Diagnosing my Summer Fever.

Where has the time gone?!

Over the last few weeks, I kept meaning to write a blog post for various things - to talk about how it feels being in the completely post-production stage of Job Hunters, to explain my new fascination with slacklining, to brag about how I finally learned how to play chess from my friend Joe. But now I find myself four days out from my trip to LA, from VidCon, from immediately then heading to North Dakota for my family vacation, and I'm just so overwhelmed by the excitement and stress of summer that I honestly can't even tell you where the time went.

This has been an amazing month. I am absolutely up to my eyeballs in different projects I am trying to accomplish, but nothing really feels better than the sweet satisfaction of looking at your insane to-do list at the end of the day and knowing you completed everything, no matter how hard it was. Mix that in with some really awesome time with friends, great weather, and a lot of well-spent creative energy and I'm finding myself in what I can already tell will be my Greatest Summer Yet™.


Last weekend I went to the Fremont Solstice parade with Joe, Justin and Claire - this is an event I had only heard about from afar, but never managed to check out in person. Basically, it's this awesome, weird, artsy parade they do in Seattle's funkiest neighborhood to welcome in the summer, but it starts with a very different version of the parade. For the first hour or so, the spectacle is hundred of naked people covered in body paint riding bikes. Like, we're talking really awesome and creative body paint, and we're also talking really naked. I saw Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, reenactments of famous paintings, and my personal favorite - a Twilight Sparkle, Apple Jack and Rainbow Dash. But, you know, naked.

There's obviously a lot of symbolism here. The naked cycling is about artistic freedom, about self expression, about creating art with the only we come into this world with - our bodies. But examining the very lowest common denominator here, I couldn't help but grin from ear to ear as I watched these happy painted people zipping by on their bikes because SUMMER is here. What better way to celebrate that then to take all your clothes off and run through the streets in bright colors?

So even though I stayed very snug in my tshirt and jeans that day, I tried to embody the spirit of the cyclists as Joe and I ran from place to place at the fair - hula hooping in the park, eating lunch outside on the open deck, and riding the super slide during the only ten minute period it rained the whole day.

What is it exactly about summer that makes us so excited each time it happens? It comes at the same time year after year, and yet it still catches us off guard, making us do crazy things like jumping in lakes fully clothed, hopping in a car to take unplanned spontaneous road trips, or telling that cute boy/girl we like that we have feelings for them. People talk about 'Spring Fever' but I think Summer is the real fever - and I have it bad right now.

My bag is halfway packed, my flight information is sitting in my inbox with the little priority star checked next to it, and I am itching to get away. It's summer, and I am ready for it. It's time to get crazy.