and now, for something completely different...

Time for the self-indulgent bit. Yesterday was fantastic. Perfect (in a very understated way), even. I made two batches of blueberry jam (with my mother) in the morning and found out that boiling blueberries and sugar smell delicious. They made the whole first floor of the house smell like blueberry pie. The jam looks terrific in the little quilted glass jam jars--we'll find out later if it tastes as good as it looks. It was very sunny, hot and humid today so I was pumped to go work at camp at 12 pm. (My new reversible bathing suit also provided some motivation.) We did LBDs (lost bather drills) first thing, so I was able to get in the water and cool down. (LBDs are hellish in that water. It's so mucky that you can't see a thing and you're totally turned off by the idea of doing sweeps. Which is what's called for when you can't see anything.) Then I sat on the dock and guarded for about an hour--got some tanning done right before a thunderstorm rolled in (the clouds were all lavender and grey) and we had to clear the water. The thunderstorm, while getting me out of work early, also screwed up my plans to go to the ocean with H. for the remainder of the afternoon. We decided to make the best of the situation, though, and had a lot of fun anyway. Did a little shopping (huge sales for the Fourth of July at that materialistic mecca also known as the mall) and headed home about an hour an a half later, wilting from hunger, to finish prepping dinner. (Dinner was swordfish marinated in white wine, lemon juice, garlic, oregano, mint, kosher salt, cracked pepper and olive oil, grilled red peppers and vidalia onions, white rice and corn on the cob.) We were so hungry by the time we got home that we just had to have a snack while we cooked, so we totally pigged out on french bread, brie cheese, nectarines and Mudslides. It was awesome. Not to mention the feast of a dinner. There is nothing quite as good as eating good food with good company; in this case my family and H. Plus, even though it rained while we were cooking, it cleared up and the sun came back out in full force in time for us to eat dinner outside with the air smelling deliciously of rain. Then H. and I, spur of the moment, decided to stop at the lake for a quick swim before she had to go home. We were the only ones there. We swam around for a little and the water was cool and as clear as glass. The sunlight was the color of honey and there was that heady lakewater smell: clean and earthy, water, plants and wet sand. Then we grabbed our towels and drove, barefoot and sandy, to her house as the sun went down.