As a kid I never had the most exciting “What I Did This Summer” back-to-school busywork essays. I always had good summers, just nothing hugely exciting to report. Where classmates went with their parents yachting in France, I went on the ferry to Centre Island. Where classmates had the birth of a younger brother or sister to report, I had a new fish. And it wasn’t even my fish, it was my dad’s fish.

You get the idea.

Summer 2008, by contrast, was one for the photo albums.

Four weddings, a week and a half at the cottage, The Ex, the Centre Island social, a free trip to Hawaii for a weekend, a volleyball team that was great fun and went nowhere, a softball team that was great fun and had a perfect season, celebrating and winning awards at our annual work ball (hence the free trip to Hawaii), turned 31 quietly, welcomed friends back from traveling and sent others on their way, house parties, barbecues, family and friends - it was a really, really good summer.

But busy. I honestly think there were only about 5 days this summer that I came home after work and did nothing. I am looking forward to a fall with zero plans. I am looking forward to nights like last night where we can be open to last minute ideas and have a couple of friends over for some drinks and MarioKart without any prior planning.

And today will largely be spent sitting on the couch, studying for a work exam and watching week one kick off in the NFL.

———-

A couple of notes on the perfect season:

For a few minutes our team was infamous, right up there with the 1972 Miami Dolphins, on Wikipedia.

Gotta love Wikipedia.

And, for posterity, and just because it’s a damn fine logo, one of our Toronto Booze Jays shirts:

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Filed under: Life Happens

Tomorrow my vacation takes a decidedly different tone.

For the past eleven days I have been out of the city. I have been away from my friends, my cell phone reception and, until only a couple days ago, I have been away from my internet.

Tomorrow we drive back to the city for the remainder of my time off and already there are plans for drinks, for outings, for volleyball and karaoke. We have these things up here but they differ slightly.

Karaoke up this way is called a campfire.

This holiday started the Thursday before last, leaving directly from work and making the four and a half hour drive up to the cottage, where I promptly said goodbye to my wife and drove the 45 minutes into town where, at 6:00 a.m., the menfolk would be leaving for our fishing trip.

Three days. Log cabin. Trout-filled lake. Fish frys served off of the truck tailgate and barbecued steak. Card playing. Beer.

I know, I’m tempted to make an “Insert grunt here” type of joke, but there is something to be said for this kind of camaraderie. It’s not the type of atmosphere you want to live in of course, but as a once-a-year getaway, it’s good times.

The drive there was long - the kind of road that takes three hours to drive 122 kilometres - as we headed into the backwoods of Quebec, away from everything. The fishing was fantastic. I’ve never had so many fish and of such a good size in my life.

The company was hilarious as well. A mix of old and young. Fishing and hunting war stories mixed with emo hairstyles and Nintendo DS, and my brother-in-law and myself caught in that middle generation, understanding both and bridging the gap.

On Sunday we rejoined the womenfolk at the cottage and this is where I’ve been since. It’s been a week of barbecues and fishing, rainy day dominoes and afternoon naps. I can’t tell you how much this decompression was needed.

And tomorrow the second half of our perfectly balanced vacation begins and we return to our busy lives in the city.

As good as this past week has been, and as much as I feel I fit in with this Country Mouse environment, I think I’m feeling ready for that return.

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Filed under: Life Happens