August

Oh, August. You are such an under-appreciated month. You are the hottest month in the northern hemisphere. You are the only month without a significant, or even national, holiday. You are verbally abused each year because for many students, you're also the start of the school year. You're passed over and ignored and endured.

But I love you, August. You are a slow month, a time for reflection after the excitements of early summer. You are my January, the beginning of my year. Many times I have started a new life in August, in new cities, states, countries. This is a pattern that will keep repeating for a while, at least. Not so dramatically this year.

You find me looking forward to the next year and all the cool things it contains. Not just the wedding - although that's waaaaay up on the list of cool and things - but simple life things, too. I get giddy thinking how much I'll be lifting in a year, and I get super excited about having my family over here - in Tucson!! at our apartment!! - for Christmas. I'll get to cook for them! And to top off the year, our honeymoon to Hadrian's Wall and all the hiking we'll do to prepare for that.

Okay, those aren't really simple life things. But weekends with friends are, and writing is, and going for hikes is - there will be so many hikes! And once the wedding is over, we'll have unguilty time again for the smaller things that we've been pushing off. Plus, now that I have a real, steady job, I'll have real, payable vacation time that I can take and FINALLY go visit the Grand Canyon.

I'm excited about all the books I'll read and all the writing I'll do and all the photos I'll take and all the people I'll see (in SEVEN WEEKS OMG) and all the ways I'll become just a little more entrenched in Tucson and a little more of a housewife.

I think that this year will be a good year. Thank you, August.