Ready for Fall

Now that vacation is over, I'm officially ready for fall! My beach trip was fantastic.  I looked forward to it for so many months and it truly lived up to all of my expectations once again.  I read two full books and finished another I'd been reading.  I spent my days in some variation of the following:

Morning hot tub
Beach (with sandwiches for lunch)
Pool
Sitting outside on deck reading, scene gazing, talking
Shopping in quaint little shops, enjoying various foods, walking the Duck boardwalk, mini golfing
Grilling dinner at home or going out
Late night hot tub

We went to the beach every single day, we swam in the pool every single day, I hot tubbed every day (BF got sunburnt on the first day and had to pass until a couple days before we left!).  We ate Duck Donuts three times in the course of the week and rode the house bikes to get them.  We also rode the bikes down the road to the beach each day since it was a bit further than advertised (!).  I had fantastic fish tacos twice in the week, I had a few summery margaritas and other fruity drinks that came in fun glasses.  I managed to avoid getting sunburnt, I bought a really cute t-shirt, a pair of earrings and a bracelet and also got BF's daughter, J, two pairs of earrings that I get to give to her tomorrow.  :-)

I cannot convey how much I needed this vacation!  It is so amazing to step away from life's every day obligations and expectations and just be ruled by your own desires.  I got up early most days on vacation, but it was by choice and that made all the difference!  The bed wasn't amazing, but I slept really well, anyway.  BF and I got the chance to just be together, have fun and relax, which we needed, too.

Most importantly, after a rough several months of feeling pretty disconnected from my body and not being a general fan of it (I'm out of shape, I've had some health nonsense going on-nothing serious, just frustrating)...well, vacation reminded me that my body is my friend.  I'm not perfect, it's not perfect, but I'm still good.  I love the beach because suddenly all of my self-consciousness goes away.  I rocked two different bikinis on the beach throughout the week and added a third to the mix at the house.  I didn't hide in my cover-up or stay tucked into my beach chair.  I wandered for shells every single day, I cooled off in the water.  It was something I really needed!

I've been back to reality for a few days now and things are basically back into the usual swing.  We had some seriously gorgeous, fall like weather early in the week and I was LOVING it.  It's warmed back up, but the mornings are still cool and you can definitely tell that summer is moving out and fall is moving in!  Now that my vacation has come and gone I am ready for fall!  I am having romantic visions of myself in soft jeans, my new t-shirt and one of my new pairs of booties LOL.  I can't wait to wear them both!  Football is underway and I'm loving that, and I love needing to pull out a hoodie in the evenings.  This is my time of year.  :-)

In real life news, I got my first flu shot yesterday at work.  I never used to get them, but after last year I have changed my tune.  I still firmly believe that all of the health issues I had this past year are somehow connected, however tangentially, to the fact that my immune system got beaten down by the flu in the winter.  I got sick on the day of my holiday party and it just started a snowball effect of crappy health stuff, and the flu stuck around in some form or another with a cough that WOULDN'T DIE.  So I'm doing everything I can to avoid a repeat occurrence of that.  My arm is totally sore from the shot,but hopefully it will be worth it.

I'm very glad it's thursday.  It's tough being back to work after all that time off!  We don't have any real weekend plans yet aside from football viewing and Costco (oh boy), but I'm sure some things will shape up, however small.  Cold front supposed to come through sunday to break this building heat we're having (still milder than regular summer, but not weather that allows happy jeans wearing and bootie breaking in!).

Happy thursday!