and just like that, summer is half over.

bagel street deli = still one of my favorite places in athens

well, that was an interesting. . . um. . .entire month of june. there was about a week in between my last post my leaving for athens. however, i definitely hit a point during that week when i was so exhausted and so stressed and so completely overwhelmed that i kind of had a mental breakdown. but i'm happy to report that i am fully recovered. still busy, but feeling like i can (pretty much) handle it. and the parts that i can't handle, i will try to delegate to matt. lucky him.

so, i spend the last two weeks(ish) in athens. it was an interesting trip, to say the least. one of matt's high school friends got married in a gorgeous, vintage themed outdoor wedding that was pretty spectacular. i wish i had taken some photos. rumor has it that the bride planned every last detail, and she did an absolutely lovely job.

what she likely didn't plan on was there being a horrendous storm the night before that knocked out power for roughly 500,000 people in the ohio-west virginia area. this picture of the debris in matt's back yard (through the screen, because it was a gabillion degrees outside) doesn't really show anything accurately. some of the pictures that accompany the articles about the storm in the local papers do a little better. but it was a mess. there were whole trees pulled out of the ground, trees fallen on cars and houses, and of course electrical posts and wires torn apart. we were pretty lucky in that we only lost power at matt's place for about 12 hours. and this amazing bride held it together like a pro. there was no electricity at their wedding venue, but they ran what they could off of generators. they put out fans and vintage handkerchiefs to help people deal with the 100-degree weather and 90% humidity, and they really lead the fray in as far as sucking it up and having a good time. and props to them. because it was one of the most lovely things i've seen in a while.

believe it or not, it kept trying to storm in athens. one grey sky after another moved into town along with ominous, howling winds and (mostly temporary) torrential downpours. we braced ourselves a couple of times for our luck to run out, but we ended up doing pretty well.

here's the part that i didn't totally understand. when it rains in the midwest on hot, humid days, what usually happens is that the rain takes away the really gross, heavy, wet feeling in the air. in ohio - somehow - i think it actually made it worse. this feels like it might be against the laws of physics, but i swear that it's true. my mom used to comment about days like this being the occasions when "it didn't rain enough," which is the best way to explain how it feels. (and then usually, as if she was some sort of psychic fortuneteller, it rains more later and everything feels better). i was trying to keep up with my running schedule, but i just couldn't even make it happen, because it was so hot and humid every single day. eventually, i also stopped getting my hopes up that rain would resolve things.

note: this makes it a total crap shoot how the color run is going to go in 2 days. . .

i suspect that it goes without saying that we wanted nothing to do with cooking during these days. matt didn't even want to stand next to the grill. so, we searched our brains and matt's food and wine magazines for things that sounded delicious but didn't involve adding any heat or humidity to the days. this was one of matt's more brilliant ideas. it's a steak salad (broiled. . . so as to cook quickly and involve little sustained use of the oven) turned into a gyro-style sandwich. it was really delicious.

we also got what feels like a bunch of wedding stuff done. we finalized the order of events for the ceremony, filled out our marriage license application to be sent in sometime soon (the application had to be notarized, so we had to do it when we were together), we finalized invitation details with erin garrett (said invitations are en route to me even as i type. . . ), applied for a passport for dr. vess, and even shopped for wedding bands. pretty impressive, huh? the knot produces a checklist to keep you on track with wedding stuff. needless to say, i was checking things off like crazy.

some of you know that matt has gotten a new record player that he absolutely adores. so we spent an afternoon with peggy looking for a wooden crate to store said records in (we also made a few trips to the record store in athens, of course). it actually made for a cute trip to an antique mall/flea market/old-time country store strip mall-type-place just north of athens. there was SO MUCH stuff. this might have been my favorite. and since i know you're wondering, yes, it does actually really play. and it really does sound like a banjo.

that might be it for now. things are always a-brewin' around here, but i think that's most of the recap. i'm getting settled back in and matt will be here for a couple of weeks on august 1. God forbid we should sit still for too long, right? :)