Category — Blog

We sold our house!  And then we went on vacation! 

It wasn’t the best timing, but what can you do. 

Some friends invited us to stay with them on an island in Maine where everybody drives around on golf carts and there are twenty beaches that you can visit every day. 

We stayed in a “camp” but that’s really just a Maine word for summer house, apparently.  Because this was a beautiful summer home on the water with huge windows, running water and three bedrooms.

Some people live in their camps all summer. The island shuts down for the winter. Which gives it a magical, summer-time-only feeling, time out of time, out there, on the island.

While we were on vacation, we put an offer on another house in Richmond.  I only had about a thousand panic attacks about it.

“Why don’t we just buy a house out here?” I asked my husband.  “Let’s buy a camp and live in it instead.”

We swirled drinks on the deck.  We looked at the water.  It was so beautiful.  So different than our hot little square of burned grass and broken glass back in the city.

“Because we need to get paid,” my husband said.  “We need to eat.”

Which is true.

But you can always dream, right?

I just got back from my first summer vacation.  My parents rented a house on the lake in Door County and we got to stay there a whole week where it was so beautiful, you could die.

While there, I got some troubling news about the two big things I’m trying to bring to market:

My house

My latest writing project

So I felt like this:

Even though the scenery was like this:

It was a bit of a waste of prime waterfront real estate.

But what can you do?  Put one foot in front of the other.  And try to figure it out.

Aside from that, we ate ice cream and frozen custard, we went for boat rides, played putt-putt golf and watched outdoor movies while sitting on folding chairs and wrapped in blankets.

I loved being with my son and my sister and my nephews and my family who live too many states away, waking up every day knowing they were there, close to me, and thinking about the day ahead and wondering what we were going to fill it with.

My husband took out little glasses and filled them with red wine, saying, “Porto. Porto.”

Even though we didn’t have any port in the house.  Just red wine.

But it made the evening pass. Fast and giddy and I couldn’t stop laughing.

Which is good when you’ve got in-laws clogging up the joint.

I’ve really enjoyed the following young adult novels…which are definitely crossing over into the adult category.  It’s a post-Twilight world, people.

Also, all are highly recommended for upcoming summer vacations.

Speaking of…do you have suggestions for me? I’m in desperate need of something to read on my upcoming summer vacations. (I have 2 this summer and I’m so excited).  Please recommend something, I’d love to check it out.

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

Absolutely breathtaking.  Just my favorite thing that I’ve read this year.  What style.

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

So much fun.  Really lives up to the hype.  And wow, I didn’t know YA could be this bloody.  But it can…and it works.  Bravo.

Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You by Peter Cameron

I liked this main character so much.  For a young misanthrope, he’s very likeable.  And the descriptions of New York in summer are dead on.