July...

Because it has the best summer moments...

Braves baseball.

Campfires.

S'mores with family.

Introducing the International Man o' Mystery to Sunset Cove at home, aka the Redneck Yacht Club.
All those boats you see behind us are not at a dock.
They are tied up to each other.

Partying like we're 21.

Remembering we're not 21, have been working in a hospital all summer, and have the pastiness to prove it.

Continuing the new family tradition of running the
Peachtree Road 10k Race
on the morning of the 4th of July
in tutus.

Back in Burlington, dance partying for Lizzie's 30th.

While wearing Lizzie buttons!

Charlie and the girls.
Per usual.

Attending a classmate's beautiful summer wedding.

In a birch grove.

On top of a mountain.
It was seriously like a movie wedding.
Gorgeous!

Going to Camp. Camp Lizzie.

Complete with photobooth.

Campers.

And yep.

Swimming holes in Vermont.

Sister reunion after a year apart!

Rocking out to summer songs.

Catching some waves.

Doing some light summer reading.

Late night cards and beer with family.

And spending a week with 75 of my closest relatives at
Buckfest 2011!

Yeah, July was pretty great.
Not ready for summer to be over yet!

Summer Reading

Sorry for my absence. I've been sucked into my absolute favorite summer activity:
Summer reading.

As a kid I definitely always read more than the required 3 books.
I wasn't as good as my friend Abby who always read the ENTIRE list,
but I did my fair share.

So now that I'm doing a much milder outpatient rotation (Praise Jesus!),
I have the luxury on the weekend of staying up late reading,
sleeping in,
and first thing in the morning grabbing the book off my nightstand to start again.

Of getting so sucked into a different world that the characters start to feel like long lost friends.

Of daydreaming about reading, wondering what will happen next, whenever I'm stuck at work or in traffic.

Of, as the International Man o' Mystery found out last weekend, preferring reading to swimming in the lake, hanging out, or pretty much anything.

Here's what I've been reading:

Recommended by my friend Erica.
An engrossing story of a Dominican family that moves to NJ.
Tons of heartbreaking Dominican history, which I did not know.
It helps to have a working knowledge of Spanish to read it, especially swear words.
And a dash of magical realism as any self respecting Hispanic book should have.

Pat Conroy books make me feel as wrapped up in a warm, cozy blanket of Southern culture as if I had just had crawdads, biscuits, and boiled peanuts while sipping sweet iced tea on the veranda of my plantation home.
He spins the Southern culture into the beautifully golden but crooked web that it is.
And he's a beautiful writer to boot.

This one is up next. I want to read it before the movie comes out.

What are you reading??
What should I read next?
The summer is still young.