Summer Plans Anyone?

My summer has officially begun! I know it’s technically 3 more weeks before the official proclamation but mine has begun. I’m perched carefully on a makeshift bean-bag on my small porch. I’ve got Hezekiah Walker and CeCe Winans and Yolanda Adams praising in the background. I’ve decided to write something everyday for my summer beginning today, the 1st of June. It could be something short to just state how my day went or what I did, but I have decided that I will discipline myself to do this. However, I will  not beat myself too hard if this doesn’t happen. I just want to make the commitment public so I have some accountability.

I’m very happy at this particular moment and I’m feeling so full of promise. I feel like the dead-weight that I have been carrying around is lifting. Of course, this isn’t just happening magically. The new meds probably have something to do with it. I also just took an hour walk. Plus all the copious amounts of sunshine I am getting couldn’t be hurting. Sometimes with this illness I am hard-pressed to say I am ecstatic because ecstatic doesn’t usually mean something good. It comes before mania and the things that come with mania. It’s hard to trust when I am just happy vs. when it’s a precursor to the mania. Of course, there is also the issue of what is the “me” before meds and the “me” after meds. Anyway, I don’t feel like discussing that right now.

I have a packed first half of my summer and then a leisurely remainder. So for the first packed part: I will be visiting my highschool friend and former in-law in Toronto. Seeing my cousins and a couple good friends as well. Next, I will be taking part in a retreat in Maryland for queer Catholic women and I am very much looking forward to it. I have decided to do an East Coast road-trip and plan to stop and see a few people on my way to and from the retreat. Then I’m off to an island in the Caribbean for 7 weeks. Yes! Jealous yet? I will be visiting, writing, reading, and hopefully working in one of the resort kitchens.

I plan to borrow a bunch of memoirs for the trip and a bunch of audio books for the drive. I plan to pick up a few of the topics that been sitting in my washer and write pieces in that direction. I also plan to resurrect the memoir and YA novel. My secret wish to work in the kitchen at one of the resorts in the area is still just a wish. I’m yet to find out if that’s something I can get in to do. I know all this is ambitious but, hey! I have to aim high. What are your summer plans?