While May was a bit more work focused (with the Big Time launch! Currently on sale in digital and print at Amazon if you want to check it out…), June felt more summery to me. I had a lot of fun adventures on the personal side of the ledger.
I did start the month with more of a work adventure — flying to Dallas to give a talk there. It was a good group. I enjoyed my dinner with them after and made it home the next day with no incident (always good when it comes to flying!).
We went as a family to see the Phillies the first weekend of the month, thus crossing that item off the summer fun list. The next weekend we went to the Zoo bear exhibit, then hosted the choir party on Sunday. The next weekend we went to brunch at Talula’s for Father’s Day. On the 23rd (well, the 24th when we finally left after a 5-hour delay…) I flew from Philly to Venice and then spent the 24th-28th in Slovenia and the 28th-29th in Venice itself. Those were adventures for sure.
The kids had some highlights, including the last day of school! We went to a kindergarten graduation and an 8th grade graduation. The 16-year-old spent a week going to Washington DC for a technology competition. The 19-year-old was having his own adventure much of the month in the UK and Rome. Among other things, he went to the Harry Potter studios, and to the Coliseum.
I went in the pool/hot tub 15 times during June – not a bad proportion of days given that I was home just 23 nights! I biked a few times and ran in various places including on local trails and along the river in Ljubljana.
All in all it was a pretty good month. I need to make some more progress writing Golden Hours, but we’re getting there…
As for July? Sadly, one of my first anticipated highlights — a visit from Sarah and her family — is no longer happening for very understandable reasons. Here’s hoping that can be rescheduled when Josh is on the mend! However, the July 4th weekend will feature a fireworks/fountain concert at Longwood, likely some other fireworks (though maybe not philly proper as it doesn’t start until 11:30 p.m.!), a get-together with a friend’s family, and then the Sarah McLachlan concert on the 7th. There may be other things happening that weekend but I haven’t totally planned it yet (some crew might go to the Minions movie…).
My 19-year-old will come home on the 5th and be home for the rest of the summer. He has a job he is doing remotely so he will be keeping busy enough with that. He asked me to take him to Friday Saturday Sunday, one of Philly’s few Michelin-starred restaurants, as a belated birthday dinner, and I managed to get a reservation for later in the month. Frankly I am thrilled that I had a child who grew up to ask me to take him to Michelin-starred restaurants.
My niece is getting married! We have various festivities in New Jersey associated with that the weekend of July 11-12. I just bought my little boys black dress pants, dress shirts, and ties. They are going to hate wearing them but hopefully they will still manage to have fun while looking very handsome. I will have to take pictures!
I have tickets to the Summer Ale Fest at the zoo. I feel like that weekend might wind up shifting for various reasons (including my daughter taking a trip to Massachusetts) but I am tentatively excited for it.
At the end of the month I’ll be going to a professional networking/mastermind type event that I’m really looking forward to. Among other things, I will meet a longtime acquaintance in person for the first time. Seriously, we’ve known each other for a decade, talking by Zoom once a month or so…and never met in person.
I will go to the dentist and get a mammogram. I am not looking forward to either of those things, but I am looking forward to having them be over with.
What are you looking forward to this month? Looking back from the perspective of July 31st, what do you think will have been the highlights?
