Observations.

After a long, fun weekend, a few wrap-up thoughts:

1. They grow the mosquitos big in the suburbs. I have the biggest bites and in some odd places. How does one get a mosquito bite on the knuckle of their index finger? Shouldn't I have noticed that? Mosquito ninjas. And, I'm pretty sure I got my first bite (on the inside of my foot, no less) the minute I stepped off the train in Wilmette.

2. Because I didn't go to the gym, I showered more at home this weekend than I have in the entire 14 months I've lived there combined. This was helped because I kept getting super-dirty. Lake swims, bike rides, beach time. All required showers so I was showering two or three times a day. Kind of a sad little record I set.

3. The city of Chicago did not put on its own fireworks this year. Instead, it left it to Navy Pier to put on the show. I was walking home from an impromptu BBQ last night when the Navy Pier show began. People were stopping on the street, pulling up chairs and the like. I felt vaguely unpatriotic because I didn't even really turn around to glance at them. But, the fact is, they do that exact show every Wednesday and Saturday throughout the summer. I just hope that the people who were camped out for the show were people who don't live downtown and don't see it twice a week.

4. I now have a very sad feeling that summer is over. Ever since studying for the bar, I have felt that way but this year is worse. When you study for the bar, the common wisdom is that you buckly down and get serious after the Fourth. While all of July is ahead and essentially free, I think every weekend in August through September 10 are spoken for with planned events. Blink and summer is going be gone at this rate.