People love summer here. Where I come from, summer was accepted as a necessary evil but avoided if necessary. People got really excited about spring (Spring Break, anyone?) instead. I know now this difference is because spring where I grew up is about the same climate as the height of summer here. Summer here has the additional magic of twilight that stretches throughout the evening. It’s exciting to leave work at 8 and have it still be light out, but it’s really something special to wrap up a hard night’s gaming at 11 and still catch the end of the sunset.
Summer is chock full of milestones for me. By Celtic reckoning, my birthday, my anniversary, my thesis defense, and the date I moved to Dublin all fall squarely in the summer. Last year I spent the longest day of the year in transit, landing in Dublin jetlagged and ecstatic the day after the solstice. This year I woke up the day after the solstice with showtunes in my head and a sense of smug satisfaction that I could now report my stay in Dublin with units of years rather than months.
(I never know how to answer that question. If you’re not from around here, you know the one. “How long have you lived here?” I believe the answer in my case is misleading; after a month of living here I had the experiences and support of nearly a decade of kicking around. It’s not the same thing as living here all that time, but it’s not the same as being here only a month.)
Lots of things changed when I moved, but a key one that doesn’t get discussed much is that for the first time in ten years I’m not trying to live in two places at once. Throughout the Pasadena exile I enjoyed many things, but it was always bittersweet because it sat next to the memory of what I was missing in Dublin. That doesn’t happen anymore, and it is delicious.
The 22nd of June has rolled along behind me, and I’ve found myself nearly halfway through July a little bewildered that I got here so fast. And while there’s a lot to be desired about my situation at the moment, it’s still been a pretty good year.
Dixie Stix 
Hon Pres
/ 12 July, 2010I am strangely moved by this piece. All I can really do is echo one line; Has it really been a year already?