southern (summer) comfort

dear web journal,

this is the third installment of my fav things, but specifically those things i love most in summer. have i complained enough about how much this stifling summer is kicking my butt? well, whatever i’ve said hasn’t been a fair enough representation. bugs have been eating me alive; the heat has ruined whatever workout regimen i had; and karl and i are getting a lot of unwanted conflict-resolution practice lately. i promise myself right here and now that i’m not going to let that continue.

but materialistically, i found a few things throughout the summer that help make this hot, sticky season less painful.

item 1: world wildlife fund (wwf) tee, sometimes i get in the habit of only purchasing work attire (or those that can double as both work and casual), which is efficient but also kind of boring. this comfortable item also includes a small donation of the proceeds to the wwf. also, i love tees, especially those don't say stupid stuff on them.
item 2: i hadn’t bought a new pair of tennis shoes in more than a year and my last pair of asics were starting to tear in places, so i started looking for a new pair of casual shoes. i didn’t want to get another pair of asics, but i saw these; they’re really comfortable; and they keep to my promise to wear more color.
item 3: i love a good ballet flat and thought these keds were a good, easy match for me. i got them on a really great sale through the keds website, which made me even happier. unfortunately, they don’t carry them anymore, but their recent sale has quite a few cute ballerina flat styles.
item 4: another tee. certainly colorful and comfortable. see, i don’t have to always look like a character from beetlejuice. sometimes i can look like another ‘80s nightmare altogether.
item 5, 6, and 7: shorts! for quite a few years, i’ve avoided wearing shorts because i had this thing where i hated how big my legs look. well, it’s too hot for that and i’ve since come to terms with the fact that muscular legs are far hotter than my other alternative which more resembles a curdled cheese product. anywayz, i really only like wearing levis and i pretty much never wear any other brand of jeans, because levis are flattering on me and they never cost a small fortune. all pairs can be found here.
item 8: i just really like this lip gloss. it works exceptionally well and it reminds me of the chapsticks that sati and jessi would bring me back from germany.
item 9: my step-sister finally turned me onto the mineral makeup craze, i think. it is light, wears well through sweat, and looks more natural than caking on some layer of paste-like foundation.
item 10: i’m back to reading a bunch and it helps actually looking for items i might actually be interested in. so, during an amazon.com search, i found a collection of short stories and poetry (which also appears in a magazine subscription form) called tin house: summer reading. tin house often features works written by some of my favorite authors like sherman alexie, dorothy allison, pablo neruda, charles simic, seamus heaney, etc.
item 11: nintendo ds. i don’t need to say much. nintendo systems are almost always great and the ds lite is no exception.