Summer Reading

My To-Read Shelf

I've always been a reader.

As anyone who reads this blog regularly knows, romance novels are my books of choice, but I also love mysteries, post 9/11 CIA spy novels, and I even take the occasional foray into non-fiction, if the subject interests me (and many of them do).

I read all the time. I read my way into the city for work in the morning, and  I read my way home. Sometimes if I'm in the middle of a chapter or right at the end of a book I'll read as I walk the NYC streets from Grand Central Station to work. I read all day on Saturday, stretched out on my family room couch during the winter, and outside in our outdoor oasis when summer comes calling.

And it's not enough for me to just read the books. I have to own them. I am a huge re-reader, so I need to have not just my favorites, but pretty much everything that I have ever read - readily accessible just in case I'm in the mood for it again.

And if I don't have at least five or six books stacked up and waiting to be read, I start to get antsy. 

One of the major benefits of moving to the suburbs is the built in bookshelves that line two entire walls in the family room, and one of the very bottom shelves is designated my "to-read" shelf. I don't - can't - possibly wait until I finish a book to buy my next one. Instead, all I do is go to my to-read shelf and decide what I'm in the mood for.

On any given day there is a mixture of genres and authors just waiting for their chance to be opened. Right now I have, among others, the next five books in J.D. Robb's excellent futuristic "in death" romance/mystery series, a John Grisham book I somehow managed to miss, some Elin Hildrebrand because it's summer and no one writes summer better, and a little non-fiction in the form of The Wolf of Wall Street, the fabulous Nora Ephron anthology, and Bringing In Finn, a beautiful and thoughtful gift that showed up in my mail one day from my fellow blogger and lovely friend Christie Tate.

It's an eclectic mix but well, I'm an eclectic sort of girl.

So if you're looking for me this summer, I'll be the one sitting outside, drink in hand and sunglasses on, surrounded by unread books. And really, there's no better place to be.

Weekend Scenes: A Road Trip, Family, And A Bridal Shower

This past weekend we road tripped back to Maryland where my sisters, my mom and I were hosting a Sunday morning bridal shower for one of my cousins who will be walking down this aisle to marry her man this August.

It was a beautiful weekend capped off by a beautiful morning of women gathered together to shower the bride with wishes for the very best of everything.

And as I stood behind my aunt's living room couch handing off presents to the bride-to-be, I took a long look around. My cousin sitting in her bridal throne next to her mom - my dad's sister. My grandmother sitting quietly in the corner of the room, smiling as she watched her fourth granddaughter open presents. My mom sitting on the couch, laughing with her two sisters. My phone buzzing with text messages from my sisters and some other cousins who couldn't be there in person but wanted a play-by-play of the action. My cousin's fiance coming back at the end of the shower, flowers and stunning necklace in hand. David and my dad chatting as the men returned from their morning exile and the shower drew to a close.

All the most important people in my life in the very same room - in person and in spirit. And I thought, not for the first time, how lucky I am that these people are my people. That I get to have them as family and as friends. That we get to share all of the moments - small and large - that make up our lives.

Mazel tov, J&J. Thanks for finding each other so we could have these weekends together. August can't come soon enough.

Trip down - top down

Vodka bar because, of course

Cousins

My mom and her sisters

Mom and dad

Party clothes off, getting ready for long drives home

Taking the scenic route home. A little bit of a longer drive, but infinitely worth it.

A Good Morning Laugh

Tuesday night, David was searching for his iced coffee, to no avail.

Wednesday morning when I left for work, I found it on my car.

Date Night As The Sun Sets

Week nights in our house are relatively predictable, and just the way we like them. We both work longish hours, and are rarely home together at the same time before 7:30 at night.

By the time we shuffle home we are tired, hungry, and eager to get out of work clothes and get to the relaxation portion of the day. Luckily, we are both serious TV lovers, so our nights generally involve dinner while watching one or more of our overlapping shows.

Both of our jobs involve a great deal of talking to other people during the day, and at night we are just burned out. A few hours spent together not talking is exactly what we need.

This is how our weeknights have looked for nearly all of the seven years we have been together, and definitely for all of the four years we have been married. It works for us.

But every now and then, a change in pace is just exactly right.

Like last night.

Last night we decided to go out. Yesterday was a ferociously hot day, but last night was a gorgeous night. So we jumped in the car, put the top down and headed to a nearby Westchester town with a strip of restaurants along the Hudson River.

We chose one with seating right on the water, and got our table just as the sun was starting to set. For a few hours we sat and we ate and we talked and we spent a summer night the way that summer nights are meant to be.

Not bad for a random Wednesday. Not bad at all.

View From The Table

Hello GWB

Summer Days

Morning is my favorite time of day; especially in the summer.

Summer nights have their place too, with their romantic, balmy breezes and sultry heat, but it's the mornings that pull at me. That get me out of bed and outside where the neighborhood is quiet, the sun is already shining, and the long, long day stretches out ahead of me.

Never can I remember a summer I've soaked in quite like this one. Maybe it's because winter in New York was practically apocalyptic, or maybe it's because I had a rough go of it for a few weeks there in the spring, but whatever the reason, I can't seem to get enough of the summer.

Every day when I wake up my back yard beckons me. I've been drinking smoothies and Slurpees constantly. I'm on the hunt for molds to make my own popsicles. My sunglasses have left practically permanent indentations on my nose, and I've been relishing our top-down drives. 

Usually around the time of our first 90 degree day I find myself counting the minutes until fall comes again, with its cool air and shorter days. But not this year. This year, I am squeezing every bit of heat and light out of summer that I can.

This Saturday is the Summer Solstice - the year's longest day, and once it's over the earth will take its turn back towards the dark. But before that turn is complete there are barbecues and ice cream and pool days to enjoy. There are top down drives, lazy days, outdoor runs and family weekends.

This is summer. And it is everything I need.

Running The Track

When I was growing up, my parents were both long-distance runners. As it sometimes is with parents who love something so fiercely, they tried to get my sisters and me to pick up the sport. The three of us just weren't having it, but that didn't stop my parents from trying.

Four or five times a week my parents would run the streets of Pittsburgh together. But every now and then they would gather my sisters and me up and head to the track at Carnegie Mellon University, just a mile or so from the house where I grew up, and it is there that some of my earliest memories live. We would sit in the bleachers or play on the edge of the football field while my parents circled the track over and over again, urging us to join in for a lap or two every time they passed by. The answer was always a resounding "no."

It took me twenty years to finally realize that my parents were exactly right; running was the sport that fit me like the proverbial glove. I loved the solo hours out on the streets, the exhaustion and elation of a long run, and the triumphant race finishes. I even loved the aching muscles, runs in the freezing cold or sweltering heat, and the equal mix of pain and pleasure that comes with being a runner.

But lately, that has all escaped me. 

For a bunch of reasons, I had to cut way, way back on running for the past few months. As in, for almost four months, I couldn't run at all.

One day I'll tell that story, but that's not the story I'm writing today.

Even once I was given the green light to start running again, I had a really hard time getting back into the swing of things. The runners out there will understand. Starting again after being away for so many months might as well be starting from scratch and well, that just plain sucks. I kept making excuses to cut my runs short or to avoid them completely and do some kind of other exercise instead, but when you're a runner, sometimes no other exercise will suffice. Sometimes you just have to run.

So yesterday. Yesterday morning I woke up and, as per usual, my first thoughts were filled with all the things I had to do instead of running. Obviously something had to be done. So instead of going to the gym or to my regular running path, I decided to try something different. 

I laced up my shoes, headed for the track at the local high school down the street from my house, and ran there. And the run was hard. Really hard. But there was something else too. Circling the track with its familiar red rubber coating, I thought about my parents and the love of running they passed to me, and everything that once attracted me to this mysterious and miraculous sport. 

And for the first time in months, I felt strong. For the first time in months, I ended a run already looking forward to my next one. 

I am a runner.

And I'm out of excuses not to be.