Not-So-Summer Solstice: 6.23

The longest day of the year is officially behind us in the northern hemisphere, and I could not be more bewildered. Especially here in summer-is-a-hoax Colorado, where we welcomed the solstice under grey, rainy, frigid skies.

Rumor has it that traditional summer temperatures are on their way back, so I’ll try and reserve judgement. After all, this is my first June in the Rockies, so I don’t really know what is normal and what isn’t.

Old Friends

This week was especially exciting, because one of my favorite friends was in town. Alexa and I were roommates at IU, where we mooned over all things Australian and hatched a plan to visit one day. In 2004, we boarded a plane, working holiday visas in hand, and stepped out into the Sydney sunshine.

In the fifteen years since, we’ve shared late nights in Bloomington, blistering days in Australian strawberry fields, weddings in Slovenia (hers) and Hawaii (mine), and a whole lot more. She lives in Indy and I live…well, all over the place, but we got to squeeze in a couple of long-overdue evenings, talking at warp speed as we tried to cram months into minutes.

One thing we didn’t do? Take any photos! That fuzzy picture at the top is us fifteen years ago, crossing the border into Victoria from New South Wales.

Home Office

My maximizing tendencies are going full throttle as I decide how to best set up my home office, also known as a five-foot width of wall in our living room. My current arrangement is a MacBook connected to a monitor, with a separate keyboard and mouse. I have a reasonable chair, picked up second hand at a consignment store.

I get an annual home office allowance as part of my job, so I’m trying to evaluate how to get the most value. This year’s focus is on health—I’ve been dealing with chronic low back and hip pain for the past 18 months, and it can all be traced back to too much sitting.

It’s gotten noticeably worse in the past two weeks, since returning to 8+ hours in a chair, 5 days a week. So do I invest in a cumbersome standing desk? Or a small standing laptop cart? Do I get a seat wedge, lower back cushion, and footrest, or splurge on a fancy ergonomic office chair?

Sigh. The burning questions of a woman in her late 30s.

Salad Spinner

As long as we’re talking about the sad things we care about these days, my OXO Good Grips salad spinner (not an ad!) arrived and it is the bee’s knees. I immediately spun the heck out of some kale and watched in wonder as the water flew off of it.

Jared remains unconvinced.

Coming This Week

Getting into my new routine, booking our Mexico trip (!) and going whitewater rafting in Idaho Springs. I just read in the paper that Colorado’s 2019 snowpack is 751% of its typical level—meaning that the rivers are wild—so this should be *interesting*.