On the road again

June is almost gone. How does that happen? When school wraps up, and you look out at the expanse of June and July, it seems as though it'll go on forever. And then, in some strange way, time speeds up and suddenly it's July and ohlook! suddenly it's August and gah! it's over! The only comfort being that the weather is intolerable, so the sooner we get through summer, the sooner our electric bills will come back down.

A nice thing about summer in Dallas is the crape myrtles blooming. One thing this town ain't lacking is crape myrtles. I was trying to give my dad directions to my place by pointing out that you turn left where there's a big pink crape myrtle on the corner but really, they're on every corner. Not helpful.



It does make my front walk look like this, though. Isn't that nice? Like someone just got married on my sidewalk. We had one in our front yard when I was growing up too. They spit on you, you know. Like the faintest drizzle when you're standing underneath. It's nice.

So back in May, my mom helped me rearrange my living room. It was previously organized to accommodate a huge TV cabinet that I'd had for 5 years that was so large it would only fit in one place. It was wonky. So we finally ditched it, I got a new TV stand (and a new TV!), and now, this.



That's right, I can watch TV and bake at the same time. It's the best ever. I love being able to see the TV from the kitchen. My place in Austin was like that too. That's oatmeal cookie dough by the way. Yup.

But back to the summer and how it flies by. For me, July really is going to be a whopper. I'm traveling for four consecutive weekends. Can you believe it? What an idiot. First to Houston for what will no doubt be an epic house-warming party, and to finally, finally tour the Blue Bell Creamery. All my life I've wanted to do this, but since the tours are on weekdays only, and the Creamery is in Brenham, it was just hard.



Follow that truck!

Then the following Wednesday I'm off to the East Coast to visit friends in Philly and in NYC. And on Thursday night, at one minute past the stroke of midnight, my friend Lauren, myself, and a theater full of totally hopped-up, spazzed out of their minds Harry Potter fans will witness history.



Oh the agony of seeing it all end. How will we survive?? Rereading the books helps. I'm doing that now in my run-up to the movie coming out. I still turn each page like I can't imagine what's coming next. Genius. I'm looking at you, Rowling.

Then the next two weekends will be spent wearing my Auntie Manda hat and traveling to see these kiddos. And a few other people too.



Rock star Will...



Beautiful Mary...



And this deceptively adorable little girl. Just watch her, though. The second you look the other way, Suzy will rub Vaseline jelly into your mattress. It's true. Ask her mom.

Then I'm home! Phew! Can you imagine anything crazier? I can't wait, but I'm also exhausted just thinking about it. Does anyone else have superfun summer plans?