Summer Resolutions

I have always liked to make lists and plans. Summer often looks like a three-month opportunity to work on resolutions and grand projects, but I never do undertake them. Summer is about people, sun, heat and water, and the exhilaration and disbelief of that luck and spontaneity which vacation affords. Yet my plan-making tendencies are hard to break, and so this summer I must have some goals in mind to accompany my three-month exercise in impulsiveness.

Striving for true summer, though, I’ll pick out a few primary goals and let the rest of summer shape itself around those. I want to frequent Zavino, bake a country loaf from Tartine Bread, and develop a farmers’ market habit. Each item is on my list for a specific, rich reason: Zavino, to soak up the atmosphere and food I like so much; Tartine, as I’ve baked bread for years but haven’t yet made a good starter dough; and farmers’ markets for the produce I want to look at and live off of all the time. These are things I'm excited about.

They aren’t goals that will easily overwhelm a summer; nor are they part of a tightly plotted, carefully scheduled resolution. Instead, they are ideas that will work themselves into my plans with friends, late weekend lunches, and walks home from the train. I like resolutions like these, sustainable and sustained.