How'd your summer go?

[cyberdreamz]

There's only two more days of august left... So, how did you spend your summer this year? Anything particularly memorable?

I spent a lot more time outside - I did always enjoy walking, but this year I really went out of my way to explore parts of my city I don't frequent, especially not on my own. I made it a goal to visit a bunch of parks and sit down to draw in them. Didn't get to every park on my list, but that's alright, still some time left before it gets too cold (and there's always next year)
One of the parks has a bookshelf where people can leave and take books for free (I don't know if this is a thing in other countries or not. You guys have bookcrossing shelves? They're pretty cool. Though I rarely ever find anything of interest there) and I found a disk with a bunch of old graphic design software there Gotta play around with it at some point. Never heard of Real-DRAW before but it seems like an interesting program

(I guess there are still two days left to spend, so feel free to come back to this thread later  )

[midtune]

I had a good summer I'd say. Not as lit as my last one, but more filled. I got to go on some small trips, and each one made me feel good :) I also got into some new interests. The first being neocities/here/old web. I was missing the old internet and fell into a rabbithole which led me to all this stuff. Literally life changing, like I found my people!! I started working on my site and it's been a headache but also v rewarding. I also got a Kindle and I'm so glad I did. It got me back into reading after so long. Still waiting for a jailbreak tho. However I'm glad we're entering fall. It's lowkey my favorite season n I'd rather b cold then warm. I do wish I could've spent more time outside, but also I love being isolated in my lil room when I'm not working or meeting social obligations. Also yes! We've got them here too. We call them little libraries, n they're usually on a random street corner, or at a local church. That reminds me, I need to go donate some of my books...

[ilikepie]

That sounds great! I sorta did similar things, I had a few college classes this summer but they were more in the city and I  visited some new cafes, it was really nice! One had a delicious strawberry matcha I'm wanting right now at 2 in the morning  I've also worked a lot on my website so I suppose there's that, too. I've seen those bookshelves you speak of! We even have trinket boxes here, where people bring trinkets for others to take, it's a very cute idea and I remembered it while reading that bit of your post... and nice find on the disk, that sort of stuff is really cool.

[Dequake]

Phew, oh man. Working mostly. Clocked in at about 60 hours a week. This summer season in particular has been especially harsh on the restaurant biz. Lots of fun tho! I like the tempo. Tho once I finally quit my job a few weeks ago, I uncontrollably cried the entire day after. Maybe stress, part relief. And impending doom towards the following move to another city. (Which went HORRIBLY might I add. But that's a story for another post).

It was also my first medicated summer. Started HRT in April. Changed my name as well a month ago. Could explain why I was so emotional towards the end. Also lots of nicotine to deal with work. Currently trying to cut down again.

I do love a good public bookshelf. I rarely take anything from them as I have enough of a backlog at home. And I rarely leave books either since it's normally just pure chance that I happen upon one. But they serve a different purpose to me apart from a purely utilitarian one. It's an exclamation of "I was here! I matter! Here is a gift from me to you!". I find it heartwarming. I'll probably never meet the donors of these books, but I don't need to. I already know something very important about who these strangers are. They are compassionate.

Autumn is what I wish for the most. To brace the wind and the rain, armed with nothing but a humble coat and umbrella. When nature, in deceptive beauty sings a final hurrah, an explosion of colour before impending frost. Then I am most at home.

[Dan Q]

For the most part pretty spectacular. I spent a week in France and a few weeks in Spain, the latter arranged around the total solar eclipse (which was amazing). We're not usually in a position (either of time or money) to make such a huge summer adventure happen, but after some years of planning and saving we finally did. (Of course, in hindsight we shouldn't have, but we didn't know when we started our plans that we'd be living in temporary accommodation right now following our house flood in February, which has constrained us psychologically and financially all year! tl;dr: we had an amazing summer doing things that we wouldn't have attempted were it not for the fact that we already committed to the plans years prior.)

So I shan't complain. Life's pretty stressful in general right now between work, volunteering, various side projects and house-insurance-wrangling-insanity (honestly: there's like a full-time job in getting flooded out of your home; do not recommend!), but I'm trying to shift into a better self-care mindset to compensate (should have done that six months ago, but there you go).

I didn't enjoy how hot this summer was here in Europe. Especially as this is clearly the shape of things to come. But otherwise, it was pretty good, thanks.

[Melooon]

I didn't have any literal disasters, but I live in an attic room in the inner city and essentially the whole house heat-faild, it became unlivable and impossible to work, and I had to couch surf for a full month. I don't think I can stay here next year, but I also cant afford to move - so summer essentially is now a looming void next year

That aside... everyone I know is alive and in good health, staying with family had some happy days, money was non existent but all bills were covered.. however I'm very glad summer ending and looking forward to a long cold winter  

[candycanearter07]

boring, my parents made me go to summer school and i didnt really do anything else besides sometimes hanging out with my friend

[azalea]

i did absolutely

nothing

okay, i've gamed a fair bit, and will continue to do so. also, maybe "nothing" isn't completely true, if you count work. discounting that though, i've basically hibernated all summer, and did so intentionally, because it is absolutely awful to go outside for essentially any reason that isn't truly necessary. it's humid, it's gross, feels terrible, you get the picture. only people who really tolerate the heat like that wouldn't mind it, but that isn't me. not only that, it rains a TON here.

bring on winter and fall. at least seasons where it's cooler. x.x

[MrsMoe]

It was alright. I spent most of it trying to adjust to my younger sister now living with me as my roommate. There's been some complications with how we both do things, but we've been doing well overall. I didn't get to go out and have a day in our local park as much as I wanted to. I think I only did that like.....once. It started out nice since I got some takeout food and I got to read for a bit, but then some guys came to cut down tree branches with a loud as fuck buzzsaw and I took that and my queue to leave.

The only other cool thing we did was go to the farmer's market here. Got a few goodies and cool bits of jewelry.

[beebz]

Unfortunately, It's been going pretty miserable for me. I was forced to leave my old apartment in April and have been hotel hopping ever since. It's been really hard to deal with on all sorts of levels and the only reason I've even been able to survive this long is because I had recently got disability and was able to have a special savings account that didnt count against me.

Still, it has also had me feeling extremely grateful to my friends and community who empathsize with what happen to me, along with stressing that this is not my fault, the housing crisis in the United States is extremely hostile and bad.

As of yesterday I applied to a disabled living place my friend suggested to me. I really hope they can accept me and my cat so that my nightmare can finally end.

[fablefound]

ahhh, summer's been a bit of a mixed bag, i can't lie. end of may, i got laid off from what was essentially my dream job, and i've been struggling to find a new gig ever since. i work part-time for a vet nursing org and i freelance a bit, but my plans on moving in with my partner are kind of indefinitely on hold until i can get a job that covers cost of living. i also had to spend most of june housesitting, which was a bit of a disaster as well, from a cluster fly infestation to the house nearly burning down because someone moved a heat lamp and didn't tell me, but even that month had its nice little glimmers here and there of good times. july and august i spent still job hunting, but with little adventures and creative projects to keep me sane, and for that i am deeply grateful.

some glimmers that come to mind:
* my friends visiting when i was housesitting. we ordered pizza and watched the muppets
* organized and played a really lovely gig at a local arts venue
* helped a friend move into her new house
* lots of time spent in nature, specifically around water like creeks n lakes.
* the local comic arts festival
* my grandmother coming to visit
* a fun sound-based poetry workshop i attended
* lots of writing and music-making
* lots of watching tv with my mom
* lots of playing wizard 101, because my friend got fired right when i got laid off and it was something for us to do
* karaoke with friends
* lots of ddr, as i got an ltek in-home dance pad
* phoebe bridgers laser show... exactly as awesome as it sounds
* met, like, a fan?? of my work??? and hung out with him for a day??? made me realize the stuff i make has a positive impact on people whih was really special
* my neighbour brought me a bunch of lavender. i used it in my birthday cake and had a bunch of friends celebrate with me.
* overall, lots of time with friends and my partner, and a lot of time in local arts, and a lot of gratitude.

i'm still on the job hunt, but trying to keep my spirits up, which is a lot easier thanks to the support system i have ^_^

[rnottelovesowls]

it was kinda meh. i live in illinois, smack-dab in the middle of murica, so the temperatures become the worst of both extremes: i've seen 90 degrees F summers and 20 degrees F winters. this year, there were more hot days than i was comfortable with. as for what i did?

really, i spent most of this summer questioning my capabilities, trying new things, changing my mind a lot, tolerating the deluge of AI-generated flyers (eugh, those hideous monstrosities...) and tolerating the baffling things my family members have been doing. i almost want to call this the "worst summer ever", but that's a bit too far. there was still 2020, after all... but bring on the fall weather, i say. autumn has always been my favorite season, and i am SO ready for it, more than any other year in my life

[beetledragon3869]

Very honestly.. kind of horrible, haha. Graduated a week after realizing that a life in my major would make me miserable, followed by my dog suddenly dying, followed by a trip to see family that blatantly don't care about us, followed by my grandmother's dog dying. Kind of one punch after another. It is over now, though, thankfully. Looking forward to better days ahead.

[alienmothership]

could have been better, could have been a lot worse

i was hoping to have more campfires but my apartment complex banned those under threat of eviction.

i mostly worked and wrote some open source software for the ESP32 boards and played on my minecraft server.