Summer

SUMMER

·      Flip flops- I love flip flops.  I wish I could wear them all year long.  They offer me a freedom and when I have to go back to my shoes in the fall, I just want to cry.  They are so restraining.

·      I don’t wear shorts.  No matter how hot it gets, it is never warm enough for me to wear shorts.

·      Rita’s Water Ice- they only make one kind of sugar free ice and they always cause a brain freeze but it love that ice cold sensation on my tongue.

·      Sitting on the beach and just day dreaming.  I don’t go in the water anymore.  That stopped when I was 35 and had to be pulled out of a riptide in the ocean.

·      The pool opens up at my apartment.  I do down there around5 PM when the sun is not as intense and everyone else has gone back to their apartment to freshen up for an evening on the town.

·      Fourth of July brings specular fireworks.

·      I don’t wear shorts or sleeveless blouses because my skin is too fair and it just burns in the sun.

·      I don’t use air conditioning which is a constant surprise to everyone.

·      When I was a kid, we went to the movies every Tuesday night during the summer.

·      I went to summer school a lot as a kid.

·      I graduated from college in the summer.  I took a semester off and had to back up my time during a summer session and I loved it.

·      When I was working, I took a big trip each summer for 3 or more weeks.  That was great fun.

·      Corn on the cob, tomato sandwiches and grilled hotdogs were my summer foods.

·      We have a family holiday, Root beer Day, on August 5.  Every year, we drink a root beer in honor of each other.

·      I kayak mostly during the summer.

·      I love my garden, and in the summer, it is bursting from every inch of the yard.  I overdo it every year.  I have mostly perennials but I do plant some annuals and I fall in love with every damn plant.

·      My sister got married in July at my parents’ house at the beach and it was great fun.

·      My parents had a home on Long Beach Island and I spent my summers there in college and then every weekend as an adult.

·      I love the long days of the summer.

·      And I love waking up to the sun that been up for a couple of hours before me.

·      When I go swimming, I cover up; I wear a long sleeve shirt and a hat and sunglasses.  I do everything to protect me from the sun.  I don’t wear sun screen because it gets in my eyes and burns.

·      My birthday is in July and for some reason, people let me celebrate this event for a week.  It falls near July 4^th and everyone is off and up for a reason to drink beer with me.

·      There was often a big crowd at the beach house on weekends and I loved these moments. Sometimes there were 15 of us in the house.

·      My uncle owned at hotel at the beach.  We would go there on Sunday mornings and take over his little café and we would stay there for hours as he prepared blueberry pancakes and mirmosas.  We loved those moments.  One year, we went there and he had turned the café in to a laundry room.  We were devastated.

·      My nephew, Jameson, was born in July.  He was the first grandson to be born after my mother died.  And it broke my heart that my mother would never know him. And he would never know her.

·      I worked at Howard’s Seafood Take Out Restaurant in Beach Haven. They made French Fried Lobster which was delicious.

·      I worked at the Crust and Crumb Bakery in Beach Haven. Sometimes we called it the Crust and Crud Bakery.

·      I worked at Hartman’s Amusement Park in Beach Haven.  And those men were pigs who were vulgar to women.

·      I was a high school principal and one of my schools started before Labor Day and the other school started after Labor Day.  Schools should always start after Labor Day.  Summer isn’t over until Labor Day.