Summer days, and reflections on awkwardness

It is finally summer! Sitting in my living room with the front door wide open, the windows flung wide, letting the breeze and sunshine seep into my apartment. I spent some quality time in the garden this morning, trimming tomato plants, pulling weeds, thinning out the beets. There is a giant jar of sun-tea brewing on the front porch, and I am basking in the glory of having a lazy Sunday.

 

Sun Tea... & yes that is a lemon tree in the background, and yes that 

lemon will be going in the tea when it is brewed! 

My first few days as a twenty-six-year-old have been stellar.  Laid back, yet productive, filled with wonderful meals, good wine... The list goes on.  My birthday was spent indulging in meals out, pedicures, retail therapy, cocktails, cake… all the things one should indulge in on one’s birthday.  Per usual, all the random people came out of the woodwork to wish me a virtual happy birthday… isn’t social media strange? I’m mean there are your everyday friends who wish you a happy birthday, your acquaintances who you know, but don’t see often, and the people you secretly hope will wish you a happy birthday, that person you have a crush on, or the long-term ex boyfriend you are still sort of friends with… and then there are the people who you honestly have had no contact with in 8 plus years who suddenly feel compelled, or maybe obligated to wish you a happy birthday because facebook compels them to. Does anyone else find this strange? I know I am guilty of it to… I see a birthday and think “we were close once, I’ll write something clever”  but what really astounds me are the people who just write a generic message, the same message that everyone else has been writing, post after post…. Is it really necessary? Don’t mis-understand, I was thrilled for all the messages and birthday shout-outs…. It is always fun to connect with people. I just find the whole thing to be an interesting social experiment.

I started this blog a few years ago, during  a summer in my life when it felt like every situation I entered into was the epitome of awkward. And here I am two years later, and the awkward just keeps on coming. I keep telling myself that 26 will be my year… the universe will settle itself out, my karma will align… Or maybe it already is… Or maybe I just have a gift… I can spin any situation into a mess of flustered chaos… it certainly makes life entertaining. I was talking with a friend about it the other day and we were discussing what I might have done in a past life to incur such a randomly awkward present. The frequency and consistency with which I seem to stumble upon these situations is uncanny.  I’m sure there is a tiny bit of social awkwardness that lingers in all of us… and mine definitely comes out from time to time…. (Insert homeschooling blame game, here) but overall I think I am fairly well socially adjusted. I have my moments… but more often than not, the moments find me… and even if I were the most poised and put together, well adjusted person, I think the awkward events would still find me. I would still end up walking around 3^rd street with my skirt tucked into my skivvies, I would still fall off my bike in the middle of a intersection, I would still end up getting sick on first dates. But wouldn’t life be so boring without all that stuff? Sure, a little less mortifying… but for sure more boring.

Thus far there have been no majorly awkward events in my 26^th year of life… Sure, the potential is there… the potential is always there (Like when I discovered that a new friend I have lives across the street from my ex… it probably wouldn’t be that big of a deal, only I’m pretty sure you can see into his apartment from her window… No, I don’t plan on being a creeper, but it’s an uncomfortable moment just waiting to happen). So I say, bring on the awkward… Sure, I could do without it… but you know the whole “when life gives you lemons” mentality.