Everywhere I look, and by everywhere, I mean my Instagram feed, it seems like people are planning on spending as much time as possible outside this summer. I am not one of those people.
I understand why, after over a year of being told to stay home, why people are jonesing to go outside. (Especially now that we know that outdoor transmission of the virus is very unlikely.) But being outside during the summer is increasingly miserable for me. As I recently found out, I’m pretty much allergic to all of outside. (Some trees, nearly all the weeds, and grass, to be specific.)
I’ve already had one allergy flare-up this spring that literally left me with no voice for several days, and very little voice for nearly two weeks. I did start allergy shots this year, so this will hopefully be my final summer of outdoor misery. But in the meantime, I’ll be spending a lot of time indoors.
Fortunately, I’ve got some really big projects to keep me company!
The biggest one is that I’m finally hunkering down and working on my book proposal. I spent a little more time in the gathering phase than I originally planned, but now I’m raring to go! And I’ve set myself a pretty ambitious deadline – spend the next two months writing – and then spend August editing so that I can start querying agents in September.
Of course, I’ll be backing up all that writing with plenty of reading, so expect my summer “what I’m reading” posts to be full of good stuff!
The other project that will fill my indoor time this summer is raising bowls. I’m not making the bowls for any purpose – meaning my goal isn’t necessarily to sell them – but because I need something physical and tactile as a counterpoint to all that time spent with words.
I could certainly make jewelry (or paint) to fill that need, but right now I’m really drawn to the raising process. There’s something so visceral and fulfilling about putting a hammer to metal and watching it change shape. I also love the subtlety of running my hands across the surface to find areas where the form needs refining.
I’m also challenging myself to make larger bowls than ever before – starting with a 12″ diameter disc – and really working on finding the ideal form at that size.
I can’t say I’ll never go outside this summer, after all, I do help coach a high school cross country team, and our practices start in July. But I will be spending a lot of time indoors working on projects I love! And I’m hoping that later in the summer, that also means spending time working in coffee shops or even bars. I do love editing over a beer!
PS. If you want to keep tabs on what I’m up to over the summer, you can subscribe to my blog using the box below. You’ll get a once a week round-up of blog posts!
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