bit. I’ll be back with a full reading report soon — hopefully before classes start and my available leisure reading time plummets into nothingness.

7. Finally, because Sunday is Bloomsday:

O and the sea the sea crimson sometimes like fire and the glorious sunsets and the figtrees in the Alameda gardens yes and all the queer little streets and pink and blue and yellow houses and the rosegardens and the jessamine and geraniums and cactuses and Gibraltar as a girl where I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.

Greetings, friends. It’s been a while since I have posted anything here, and there’s absolutely no good reason. It’s just that I’m stuck in one of those loops where I have plenty to say, but I keep feeling as if I have to write a Real Post, or a Good Post, or a Post into Which I Have Put at Least Some Noticeable Effort. And yet I do not feel like really crafting anything most days.

Since school has been out, I have been doing as follows: wake up, get up if I feel like it or don’t if I don’t; eventually go for a run/walk/bike ride or do some other form of exercise; sit on the couch watching TV while I wait to stop sweating; eat, read or watch TV or nap; shower at some point; have a happy hour drink or two while reading on the patio; have dinner and hang out with CW for the evening. It’s a rough life, but someone’s got to live it.

Before anyone gets all stroppy about teachers having summers off and bilking the taxpayer, please note that our paychecks also take the summer off. Furthermore, I will have you know that the reading I’m doing is in preparation for my late-summer class, so technically I am in fact working.

I seem to be a little defensive about all this free time.

Anyway. I thought I’d post a little something here to break the silence and to natter on a bit, and then maybe later this week I’ll come up with a Real Post as above described. Or I won’t. We’ll see. I do have things to talk about, though! For example, I was going to go into great detail confessing all my Secret Single Behaviors I have developed over the past 13 years of living alone — you know, all the things I’ll have to curtail when I start cohabitating with my soon-to-be roomie. I also plan to tell you all about the fun books I’ve been reading, of which there are many!

I am currently reading In the Woods by Tana French, for example, and I have been sucked right in. I’ve been told the ending may piss me off (please don’t comment on that here until I’ve finished the book, thanks!), but I’m not too worried. Books with endings that tend to piss people off are often (but not always) my cup of tea. See Gone, Girl for further evidence.

My patio herb garden is looking really good so far — fingers crossed! I don’t seem to be gifted with a green thumb, so I’m really just hoping for the best. I’ve got basil, Rosemary, cilantro, sweet mint, and yellow-pear cherry tomatoes that are just starting to flower. Hang in there and keep growing, little guys!

Oh, also, today I made a pretty great find during my bike commute: a pair of Ray Ban sunglasses lying in the bike lane, miraculously intact and not noticeably scratched! They have a translucent, Piet Mondrian-inspired frame, which is not what I would choose if I were to spend money on something like sunglasses (which would be entirely unheard of — my price ceiling for that sort of thing is usually about $15), but I think they’re pretty cool. There’s no real way to try to return them to their owners, so I guess I’m keeping them. Lucky me?

I also have this happening in my house right this very moment. That’s right: three adorable puppies hanging out in a sunbeam. Don’t be jealous now; it doesn’t suit you.

I will confess that I am feeling a little blue lately and in fact am finding it all too easy to snap at people, be generally rude, and spend the entire day sulking in bed and/or having Imagination Arguments with any and everyone. (Please tell me you do that, too, sometimes?) It’s not pleasant. There’s nothing specific going on to bother me or cause me to feel bad. Mainly I have just been having more pronounced hormonal ups and downs lately (nothing’s wrong, just adjusting to a med change) and this week is in fact A Very Special Time for Ladies, so it seems even worse at the moment.

I’ve been coping by: consuming alcohol, lying in bed all day reading, going on walks, runs, or bike rides in the sunshine every day, and trying to eat well. I’m not sure alcohol is traditionally recommended in such situations, but let’s pretend that it is. Hush.

As a further coping mechanism, I am going to steal an idea I originally got from Chrissy: plusses and minuses. I am going to create here two lists. One will be a therapeutically purging list of some little things that are annoying me or stressing me out (just the bloggable ones) and the other will be a list of things that are good, positive, happy, exciting, or just generally pleasant in my life:

First, please bear with me through THE MINUSES:

- I’m not working again until July and therefore am not getting paid again until July. No matter how carefully I plan ahead for summers and how much I save, this will never not be stressful. No, there is not an option to have our salaries paid out over 12 months.

- I have some kind of dark sun/aging spot appearing on my forehead where I part my hair and it’s making me feel old and/or like I have skin cancer and am probably dying. Right in the middle of this spot? A huge zit.

- My BF is super busy with work at the moment (and I am not) so I miss him, but I don’t want to act all needy about it.

- Physically, I feel kind of slow, awkward, chubby, and sluggish lately. I’m about 5-8 lbs over my usually happy weight, which is not enough to make a difference, really, so it seems more mental than anything else. See also: Special Ladies’ Time.

- I generally want to have my patio doors open at this time of year. but my dog thinks it’s his job to bark at every passing car, bike, dog, squirrel, or lawnmower unless I keep them closed.

- [Redacted]

Okay, let’s cancel those out with THE PLUSSES:

+ I am not working again until July, which means my days are my own right now. Of course, I’ll still be working (unofficially/unpaid) to prep for my summer class, but it’s a detective fiction class, so this means I get to read fun books. I also get to sleep in as late as I want, work out whenever I like, and not wear pants if I don’t want to.

.

+ I’ve been on a leisure reading kick lately and have been devouring new novels. This has also even fed into the class I’m planning a bit — I got obsessed with Gillian Flynn after reading Gone, Girl, read both her other novels, and then decided to put Sharp Objects on the syllabus for this summer. I’ll do a reading round-up post soon with details on the other things I’ve been reading and enjoying.

+ I have acquired a fitbit (fitness tracker/pedometer thing), which has been helping me see how active (or inactive) I am on a day-by-day basis, and is encouraging me to be more active, take more walks, and so on. The photo above is one of my favorite places to pass by in my neighborhood — who can argue with this scenery? The fitbit is also helping me more accurately match up my nutrition needs to my actual intake. And it’s fun. (If you’re on fitbit and want to be my friend, leave me your email address!)

+ I have been biking to campus every now and then and am loving it! Almost ten miles round trip and it feels great. My new bike is just fun to ride — so much more comfortable than my old one, and it feels faster, too.

+ I spent some good times with friends this weekend. My friend D. was visiting from out of town, and I also co-hosted a baby shower for my friend S (due very soon) with a couple of other friends. The above picture is me, D., and B. out having dinner and drinks.

+ I’m sitting on the patio right now, soaking up some sun and fresh air, and drinking a Magic Hat Pistil.

+ I’ve joined in the fashion challenge Mission: Put Together (run by RA) and have been posting my outfits to the flickr pool every day. Above is one of my recent favorites. It’s fun, and the other ladies are champs at leaving nice, supportive, encouraging comments. This might be one of the only things actually keeping me from working from home in my underpants every day since finals were over.

+ In two months, CW and I will be moving in together. We’ve rented a nice house in a cute neighborhood and I am thrilled about it. I only wish it were happening right NOW! Although this will mean the necessary quelling of my Secret Single Behaviors (such as leaving all the cabinets open, leaving all the lights on constantly, and setting the thermostat at a blamy 76°) the benefits are, of course, huge. Oh, I can’t WAIT!

Okay, I think I feel better now. Have any plusses or minuses of your own to share? Feel free to add them here.