I’ve really felt as if I were on vacation this last week (and I am, but I wasn’t feeling it so much earlier). On Monday a friend came over and we had a long relaxed lunch, wine and all, sitting on our little terrace right down near the water, accompanied by the soothing sound the waves make when they rustle the pebbles rhythmically. Then finally connected with a new friend — another glass or two at the same spot. This is really when the magic of this place is clear and I store these moments up to remember in the long months of stormy boat rides and lugging groceries home on muddy roads in the winter.
Yesterday I had lunch with another friend–we checked out the menu at a great addition to our downtown, a place the owners deliberately modeled on a French cafe/bakery. It’s a great spot for visiting, but also works well for sitting alone with the newspaper or even just sitting and people-watching. (And as more and more people are willing to invest in the revitalization of our downtown, there will be people to watch!) The food was great too, altho’ the menu’s small. I had a pissadiere, and then, because it was smaller than I’d expected, I felt quite justified in having a yummy pastry filled with raspberries and cream. The server assured me it was very light and I was happy to believe her!
And then after my Pilates class yesterday, because I didn’t feel like trying the crowds at the dinnertime ferry (in the summer we often have to wait as there are numerous “tourists” heading from town over to the floating pub at our island–the pub owners also run the ferry which only takes 34 passengers — hence the waiting!), I asked a friend to have sushi with me; she was willing and we did. That was great too — got caught up on each other’s lives a bit, wondered why we didn’t do it more often, and by the time I got to the 7:10 ferry, the crowds had thinned and I came home just in time to plop the DVD in and re-watch the final episode of Buffy, 3rd season (just revealed an aspect of myself so far unknown to some of you — more on my Buffy/Angel obsession some day).
But just when I was feeling the freedom of my summer schedule, I checked my work email address and there’s a note from a student who’s registered for one of my fall classes and wants to know the texts we’ll be using. Don’t you admire the enthusiasm? Would you if you were trying to ignore the days flipping by on another summer? Luckily, the book orders for that class have long been done, but she reminded me of the tweaking I want to do on the course outline. I’m going to be resolute, though, and concentrate on enjoying my summer for another week or two, work-free, but I have to admit she’s put the snake in paradise. . . fly in the ointment, whatever. . .
And while I’m enjoying summer on my own terms and schedule, here’s what I’m working on. I’ve got about 107 stitches on the needles right now and it gets up to 483, I think. Others have commented on the tedium of the stocking stitch section, but I’m caught up, right now, in being puzzled and fascinated by the way so few stitches can fan out to be one of the lines of the triangle rather than one of the points. Not what I expected when I started. 
