I want to go ahead and give a shout-out to summer. I want to give a shout-out to daylight that lasts until after 9 pm. NINE PM PEOPLE. I want to take a second to remember winter when the sun sets at 4:30 and everyone is internally crying about it, and then I want to contrast that with how great summer feels.
Summer feels as great as the first sip of coffee in the morning, or for that matter the first sip (glass) of wine after a long day. It feels as great as finishing a tough workout because god dammit that was hard and I probably won't be able to feel my legs / arms / abs tomorrow (coughcoughhumblebrag). Summer feels as great as when you catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror after said workout and think you *maybe* see the hint of an actual ab emerging. Hallelujah! An ab! But then you eat breakfast and look again and realize it was all just an illusion...an illusion that was pretty great while it lasted.
This summer feels as awesome as the summer of '97 when my brother and I were on a mission to collect every mini beanie baby in the McDonald's happy meal collection, and for some unknown reason our parents obliged us in this goal. Many a summer night that year included McDonald's Drive Thrus, mini hamburgers, french fries, and the joy of opening up those intertwined yellow arches to discover which tiny stuffed animal had been bestowed upon us.
Summer now is as neat as childhood summers when my mom and I would pull over to buy ears of corn from the back of a truck we spotted on our drive home. It would be many years before i realized that not everyone buys their corn from the back of a truck, that you could actually purchase such produce at the grocery store. What a concept! Mind. Blown.
Summer at 26 holds a euphoria similar to that of hearing the ring of the last bell on the last day of school, when my friends and I would rush out of the building to the unknown magic that the next three months were sure to hold. By "magic" I mean late night Walmart runs, prank phone calls, visits to an abandoned house on the edge of town, swims in a smallish body of water affectionately called "the pit," and all of the other things us non-imbibing teens did for fun in the mid-to-late 2000s.
Yesterday morning I stepped outside, felt the heat and humidity and sun hit my skin and much to my shock actually enjoyed it. As a heat-averse person, this was a feat. In the afternoon I walked through an art festival with some friends and what felt like every other person in the city. Despite the crowded sidewalks and the sweat and the hot air, I came home feeling...happy? Tired, but definitely happy. Go figure.
There's really something about summer. Let's enjoy the s-h-i-t out of it. Okay? Okay.
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