The thing about vacations is that they tend to spawn the need for more time off. I’m glad that the weekend is only one more sleep away. But before I toddle off to bed, I thought I’d share three beautiful things from my past week with you:

1. Spring has been slow to arrive in Salt Lake this year, and to its surrounding mountains even more so. We drive up into them for the afternoon and wonder at the wash of velvety yellow-green coats the aspens are wearing as far as the eye can see (at least until you hit the snow line).

2. A sudden afternoon thunderstorm is gone nearly as quickly as it arrives, but in its wake it leaves behind a triple rainbow arcing over the mountains to our east.

3. The pool next to our room opens early and stays open late. We spend an hour paddling around under the watch of a waxing moon.

Those are just three of the beautiful things from my world this last week. What’s been beautiful in yours?

Rudi and I returned home this morning via a red eye flight and rush hour public transportation and then preceded to squander our last day of vacation and gorgeous weather by sleeping all day. However, we did finish up our week off with a fun, fun, fun Katy Perry concert.

More vacation shots later, but in the meantime, I’ll leave you with this one …

I’m writing from Park City, Utah, where Rudi’s ski academy reunion is taking place. He’s up on the ski hill doing his crazy plank-footed thing, and I’m spending the day bumming around this old mining town nearly two miles above sea level. I’ve been here before, but never just to hang around and explore, since previously I’ve come to dinner and to an Olympic skiing event back in 2000. Although the day began overcast, the sun has burned away the clouds after yesterday’s storms, leaving us with a gorgeously blue, clear day.

Right now I have found public internet access in a park and am sitting next to an unlit firepit with the laptop (appropriately) on my lap. There are several coffeeshops in town, so I suspect I will seek shelter again in one when my fingers get too cold to type. I have also found a bookstore that hadn’t yet opened when Rudi and I rolled into town and several day spas. Maybe a massage is in order?

And a (free, I think) bus ride away is a TJ Maxx and a yarn store if I get really desperate. Although, there is a yarn shop back in Salt Lake I hope to visit tomorrow, so maybe I’ll save my fiber enthusiasm for then. There are also a couple of cinemas, which could manage to fill up my day until the reunion dinner this evening should I need to escape it all into a movie.

I do wish I could find a chairlift that would take me up the mountain and then back down again. I wouldn’t mind seeing the view from the summit, but I have no interest in the more conventional means down the hill. Some entrepreneur should really consider that for the lazy folk like me…

That’s all for now. I’m going to sit and knit or read for a bit until I get too cold. Have a great day!

Rudi and I will be hopping on a plane to Utah in just over 12 hours and will be away for a week. My internet connectivity will be spotty (as Rudi’s mom still believes we’re living in 1982), but since I will be doing office work a couple of days from someplace with wi-fi, I expect to continue posting regularly. I’m particularly hopeful that I might get caught back up with my book blogging, which seems to have derailed right around when I headed out to California last month. I figure that my mojo must be stuck out west someplace and perhaps we’ll reconnect in Salt Lake…

It’s been a long week (mostly in a good sense) and I’m feeling overwhelmed and exhausted by it. So my three beautiful things may make sense to no one but myself — or maybe they will:

1. The first peek of ocean when coming around a bend in the road is enough to make me feel like a load has been lifted from my shoulders. The hour or so we spend on the beach is my most relaxing in months.

2. D.C. has had a surprisingly chilly, snowy winter. I left home on a day that felt balmy in the lower 40s only to reach the other coast and find it practically tropical in the 60s. On Tuesday I spent much of the day out in the sun with bare arms and legs. In February…

3. My brother’s partner appears to be exactly what I would have picked out for him: sweet, funny, kind, and cute. I’m sure he’s not perfect, but he really does seem like a great guy, and I’m really happy for the two of them.

And because this merits mention, a fourth bonus item:

4. An old friend is the best kind because they know you well enough to call you on your shit, remember your old stories when they were just life, and are willing to stay up late with you when the nothing you thought you had to say turns out to be something after all, even though you both have to be up early the next day. Plus, sometimes they will invite you to bake cookies with them.

What’s been beautiful in your world recently?

I’m home. It was a great trip to San Diego, with minimal work frustrations and the opportunity to see my brother, meet his partner, and spend time with Grey Kitten and his husband.

I’ll update more later, as I’ve spent most of tonight dozing on the couch and, now that the dishes are done, want nothing more than to continue doing so but in bed. Plus, what my body considers 5:30 in the morning is going to come around far too soon.