Halfway Through June

One of the coolest murals in Melbourne.
Apparently it was *super* controversial at the time it was painted!
Personally, I think it rules.

June has been a really fun month thus far and it has been FLYING BY. I feel like summer is going to go by in a blink and I HATE IT. It always seems to go so quickly and it's my favorite time of year! 😭 But that means I just need to make the most of it before students come back to campus in August and my life gets insane again. 🙃 I also want to make sure I can capture as much of the summer here on the blog or on my channel! Love me some memory keeping and I've been crap at it as of late.

One of my favorite bloggers makes it a point to dedicate a post to recapping her life every two weeks by way of the photos on her phone with a few quick lines describing what was going on at the time of snapping the picture. I often feel so much pressure to make every blog post super detailed, which makes me feel exhausted before I even open up my blogging app to start typing. I LOVE the idea of just showing a picture and writing a couple sentences. It sounds so simple but for whatever reason my super meticulous brain never thought of just taking the casual approach. WEIRD. Anywho, let's try it out and get caught up on the last couple weeks, shall we?

My favorite thing to do in the summer is to take my lunch hour outside. Our campus has a *ton* of outdoor seating which really makes taking advantage of the sunshine and fresh air easy. It's so nice to eat, take a step away from my desk, and, of course, read while taking in some rays!

After YEARS of dreaming of running this race, I finally took the plunge and registered for the 2020 Disney Princess Half Marathon weekend! The registration process was STRESSFUL, and not something I've ever done before. This is a competitive race to get into so I had to be in a waiting room right when registration opened before they allowed me to register. Cassie and I were anxiously texting back and forth waiting to be let in and after about 20 super stressful minutes we were in and registered. Cassie and I both registered for the Fairy Tale Challenge (10k + Half) and my mom registered to run the 10k with us! This is one of my bucket list races and I am SO excited to finally be participating. (Shout out to my staff for holding up a meeting for 20 minutes so I could register! 😂)

The first day of my vacation from work fell on National Donut Day! I decided to treat myself to a morning run to a nearby Dunks for a frozen lemonade and free donut to celebrate. I love that we now live in a town that things are within walking/running distance and that the weather is nice enough to take advantage! Also, if you haven't had the frozen lemonade from Dunks, DO IT. It's honestly such an amazing treat in the hot summer months. Brett and I are both obsessed.

Kristen stopped by our place for a quick visit that night. She was in the area visiting friends over the weekend and crashed at our place the night before the festivities began. It was great seeing her, even if it was just for a few hours in the evening and morning! Luckily she will be heading our way again with her boo Jon at the end of the month and we'll be spending more time together then. Can't wait to see them both!

Later that weekend we had an impromptu Sunday Funday with a group of friends. We stopped by a local Mexican restaurant and *ALL* of us decided to partake in some Coronaritas. I'd never had one before (always wanted to try!) and I was not disappointed. It was a gorgeous day so we stayed at the restaurant for a few hours (while I got increasingly sunburned... woops) and invited folks back to our place to continue the fun before Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals.*

Last week was spent down in Florida visiting my parents. I spent A LOT of time outside in the warmth. I'm fairly certain like 95% of my waking hours were spent out by the pool while we were down there! It was great to see my parents, hug Mikey, and hit up all of our favorite spots like Rita's and Hemingway's. I made it a point to try and fit in a daily swim and reading my butt off! I think it was a vacation well spent.

During our stay in FL, my mom took me to this AWESOME used bookstore which was floor-to-ceiling books. Like any used book store, there was a ton of variety in selection, but the best part was the prices. When I saw what they were charging I couldn't *not* pick out a couple of titles, even though I had already stuffed my backpack with books for the trip. There's something about finding a book you're excited to read through the thousands of books you see at a used book store. It's like striking gold!

On our last full day, my parents treated us to an airboat ride and an afternoon exploring a couple of local breweries. It was so cool going out on the airboat - one of those quintessential Florida tourist things to do! We did end up seeing a handful of alligators here and there which was super exciting. I would definitely go again to see if we could spot more! 

In the afternoon we hit up Intracoastal Brewing Company (they were having a Bacon Beer Bash which was.... interesting haha) and Hell*n Blazes (which I think we all agreed was better!). We also indulged in some brisket poutine (!!!), pretzel sticks, wings, and burgers, while testing out their fantastic beers (They had a been called The Night's Watch which was a Black IPA and 8.7% Alcohol. WHAT. #taketheblack). It was a great way to end our visit. We had a lot of fun with them and it was a much needed break from our super intense work schedules.

Currently...

WATCHING: I'm re-watching Dance Moms because I'm garbage.

I am 6 year-old Mackenzie

{source}

LISTENING: I can't get enough of Lizzo at the moment. "Truth Hurts" is probably the best song ever written if we're being honest.

READING: ICYMI, I'm doing a 30 Books in 30 Days challenge! So I'm reading a lot of things. 😂 But I'm currently working my way through Amy & Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson at the moment of writing this.

*Let's not talk about the outcome of that series... 😭