Zzzzzzzzip

D'you hear that?

That flizzy whizzery sound?

That's the sound of the summer zipping past me. I think I'm going about 40 miles an hour but unfortunately the rest of the universe is still up there at about 9billion. So, like, I'm getting a little behind the caravan.

But a lot has happened since my last post. As it often does.

July fourth, Y'all! Wa-hoo! Happy Birthday USA! Go Team Us! You know?
I had a cold, but went out to the neighborhood fireworks anyway. Me and my beloved brought our super utility summer towel and our handy-dandy-folding-chair and camped out our spot riiiiight under where the 'splosions were gonna' be 'splodin'. Two hours later, our neighbors joined us. The sun finally set. My sinuses were ON FIRE because of the open air situation... second hand smoke, bugs, grass, mold, pollen... hell on tender brains I tell you. The show was spectacular though. There's a lot to be said (sick and all) for just lying back on a grassy hillside and looking straight up and seeing fireworks crack and boom directly overhead with no arched neck or tense shoulder muscles.

It. Was. Awesome. And just blocks away from our house, too! Well, like 2 miles or something, but still super close. Turns out, it's super close to EVERYONE's house out here. We drove because I was sick, and we parked nearby hoping for an easy exit. That's a cue, to those who know, to how sick I was. Traffic was insane getting out. So much so that we actually had time to walk the 3-ish blocks to the store, buy cold medicine and kleenex, stroll back at a VERY leisurely pace and then finally attempt the drive home. Things were so snarled up it took us another 45 minutes to get there. Gack.

Shortly thereafter, it was my birthday. I had a magnificent (allbeit histamine-heavy) week. I was ingesting as much steak and sweets as my body could hold on top of the full apothecary of cough-supressants and decongestants. My beloved and I met some friends for dinner at Ted's Montana Grill. The next night we went to dinner just the two of us at Vesta Dipping Grill. The following afternoon we met my folks, my brother, and my two neices for lunch at Ted's again. Coughing fits aside, I wouldn't have changed a thing. It was divine. Truly, truly divine. Best. Birthday week.
EVAH.

Here's the thing though, a week later, I was still coughing. And we had a wedding to go to nearby. Jason was fed up with me coughing all night and/or my attempts at sleep that all ended up with me stuffy, swollen, blue-faced and fast asleep in sobbing-buddha pose. He as much as held a knife to my back to get me into the doctor.

A few chest exrays, a fun tour on a spirometry machine from the seventies, and a dose of albuterol later, it would appear that I have asthma. I know, right? What? It's cough-variant asthma. So it's not the deadly kind that we remember from our siblings and friends in elementary school. It's not the wheezing, constricting airway, blue-faced corpse kind at all. It's more like "when you cough, you can't stop, so take this medicine and you'll feel better" kind. Again, I win the *wheew* sickness lottery.

Now, my brother has proper asthma. He was the 9yr old with the giant medical-grey plastic inhaler, the nasty wheeze, and the biohazard warnings concerning pet dander. I know what proper asthma looks like. It's why it took so long to go to the doctor for this blasted cough. I just figured it was no big thing. You know? Lesson learned: it's kindof a big thing as far as the no-big-deal category goes.

So now I take an inhaler thingy every night before bed and have an emergency albuterol thingy in my purse for emergencies (like humiliating coughing fits in a restaurant) and I know that I have huge lungs (thanks exray tech!) and that with proper care, I'll probably never ever feel different from what I always have except that I'll probably cough a little less. So... you know... Yay!

The very next weekend, we were on the conveyor-belt that is this July and the wedding of the summer was nigh. We left work for the mountains and spent three heavenly days with friends celebrating a brilliant match. These two are a force to be reckoned with. They're beautiful, they're healthy, they're strong, they're smart... they're gonna' be big! Like, life-big. Like, Time Magazine big. I wish 'em the best.

All month, since June really, we've had these huge thunderstorms rolling through. And all month, since June really, it's felt like the thunderstorms were more than just weather. It's been like lightening all over the place in my life since the summer came and what with sickness and moving and organizing and working and planning... it's just gotten really overwhelming. In a good way, to be sure, but let me tell you I'm really looking forward to the winter when things apparently are whispering about how they'll be all chilled the crap out again.

I'll be in Virginia by then, though. And the distance between here and there just looks so chock-full of stuff and lightening and thunder and floodwaters...

It's been a divine, magnificent month, my gentle readers and slavering stalkers. I'm getting so much done. I'm not getting nearly enough done. I'm getting far too much done.

*ka-boom*

and here comes another rain storm to wash more of the month away.

zzzzip. There it goes!