Hello! Goodnight!

Longest day ever, please meet giant wine glass. You are best friends!
Ok, well, I prefer white in the summer, but still, I'm doing this one-minute post style. Done!

It's starting to feel like...

Lovely photos from (clockwise): TheCulinaryGeek, Mait Jüriado,  Chase Cash, and Sean McGrath.

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On Wednesday the husband and I bought ice cream. We never buy ice cream but given the fact that it was a hard week, we thought we deserved it. And it's a good thing we did, too. My nephews came yesterday and stayed most of the day. They are both under age six so our activities included picking oranges, looking for bugs and talking about Star Wars and Legos. Later in the afternoon we walked over to the park that is practically across the street from our house. We played on the swings, built sand mountains and played soccer with the only ball we could find in the house -- a semi-flat basketball. It was really fun and the weather wasn't too bad. It's definitely starting to get really hot but it's still nice enough to play outside. We topped off the day with a few scoops of deliciously cold ice cream.
 

Photos from: presta, Nicki Varkevisser, Josh Liba and Courtney Carmody.

 
I think this feeling of summer is even more apparent as the husband doesn't have a new job yet (it's only been a few days of unemployment) and so he has been home and things feel a little off. I suppose he's on summer holiday now, sort of. He has still been writing though. He has a few freelance projects going now but it's not the same as going into an office 9-5. I wish we had saved more. One of our problems when we were planning trips this spring was that husband didn't have as much vacation time. If I had managed to save an extra few thousand husband and I would undoubtedly be in Paris right now. Or Georgia. Or Seattle. Or, really, probably not. Hahaha, I am a worrier when it comes to situations like this and I probably would have barred all extra expenses no matter how much money we had saved!
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Summer has such a free, undefined sense of adventure and possibilities. Or else restlessness. And in my case, usually a mix of both. I think I am very much still on school time and so summer always feels like a time of change for me. A time to rethink my life, hobbies, the way I spend my time, everything. Who knows, maybe this summer has a lot of exciting things in store for us! I really hope so. I can't wait to feel like I'm driving this boat again. I hope I get to go somewhere beautiful. And I hope you do too!

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wrapped up in: Scandinavia?

I've been living without cable for about six months now and I love it. I was always one of those people that said, and thought, they didn't watch very much tv when, in reality, they actually did. I'm not anti-tv or anything, I just don't like getting invested in something like a tv show when I have so much going on. And believe me, I am still invested in a good number of shows...shows that are maybe too embarrassing to mention haha, so I won't say which ones. But anyway, back to the point, I do have one of those digital receiver thingies and so I do get the free (!)  stations and those few channels satisfy my need to sit lazily in front of a screen after a particularly punishing day at the office. And get this, there are THREE PBS channels! Well, there is a fourth classical music station but I don't really watch that one. But yes, PBS! I love it. One of my favorite shows, besides This Old House, is this Scandinavian cooking + travel show. The host pretty much sets up her kitchen anywhere that is amazingly beautiful, which I am convinced is all of Scandinavia, and just gets to cooking. Right there. It's very cool. So the show is all about the cooking and amazing landscapes of the region. It's worth checking out. So now I am dreaming of visiting the region. I obviously can't travel anytime soon so I'm content to just look at these lovely images from the region:

This is what I imagine summer is like there. Gorgeous.

Nature is so amazing.



I love blueberry picking. And mushroom hunts in the woods.
These summer pictures make me really happy. Enjoy! Happy warm days ahead!

These last few amazing images were by Hedda Selder on Flickr.

Happy travels -- imaginary or otherwise!!

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Infographics!

I really love well-designed infographics. In my day-to-day work I often design boring bar charts that simply convey the most dull of information...at least in my opinion. Sure, I make them pretty, but there is only so much you can do when the subject matter is so boring. I try to just keep it clean and simple. The giant tables that come my way...yeah, still trying to figure out how to make those lovely. All in all, the data that I come across is pretty boring (believe me!). So, when I see examples of really fun charts I get excited. Here are a few that I especially love:

This show is full of so much hilarious stuff! I would have to say it's one of my favorites.
But wait, there's more after the jump:

Now what?

Friday started out perfectly. I was home because I have every other Friday off (perfect schedule, I must say, and worth working the early and long hours I do each week). I was researching vacations for this summer, skimming through some tutorials for my new Adobe CS5.5 Suite (very excited about this!), planning a fun wedding anniversary date (six years, I really can't believe it!) -- having a wonderful, relaxing day.

That is, until my husband called to say he was laid off. Yes, laid off! He was working for an internet company. You know the ones...hip, amazing perks, new technology and the like. Yeah. Isn't that the biggest cliche ever? Being laid off from an internet company? Come on!

So the first few minutes were cool. I pretty much kept calm. Sure, we can deal with this, I thought. But then the shock wore off, or came on, I don't know which, and I just started thinking...now what? He has never been unemployed, ever. Neither of us have ever switched jobs without having a new one lined up already. Sure, we have some savings, but we have never been in a situation like this, feeling like the rug has been pulled out from under us. I know this is the reality that many Americans have been dealing with, many in far more serious context than us. We are lucky: we don't have kids, don't own our house, don't have a lease even really. We can move if we need to. We have family offering up living space if it comes to that.

There were a few hours of utter panic and complete, overarching stress. I am a planner. I like to have things lined up. Plans B and C and D. Having to start completely from scratch is scary for me. But, I think we will pull through. I really do feel like the economy is on the upswing and there are more and more job listings popping up every day. I feel, so far, like it won't take too long for him to find a new job. He got his last one within a week of searching and that was only a few months ago. That's a good sign. And anyway, we have been just itching to make some sort of meaningful change in our lives. To move, to explore, to try new things. I want to go to graduate school someday soon. He wants to try his luck in journalism elsewhere. We want an adventure. So maybe this is the universe saying, "Do it already!" The past few years since we finished college, we have just been working to figure out what life is like after school. Maybe now is the time to make something of it.

Hopefully our savings and/or luck will last us until we get somewhere new and wonderful.
We are making new plans and keeping our fingers crossed.

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Hang our diplomas on the bathroom wall...

I love The Weakerthans. Best band ever. I think their songs epitomize the feel of my twenties. This song is my driving-home-after-a-bad-day-at-work-belting-out-the-lyrics ballad.

Ten to six and 9-to-5, trying, dying to survive. Never knowing what survival means.
Leave the apartment to buy alcohol. Hang our diplomas on the bathroom wall.

...

Let's lay our bad day down here, dear and make-believe we're strong,
or hum some protest song.

It kills me. They are so good. I love the quirky and clever lyrics, the presence of cats as major characters and the overall honesty of the songs.

Listen to the song here.

And my other all-time favorite by them, Our Retired Explorer

...Comment allez-vous ce soir? Je suis comme ci comme ça / Yes, a penguin taught me French back in Antarctica / Oh, I could show you the way shadows colonize snow / Ice breaking up on the bay off the Lassiter coast / Light failing over the pole as every longitude leads / up to your frost bitten feet oh, you're very sweet

 Give 'em a listen.