Summer of Emily

I am very excited to introduce my first guest blogger to be know only as Emily. She is a faithful reader, as so many of you are. We were hanging out the other night and she mentioned she was sad to see the "Summer of Emily" end. I emailed her later to see what the summer of Emily was all about. I hope you are as inspired as I am!

Hi Sarah,

I will tell you a little bit about my "Summer of Emily." As you know it is a take off on the infamous "Summer of George."

But it was also inspired by an episode of Will and Grace. When Grace first starts dating Harry Connick Jr.'s character they talked about going biking in the country to pick pumpkins. Harry's character quickly sets up the day and they go biking. Midway through the bike trip Grace and Will comment on how they don't actually do things, they just talk about doing things. I connect with that.

This is why I decided to create the summer of Emily. Just a list of mundane things, some not so mundane, but things that I would normally talk about doing but things I wouldn't actually do. I may be seen as lazy, but I don't get out of my comfort zone very often and this was designed to enjoy the summer and make me get out there!

I have not completed every thing on my list but I have completed a number of them.

1. Eat dinner in Saugatuck at Maro's - done - this was attempted in the past, but the wait was always 2+ hours. So I had to buckle down and say that we were going wait as long as we had to!

2. Climb Mt. Baldy in Saugatuck - Done - I do not ever remember climbing Mt. Baldy - while it is not a huge hill, it is still a lot of stairs!

3. Say Yes to More things - Done - I went canoing with a group of old friends. I have never been canoing and would say that this is out of my comfort zone. I had no idea what to expect - but we had fun... fun I wouldn't have had if I had said no and let the opportunity pass. (That is just one instance - but I have said yes to a lot of other things this summer - I am trying to say yes to more things, (Another lame campaign of mine! I know!))

4. Go to the Fireworks - Every year I am always too tired to make the effort to go to the fireworks, but it is a lot of fun. So I decided just to plan on it. So we did - and again we had fun!

5. Go camping - unfortunately this did not work out. I wanted to go to cran-hill but I ended up in Disney instead. This will have to go on the list for next summer.

6. Read the Harry Potter Series - I am still working on this. This is just a fun one I put in there, for popular culture reasons.

7. Learn the multiplication tables through 20 - I think this will come after I finish Harry Potter. That is a lot to learn, but I think it will help me in my every day life. Say I am at the store and someone yells 16*17... I will know the answer.

8. Go Dune Schooner Riding/Boat riding - I have been on the boat but not on the dunes... yet!

9. Be a little more spontaneous - In the hopes of just being fun - Ellen and I were meeting a friend at Birch Run - we were 20 minutes early and I suggested we go to Bronner's Christmas World, since we have never been there. Ellen said yes and we ended up at Bronner's. That place was awesome and well worth the trek out of our way. We ended up being late to meet our friend because we couldn't get through that place fast enough. We ended up with a fun memory or being random and some very nice ornaments! Who knew what we were missing all these years!

There is part of my list from the summer. Nothing too special, but it did make for a very fun and active summer!

I have about a 50% pass rate on my list - but seeing as though I only gave myself 3 months, I think I did pretty good!