I’m writing this post from my hometown of Albany, New York, and it just feels so good to be here. On Tuesday I wrapped up a five-week stint living out of a suitcase, which brought me from, drum roll please, Albany to New York to Philadelphia to New York to Denver to Keystone to New York to Iceland to Manchester to London to New York… and back to Albany. I was a guest at a wedding, attended a conference, went on a family vacation, and visited friends. I was pretty exhausted by the end of it and really excited to spend a whopping ten whole days in one place before I’m off again!

Of course, as my friend Michelle noted, “you don’t really do relaxation.” She’s right, and since I’ve been home I’ve tackled an ambitious redesign of my bedroom, an application for an exciting job in Malta, getting back into my gym routine, catching up with friends, and the usual freelance work and blogging. It may sound tedious but I’m enjoying every minute of it. Why? Because I wake up every morning and the sun is shining, I work all day with my favorite pup by my side, and I go out at night and enjoy the beautiful warm evenings surrounded by fabulous friends. I adore summers in Albany. If it weren’t for those long brutal winters mucking everything up, I might never want to leave.

Now, after I’ve built all this up, I have to confess that I have a very disappointing Photo of the Week. I didn’t take out my camera at all until last night when I suddenly had an ‘oh crap, Photo of the Week!’ moment at a bar called The Rusty Anchor. This bar happens to be located on a floating barge on the Hudson River and host a rockin’ live music dance party on Saturday nights.

While I was there I uploaded this status to Facebook: “Weekends like this remind me why I love my hometown… Beautiful night sitting on a barge on the river, listening to a local band play to a packed dance floor. Good laughs, great friends, no pretension and happy people everywhere!” I can’t really put it any better than that.

So my apologies that this week is a bit more snapshot-style than usual. I’ll try to get back into creative genius (ha) mode next week. But hey, what can I say… I’m on summer vacation!