Time of the Month

Augusting

8.28.22

Summer starts to fade to black
Sun sets like it's not coming back
Heat rises from nothing
That’s just Augusting

Whew. Finally submitted my manuscript! And only 10 days late.
Guess the deadline wasn't quite as hard as I'd been told.

I did actually get a bit of a vacation this month. My first real vacation since the pandemic began. I flew out to Colorado for my brother's wedding, where they rented an Airbnb in a cabin up in the mountains. It was a very nice wedding. Short and informal, which suits him and my sister-in-law perfectly. My niece is almost 3 years old and I'd never met her in person. Everyone says she's the spitting image of me at that age, and they aren't lying. She's a little pistol. It was so nice to get everyone all together in one place.

It wasn't exactly relaxing though. Didn't really sleep there, for a lot of reasons. Including 5 very young kids running around (well, one of them can't run yet, but she sure can cry) and some drama that I wasn't involved in. I finally got a bed to myself on the last night... and had to wake up at 5am for the airport.

But I made it back in one piece, on a tiny little airplane in a thunderstorm. They were offering at least 8 people more than $1,000 in travel credit to not take the flight because they were weight restricted due to the weather. I was highly tempted to take that offer... but I had to be in lab in the morning to train folks on a time sensitive experiment. And really, after 3 flights, 3 different airports, two time zones, 5 days without really sleeping, and a 9 hour travel day (so far), I just wanted to be home.

So, I took the flight. My bag, however, did not. I had to return to the airport a couple days later to get it. In the mean time, I didn't even have a hairbrush. Fortunately, I put everything really important in my carry-on for just that reason. If you ever travel, I recommend you do the same. Or, better yet, don't check a bag at all if you can help it.

And, yes, I did listen to this on the flight:
"This Flight Tonight" by Joni Mitchell

So far, I'm still testing negative for COVID! I was pretty careful during travel and in crowded areas, but not at the Airbnb. There's just no way to mask 24/7 when you're living, eating and sleeping in the same space as 16+ people.

But it's only been a few months since I had COVID, so here's hoping my immune system does it's thing!

I went straight back to work and still haven't had a chance to recover since I got back, almost 2 weeks ago, so I'm taking Monday off for a much needed and well deserved long weekend at home. And good thing, because I've already slept almost the entire weekend.

And now, please enjoy a tasty cup of positivitea :

”Nothing is impossible. The word itself says I’m possible.”
- Audrey Hepburn