Midsummer Musings

When you're a kid, summer seems like the best, most important time of the year. At least, it always seemed that way to me. You got a couple of months off from school, the weather allowed you to get out of the house (if you wanted to, which I didn't always), and it seemed like there was always an adventure waiting to happen. Now that I'm an adult and working for a living, on the other hand, I'm barely aware that summer even exists. It's just like every other time of year. The work schedule keeps plugging along, there's rarely time or the means to get away from the house, and there's nary an adventure to be found. It's sad, really. It's a nice time of year, especially as the sun goes down and the heat dissipates.

So, to that end, I'm hereby resolving to spend more time outside for the rest of the summer (and by "summer," I guess I really mean "as long as it's nice"). On one hand that won't be too hard, with football season getting ready to start, I'll soon be spending a few hours outside every Friday and on some Saturdays, whether the weather is nice or not. But even beyond that, I'd just like to get out of the house a little more often to appreciate the season, even if it's nothing more than sitting in a chair outside my door and writing (as I'm doing now), reading, or listening to some tunes on my iPod.

To that end, I'd like to thank the Cincinnati Reds for giving me back my evenings. Admittedly, I'm something of a slave to watching the Reds on TV, something I can't do from outside with no cable outlet out here. But watching them lately has been an exercise in frustration, and now that they've traded Griffey and his climb up the all-time home run leaderboard to Chicago, there's no compelling reason to continue the self-flagellation. Oh, I'm sure I'll continue to catch the games fairly often, but hopefully I can at least break the habit of scheduling my evenings around them. I mean, hey, if I need a fix, I can always bring a radio out here with me.

As far as outdoor space goes...where Brandi and I live is just weird, man. There's another house directly behind our place, it's not situated in the other direction (their front door faces our back door), and it's pretty close - I'm out on my back patio right now, and it feels almost like I'm hanging out in someone else's front yard. Bizarre. I could sit out front, but it's a little more public out there, and when I'm doing something like this, I really don't want people to stop and chat if they happen to see me outside. I mean, people I know would be fine, I guess, but this is a friendly neighborhood, and having strangers pop over, I'm fairly certain, would not be an uncommon occurrence. That's not a bad thing in and of itself; if I was just outside to relax and ponder the mysteries of the universe, I'd be all for it, but if I'm reading, writing, or otherwise working, I would not. And therein, I suppose, is my answer - work in the back, chill in the front.

Brandi has been in California all weekend, and I have to admit that I'm a little jealous. I've not been to Cali myself, and it's someplace I've always been interested in checking out. She's been out there for a fitness conference, and she says she's been having a lot of fun and learning a lot, so that's cool. I'll be picking her up at the airport later tonight. As for me, I've been just chilling out by myself (aside from the cat) for a few days. And really, having a few days to do my own thing (which mostly involves a couch and a PS3) really isn't a bad consolation prize.

I miss the days when you could actually go to the gate when you were dropping someone off or picking someone up at the airport. I know those days are long gone and never coming back, but for me, a trip to the airport was always a lot more interesting when I could go back and watch planes land and take off - I'd always get there early just for that.

I've also been continuing on with P90X, the workout routine Brandi and I started a few weeks ago (you've seen the infomercial, I'm sure). Tuesday will be the end of the third week, actually, meaning that it's almost time for our "recovery week" and the end of Phase 1. I have kind of mixed feelings about the workouts. I'm glad I'm doing something, at least, and this is definitely pretty intense. I just hate how long each workout is. Each day is at least an hour and usually closer to an hour and a half. Working out for that long, in itself, doesn't present a problem; it's just a pain to fit it into my schedule, particularly when I'm trying to eat in such a way that I have enough fuel for each workout but not so close (chronologically speaking) to the workout that it makes it difficult to go through. But hey, I've committed to it and I'll see it through, and hopefully the results will be worth it.

On that note, I think it's time to go inside and get something to eat and relax for a little bit before I set out for the airport.