I hate to break it to you, but we’re about halfway through summer. 

Half. Way. 

For those of you who are counting the exact days, no, it’s not the exact midpoint between the first day of summer (June 21st) and the first day of fall (September 22nd). But if you’re talking school year summers, which vary widely around the country and around the world, we’re halfway through ours! 

Summer has been a whirlwind of activity, which is why it’s been tough to keep up with posting. I’ve been constantly busy with day to day life and my calendar has been booked every weekend. On Sunday, I had a day with no plans, and I didn’t know what to do with myself. I had actually forgotten how I spend Sundays relaxing because I hadn’t done it months.

I want to share with you some of the things that have been going on in my life lately and tell you about the fun stuff that I’ve been doing. 

Alameda County Fair. My family and I actually have a dispute on whether I’ve been to the county fair before. My father swears that he’s taken me to the fair himself, along with my brother. On the other hand, I don’t think I had been to the fair at all! Until I went with my friend at the end of June.

She was the perfect guide, leading me around the fairgrounds and showing me all the different exhibits and shows. She even knew which food stands served which food and which alcohol stands served which drinks. I ended up getting a mac and cheese hot dog, topped with crushed flaming hot cheetos while she got a mound of french fries topped with mac and cheese (which she so kindly shared). 

It was a fun experience and it was nice to do something different on a Friday night! There will always be restaurants, bars, and Netflix nights in, but the county fair is only in town for a couple weeks. 

Beach Trip. The weekend after the 4th of July, my boyfriend and I went to the beach for the weekend. We got a nice AirBnB in a small town south of Santa Cruz and had a relaxing weekend there just hanging out. We caught up on Game of Thrones, did some light reading, and walked down to the beach with no set schedule. 

Until this beach trip, I took “staycations” for granted, thinking they weren’t exactly a waste of money but almost. Maybe we just got lucky with our AirBnB, or maybe it’s just because we were close to the beach, but I actually came back from a weekend away feeling refreshed and calm. 

Twin Peaks. I dedicated over 30 hours of Netflix time (over a period of ~3 months) to watching Twin Peaks, a TV series that ran from 1990-1991 by David Lynch. It’s difficult to categorize the show, as it’s something of a murder mystery, sci-fi show, and soap opera combined into one show, but it’s thoroughly entertaining and has a cult following. The show had only 2 seasons up until May 2017 (yeah, this past May), where a third season was released on Showtime. If you’re looking for a new show, are a fan of Stranger Things, and can get past some of the silly early 90s special effects that happened on television at the time, give Twin Peaks a chance! 

The Book of Mormon. I’m super late to the game here, but we finally saw The Book of Mormon. It was touring in San Jose so we decided to go, because we remembered how everyone was raving about the show…6 years ago. We really didn’t know what exactly the show was about. We also didn’t really research it either, because we wanted it to be a surprise. It wasn’t until when we got our programs that we realized that the writers of the musical were the same writers of South Park. Then we started to get an idea of what we were in for. Was it out of the ordinary for a musical? Most definitely. Would I see it again? Probably not. When I was younger, I definitely liked the South Park type of humor, but as I’ve grown older, I feel like I’ve outgrown a lot of it. 

I can’t believe I’ve only shared four things with you all. There are so many other things I’ve done this summer too, and so much more to come. I can’t wait to share new happenings in my next Life Lately post!