See you in September

I would ask where the summer went, except that it’s September 2nd and for the last few days the temperatures have been pushing three digits again, which is not…pleasant.

I have been off doing summery things. Would you like to see? Never mind. That’s a silly question.

I had a houseguest in July, my best friend J, and we played tourist at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens:

I’d never been before, but I will absolutely be going back. There’s something very satisfying about knowing just a few hundred feet away there’s a whole city outside you, but you can’t even hear it, surrounded by so many beautiful trees and flowers. Even if we did get rained on. And by rained, I mean poured. It was still fun!

And then we went to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. There were some very long lines involved (protip: the “flex ticket” is not the same thing as the “reserved ticket.” See also: things I know now I wish I’d known in July) as well as some sunburn and some surprisingly decent if overpriced cafeteria food. And of course gift shops, because nothing says National Site of Historical Significance like a snow globe.

I brought the traveling sock with me that day:

We enjoyed the view from Ellis Island, and then we went and found my great-grandfather’s name on the Wall of Immigrants. He and I share a birthday, which is one of those random facts about me you will probably never need to know again.

I did other stuff this summer, too. My little brother’s baseball team made the championships, so I spent a lot of time on bleacher seats drinking ice cream sodas while I cheered him on:

(I have titled this picture “Badass.”)

And my friend Melanie and I went to see our favorite artists Vienna Teng and Alex Wong perform in the city:

I love Vienna Teng‘s music so much I cannot even tell you, and if you do not know who she is I suggest you scoot over to her website and check her out. Or you can listen to the short video I managed during one of her encores. (Bonus points if you can pick out where I’m singing along.) It was a marvelous concert, and an entirely suitable birthday present for myself.

Oh, yeah. And, uh, I had a birthday. They keep cropping up every year. My family gave into my begging and gave me the best thing ever.

Oh yes. Red velvet birthday cake, and a Nook. Now, I know there’s people out there who think e-books are the sign of the apocalypse, but I am not one of them. I grew up reading sff and watching Star Trek (part of the reason my Nook is named Tiberius) and all of my reading in grad school was done through pdf files I read on my laptop. So reading a book on a screen is second nature to me, and the fact that I have so many books squeezed onto that little delight makes me giddy. Also? I can read and knit at the same time now, since I don’t have to worry about holding the pages down. This isn’t to say I’m giving up my hard copies of Pride & Prejudice or any of my Zimmermans, but I really love having the choice. And (geek alert) it’s like my very own PADD. I even have a bunch of knitting patterns uploaded to it.

At the moment, I have the Hunger Games trilogy waiting for my attention, but as there is a hurricane barreling up the East Coast threatening to soak my weekend, I am going to save them for when the power goes out. That, and my new yarn:

Melissa spun this for me, out of BFL roving from the Painted Sheep, in a colorway called “Wild Flower Honey.” I’m thinking a Rhinebeck shawlette, but I haven’t settled on a pattern yet. It’s got to be something worthy of such a gift, you see. (Suggestions welcome!)

Here, have a closeup:

I KNOW, I’m such a lucky girl. Also, how talented is my friend?

Clearly, I will not be lacking for amusements if our power does get knocked out. I’m almost kind of hoping it does, for the excuse to sit around and read and knit and not have anything more pressing to steal my attention.

And…now we’re caught up. Hi, internet, how have you all been?