Summer Planning

With Memorial Day weekend out of the way, it is officially summer.  Last year, I spent so much time editing photos (or feeling guilty about not editing photos) that I missed out on some of my favorite summer activities.  So I started to do a Summer Resolutions list for this year, but then I realized how Type A that seems, making a list of things like Go Swimming and Eat Barbecue, when I could just spend my time doing those things instead.

But yes, I want to Go Swimming and Eat Barbecue this summer.  I want to get caught up on gardening.  I want to have a great time at the beach next week.  I want to try camping for the first time, even if it’s a rental tent in my backyard.  I want to eat ice cream this summer (in moderation, of course, but still- it’s not summer without ice cream) and go to my parents’ house for corn-on-the-cob.  I want to get out at dawn and do pictures.  I want to go to Starlight Theatre in Kansas City to see a show, or go to an outdoor concert, and I want to see a lot of movies.  In the theater, not just on DVD.

And yet I want to get caught up on photos, and I want to do a lot of repainting, clean all the wood furniture in the house, and redecorate.  And I have to get Tracy moved and all of the other stuff from my regular resolutions list.  And there are just so many hours in the day after work, you know?  It’s not like I don’t like to do my photos, or do some painting (really, I like painting), or even cleaning wood furniture, and I certainly like to do all the stuff I listed that is Summer Stuff, certainly!  My resolutions list just focuses my free time, but I like just plain old free time too, just sitting around and doing nothing free time.  I just wish I didn’t like it so much.

Whatever.

Anyway, we leave on Tuesday for our beach trip to Florida.  We’ll get three days and two nights in Melbourne Beach, which is south of Cocoa Beach and the Kennedy Space Center, and then a couple of nights at Tracy’s parents house in Orlando, with Tracy’s sister and her wife visiting for the weekend before we leave on Sunday, June 7.  

Right now, the weather forecast is for scattered storms during most of the trip, but the precipitation chance is on the low side, and conversations with Tracy’s mom have indicated that they will probably be normal summer days.  Sunny and hot and humid until a mid-afternoon thunderstorm, then more sunny and hot and humid.  That is pretty typical Missouri summer weather as well.  So I’ve prepared some worst-case-scenario plans (constant storms all day, every day), but I think we’ll end up with a nice beachy time.  

I have two or three new books to read, and I’m trying to decide if I should take my laptop too.  I can’t believe that I wouldn’t take it, but my iPhone has been so nice for those little weekend trips.  I can check email and look things up, but I don’t have to lug a laptop case.  On the other hand, I might want the big laptop, especially if I end up taking a lot of pictures.  My problem is mostly one of luggage- I keep thinking that I will buy a nice backpack that will hold a camera and lenses plus a laptop, but I never remember that it’s a problem until right up at the last minute, and then I wish I had it.  Stupid!  It’s only a problem on trips, though, so it seems like a big amount of money to spend just for something I would use a few times a year, at most.

This weekend is really busy, but it should be fun.  Tonight is the start of the Centralia Anchor Festival, and we’re going to go up mostly to get some carnival food, and maybe ride a ride or something.  Tomorrow I’m second-shooting at a wedding in Jefferson City, and then I return home to cull those photos and burn a disc with the RAW files for the main photographer so I can send it to her before we leave for the trip.  On Sunday, one of my coworkers is having a wedding reception in the park, and I am going to go hang out with my other coworkers there.  I hope it’s fun.  I need to remember that I’m supposed to bring food to that, though.  And then we’re going to see Up on Sunday evening, which is very exciting because I haven’t been to a movie in the theater since, like, December, and also it’s Pixar, which are always great movies, always on my top 10 list for the year.  Then it’s a really short week of work (1 1/2 days!) and off to the beach!  

Can you tell that I am super excited to spend a few days sitting on a beach?  Because I am.  I am very excited.