Oh man, what a summer…
June was ghastly, July was a haze and August. Oh, August—it blew my mind.
I decided to take the month of August off and ended my long standing contract with a beloved client because I needed space to mourn and just recoup from losing my Dad. I needed a bit of fun. And I got it in the form of TikiOasis, which was a downright hoot and a half.  It was wonderful. Just me gabbing with my friends staying up late laughing and having a complete blast wearing nutty hats and vintage muumuus.
When I returned, I of course was craving my family. I needed to snuggle my Peach. And what better place to do that than while camping. It was the Peach’s first camping trip and we chose the perfect place for it–a darling lake called Pinecrest. The trip was wonderful! The Peach had a blast, but I must admit, I missed my bed.  We innocently decided to talk about the lake one morning with the Peach and it turned into a three hour trail of tears with a pre-schooler. Hoo boy. But she was a good sport about it. Even we were pooped after the hike.
But when you have a proper month off, you need to do something a bit extraordinary. And for me that was a trip to visit my dearest friend, Jen Otter in London. This was the first time I returned to London since I was living there in 1993. The weather was gorgeous and well, London showed me its prettiest side with gorgeous balmy weather in seventies and bright happy days. Jennifer was the consummate guest. We had the nicest tea that the Brown hotel (the Ritz was sadly booked) and I saw a brilliant exhibition at the V&A on eighties club fashion in London. We had so much fun on our day trip to Brighton. The pier was just dizzying. And we also found the Quadrophenia alley.
I felt I needed to end this month with a moment of reflection and decided to spend August 31st taking apart my father’s suits to make a memorial quilt. He wore a suit almost every day of his career as a journalist and seeing them just turned me into a puddle. It was then that I realized that mourning isn’t something that has a time limit. Or can put on hold with a lovely vacation. It is an ongoing experience and that’s OK. It is part of me. And that is OK.
How was your August?
