Another few months of radio silence from me - both on this email newsletter and on my micro.blog. In a way, my ability to step away from my own internet presence for months at a time is a testament to these platforms fulfilling their original purpose, namely, creating a less demanding (and non-addicting) space for me to share my life online.
The "sharing" I do here tends to be rather asymmetrical, given that not many of my friends have non-platformed accounts for me to follow back... without Facebook and Twitter, I do feel a bit locked out. Liz has been back on Instagram recently, and I've had friends reach out to me and request that I have her show me their stories(? reels? posts?) about their recent such-and-such adventure. That's a good system.
There are a few personal blogs to which I'm subscribed, and I enjoy reading them very much. If you have one - send me the link! I'd love to give you a follow. And if you don't have a website: write me back personally! Let me know how you are!
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For a while, I was in a good habit of posting photos regularly on the micro.blog feed. Feedback from my focus group (Liz) says that the photos are the most interesting posts, and that they should make a comeback. I've resolved to do that by putting the micro.blog iOS app back on my home screen. But I also wanted to make an effort to clear the backlog by sharing some photos from me & Liz's adventures at home and at large over the past season.
Ok I know March isn't in Summer... and probably barely counts as Spring... but a definite highlight of this year so far was seeing Parquet Courts, one of my favorite bands, in Chicago, with one of my best friends, Jay. All (that is, both) of my photos from inside the concert are blurry, but Jay snapped this great marquee shot.
Wedding #1 for this year was for my friend Mary Kate! Liz and I drove to Cincinnati for the weekend. I'm pictured here with my high school friends (left to right) Grace, Mary Kate, Katherine, and Patrick. I haven't spent much time in Cincinnati as an adult, but it was perfectly charming. A lot like Indianapolis. We had brunch at a cute little place and then discovered they had a location about a 10 minute drive from our house.
The Behrens family spend a week in Costa Rica in May! We got a great house right on the water, had some incredible food, and visited a national park. But we spent most of the time lounging around the rooftop pool, as Alec is pictured here.
Although Costa Rica was great, the real poolside chilling happened once again at the pool attached to our apartment complex. Throughout the pool season, we had a standing Wednesday pizza dinner, and got the group together many weekends, as well. Lots and lots of quality time.
We ended up in Kansas City twice this year, which was great: first for Easter and then again for Joseph and Cassie's wedding. I lived with both Joseph and Cassie when I was at Jerusalem Farm, and I was honored that they asked me to do a reading at their wedding.
Here's a photo of a photo of Liz and I from that wedding.
And here's a photo of a photo of me and Liz from another wedding: this one for Liz's cousin Cody and his wife Kaylen. Polaroids seemed to be a thing at weddings this year! Mary Kate's wedding had them, too, but I forgot to take a picture of that picture. Cody's wedding was gorgeous. Outdoor, in an Aspen grove.
Here's a picture of the beautiful setup before the ceremony.
Liz's family lives in Idaho, so we're always grateful when we get to see them: here's Liz and I with her brothers: David (Left) and Michael in the center.
Wedding #4 was for my cousin, Sean Pingel, and his new wife Ruth! The only good photo I got was of my sister Grace (Left) dancing with my Aunt Beth (Sean's mom, center) and my mom (right).
August is church festival season for the gang: pictured above is us hiding out on our go-to stoop to eat brats at the St. Thomas Aquinas SausageFest, and pictured below is us sitting/standing around the only cluster of free seats we could find at the St. Joan of Arc French Market.
Let's wrap things up with some rapid-fire hiking selfies: Our camping trip with Theresa and Alec
Our trip to South Bend to spend time with our engaged friends Dom and Julie Liz and I spending time with our other engaged friends, Brad and Maria, on a hike about an hour from Indy My trip to Bloomington to visit Sarah, who is now in law school there.
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That does it for Summer 2022! Work has continued to be a challenge throughout this year, so I'm grateful that we've gotten so many opportunities to spend great time outside with our incredible group of friends. October brings more of the same: another camping trip and another wedding, before the predictable chaos of the holidays.
