Sunday, June 20, 2010

Summer, Summertime.

I love Summer. Despite the intense heat and humidity, all the best, most amazing, most memorable moments that I can remember in my life have taken place during a multitude of summers. There were a variety of first kisses and summer flings, romances and loves. I got drunk for the first time the summer after high school. I gave my first blow job during the summer. The summer after freshman year of college, we took a Memorial day weekend trip to Seaside Heights that was a total shit show and we never went back again. My summers consisted of all kinds of crazy adventures with friends, trips, fights, makeups, breakups, love, sex, silliness.

From about age 14 to 23, I worked at a summer camp as a counselor with some of my best friends. Once we could drive, we started getting into all kinds of trouble. And once we could get into clubs, it got even worse. (and by worse, I mean more amazing.) Most nights during the week we would just hang out in our area, driving around, getting food, maybe going shopping, getting our nails done, going to the gym, or just being lazy. But once Friday afternoon at 4:30 rolled around, we would rush home after work, get all dolled up and head down to the City to go clubbing and hang out all night. We'd straighten our hair and put on makeup, our cutest jeans and tops, Diesel sneakers and our little purses and hop on the 6 train into Manhattan. Once we knew people old enough to buy booze for us, we'd sneak drinks on the train by pouring them into Sprite or Coke bottles, or the occasional slurpee from 7-11. We'd drink and laugh and generally irritate anyone around us on the subway who was heading home from work. Kim would do her daredevil Superman hang off of the subway pole thing. We'd get to the club and dance all night; house stepping in the ballroom at Webster Hall, grinding in the basement and rocking out to 80s hits on the main floor. Then we'd leave, pass out on the train home and hit up the diner - my usual was always either grilled cheese & fries or breakfast: two eggs over easy, toast, bacon and home fries.

There were lots of beach trips where we'd sit in traffic going out to Jones and get burnt to a crisp, then go to Palladium/Arena or North Ave (when they still existed) or White Plains to drink and hang out and party. One of our coworkers from camp was a bouncer at a bunch of the bars, so we never worried about getting carded. And another coworker was a bartender, so we always got free drinks. Linz's house was always good for drinking when her parents were out of town. (and then getting naked in the hot tub.) Steph's was fun to chill out and watch TV and play Mario Kart til 3 am.

Then all the fun came to an end. Everyone got adult jobs or moved away or got married or we drifted apart from each other and so there went all the summer fun. I had several summers for a while especially where I worked 7 days a week and didn't get to the beach once. (I still tried to make the summer as fun as I could, although it just wasn't the same.) I wish I could take a time machine back to those moments where everything was so fun and carefree, and instead of worrying about bills and rent, the only thing we worried about was how we were gonna get booze and what we were wearing that night.

Tonight is the official first night of Summer; The summer solstice. Here's hoping that this summer is just as memorable as summers past.

2 comments:

  1. I love this entry!

    My favorite summer thing: sitting in a parking lot eating soft ice cream outside with your friends.

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  2. Mmmm! Ice cream is the best in the summer! The sound of the ice cream truck was always so Pavlovian. Plus, in summer, I'll get into these "too hot to eat real food" moods & a twisty cone with sprinkles always hits the spot.

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