I had my first date with my now-husband in the summer. I got married in the summer. My daughter was born in the summer. My mom died in the summer (these seem like the top hallmark events of my life so far). But when I first thought of summer, and probably because it's the day, I thought of this:

In the summer of 2010 I was in a really rough place. I lost my job - a job that I loved working as a school counselor in a small school working with a population of high school students that were mostly from the "inner-city" - most were first-generation high school graduates, many had learning disabilities. And the way I lost my job was extremely shitty --- the Archdiocese of Chicago decided that they wanted to change the program at the school cuz our enrollment was down so they basically "failed to renew" the contracts of nearly every employee at the school. It was a terrible feeling --- I knew I did a good job, and here I was being told that I wasn't good enough to stay on. I felt like a failure and I felt lost. Also, my mom was in the hospital for part of the summer with lung problems (the start of the lung problems that would eventually kill her).

And then one rainy summer night my husband and I went to see Inception. I remember it well because we went to a late movie and when we got out, we had a flat tire and had to stand under a little overhang from the rain for over an hour waiting for the tow truck. Anyway, it's significant because seeing that movie made me want to learn more about Joe, since I loved his performance (and damn, he looked good in zero gravity in that suit). Which inevitably brought me to hitRECord on July 27. This is just what I needed to break the spell of my depression from the job loss and my mom's illness. I was writing for the first time in years. I got to sing and tap dance and people liked it! I made dozens of great friends through skype. I got to go to one of the Summer in the City Shows... one of the few things I've done in my life more or less on a "whim" ... and had an amazing time.

Times up?!?!?! WTF