Takin it easy

Can you believe the summer's going by so fast?? It's August already, and what do we have to show for it? I guess some tan lines, photos, a few hundred kilometres on a couple cars, and some fond memories...but still, I feel like I've hardly done any of the things I set out to accomplish. You know, the "there's so much I want to do, I'm gonna do it ALL this summer!" type of expectations you put on yourself. It's been mountains of good times, but I had high hopes for a productive summer, though that doesn't mean I can't accomplish just as much in the fall. But pretty soon we'll be in sweaters again, and even though September doesn't mean back to school anymore, the summer's end still feels like a bittersweet conclusion to something fun and fleeting and full of potential.

So you know what that means. August. This is it, kids. EVERYTHING must happen in August.

How about you? Y'all been having a good summer so far? There are so many fun things to do in Toronto and vicinity in the summer, from sitting on your patio at home to going away for the weekend up north. People have been complaining about the lack of scorching temperatures this year, but they are mistaken. It's totally been hot, and anyway, it's way nicer to spend the days outside when it's 20-something degrees and not a smoggy 40. Like in early July, we went busking and it was blistering!

Toting some shakers, a ukulele, guitar, and a kalimba, we headed down to Bloor and Avenue and played some tunes. You should try it. You don't even have to be able to play, people stopped to chat and threw us some change just because we looked like we were having fun. We had some significant competition on the opposite street corner in the form of Mr. Joe Jangles' one man band, so we relocated down the street towards Queen's Park and set up shop in front of the Avenue entrance of the ROM, where S snapped a photo. But that entrance is not very popular, so we relied on hot dog buyers and subway riders. But as it turns out, those people are not big supporters of the arts. We made $6 in 2 1/2 hours, so that payed for half of the ice cream and coffee that we bought on the way home. But we had fun.

We also headed up to our friend K's cottage on Lake Huron. Seriously guys, if you haven't already, you must befriend someone with a cottage, it's totally awesome.

The awesomeness is enhanced if the friend is also awesome, which she is. And it helps if everyone who goes loves to eat and makes amazing breakfast burritos, sandwiches, and bbq'd burgers and vegetables, and it helps if you play baseball by the water, and then everyone plays truth or dare all night, and it also helps if you bring pastels and draw pictures while sitting in the sand and getting wickedly sun burnt on the beach.

Then, in mid July, S and I drove up to Ottawa to visit our friend L and catch a couple shows during the Ottawa Bluesfest. Were any of you there? There were a lot of great bands, many of whom are not overly bluesy at all (seriously, what was KISS doing there?).

Ben Harper was there, and so were Busta Rhymes, Femi Kuti, Girl Talk, Joe Cocker, Okkervil River, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, The Black Keys, and SO MANY MORE! We were there on the weekend of July the 11th and we saw King Khan and BBQ, Estelle, Mother Mother, Neko Case, and Ani Difranco. We got rained on a bit, but it's always fun to go to music festivals because you get to see like, 8 shows in one day, and you get to eat (overpriced) burgers and beers, and you get to chat with fun people who like bands that you like!

So you see, the summer's been fun. I'm not complaining in the least. I'm just going to try to make the most out of August. You'll see. It'll be legendary.

e