The Summer that Wasn't

I started to feel like this was the summer that wasn't. It was the middle of August and there were so many things I had yet to do. Where did the time go? What happened? It's almost September? What about doing this? What about doing that?

For those who really know me, I rarely sit still, sit down, or pause for any length of time. So how did I get to this point feeling like I hadn't done anything? Simple. I did more than normal. I took two extra trips this year, attended a good friend's wedding, went back to Iowa 3 weekends in a row, and had an overall blast of a summer. 

But to make up for lost "time" Jessie and I took a "play day." If you haven't done this recently, I HIGHLY recommend it. The day before play day I read a blurb in a blog that said "Your company is paying you to be gone - why are you not taking time off?" Well said. What percentage of you leave vacation time on the table? I am usually scraping the bottom of my paid time off barrel by the end of the calendar year and I start begging co-workers to donate their pto to me :)

I love brunch and coffee. Since I work Sunday's and I almost always have plans on Saturday's, I rarely get to go out to eat for breakfast/brunch. So play day started with breakfast at Hell's Kitchen. Organic food, outrageously good coffee, and a guy next to us telling his server that he just had a "culinary orgasm" after finishing his food. 

There is not much in this world I love more than being able to sit, eat, and drink endless cups of coffee with bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, ahhhhh.

Play day continued to the movies. We are movie lovers and have seen only 1 movie this summer. We saw the Butler and it was incredible. It was sometimes hard to watch because at my age it feels like the Civil Rights movement was so long ago but in reality, it wasn't. I recommend the movie to anyone.

I also discovered that I am missing some very interesting things at the mall on a weekday including this woman and her DOG. What??

The play day continued to Valley Fair water park. We both have a season pass for the summer. It was August 22nd when we finally activated our pass. Where did the time go? But we managed to slide down a few rides and spend time in the wave pool. And the success of the afternoon was NO SUNBURN :)

Play day carried on to Chipotle (my favorite!) and then another movie. The Internship. I had low expectations from this movie but it was brilliant. And it ties right into this topic. Here is what I learned from the movie.

• Life is too short to not do what you love. I have known this and try really hard to live by this. In the movie, Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn take an internship at Google because why not?? 
• Put the phone down. I need to work on this. There's a quote from the movie that says "Life is happening 3 feet up" He was referring to the young man who wouldn't look up from his phone. When did we/I become obsessed with our phones? 
• Be nice to everyone. We all need a reminder of this. In the movie, the guys were favored in the end because they were nice to all people at Google and gave people a chance.
• Try new things. The guys took the other kids on their team to a strip/dance club. I'm not saying you have to go to a strip club, but do something completely outside of your normal. 
• Go see/rent the movie.

Play day was completed with ice cream - of course. I went to bed with an overwhelming feeling of satisfaction. We all need to have fun and play hooky. Ironically this "play day" tradition started back in high school when Jessie and I would be "sick" and come to .......the Mall of America :) Foreshadowing of moving here??

I still feel like time is slipping away, the days, the years, the hours, the minutes. But it's not slipping away because I am living the time I am given. 

There is less than one week before the end of summer and the beginning of fall - my absolute favorite. What can you do to make sure your summer didn't slip away, but you lived all of your moments?