Summer simply glides* along, and somehow it's mid-June. I ran into a friend on the sidewalk a little while ago, and we came to this conclusion after spending a few minutes determining whether it was last Thursday or the Thursday before that when we last ran into each other. It was last Thursday, for the record.

We've played three games so far, unfortunately with only one win to our name, but I can think of no better way to wind down the day than with seven innings of honest baseball. We line up for catch and shout bad jokes back and forth before the game, then pick up a bat and take some swings before the first pitch. The game's underway, and every struggle and success for the next seven innings is somehow contained in the ballpark, set aside from any sort of reality. It's absolutely perfect, and I wish I could do it justice.

I've been enamored with Neko Case's music for the past few months, and yet only recently stumbled upon the genius of her song At Last. It's almost a shame that it's so short; then again, I suppose it's just as long as it needs to be.

I can say that I've lived here in honor and danger
But I'm just an animal and cannot explain a life

Down this chain of days
I wished to stay among my people
Relation now means nothing
Having chosen so defined

And if death should smell my breathing
As it passes beneath my window
Let it lead me trembling, trembling

I own every bell that tolls me

* In David Copperfield one of my favorite chapters, if not my most favorite, XVIII. A Retrospect, begins, "My schooldays! The silent gliding on of my existence—the unseen, unfelt progress of my life—from childhood up to youth!" and I think that "gliding" describes it so, so well.