Saturday, September 5, 2009

Glorious Summer

It is always good to acknowledge a gift and give thanks and this summer has been a season to do just that.

Again and again the word glorious comes to mind as I think back on the past two months. It has been a phase to slow down, travel, spend time with the diverse group of friends I adore and cherish, read fantastic novels, nap, visit with my amazing family and focus on helping my 45-year-old body get back into manly, muscular shape.

It has been a great while since I have felt the freedom of childhood summers. The long ago days when as a teenager I would spend the night lounging on the hood of my older brother's 1968 Pontiac Firebird writing terrible poetry under the streetlamp or wandering the streets of my neighborhood barefoot singing Linda Ronstadt's I Ain't Always Been Faithful, repeating the lyrics "did you ever walk the empty street until the break of dawn, just to hear some lonesome sparrow sing a lonesome song".

Glorious!

This summer was like those. Work, school, exhaustion and drama took a back seat and were replaced by sunflowers in Italy, reading in the pool, Mickey Mouse, singing in the garden, riding in my convertible, walking my doggie and pizza night at La Tavola Marche!

These last few days will be spent riding my bike on the towpath up to Lambertville, New Jersey and New Hope, Pennsylvania and organizing myself for the first days of school.

Lauren and I will be teaching kindergarten this year (YIPPEE!!) and if I have to spend my days focused on work, I couldn't think of a more glorious prospect than being surrounded by eager, happy, little children.

9 comments:

Barbara said...

Kindergarten...Yippee!
I will really enjoy visiting to see what you guys are up to...
We have been back 20 school days already .. according to our counting stick pockets:)
Enjoy meeting your new little ones.
B.

lettuce said...

what a lovely post
i'm so glad you've had such a great summer

Arielle Lee Bair said...

I'm glad you had a glorious summer. Good to hear! I am about an hour from New Hope, PA. I'm in Allentown. The Lehigh Valley. :) Good luck for a great new school year!

Sebastien Millon said...

So glad you have had some wonderful experiences this summer. Have fun with the bike riding (that's one of my favorites). And hooray for school and crazy little kiddos!

Gary said...

Barbara - 20 days already! I will be visiting your blog often this year for ideas and support as it has been a while since I taught kindergarten. It is exciting.

Letty - Thanks. I am hoping for a glorious fall as well.

Arielle - It was wonderful. I guess after the horrors of last summer it was that much more delicious.

Sebastien - I was a bike riding fool yesterday and the good news is that my backside is not as sore as I was expecting. I can't wait to meet those crazy little tykes.

LadrĂ³n de Basura (a.k.a. Junk Thief) said...

Linda Ronstadt and Joan Baez were on our local NPR affiliate for an hour this morning promoting the local mariachi festival. Any time I hear reference to Linda these days, I feel like I should forward it to you!

Gary said...

Gregg - I am glad you do as I soak up the Linda information like a sponge. Why Linda and I are not BFF's is beyond me at this point. You know, she moved to San Francisco recently which means I am ripe for a visit.

Gregg Biggs said...

I don't know if you've seen some of her quotes but she said that one of the reasons she left her native Arizona to return to SF is so that her (likely straight) kids will grow up in a gay positive community. Linda knows that it was more than arena rock couples that made her a star and still love her.

carjug said...

Hey Gary,
Have you picked a research topic yet? http://sites.google.com/site/colorthevowels/
could use some independent verification. Another crackpot inventor I know, Bob from phondot would love for a researcher to give www.phondot.com a run, and it is designed for early elementary.
Thanks, carjug@yahoo.com

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails