Favorite Things of Summer

The fun truth, is that even if the weather isn’t summer weather right now, summer is right around the corner. That means longer days, warmer weather, going to the beach, and a million other little things. In honor of the approaching summer, I thought I would talk about some of my favorite summer things.

• Grilling. I love when we grill food. We have burgers and hot dogs and cheese dogs. (I really love cheese dogs.) We make kabobs. We make barbeque chicken. We make not barbeque chicken. It’s just really good seasonal food that makes me happy.
• Going to the beach. I’m not the type of person who goes to the beach and spends all day in the water. But I am the type of person who packs some books and magazines, maybe a deck of cards, and goes and spends a day at the beach. Plus, I love people watching at the beach. I love snack shack food. And I love enjoying the outdoors without having to be too outdoorsy.
• Lazy days. I’m not lazy. Not even a little. But what’s great about the summer is that I can have lazy days. I love being able to take a whole day and read. Or veg in front of the TV and not feel bad. I love spending entire days with friends or going on summer adventures.

Those are three of my favorite things about summer. I’m sure that there are other things I love, and I’m sure that I’ll share them with you as summer continues.

What are some of your favorite summer things?

BrittanyM

Wrapping Up Summer

This is my last week of summer. Next week I have class, and the week after that I start my internship. I’m excited for all of this, and I think that it’s all going to be wonderful. I’m especially excited for my internship and for going to work at my old high school. I think that it’s going to be such a great experience, and that I’m really going to learn a lot.

But before my fall adventures can start, summer has to end. That sounds a lot sadder in writing than it did in my head. But at the same time it’s true. Normally my birthday signifies the end of summer because it’s at the end of August. But this time, I think that my class signifies the end of summer, and my birthday signifies the end of the in-between period.

With my last few vestiges of summer, there are some things that I want to try to fit in. They’re things that I try to do all the time, but I know that it might be harder once my classes and my internship are going on. Here they are:

1. Read. I love to read. I always have. I just went to the library today and checked out 5 new books. I can’t wait to read them and be swept away in their stories.
2. Spend time with family and friends. It’s not that I don’t spend time with family and friends. I’m always trying to spend time with family and friends. But I want to get some quality time in now before we’re all so busy. I especially want to spend some time with one of my nearest and dearest friends who’s moving to Brookline in a couple of weeks.
3. Take time to write. I always try to write. Sometimes I’m better about it than at other times. Lately I’ve been good about blogging and about writing in my journal, but I haven’t been as good about writing stories and poems. All the different types of writing are important, but I want to try to fit them all in in more balance.
4. Appreciate the little moments. This is something that I really want to work on. I often get swept up in the chaos and everything that I have going on. It’s easy to get swept away with my classwork and my to do list and things that seem important and sometimes are but sometimes aren’t. I want to take the time to appreciate the little moments – a good joke, a pretty sunset, car rides with my family, a good cup of tea. I want to take time to NOT be swept away in the chaos of every day life.

What about you? Do you have any special way that you’re wrapping up summer?

BrittanyM

Summer Snapshot

There are probably a million awesome things about summer, and everyone probably has different things that they would rattle off. I thought that with June right around the corner, and the promise of warm weather lurking somewhere not too far away, I would talk about a couple of my favorite things about summer.

1. Warm Weather Clothing: Anyone who knows me knows that I love blue jeans and scarves and my peat coat. But what’s really great about summer is the change in clothing. I love to wear skirts and dresses, and there’s no better time to do that than summer. The warm weather hasn’t quite surfaced yet, but I have faith that it’s coming, and I can’t wait.
2. Pedicures: Mom and I do get pedicures sporadically when it’s not summer time, but we’re really good about going once it’s summer time. I keep my toes painted year round, but in the summer I get to wear sandals and actually show my pedicures off. And I think that’s pretty awesome.
3. Sunshine: I know, the sun shines year round, at least where I live. But what’s great about summer is that it stays light late. It means that Mom and I can go for walks later. It means that I can wear my sunglasses longer. It means that there’s better light to take photos by with my friends. It means a lot of really great things.
4. Popsicles: I’ll be honest, I don’t eat a lot of popsicles anymore. But I do remember being younger and eating A LOT of popsicles in the summer. And a lot of different types of popsicles at that. So when I think of summer I think of popsicles.

I think that’s a good snapshot of summer. The real question is what would all of you put in your summer snapshot? Let me know in the comments.

BrittanyM

Best of Friends

It’s easy to think that as life goes on and people get older friendships will fall apart. Life gets in the way of keeping in touch with people. You don’t have things in common anymore. The connection just isn’t there. Luckily, I haven’t run into that problem yet. Instead I spent tonight with four of my best friends from high school. We had dinner, hung out and we talked and talked and talked about everything. Yes, we’re growing up. In less than a year we’ll all graduate college and move into the next phase of our lives. And chances are, that phase won’t be the same thing for all of us. Chances are some of us will go to grad school, some of us will get jobs, and some of us will do something else. We’ll move to different cities and set up homes there. We’ll make new friends, but we’ll keep the old. Because we’ve made it this far and we care about each other. We’re sad for each other when sad things happen, and we get really excited for each other when great things happen. Because that’s what friends do, and when it all works correctly it’s pretty awesome to have friends. I know that I’m glad for all the wonderful people in my life.

BrittanyM

Those Hazy Lazy Crazy Days of Summer

If you’ll all remember, a while back I was asking for summer weather. I was tired of the cold and of the gray and I wanted warm summer weather. I kind of might be taking that back now. Lately it’s been hot. It’s been humid. It’s been hazy. And it’s a little gross. When I said summer weather I meant the nice summer weather. Summer weather where it’s warm but not hot and it’s not so humid that everything sticks to you. So needless to say, I’m a little frustrated with the weather right now. It might seem kind of silly, but we’re having a heat wave. And it’s just getting to be a little ridiculous. Luckily, it’s supposed to rain this weekend and then the weather is kind of supposed to go back to normal, whatever normal is. And to me that sounds pretty awesome.

BrittanyM

Goodbye June

There are a lot of different things I could have written about tonight, and I decided to go with the fact that June is ending. It does seem as though the month just started and in just a few short hours it will be over. And with the end of June comes the halfway point in my summer. I’ve already been home almost two months, and before I know it I’ll be back at UCONN. It’s crazy to think that so much of my summer has gone by, and to think about everything that I’ve done.

Since coming home in May I’ve started my internship, caught up with friends, spent time with family and taken on babysitting and plant sitting jobs. Summer’s been great so far even if the weather has been a little back and forth between good and bad. And there are so many more things the summer holds for me to look forward to. More beach trips, seeing my friends who have been abroad and lots and lots of fun. Summer might be halfway gone but it’s been great, and I can’t wait to see what the next two months hold.

BrittanyM

Beach Adventure

I live near the beach and have for my entire life, so going to the beach during the summer is a pretty normal occurrence for me. Today my mom and I went, and we went early enough to get lunch there. Again, this is something we do regularly during the summer, and normally it wouldn’t be noteworthy. But today’s lunch was a comedy of errors and adventures. First, a seagull stole my hotdog. Yes, it swooped onto my table and stole half my hotdog. And it was an ENORMOUS seagull, so the experience was pretty terrifying. And then to make matters worse, after my mom and I moved far away from the seagull, we (with help from the wind) spilled half of our french fries. Clearly lunch was not something that was supposed to happen today.

Beyond that though the beach was great. The weather was awesome and it was great to just sit there with a book and enjoy. I’m looking forward to doing it many more times during the summer.

BrittanyM

Summer is Flying By

It’s hard to believe that I’ve been home a month and a haof already. Summer in college is long, but as with everything else time seems to fly by. I’m home, my internship is going well, and life is pretty grand right now. I’m working hard and I have time to have fun, and that’s how summer should be. Soon summers won’t be as innocent and carefree as thnow are right now, and I really want to enjoy every minute if this summer while I can. Summer is a time to have fun, and that’s what I’m working on doing. But at the same time, my internship is great and I absolutely love it. All in all summer is fabulous and I have no complaints.

BrittanyM

Midweek Exhaustion

Currently I am exhausted. My head hurts and I’m tired and all I really want to do is curl up and sleep. Even though it’s only Wednesday it has already been a long week. There was the boat adventure yesterday (and what an adventure it was) and then today quite the number of things managed to happen. I slammed my head getting into my car this morning and spent most of the day with a bump on my forehead. (I wish I was making that up.) I did work for my internship. I spent some quality time with my family. And then I went and covered an event for my internship which took slightly longer than I thought it would. And of course the day ended with more family time and some writing.

I love the busy days because without them I get bored. But I also like to have a balance between busy and quiet time. Without the balance I get a little restless. So I’m working hard to achieve the balance and in the meanwhile I’m pretty happy. My life is really awesome.

BrittanyM

Daily Adventures

Usually my daily adventures consist of working on making my to do list smaller, running errands, spending time with my family, and doing work for my internship. Today my adventures consisted of ten hours on a boat, my first ever ride on a boat (that I’ll actually have memories from) and eating alligator. Yep, alligator. It was in the chowder I ate. And I’m glad I didn’t know that in advance, because I don’t think I could have consciously eaten alligator. That being said, because I didn’t know it was there, I can’t really tell you what it was like. Which, honestly, I think is a good thing.

Alligator adventures aside, my ride on the Schooner Mystic today was great. It was longer than I expected but I met some really great people, ate some great food and the weather was gorgeous. I didn’t plan on spending my entire day on a boat (8 am to 6 pm) but ultimately it all worked out fine. I made some new acquaintances/friends and I’m going to write a story about all of it for my internship (which is the whole reason I was out on the boat in the first place). So all in all today was a good Tuesday and at the end of the day I’m exhausted but happy. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

BrittanyM