September 22nd is the official day of autumn for the northern hemisphere. Hooray, my favorite season! Could not be happier about this.

*~*~*~*~SUMMER RECAP*~*~*~*~*

  • Just prior to summer, I began a very long journey to move back home with my family, who I've lived away from for six years.
  • I began my summer road-tripping to Vegas with my sister, visiting my best friend and some other folks from Utah who I miss, staying with my dad and having a great time with him, eating In n Out for the last time in a long while and going to a Postal Service concert (which I can now check off my bucket list).
  • I returned to Coeur d'Alene where I set out to widen my social circle a little bit and ended up meeting the person who I grew closest to in a long time. We became such close friends so quickly and immediately joined at the hip and spent most of the remainder of summer together in all of our spare time.
  • Another concert in early June! Road tripped with said friend and her soon-to-be fiancee to see Alkaline Trio for the fourth time. Her fiancee laid out this huge elaborate plan with notecards and all of this stuff to propose during their song, and I told him to toss the plan and just go for it and ask her straight out. He thanked me profusely after everything was said and done. Had celebratory shots of Jameson for the first and last time, and spent the most amazing day in Portland the next day hitting up places for food and drinking all day down one of the social streets. The trip overall was an incredibly stressful one, but for most of the day it was silly drinking and having a good time with two great people. I saw my very old childhood friend who is essentially my fourth adopted sister. We spent most of that next day with her as well, and engaged in questionable activities~ which was a terrible idea since I had been drinking all day. There was much walking, and my feet were killing me by the time we left for a six hour journey at 10pm.
  • My sister came to visit from New York! I was lucky enough to have her visit me earlier this year in... February or March or something like that. I don't even remember. We only get to see eachother 2-3 times a year, and to see her again in such a short time was an absolute pleasure. We are hilarious together.
  • Shortly after that, another friend I had met not long before invited me to her cabin a few hours south and I spent an amazing week with an amazing bunch of people.
  • I spent time revisiting my interests, mostly opening up my creativity with writing and photography. I picked up the guitar exactly one time, learned Ode to Joy, and haven't touched it since. I am sometimes terrible with commitments (I don't think this surprises anyone).
  • Fell in love with some new music! Tom Gabel, The Vaccines and Gaslight Anthem will forever remind me of Summer 2013.
  • Began moving past some serious personal issues and began to lighten up and grow happier.
  • Friend I made at the beginning of the summer moved to LA. I was both relieved and heartbroken, but we had began developing problems and it was best for the both of us that she left.
  • I acquired a bike! I haven't had a bike since maybe I was ten years old. It is minty-colored with Against Me! lyrics written on it in sharpie, which I am completely fine with. Summertime night bike rides have been an amazing stress release and a godsend.
  • Finally met Jason Lynch after all of these damn years! We had an absolute blast together. Except he took me into the woods at night and I thought he was going to murder me.
  • My cat went missing. She is still missing, and I have accepted that she isn't coming back.
  • Started bone collecting with two small birds my other cat wrangled for me.
  • Rantz and I broke up (but we remain the best of friends, which I am eternally happy about and grateful for).
  • Went camping with my family and went to a wolf sanctuary where I got licked to pieces by the most affectionate beasts I've ever had the pleasure of spending time with! I even got to rub one's belly!
  • Made friends with my sister's in-laws and thus widened my social circle just a bit more.
  • My dear laptop Sirius nearly kicked the bucket, but he is very much on his way out.
  • Oh, and I went to the smurfing wedding of the century. That post comes later, though - sorry, folks!


What have you done these past few months and what are the highlights of your summer? If you're one of the folks from down south, tell us about your winter!