A summer of glorious firsts

Plus: the Radiohead album I'm falling in love with all over again

I love Karen Karbo’s Substack “Yeah, no. Not happening” for its directness, French-ness (Karbo is an American expat living in coastal Provence) and longsuffering wit. For instance, I adore the caption on this photo of her adopted hometown of Collioure from a recent post:

As someone who also lives in a magical place, I understand the sentiment. If I were to mimic Karen’s take on Collioure for my own hometown of San Luis Obispo, California, it would look something like this photo of our weekly downtown farmer’s market:

Thank you for ensuring the economy of our town. Now GET OUT OF MY WAY.

But, like Karen, I absolutely adore summer where I live, petty annoyances notwithstanding, so I’m modeling today’s missive after her most recent one, “Hot Sexy South of France Summer,” in which she counts the many firsts of this glorious season.

First blueberry picking...

….followed by the first blueberry cobbler with cornmeal biscuit crust and cream.

First rosé on the front porch.

First tender lavender springing up toward the sun in the garden. First blackberries on the vine.

First kids’ trip to the water park with friends, aka first $15 crap burger, first sunburn, and first day incessantly pulling a swimsuit out of the bum. All incredibly worth it, of course.

First replacement of propane tank in the grill, even though I could have sworn we just bought one not too long ago.

First time trying to grow tuberose. I bought them from K. van Bourgondien Dutch Bulbs and have been scheming on them all spring. Fingers crossed they bloom and fill the house with their perfume. It’s one of my favorites.

First week the college students are out of town. Fewer cars on the road. More space to breathe.

First time **winning** Thursday trivia night at Kreuzberg Coffee! I sort of blacked out when Dr. Alpen announced our team name. I also may have had one Fernet shot too many that night.

First day of the beloved Camp Natoma for our daughter, and first time in five years we’ve sent her with a pop-up mosquito net that she has to climb into and zip up each night.

[Ancillary: first time picturing our daughter stuck in her mosquito net in the boonies as she attempts to run away from a bear, cougar, etc. First time reassuring myself that won’t happen.]

First time our son takes college summer classes. Interestingly, he’s taking World History A at one of our local community colleges, and World History B at a different one, which means two different professors, two different textbooks, and two completely different eras covered simultaneously. Imagine learning the entirety of world history in six weeks, with both King Tut and Peter the Great rattling around in your head at the same time. I applaud our boy’s optimism and tenacity.

First family screening of Romancing The Stone.

First time discussing the appropriateness of wearing a tiny, tiny tube top in public.

First scoop of McConnell’s Strawberry Lemonade Sherbet.

First time noticing the trees have all their leaves again, which rustle to create a natural white noise in the wind each afternoon.

First obviously-foreign tourists wandering downtown in impeccably clean white sneakers.

First late-night Tetris battle with Jake, windows open, crickets singing. I lost consistently, but I loved every second, all the same.

First recipe tackled from the New York Times 100 Recipes To Make This Summer. It was the Antipasto Salad, which I served with warm ciabatta bread. (Here’s the gift link, if you’d like to make it, too. Highly recommend.)

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Three things I’m loving right now

• The Pitt (HBO-MAX)

  There’s something so satisfying about watching Noah Wyle play a seasoned emergency doc three decades after he played the newbie Dr. Carter on ER. Also: Nurse Dana! What a badass. Can’t wait for the next season.

• Exercising my First Amendment rights (and not doing it alone)

  Thanks to all who read my last post and came out to the No Kings protests all over the world two weeks ago. I got a wild hair and repurposed a teal caftan to dress up as Lady Liberty. Because we live in a small town, I felt like I knew at least half of the people demonstrating—including my friend Heather, who also dressed up as Lady Liberty but in RED, which was a delightful coincidence. (I’ll admit I had crown envy.)

  

  Didn’t catch the rally? No worries. Now that King Orange has unilaterally opted to enter war with Iran, I’m sure you’ll have more opportunities to demonstrate against him.

• Radiohead’s In Rainbows (2007)

  True story: today’s post was supposed to be all about the creative inspiration I get from the band Radiohead, but upon editing it I realized it would only appeal to, like, four people. All the same, the paranoid quintet from Oxfordshire is easily my favorite band, even more so since I recently watched their live set of In Rainbows on From The Basement (many thanks to my brother Dusty for sending it to me) and listened to the excellent podcast Dis/sect about the construction of the album. It details the trajectory of their career up until the release of the album, which Radiohead famously offered for digital download under a “pay-what-you-like” model. Ironically, it was the band’s best, in my opinion (though one could argue that OK Computer deserves that title—and people certainly do, including my husband). Anyway, if you want to witness an imaginative group at the height of their creative and cultural powers, I highly recommend both.

Happy summer firsts to all! Keep your chin up, taste a fresh berry, and breathe deep.

Your friend,