Oh, summertime and the living is easy. Unless you have mosquitos. Or heatwaves. Or 99% humidity. Other than that, it's swell.
My summer has definitely been in the "swell" category so far. For starters, this is the first one spent with glorious air conditioning since I was a teenager. PEOPLE. Air conditioning is amazing. It's a magic box of cold air! Hudson hasn't quite figured out how it works, so sometimes I have to hold him up in front of the vent and his little ears blow around. So cute! He prefers napping under the bed, though. He's half Shih Tzu, half Luddite, apparently.
Also, I had my first book contest and people entered it! I have to admit, I was a leeeetle bit nervous about having a contest. It's like throwing a party: what if no one shows up? Not only did people show up, though, they were excellent party guests! And now I've taken this metaphor too far, so I'll stop.
Thank you to everyone who entered! Your answers to the question "If you had a superpower, what would it be?" were hilarious! I was going to post the 5 winners here, but then I got nervous about putting people's names on this blog (safety first!), so the winners have been notified by email instead.
Even though the winners were chosen at random, here are some of my favorite answers:
"I think I would like my superpower to be to have super sonic hearing. I can never hear anything, so I think I would want to be able to hear everyone and thing clearly. But, that sadly means I will not get a cool getup or anything. Maybe I could have some cool ear jewerly to bring attention to my super powered ears."
"I don't want to fly, because it'd be cold in the sky and bugs would fly up my nose. However, I want telekinesis due to the fact that I am extremely lazy and lose everything so it'd be cool to think "Lost cell phone, come here now." Or, it'd just be cool to be a wizard. "Accio cell phone!" So I don't want A superpower. I want ALL magical powers that come with being a wizard. Or just telekinesis. I need to be able to grab things without getting up to get them. Yay, laziness."
"My superpower would be for people to look through the distorted imagery of 'beauty' created by all sorts of media, and see that they are as beautiful as everyone else. Wow that sounded REALLY cheesy. (Bonus points, Hudson?)"
A lot of you pointed out that you thought Hudson was very cute. A) you are right, but B) no sucking up to the judges! Luckily, he can't read. (And believe me, Hudson knows he's cute. You should see him strut around our neighborhood. It's ridiculous.)
Again, congratulations to the winners and thank you again for all your awesome entries!
Other than running book contests and managing my dog's ego, this summer has been pretty mellow. I went to Seattle for a friend's wedding, which was awesome. Katy and I met on the first day of first grade and have been friends ever since, so it was great to see her and her awesome husband. I got to hang out with the infamous Adri, too, along with her infamous-er husband. They even treated me to gluten-free pie on my birthday! My eyes spun like whirligigs, I was so excited!
ILU PIE.
Adri's husband looking cool. While wearing my sunglasses.
Thanks to High Five Pie in Seattle (and Adri & Vince!) for making my birthday dreams come true. Oh, happy sigh.
After riding out the sugar rush and being manhandled by airport security, I flew home just in time for a week's vacation with my family in Laguna Beach. No one does mellow vacation like my family, which sounds great until you realize that despite the presence of iPhones, laptops, iPads, and actual cameras, no one has taken any photos of our vacation.
Luckily, our family friend is a photographer and came over to hang out with us for a few days and compete in our Semi-Annual Wine Tasting Competition. (Rules: one varietal, under $20, trash-talking allowed.) He got some amazing pictures, too!
Fireworks for my birthday! Okay, not really.
Huddle cuddles! Doesn't he just look thrilled.
Mom and Brother and me! (My mom's response to this photo: "Sure, you can post it on your blog, but can you airbrush me so I look like Meryl Streep? Thanks.") My mom is way cuter than Meryl Streep.
UNDERBITE! (Interesting side note: Hudson's vet recently floated the idea of getting braces for him. Braces. For. My. Dog. Riiiiiight.)
If you have a chance, check out our friend's photography blog at David Marano Photography. Thanks for making sure our family has photos, Dave!
Also, I have to brag: for our 4th of July, I made what my brother called "possibly the best playlist ever." If you know anything about my brother & I, it's that we have very different musical tastes, so this was a BIG COMPLIMENT. I screencapped it so you can enjoy it...and also so I have proof that it actually happened.
So that's been my summer so far. Contest winners, walking Hudson, reading, and working on "AKA"! Speaking of, gotta get back to that first draft. Oh, the joys of first drafts.
I hope you are all well & happy and wearing a high SPF!
My favorite author ever!! :)
Posted by: Olivia | July 21, 2011 at 01:59 PM
Sounds busy! (BTW i didnt even know dog braces existed) I also stopped by to say thanks since I was one of the contest winners (*makes happy dance*)...although once you read my e-mail you'll see my many thanks. Just a gesture of courtesy *tee hee*.
Posted by: Kenia | July 21, 2011 at 07:47 PM
There she goes...there she goes again! :) I love your writing, Robin Benway!
Posted by: Riley | July 22, 2011 at 01:06 PM
Your family (including Hudson) is adorable!
I am in love with that playlist!
Your summer sounds awesome!
I am out of things to exclamation point about!
Posted by: Tameka | August 05, 2011 at 10:02 AM
Aww, thank you, Olivia & Riley!
Posted by: Robin Benway | August 15, 2011 at 12:25 PM
Thanks Tameka! You are very good at the exclaiming!
Posted by: Robin Benway | August 15, 2011 at 12:25 PM
Swich to wordpress, make your blogger nicer. -My 2 cents
Posted by: rc helicopter | December 07, 2011 at 08:54 AM