summer vacay

It's mid-August, and I'm finally (finally!) getting a bit of an extended break. I spent the majority of the summer working on a new musical on the upper west side, but by the end of last week things had started to wrap up. I raised one last glass in celebration of a show well done, turned in my keys, hit send on a bunch of final emails and two large side projects, and packed my bags for one full week away from the hustle, bustle, and really smelly summer heat of New York.

My first stop was Chicago, and while the primary goal of the visit was to pick a venue for my wedding next year (and I think we found one!), I also managed to see a bunch of old friends, meet those old friend's new babies, catch a jazz show, try on a bunch of wedding dresses, have one three too many vodka sodas while laughing my face off at a bonfire, marvel at the $3.50 price of beer at a happy hour, obsess over way too many wedding details with my mother, and enjoy one last slice of my favorite pizza in the whole wide world before our beloved pizzeria closes it's oven doors for the last time next month. And that was all in four days.

So needless to say I was ready for a vacation from my vacation. Luckily, I was only a one-way flight away from three days at J's family's lakehouse in northern Tennessee, where our largest struggle was to choose between the pool and the lake (spoiler alert: we managed to do both). We tested out the new kayaks, took a delightfully long boat ride around the lake, grilled out every night, drank too many Leine's (correction: you can never have too many Liene's), and I even remembered to pack the ole' goggles so I could swim a couple of laps, old-school style. I'm in a bit of a weird two-week limbo right now and while it's strange and a bit stressful (the only constant is change...) I am sooo much better prepared to deal with whatever life is throwing at me right now having gotten away for a week. I'm eternally grateful to my family and J's family for always opening their doors (and kitchens) to us, and am already getting excited for next summer's LGA->ORD->TYS->LGA travel marathon.