Summer!

SUMMER!

SUMMER!

SUMMER!

It's technically been summer since Monday, but I've had things to do all week (puppysitting, classroom moving, attending a training that sucked my soul out of my body as though it was a cat and I was an infant) so today was the first day that really felt like summer.  And you know what summer means?

It means sleeping until I don't want to anymore.

It means eating cereal for breakfast when I decide to get out of bed.  (Don't eat breakfast during the year because I wake up approximately 12 minutes before I leave for work.  There's no time.  Hush, Cassie.)

It means calling Caitie in the middle of the afternoon.

It means thunderstorm Kongs for neurotic pups.

It means projects.

It means watching crappy movies on HBO.

It means chillaxin.

And as fun as it is to chillax, after a while I start to feel like too much of a blob, so I need direction.  It's time for the ol' summer to-do list.  Here's mine for the next two months of my life.

Summer To-Do

• Clean out and organize office (house catchall for all crap, junk, and things I don't want)
• Move white dresser into guest room; rearrange if necessary
• Re-do living room (major project)
• New curtains for bedroom?
• Ellipt for 4 hours each week
• Take Mitch for 3 walks minimum each week
• Get tan responsibly
• Get a haircut--too hot outside
• Plan for next year's classes
• Buy and dye new couch cover
• Master new camera lenses
• Paint furniture in living room
• Have fun with Chloe
• Go to the lake
• Go to Atlanta with Matt (FLIP BURGER!)
• Put together gallery wall in living room
• Put together gallery wall in bedroom
• Touch up paint in kitchen 
• Learn to sew
• Catch up on Parks & Recreation on Netflix instant (whilst ellipting?)
• Put quarter round down in Lagoon
• Freshen up Lagoon
• Learn to do yardwork
• Make back yard a place where people could hang out
• Make front yard a place that doesn't embarrass us and our neighbors
• Become a person whose car is not filthy 
• Read five books

So, that's what I've got right now.  Three cheers to a productive and relaxing summer!

Scaredy Cat

Okay, so first of all, let me tell you that I'm not a big scaredy cat when I'm at the house by myself.  Sure, that time I was in the shower and Mitch came in and licked my leg I screamed a little.  Sure, I occasionally think that a ghost is messing with my hair or swiping cupcakes.  I exercise caution when I'm home alone--you know, by locking the doors and refraining from dancing naked in front of the windows--but I usually feel pretty safe. (And I sometimes daydream about how I would defend myself against a would-be murderer.  Three words: cast iron skillet.)

But here's the thing.  In the last two days, Matt and I watched all of season 4 of Dexter.  I won't spoil anything for you, but season 4 features, I believe, the creepiest, most disturbing killer of all time, and he's played by John Lithgow. 

Creepfest.

Horrible creepfest.

3rd Rock from the Sun will never be the same again.

Since we started the season I've not only been having bad dreams about being murdered in a bathtub, but I've also been scared to be at home by myself.  It's been years since I've been afraid to walk into a dark room, but I find myself rushing to get a light turned on, releasing a sigh of relief when I don't see a murderer in the bedroom, and then checking around to make extra sure that there's no murderer.  I've refused to close the shower curtain (something I nag Matt to do) because I'm afraid of the murderer hiding in the bathroom.

I tried to watch the Real Housewives of D.C. to wash the Dexter out of my brain, but it didn't work. (In fact, it just made me wish John Lithgow's character would head to D.C. to keep on keepin' on.) I listened to music, but that just made me more afraid that the murderer would be able to enter the house unnoticed. 

Guess I'll just be sleeping with a cast iron skillet under my pillow for the next few nights.  That sounds comfy.  (But it beats the hell out of being murdered in a bathtub.)

Turn that frown upside down!

Since Hugh and Cassie are leaving today, I will watch this 100 times to keep from crying.