I feel like it's back-to-school time right now, even though (sigh) I'm no longer in school.

My goodness, it's been a little while.  Hello, friends. :)

So!  Summer.  Is almost over.  So odd to think about.  I had a slight break from work at the beginning of it, which I filled by writing a draft of my next novel in an insane amount of time, and then suddenly work got really busy and writing was really busy and I never slept.

Incidentally, it turned out that when I was only sleeping 4 hours a night I never felt anxious about anything.  It was like my body turned off all non-essential function, and needless worry didn't make the cut.  There's something there, I think.  Going to experiment a little more with that one later on.

Anyway, summer!  Mostly, I wrote.  I wrote and wrote and wrote and freaked out about it and hated it and fell in love with it and wished desperately to not be doing it and also wished to be doing more of it a million times over.  I never forget how lucky I am to get to do this, but still, writing's really hard.  It's like a relationship, I think, in a lot of ways, with all its ups and downs and the very specific form of intimacy you're trying to go for, except that it's a relationship with basically your own mind and so you feel kind of crazy if you think about it too much.  Which I always do.

We went to two baseball games this summer, too--one pathetic one against the Pirates with my family where I got a weird tan line from one sleeve and it still hasn't gone away and where my dad decided he was boycotting the Giants until they could win two games in a row, and one with friends against the Brewers where we sat next to crowd from Milwaukee who kept saying things like, "The Giants fans are just upset because their Blackberries don't have reception," or, "They're just booing because they ran out of wine and sushi," both of which amused me because they were just off enough (we're an iPhone city!).  Anyway, we won that game, so. 

We also took a few trips in the past month or so, to DC and to Austin, Texas--made it to DC just in time to be there for Hurricane Irene, and made it to Texas to be there in time for the wildfires and the heat wave.  Actually, Texas IS a heat wave.  

 

The trip to DC was to meet our friends' six-month-old baby, and I don't want to plaster pictures of their kid all over the internet, but believe me a) that there are many, many pictures and b) that he was FREAKING. CUTE.  So, so, so cute.  

Because the hurricane canceled the MLK Jr. memorial dedication, we got to see that memorial, too, and hunker down with some games and some really good friends we hadn't seen in way too long.

And, as of the beginning of this summer, J is officially no longer a startup employee!  That probably deserves its own post.  

How are all of you?