Saturday, June 4, 2011

Summer, Or That Time of the Year When I Don't Want To Cry When I Go Outside

I'm a warm weather girl. I don't think there's ever been a time when I've actually been excited about going out into 30-degree weather. Some people relish the crisp sting of frigidness, but if I could, I'd hibernate inside from November to March. I hate the way you have to tense your muscles just to retain any sense of warmth, rendering you perpetually sore for an entire season. I hate the way you have to wear 18 layers of clothes just to feel remotely comfortable. I hate the way my fingernails turn blue on a regular basis and my nose always feels like ice. Snow is pretty, but I don't want to be in it. Give me a white Christmas, and then pack it up by New Year's, thank you very much.

Anyhow, this ranting is not to focus on the trials of winter, but rather to show you all just how much I love summer! Summer is warm and bright. The days are long and the nights are beautiful. Sure, we midwesterners deal with humidity that does scientifically unexplainable things to a gal's hair, but it's a small price to pay for being outside without growing icicles off your eyelashes. So now that it's officially summer, here's some things I'm looking forward to in this hot and sunny season...

*Eating and drinking outside is fabulous. I can't think of anything more pleasant than sitting outisde in the evening after the worst of the heat is gone and just relaxing in the sunset. Doesn't it sound like a Norman Rockwell poster of the 21st century? I mean, really. Talk about a utopia. As long as there's no 50 mph wind (which, unfortunately, is rare in Nebraska) I would do this everyday.

*The OUTDOOR pool! Woo! Let's get excited for laying out right next to a glittering oasis of chlorine! Except that's going to have to wait here in Seward. Apparently there were some massive repair errors at the Seward Municipal Pool, and now it won't be open for another couple of weeks. Well, you say, just go to another pool in town. Ha! Do you know where I live? We're lucky to even have one. So I continue to trek to the YMCA and swim inside, which is less conducive to tanning/burning in my case.

*As kids, my brothers and I would always get dragged along to outdoor summer concerts by my parents (read: by Papa Lange) and although I don't really remember getting into the music, I do remember running around various parks, just absorbing summer at it's finest. Now that I'm older and can appreciate this, I'm going off on my own summer concert adventure. Yes, I will be channeling my inner hippie at Bonnaroo, a music festival in Tennessee. Despite my nerves about possibly not sleeping and/or showering for 4 days, I'm pumped to see talent the likes of the Black Keys, Florence + the Machine, Amos Lee, Alison Krauss (Cham-paign Cen-tral clap, clap, clap-clap-clap), Mumford & Sons, Iron & Wine and oh so many more. Not to mention, Lil Wayne will be there, so how can you go wrong?

*Summer themed cupcakes! Why stop at cake when you can take that extra leap and make summer cake?? Really, all this involves is putting some fruit or something on top, and you instantly have something that is more reminiscent of warm weather and summer vacation. I like raspberries and strawberries, personally. There's also the bonus of getting sucked into the delusion that putting fruit on cake makes it healthy. Which is totally accurate, right? Riiiight.

And there's so many other things that are wonderful about summer. Summer dresses, summer storms, summer road trips, summer sporting events, summer weddings... the list goes on and on. So soak up your summer! Get outside and do something that looks like it could be a spread in a home-living magazine! Roller blade! Bike ride! Jump rope! Hop scotch! Drink scotch! Whatever you need to do to enjoy this most wonderful time of the year, do it! Marvel at this world in its peak of alive-ness. And don't forget the sunscreen! (mostly note to self.) Happy summer!

1 comment:

  1. Favorite part about this post? Your high school pride. Clap-clap-clap clap clap.

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