Dog Days

The dog days are nearly over. During my early teens, I had a favorite summer routine: lazy summer days spent reading, dreaming, and sunning in my rectangular backyard, playing Counting Crows' "August and Everything After" on repeat for hours while painting my nails and toes my then-preferred shade of frosted pearl white (eep!), and dog-earing the latest Delia's catalog. I thought I'd wear that nail color forever and dream of a day that those clothes would be within reach.
 

While days, months, and years have subsequently passed, and I have changed with the seasons, a few things remain the same. My love for lazy summer days -- spent reading, dreaming, and sunning. I still have an embarrassing soft spot for Counting Crows and am instantly transported to my terrible teens on the rare occasions they grace the airwaves. I still believe that painting nails and magazines are the perfect match. In some ways, I feel that I've changed and that girl, those days, are just a distant memory. In others, I feel as though I have changed but am still the same. That I still am who I have always been. Just without the frosted nail polish.

image via The Taste of Sunshine