Drive Until the Map Turns Blue

Right now, I am sitting in an office with no windows, updating a credit card expense report and listening to what I am pretty sure is a dentist drill on steroids, although I am told it is a wet vac because there is a leak in our office roof and the room next door has a squishy carpet. Eww.

So on THAT "Happy Monday" note, I thought I'd go look at pictures from last weekend on the lake. It's been my experience that being near or on water is pretty much an instant dose of happy, with no chance of overdose or nasty side effects. I can be laying on the beach with the sun glinting off an ocean nearby, sipping coffee on a porch overlooking a still lake, laying on the front of a boat getting spritzed by the choppy spray or, my most recent discovery, being tugged along with behind a said boat holding on to a rope for dear life with my feet hooked together on a board. And I'm happy. Judging from everyone else these pics, I think the universal vote on this situation would be: "Me too."

These are all from Memorial Day at Cherokee Lake (Tennessee), where our wonderful friends Zac and Jamie took us under their lake-living wings and adopted us for the weekend.

Ok, maybe everyone doesn't love the water quite like we do.... Gus looks like he's perfectly happy being land-locked.

For now, I'll put some Jimmy Buffett on my playlist, pretend the wet vac is the sound of the boat motor, and put on my sunglasses to protect me from the glow of the UV lights. Until next time, Lake.

What about you? Do you have a favorite beach, lake, pond, blow up baby pool in the backyard that blisses you out just to be nearby?

All you really need this time of year
Is a pair of shades and an ice cold beer
And a place to sit somewhere near
The water...
- Brad Paisley, Water