Summer in the City...

It is summer in Chicago--and that means it is only slightly warmer than it was 4 months ago! I am still getting used to these northern climes. I never spent a full summer in Michigan while in school there (only beginning of June last year...it was still cold then, too) and I have to consider this my first real summer north of the Mason-Dixon line. To be honest, I'm not sure it's that great. I miss the hot, lazy afternoons of a Georgia summer that most always ended in a warm thundershower before clearing up into a hazy, pink evening sunset. My favorite memories of summers past often involved sitting on our back porch (well, my parent's back porch), watching the rain blow in...it was exhilarating and beautiful and calming, all at the same time.

Alas, we have no porch in our current apartment (or at least not one with a view better than the rear parking lot)--and a sad lack of hot, lazy summer afternoons. Most of my days are spent so holed up in my closet of a home-office (basement floor of the building--often cold) that I sometimes I go a whole day without seeing the sun! It is a shame. But I am trying to amend this.

I schedule little outings for myself--a trip to the grocery store for tomatoes and basil; a jaunt to the used book store for a fresh read; an impromptu coffee date with a friend; and, of course, trips to the gym. On nice days, these little adventures are quite lovely, making me wish the summer would last just a bit longer here in the city. I have yet to make a trip to the so-called "beach" for fear of the crowds that may be lingering there, but it is one of my goals before the summer is out to read a book on the shores of Lake Michigan. I will have to choose a particularly hot day, or else I might freeze from the breezes blowing off the lake.

Until then, I'll just be doing laundry in my little basement of a home. :)

Yours,
RHoC