Shiny Things

July has been tough so far. A lot of ups and downs. Not keeping up the MMLS as well as I would like. A couple days of post-travel lag. A good day or two, a lovely 4th with impromptu party, some really yucky emotional low days (with dentist appointment), a weekend at Feminist Girls Camp, a great writing day, a busy back and forth with no time to write day -- also the onset of a summer cold -- and now a middling day I am trying to recover with the help of tea and mindfulness meditation. Apparel: Also not as muu-muu as I would like, but trying to be summery. I have new sandle tan lines! Illustrations from a post " In Defense of the Muumuu ." I also found this great blog post about someone else's " caftan summer ," which is really so familiar! Writing: Some very good days! Some very bad days! Interesting stuff about vengeance and wholeness and the red right hand/ rubente dextera via Milton and Horace! Still promising myself to be done in 40 days. (40 days! Nothing

One would think vacation would be totally in the mumu l.s. column, but one would be wrong. We went to Illinois for my cousin's wedding, officiated by my husband and rife with aunts, uncles, siblings, and cousins. Three nights there, and then 4 nights in Chicago, in two different locations. O plans to move to Chicago someday and live in Marina City (on the right) so he can park his boat in the basement. Hashtag goals. We vacationed hard. And it was good. And exhausting. Highlights included drinks on the river patio of homestead #1 (a cushy hotel that we got on the cheap) with NYC cousins, seeing the Neo-Futurists Pride weekend special edition (with the kids), coffee and croissant on the river walk, an architecture cruise (believe the hype; this is an awesome thing to do), pizza lunch with my monkeys, snacky suppers in the cushy hotel watching cable together, a WHOLE DAY at the Museum of Science and Industry, a rainy morning on Lake Michigan, an afternoon at the Art Institute, a qui