mmm...summer plans

I've been asked several times in the last few weeks what my summer plans will be.  They are many, varied, occasionally peculiar, and most of them very ME.  Observe:

-No school.  No, that isn't like me.  Yes, I'll have a good 12+ weeks sans-school.  I'm tired and my brain has the IQ of soggy and day-old oatmeal.  Furthermore, I don't NEED those classes to be finished by a certain time, so ha!

-Lots of work (bit more like me :P).  I was told that hours would be cut this summer, and was most unamused as we had hired almost a dozen new people for summer (my point being "if you have people who are already trained and want more hours, why the blazes would you cut their hours and hire seasonal summer people?").  However, of the ten hired, EIGHT have already quit in one way or another.  I've given the store almost complete availability, and was told yesterday that my hours would "max out" throughout the summer.  $$$=nice.  Veeeerrrrry nice.  Some in savings, some fun purchases, etc.  I'll also do some pet-sitting; I have a few groups of people in the area for whom I will take care of critters in exchange for money while they are on vacation or what have you.  What can I say?  Getting paid to receive fuzz therapy: it just doesn't get much better than that!

-My books-to-be-read-during-summer list is growing.  Some great literature that I've never read (Wuthering Heights, most of Jane Austen, Emily Dickinson, did Victor Hugo write anything beside Les Mis, and that's a very partial list), some books on music/singing/singers that I've wanted to read but not had the time (Joan Sutherland's autobio, bios of Mozart, Beethoven and Bach, Tebaldi's biography, for a few examples), some books on theology (there is so much I don't understand but want to know more about and try to see the reasoning, etc), some just-plain-fun books (yayyayyayyayYAY Elizabeth Peters is FINALLY doing another Vicky Bliss novel, I think Donna Andrews has another coming out, I need to catch up on Iris Johannson -sp?-, etc, etc, etc)

-then there's the yard, which has definite potential, but needs more time than I have during the semester.  The patio needs work, weeding and mulching must be done, and an herb pot or two (or six) need to be set up.

-SOUTH PADRE.  21ST BIRTHDAY.  ENOUGH SAID.

-Oh, yeah, and there'll be some music in there, too. :P  I'll be stopping by school a few days a week to practice songs for next semester, which will be fun/productive/focusing and all that good stuff.

yes, that books list is long.  I read REALLY quickly.  Even with school and work, I finished Les Mis (all 800+ pages, if I remember correctly) in a couple of days.  Without school, I could easily sit down and read something like that cover-to-cover just because I enjoy it.

Oh, and amusing story today.  I attend the traditional (ie, pre-'64) Latin Mass.  I suspect I stand out a bit in this relatively small congregation (about 150 or so) as I'm a single woman who doesn't live with her parents, dresses considerably more liberally than most there (I once brought a friend to church with me, and she has ever since refered to the congregation as "fundamantalist Catholics"), and attends college with every intention of a career.

So, as I walk from my car to the church, I notice that something doesn't feel quite...right.  Hmm.

I am wearing a light (green underskirt, tropical flower veiling overskirt) summer skirt, as it is in the 70s.  It reaches to about mid-calf, and is slit on one side to the knee.  Perfect for evening church in the spring with an uber-conservative congregation.  All light, airy, spring-y, etc. 

In fact, a bit too airy.

When I glanced down, I realized that I must have caught part of the skirt on something while getting in or out of the car, because that slit is now more like mid-thigh.

Naturally, I realize this while I'm in the middle of crossing a street.

On the bright side, I'm about two minutes late for church.  No one else is in the street with me.

I finish crossing the street with a dainty grasp on the edge of the skirt.  Anyone seeing me might (I can hope, right?) think that I was just lifting my skirt slightly, the better to take long steps.  Or something.

Once I get inside and get into a pew, I dig discreetly in my purse for my emergency safety pins, which, I belatedly realize, I neglected to return to my purse post-musical.  Brilliant.  I decide that this skirt will become a "hip-hugging" skirt, rather than have it sit at my waist where it usually is.  That slit is still somewhat above the knee, but at least there is no breeze in the church and the skirt is rather full.

Did I mention that this priest once gave a sermon on how SHORT SLEEVES (ie, above the elbow) are immodest?  Really, he has many good points, but he is a bit over-sensitive on the modesty in dress issue. 

(my crack after that sermon about "if someone is turned on by my elbows when I bare them during a texas summer, it's his problem and not mine" would not have gone over well, I think)

Needless to say, I departed RAPIDLY when Mass was over, skirt still delicately clutched in left hand.