Etude no. 16: Summmmmmer

This is what happens when you create a blog - write for a month, make a few weaksauce updates, and then forget about it until guilt reels you back in to write some more.

What has happened so far this summer?

• Barbeques - lots of awesome barbeques.  Chopping up bacon and mushrooms and incorporating them into the ground meat prior to grilling hamburgers is a GENIUS IDEA.
• Helped a dear friend pack and move off to grad school.  Honestly, I wanted to chuck out her charming wicker laundry hamper and sneak into her car so I could go with her, but something told me I wouldn't be able to make a 10 hour drive without making so much a peep.  Also said my "see you later!" a week later, to another smarty pants making his way down to the deep south to get himself some learnin'.  
• LOLLAPALOOZA - my first, and surely not the last!  MUSE was amazing; this was the second time I've seen them live and surely not the last as well!!  Acoustics were clear, speakers booming, and the blackness of the night sky accentuated the bright and vibrant stage lights.  Ignored the drunk, under-dressed, bedraggled, American Apparel/urban outfitter-wearing, flip-flop clomping tweens (sorry for hatin', but not so much) and had an awesome time. 
• Matthiessen State Park - I have been to Starved Rock before, but I kept hearing that Starved Rock had NOTHING on Matthiessen's gorges, canyons, and waterfalls.  I can't believe that I've taken this beautiful trinket of nature for granted!  We did manage to get lost... like Ron and Harry in the Prisoner of Azkaban, we wandered into the forest, got lost, and only realized that we were lost because there were an unusually large amount of spiders on the side trail we were following - never follow the spiders, you stupid... thankfully, we ran back the way we came and got ourselves promptly back on track, whew.

What I have yet to do before the summer is over:

• Canoeing or paddleboating or something refreshingly water-related
• Prance around the beach 
• Actually finish reading a novel
• Go to Six Flags
• Zipline in Lake Geneva

Weeeeeell, I know the point of blogging is to document things as they happen so I don't have to dig through my brain and recap... but I'm so lazy, sue me.  Actually plz don't, I'm relatively poor and still paying off school bills :'(