THE BEGINNING

You guys (and gals):  It is August.  AUGUST.  This means it's the last full month of summer, and while that no longer means that school is looming around the corner or that freedom is coming to an end, it does mean that my favorite season is nearing completion.  And I have yet to do much of anything.

When I was a kid, I remember summers that seemed to last a lifetime.  I remember weeks of summer camp feeling like years, and the month of July stretching into eternity.  I remember coming back to school in the fall, convinced that the last three months of liberty had turned me into a completely different, much more grown up (and hopefully more popular) person.

Summer was not just an excuse to sleep in; summer was a chance to reinvent.

But somewhere after college, right around the same time I realized that waiting tables didn't come with a summer vacation and that bills continued to stack up no matter the season, the magic of summer dimmed.  The weight of a real adult world rested on my shoulders--and while the occasional pool party or BBQ or camping trip still brought a kind of childlike nostalgia, summer no longer felt like the beginning of something new, something exciting.

And this year, as July ended and August began, I realized I'd been trudging through summer just as I had every other season this year: Down the pleasant, yet mundane, path of sleeping, eating, bartending, dog parenting, and house cleaning (with the occasional rager for the sake of raging--this is LA, after all).

I also realized that my college-polished writing skills had been thrown to the wayside as well, as complete thoughts and paragraphs gave way to six-hours-a-day of scribbled shorthand food orders on the back of paper coasters.  I fear for my English fluency, for my use of syntax, for my ability to turn thoughts into cohesive sentences; but most of all, I fear for my future as anything but a waitress-turned-bartender after a roughly $200,000 private education.

So, after all that, I have decided that August will be anything BUT mundane.  It will, instead, be Awesome with a capital A. It will be 30 Days of Awesome to be exact, inspired by my good friend (and fellow Awesome seeker) Darcy Boles, who in turn was inspired by the Mother of Awesome (if you will), Lesley Betts.

(Just a note:  My mom, upon hearing my idea, made sure to assure me, "Now, honey, don't stress yourself out over it though.  Don't feel bad if you only have 28 days of Awesome.  That's still pretty good."  Thanks mom.  But I think that Awesome is all about attitude--and while every day of the next 30 days may not be mind-blowingly new, I think it would say something about my humanity if I can't find something Awesome in a 24-hour period for 30 days.  Hopefully...)

 I will (for the first time ever) blog about it, both to hold myself true to the search for Awesome (and regain some control of the written word), but also to maybe inspire an Awesome seeker or two out there as well.

 And with that, I say, LET THE AWESOME BEGIN.