Going anywhere? Doing anything? Planning to do anything?
I think this summer, for me, will be a lazy one. Just sit back and relax. Maybe catch a movie and a ray or two, in that order.
I’m not big on vacations, living alone. And I live in Arizona, so it’s really too hot to go anywhere. As usual, air conditioning will become my best friend and be thought of as the best thing ever invented.
But don’t let my laziness be contagious. If you have plans, by all means, share them.
Two weeks in Canada, the excuse being a wedding that I have attend 
…I’ve half-accepted to do a Calgary dope-meet of some kind. Other than that, I’m working, as much as possible - an hourly wage means those two weeks are unpaid. 
(New job in September, though 
)
The Highwayman and I are roadtripping if we can get time before he’s off to lawschool (ah, the last summer of leisure - til retirement). We go out to Colorado to visit my family once or twice a year. Hopefully we can pull it off this year! And his parents plan a camping trip once a summer usually although it was late last year.
This summer I’ull be mostly getting warm.
I’m moving to across the country to South Carolina to start graduate school! Eeep! So excited!!!
This summer I have big plans!
Okay, I have big plans every summer and only get about half of them accomplished, but THIS summer I’ve planned to do twice as much so when I accomplish half, it’ll be like having done everything in a regular summer.
I am taking 6 hours of grad school (online), we are going to San Antonio with my folks for about a week (SeaWorld, Alamo, River Walk), I am sewing lots of garb (chemises, new corset, 2 Italian Ren dresses), and I am making a small field pavilion out of an old 8 foot market umbrella. I also plan to clean up my house really, really well, clean out the garage, make a few batches of blackberry jam, lavender jelly, and mint jelly for Christmas gifts/general consumption, and clean my carpets (which have suffered from Son of Stonebow’s sippy cup stage).
I’ll be so pleased to finish at least four things on that list.
Going to Africa. Specifically Zambia, with the occasional foray into Zimbabwe when necessary.
I expect to be the shortest giraffe there. 
Instead of a regular vacation, I have arranged to take every Friday off for the months of June, July and August. Three day weekends as far as the eye can see (plus a four day as July 4th is on a Monday this year!).
I figure lots of 3 day weekends are a hell of a lot more fun than one big trip and then the letdown afterwards.
I have reconciled with my family, and have to drag my poor SO off to see them. We’re not looking forward to it…they did some pretty horrible things and while I had to forgive, it’s hard to forget.
I wish I had better news.
Well…we are going to the Sterling, NY Ren Faire. Last year was the first year we went and we loved it so much we gave ourselves heatstroke. No kidding.
Looking forward to that, at least!
I plan to spend the summer feeling ambivalent. Sales are down and I’m laid off two weeks a month from June until September.
Extra time off? In the summer when it’s pure-D misery to go to work? And the kid’s actually outta school too? Wheeeeee!
Extra time but no money? Extra time off to fret over whether I’ll have a job this fall? Booooo!
So I’m looking for smarter, less expensive ways to enjoy the extra time. Plans include pleasing the parents with a few visits, lots of days spent with friends who own pools, shows at all nearby community theaters, finishing up a zillion projects around the house, etc. If all goes well, we’ll be able to afford a few really cool things like an amusement park or two in there.
I’ll be learning t’ai chi this summer, and I’m pretty excited about that. Every Monday night for eight weeks, starting 6/20 (a week from today). It’s at the local community center, so it might be just me and the Centrum Silver set, but it’s cheap as hell and by the end of the summer I’ll know whether I like it.
I’m also looking forward to volunteering at my town’s annual festival on July 9th/10th: it’s a big festival that spreads out all over the town center, and I’ll be making a return appearance as the emcee for the kid’s stage. It’ll be a hot, tiring weekend, but I managed to have fun last year and I think I will again. Plus, it will feel nice to be doing volunteer work for the first time since October.
Other than that, I got nuthin’ … except that I plan to attend Thursday evening happy hours as often as possible. 
I used to have a friend who did that every summer! She loved it, mostly because she and her SO went to the beach nearly every weekend.
I plan to glom off my friends shore house as much as I can.
I’m taking a cruise to Alaska. I’m leaving Friday, in fact. I had to go in the hole for vacation time to do it, so that will be the majority of my fun this summer, but it should average out.
Stayed in the city after term ended, moved in with a friend, now working as a security guard.
Wish I could go on a real vacation and really relax, but sadly it’s beyond being an option.
I also plan on playing lots and lots of World of Warcraft.
Job Hunting! Yippee!
Anyone looking for an entry level EE?
[/half joking]
If you live in Arizona, you have to look at it the other way around. This is a great state to go places during the summer. Take a trip up to the cool pines. Flagstaff may be getting a little too crowded, but there’s always the Rim. Get yourself a cabin, sit on the porch on a lounge chair with a good book and a cold drink, and spend a couple of days in idle relaxation. Not quite as easy as doing it on the couch at home, but you’d be amazed how much more relaxing it is.
As for me, my wife and I will be taking our daughter to meet her great-grandparents. I’ll enjoy myself once I’m there, but I really, really, really hate to fly so I have mixed feelings right now.
Oooh, FaeireBeth, can you post pictures when you’re done? I’d love to see the dresses and the field pavilion sounds really interesting. Are you just attaching “skirts” to it? Do you know what direction you’re headed with for the dresses? I’ve always been fond of this look. So simple and elegant, but still very feminine. And for the corset, have you seen this article on hemp boning? I made an Elizabethan corset (pseudo Effigy shaped) with hemp boning and it’s the most comfortable bust support I’ve ever worn. It really does give a nice, rounded bust shape. Pretty cleavage, too, for those piratical moments.
My plans for this summer are basically to make dresses for my sister and myself for the Bristol Renaissance Faire. I was planning on using this portrait for the base of my costume, but I’m really falling for the Italian courtesan look. It looks so much cooler (as in less warm) than full Elizabethan. Denver Fabrics has some cotton velvet for about seven dollars/yard right now, and I’m so tempted to get five or six yards and use the taffeta I’ve already dyed for something else. They also have agonizingly beautiful silk brocades for only $60/yd, too. Heh heh heh.
My summer starts in 2 weeks. First, it’s off to the US for 10 days (Baltimore/DC and NY) to visit some friends on my way home to Sweden after having been away for a year. Then, it’s time to catch up with whatever friends are around (aka getting drunk and being generally irresponsible). After that, I need to find a job… maybe. That is, if my dad can hook me up with a job at his workplace, I’ll be working over the summer, otherwise it will be mooching off the parents and generally doing less money-oriented things (i.e. going to the local beaches instead of random trips to Germany, or Denmark or wherever).
Hopefully it will be a good summer, but I suspect it will be pretty average. More of a waiting period until school starts up again in September - really I only look forward to going back to school because that means I get my student loans and can afford to drink more.
Work. Beach. Work. Beach. Work. Beach.
You get the idea.
Miss Purl McKnittington - Ooh! ooh! Go Italian Courtesan. Wow, is that style gorgeous in it’s simplicity. Well, relative simplicity, y’know.
(Hey, your advice, and that of FaerieBeth, is eagerly sought in this costuming thread over here, by the way.)
My summer is so planned, it feels like it’s almost over already. This coming weekend, camping and Summer Solstice. The first two weekends in July for Ren Faire, 4th of July at Grandma’s, one week of beaches and zoos with the kids, two weeks camping in New York (any Midwest/East coast pagans know where I’m going to be; email me if you’ll be there, too!), interrupted by a Baby Welcoming (too late for a shower!) at the in-laws’ in Ohio, followed by my going down to Kentucky for another week of camping with just the baby, while WhyDad flies to California on business and WhyKid goes to Grandma’s for a week.
I’m exhausted just thinking about it. And terrified about how we’re going to pay our bills in August. We way overplanned this summer with too little moneymaking time.