I <3 August.

What a lovely weekend I ended up having. I could not be more pleased with how it turned out. The weather ended up being absolutely perfect on both days, mid-80's with plenty of sun and occasional cloud coverage for relief. I know mid-80's aren't everyone's cup of tea but it's my very favorite weather.

Friday night, Kev and I had a fight but we made up. I can't even remember exactly what we were fighting about now, but we must have talked it out. He's been working a lot this month and as I mentioned before, this is actually the first time in the course of our serious relationship (the times it happened when we were just casually seeing each other don't count) that he's had to work these hours to this degree. Maybe that's not entirely true, but this is the first time I can remember being affected by it so much.

He's working from home, for the most part. It's nice because it means I still get to see him, but it's deceptive because when someone is home, you assume you can talk to them and interact with them as though they're available to you. And he's just not right now. Because he's literally working constantly. So it's been an adjustment for both of us. I think I've gotten used to the idea now, though, that it's not something he can control and I need to lay the fuck off. :D

This particular job will be over at the end of August, and we're both looking forward to its completition. I'm sure he more than me. He's really burnt out.

I woke up on Saturday absolutely determined to get to either a beach or a pool. There are both within reasonable travel distance from our house. I told Kevin that I was going and I hoped he could come but that I just had to go without him if he couldn't. I've been desperate to achieve this mini-goal of getting to the water for a good portion of the summer. He totally understood.

Luckily!, he was able to peel away from the job for a few hours, news that was met with cheers from both of us. So I walked to get us iced coffees and I made us some quick egg sandwiches (with organic eggs and organic whole grain bread) while he finished up some odds and ends and then we got our shit together and got outta the house. I was just elated. We took a car to the pool and it was a short ride. I was like an 11 year old when we arrived. I was seriously beyond thrilled to have even just actually made it to the pool, I didn't even care what happened once we got inside.

It turned out to be a really gorgeous pool, for city-pool standards. It's one of two city pools (out of the dozens, if not hundreds of pools in the city) that have been rated "Excellent" in several of the publications I've read that have rated city pools for the summer. And we'd also gotten a tip from our landladies that this pool was as good as we'd heard. And we weren't disappointed. It's olympic sized, so clean, so quiet, and it was perfect weather for sun bathing and swimming. They have lots of rules at this pool, probably to help keep it clean and nice for everyone, but I didn't mind.

We had such a nice time, relaxing in the sun and swimming, during which we ended up having this really lovely chat about our individual and collective futures, about the dreams and goals we both have for our lives together and separately, about how much I need to know "what's next" in terms of my day job reality, how much I want to make a plan to exit this job in the next year, and how that might impact us together. The conversation began by my explaning the things my back injury made me realize about slowing down and taking more time for myself and my interests. And then it morphed into what exactly I think I want to start exploring as a way to broaden my horizons. I talked about nutrition and organic living and writing and other different things that inspire and interest me; the things I could see myself focusing on more so that eventually "do what you love and the money will follow" can someday come true for me. Comedy and performance is certainly fun and enjoyable but I don't think it's quite enough, spiritually, for me to feel happy and fulfilled forever. It's fun for now, but I want to put some more eggs in some more baskets. So we talked about what might be next for me.

It led me to set a goal for myself about exiting this job - which I now hope to do by my 29th birthday - in 1 year and 2.5 months - and also to set the goal that in order to do that, I have to know that my next job won't be in just another office environment and won't be just another pay-the-bills position. I want to embark on something greater. And I really want to think outside the box to get there. If that means going back to school, so be it, if it means making some major changes, so be it.

Kevin was extremely, as always, supportive of that stuff and talked about his own desires to make his career into something that can serve his life, rather than the other way around. So we'll see where this leads us but it was nice to have a conversation about the bigger picture. It's easy to forget that there's more than the day to day.

After the pool closed (they close every day from 3-4pm so they can clean it, then they reopen from 4-7) we saw a park across the street and a woman with a plate of amazing looking food walked by us and then we saw these food trucks with incredibly long lines of people waiting. Long lines = amazing food. So we did a little quick research of the different food options and ended up waiting in line for some really delicious, authentic, El Salvadorian food. (Hoping to go back soon to try another truck, which had the longest line, and the BEST looking food.) It was really fun.

We were just about to make our way back to our apartment when we realized the brand new ikea that they just built in Brooklyn was literally steps away from where we were. So we walked over there, of course, because we had to check it out, and ended up going through the whole store, still in our pool outfits (!), discussing home decor and picking up some shit for the kitchen. It was fun, although pretty exhausting. Kev was a great sport about it.

We took the shuttle bus (they have a bunch of shuttle buses that leave constantly from this new ikea) back into the more accessible part of Brooklyn and cabbed home from there. Kev had to get right to work when we got home - he'd even missed some important stuff while we were off playing and had to be on his blackberry for some of the afternoon - but later on we ordered in thai food and watched the Olympics and all around it was a pretty fantastic day. It felt like the summer day I've been craving for so long.

The following day, Sunday, I had plans to get up early and meet my best friends for a trip to Six Flags! Wahooo!!! I was pissed when the alarm went off at 8am on a Sunday, but it was such a gorgeous morning - another perfect mid-80's day with plenty of sun - that I didn't mind once I got outside. I met them in the city and we drove to New Jersey and arrived at Six Flags around 11am. It was about a 2 hour drive, which I wasn't expecting, but it was fine.

We had a great day at the park. I won't bore you with all the details except to say that we went on the "tallest, fastest coaster in the world," which is called Kingda Ka. And it was absolutely awful. It certainly is the fastest. WAAAAY too fast. 288 mph or something insane. And the body really feels that. And the body hates it. It's pretty much the scariest most awful feeling coaster I've ever been on. A lady who road before us actually got a bloody nose either from the speed or the elevation and was bleeding all over the place when she returned to the platform. The ride itself is maybe 25 seconds long, if that, and it's about 20 seconds too many. I hated it so much, kept my eyes closed the whole time, and was shaking like a leaf, as were most people, when I got off. Awful.

BUT! The day was not lost. We road a bunch of other great rides, ate some craaaaap (funnel cake!), went on a couple water rides, talked and laughed. All in all it was pretty great. We waited in line a lot too. As is the case at theme parks. But it could have been a lot worse. We were so totally exhausted when we got in the car to drive home, had a quiet drive back, and I finally got back to Brooklyn around 11, I think. And Kev, who had to stay home to work all day, was STILL WORKING! when I got home! The poor guy. I was so happy to see him though. And we had a brief chat at the end of the night before bed. He'd DVR'd some Olympics for me, the sweetheart, so I got to watch gymnastics and other awesome stuff. Fun. Crashed so hard when I got into bed. I'm still tired today.

So it was a great weekend for me. It terms of accomplishing the chore-like stuff I'd hoped to, Kevin did laundry and we tidied up a little and did some dishes and generally created some order in the place, but I never got to the grocery store. :( Wah waaaah. Alas, I'll make due and I think I can go, if not later tonight, tomorrow.

All in all, I will have had 5 free weekends without HST shows this August. This past weekend was the third weekend. During the first weekend, it rained a lot, and I basically spent it sleeping, exercising, and cleaning. I needed to do all three of those desperately, so it just fine. The second weekend we spent out of town with our friends Faryn and David, plus my back was out, so we spent some of it laying around watching tv (and Kevin worked). I enjoyed that weekend a lot too, despite the back injury. This past weekend, of course, was summer joyful delight, which is all I ever really want. And of the two remaining weekends, one, Labor Day, will be spend in Chicago with my family (I'm going home for a long weekend and Kevin's joining me, which is great. His gig will be wrapped by then.), and the other, next weekend, will hopefully be spent much like this past weekend. Swimming, sunning, relaxing, beaching, eating new interesting foods and trying new things. I love it.

So far, August has been rejuvinating for me, exactly as I've needed it to be. Work is a little stressful sometimes and I hate being stuck inside on gorgeous days, but the time off from comedy has been and is still so essential. With the extra room in my brain, and a back injury to slow me down for a few days, I'm learning so much about myself, my relationship, and ultimately what I want and need to be happy and fulfilled and what we, as a couple, need to stay healthy and strong. And most importantly, I'm becoming open to getting to those hard-to-reach places of my desires in life, the stuff well beyond lose the weight, pay off the debt, and generally stop fucking up, the stuff that comes NOW, now that all that has been accomplished. I know that I am capable of making seemingly unattainable things happen. And I'm really enjoying discovering exactly what the new list of those things will be and how I'm going to begin to execute them. It's baby steps for sure, but to take even one tiny baby step makes the picture in my imagination that much brighter.

Whew.

On a food and exercise front, I had a great workout on Friday, two active days on Saturday and Sunday, and I hope to get something light in today on my lunch break. It will probably just be a walk to the gym, some time on the treadmill, and a walk home. But that's better than nothing.

I certainly ate plenty this weekend - enjoying myself and thinking of calories later. I'm not gonna sweat it though. Every day is a new day. (Now if the nice coffee cart guy could STOP GIVING ME FREE DONUTS (one of which I just had half of as dessert after lunch) I WOULD BE GRATEFUL! I love him and his coffee but I might have to start going to another cart to avoid the caloric pitfalls.