I'm generally fairly observant and after several weeks (or months) of weather that has fluctuated between nice and not-so-nice, I feel comfortable saying that it feels like summer. Further observation into the lives of those around me has led me to confirm that it is, indeed, summer for all intents and purposes. Here's how I know:
1) I'm working indoors eight hours each day and the weather is nice. When I do get to leave my office, the pants I put on in the morning are often too warm and my jacket makes me look over-dressed. I'm frequently forced to rig up a contraption with my purse straps to avoid wearing it. So, in summary, I know it's summer because I'm more awkward, more publicly, than I normally am.
2) The people around me seem to be more in-tune with what to wear, and they're taking summer clothing to the extreme. I get that it's getting close to 20deg some days, but it is still way too chilly for anyone to be wandering around with their butt cheeks hanging out. Similarly, maybe your kids still need to wear jackets when they're playing in the yard at 8 p.m.? Or, to solve both these issues, it's never really "Butt cheek season," and keep your kids indoors FOREVER so they don't wake me up on the weekends by yelling outside my window.
3) There are a lot more people riding their bikes. This is awesome, because finding alternative, environmentally-friendly methods of travel is the way of the future. You bike-riders, you guys are great. You're saving the day. However, I do have one request: please decide if you're a vehicle or a pedestrian. That's my major pet peeve with bicyclists. They never seem to want to obey the rules of the road. It's not OK to ride on sidewalks, turn illegally wherever you want and bike through crosswalks after behaving like a vehicle until that red light became too inconvenient. Consider how many bicyclist-vehicle accidents there are that are preventable.
4) Soccer has started. I'm not playing women's soccer in Estevan this summer (which will probably be largely unnoticed by my team), but I am playing co-ed soccer in Regina (which, again, will largely go unnoticed by my team). I'm super content to run up and down the sideline, pretending to play midfield and really hoping that no one passes me the ball. My current mission is to teach my new team not to pass to me. So far, I've got three of my teammates conditioned (including my boyfriend) and we've only had a brief scrimmage. In other soccer related news, I haven't been able to move my legs since first kicking a soccer ball three days ago. This can only mean good things, right?
5) My middle sister is home and I keep waking up expecting messages complaining about her late-night partying ways, which I don't expect will improve, considering she turned 19 on Tuesday (it was Mom's birthday too, but we won't mention her age). Happy belated birthday, Kendelle! I'm very glad not to be living at home this summer and hearing you come home at 3 a.m. Happy belated birthday, Mom! Good luck!
Tonaya Marr has been wearing SPF 30 sunscreen every day since the end of April, for fear of getting a sunburn. Even though she works indoors. If you want to get hold of Tonaya to comment on that fact, or just to chat, send her an e-mail at tonaya.marr@gmail.com or send her a tweet @TonayaMarr.
