Lazy Saturday

I don't think I could ever live in the Pacific Northwest. When the weather is cold and wet I'm useless. The trend the last few weeks has tended toward gorgeous sunny weekdays followed invariably by cold wet weekends. Today is no exception. I've got just enough motivation to curl up on the sofa and take a nap. Don't get me wrong, I love days like this. We get precious few here on the Front Range. But I think if we had them all the time I'd spend most of my life sleeping.

What I really need is a good dose of hot, humid weather. I need one of those scorching August days in Texas when the sun is blinding and the heat takes your breath away. And just when I think I can't stand it any longer, to jump into Barton Springs or the San Marcos River.

Or maybe what I need is a stretch of white sandy beach, azure water and a warm salty breeze.

I've been yearning to travel lately. Someplace warm. I'm always like this in the spring. Even in Texas the weather often couldn't get warm fast enough for me in the spring. But the temperature isn't the only reason I long to roam. Spring in general makes me restless. Sometimes I just get the urge to strike out for a change of scenery and a little adventure.

I don't have any major vacation or travel plans (yet) for the summer but there are a few things on the schedule. I'm going to DC again for work this week, and I've got short recreational trips or work travel scheduled for Houston, Austin and San Diego in the next few months. I'm also going on our annual week-long backpacking trip in Colorado later in the summer. What I don't have on the list is a serious vacation. In my mind at this moment, that means two weeks lying on a tropical beach somewhere drinking pina coladas.

In other news, I'm going back to grad school this fall to finish up my MS in GIS. I've been in Colorado two and a half years and I feel like it's time to finish what I started. I'm excited about the program here. Right now I'm enrolled in a certificate program in Digital Design, which the lab is paying for. I've got so much cartography work these days I felt it would help me create higher quality, professional maps and other visuals to showcase my team's analytical work. It's also giving me a taste of being back in school while working and helping me ramp up for the workload coming this fall.

Maybe I need to treat myself to that tropical vacation this summer before things get crazy in the fall. Flights to Hawaii are pretty cheap right now.