It's starting to feel like...

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

- 

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!
- 

-

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!

-

=

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.

 __