I’ll be moving soon. Moving always brings up memories. (It’s also a royal pain, but that’s just how it is.) I’ve been looking at a lot of old photos in preparation for packing, as I’d just retrieved some boxes of photo albums I was storing at a friend’s place. I’ve been enjoying looking through the old pictures and thinking about past phases of my life.
June is a month that has brought a lot of good times, but it’s also brought some difficult ones. Two years ago, my mother was in the hospital for all of June (during COVID with no visitors allowed) after she’d collapsed due to her cancer progressing. That was a pretty miserable June for my family. In thinking about that difficult time, I wanted to also think about some of the good moments prior Junes have brought.
I know this kind of post is more personal and may not be that interesting to anyone but me, but I do hope you enjoy my trip down memory lane.
June 1979, “Fifth Grade Day.” This marked the end of the school year. Ah, remember that feeling of excitement and relief when the summer was about to start? Here are some friends playing “crack the whip.”
June 1981. I was on a vacation in Sandbridge, Virginia, with my cousin Megan. Good times on the beach!
Also June 1981. My family and I took a trip to Stone Harbor, New Jersey. Here I am crabbing. It was all fun and games until we ate the crabs for dinner and I got super sick!
OK, I can’t say for sure this was in June, but it was the summer of 1990, and my good friends Jules and Maureen and I were seeing Ziggy Marley and the B-52s at an outdoor show at Philadelphia’s Mann Music Center, which was a great time.
June 1991 on Mt. Rainier with my then-boyfriend, later husband, Geoff. We were visiting my brother and his wife, who lived in Seattle for a year. So cool to be in shorts in the snow!
Well, my marriage didn’t last, but it is still nice to think back on our wedding in June 1993.
June 1993, honeymoon on the coast of Spain. Again, the marriage didn’t last, but I do still have great memories of our trip.
A trip to Niagra Falls, Toronto, and a festival in the Ontario countryside in June 2001.
June 2004 at the Getty in Los Angeles. I was in California to scope out acupuncture schools. Before I decided to become a psychologist, I had considered becoming an acupuncturist. Either way, I knew I wanted to go to California for graduate school.
June 2005 at L’Etage bar and restaurant in Philadelphia. My dear friend Mia had thrown me a surprise going-away party, as I was moving to Oakland, California, that summer to start my psychology doctoral studies. That party was awesome!
June 2008. I went to Cincinnati to participate on a panel at a women’s studies conference, and I got to visit my good friend Laurie. Here she is on the bridge between Cincinnati and Kentucky. There was an art festival on the bridge.
My friend Maureen and her husband, Billy, visited the Bay Area in June 2008, and we went to the Pride Parade.
In June 2009 (or maybe it was July?), we had an engagement party for my cousin Jill at Lake Carey, PA.
In June 2009 (or maybe it was July?), we also had an engagement party for my friend Laurie at Lake Carey, PA.
My sweet Nala kitty in June 2012, when I was living in McKinleyville, CA (in Humboldt County). I had to put her down in July 2012 due to cancer, so these last times with her were special.
Cocktail hour at Lake Carey with my parents in June 2014.
A dance workshop with Kae Montgomery at Desert Dream studio in Santa Cruz, June 2015.
Burger Boogaloo music festival in Oakland with friends Syd and Majid, June 2016.
Performing with Shekinah dance troupe at Don Quixote’s in Felton, CA, June 2016.
Reunion of old friends: Rachel, me, and Mia in Philadelphia, June 2017.
Performing with La-Ti-Da in Marina, CA, June 2018. My first sword performance!
