Summer Haze

Some of the newness of my life here in Jersey has worn off, which is good, because it has left me with this settled, relaxed feeling.  I'm totally in tune with the lazy days of summer now, even if I can't find pleasure in this blistering heat.  Things are well here, we are settled into our apartment, even completing our domestication with a really nice dining room table!  Adolfo has graduated from Cornell, and has finally, I think, realized that he has time now.  I still sometimes notice him looking around thinking that there must be something that he is supposed to be doing, but it passes quickly, with a little self-conscious smile and the relaxing of his shoulders.  All in all, we have completed the transition to being New Jerseyans very well. 

A part of this change has been that I have become a runner!  I'm sure that makes some of you laugh, but its true!  Karyn invited and coaxed me into doing my first 5K in April, and it has wrought a total, and much needed change in me.  I actually look forward to the days when it is not so oppressively hot that I can run outside, and, wonder of wonders!  I actually enjoy it.  OK, well, the actual process of doing the running is still not my favorite thing, I guess, but I feel so great, so accomplished, when I finish that it makes the pain seem trivial.  I'm not at the point yet where I feel that I could run more than a 5K, and I still go a week without running here and there, but its a start.  I do feel the need to sign up for another race, though, to feel like I am working toward a further goal.  Right now, I'm just kind of existing at the same level of achievement I had been at, and I need something to push me a little harder.  I think I will save that for the fall though, as it is heat stroke weather more often than not these days.

In the meantime, we go to the beach!  I have never had the luxury of being close enough to the beach that it can be an afternoon trip.  What a treat that is!  One Friday, we came to work early, and left about 1PM, to go to Long Beach Island, where we spent about 5 or 6 hours on the beach, and had dinner at our favorite shore seafood place. We are planning to go this weekend sometime, and we already have our giant bottle of Pinot Grigio in the fridge waiting for us.  :)

My porch garden has been modestly successful, a fact which makes me very proud.  I have some ideas to make it better next year, but for my first try, it has been really great.  I have gotten probably about 25 cherry tomatoes, with more cropping up all the time.  This week, I had a bounty; I was able to pick 2 jalapeño peppers, 2 cubanelle peppers, and a plum tomato, in addition to my usual handful of cherry tomatoes.  I'm contemplating homemade salsa for the weekend.  :)

Its summertime, and for the first time in awhile, the living really is easy.  <3