Saturday, July 2, 2011

In the Summertime, When the Weather Is High...

Summer evokes images of sprinklers, beaches, flip-flops, ice cream, cold beer, and alfresco dining. I love these things, but sometimes, even on a beautiful Saturday or Sunday, I don't feel like doing anything but watching TV. Such was the case recently. Someone who will not be named said I was wasting the day. This person opted to attend a beer festival. I got offended (big surprise). I was dwelling in the depths of a hangover from the night before. On days like those, the last thing I want to do is throwback some bubbly or crack open a beer. Other days, I can warrior my way through the initial, bitter sips. Therefore, the two questions I'm asking myself are: Does drinking have to be involved in most or all of your summer activities? And what does it mean to waste a day in the summer?

Drinking on nice summer days, when the sun shines long into the evening, is not the only fun activity available to people, at least not in my neck of the woods, Seattle. Oh, Seattle—a wonderful, water- and mountain-filled part of the great Pacific Northwest. Hundreds of activities, from hiking through rainforests and simple beach trails to attending Sounders games and tulip festivals, await you in this region. A little something for everyone. Because of the variety of things to enjoy here, choosing not to drink should hardly turn into a problem. (However, one of the best moments on any given July or August day happens when you pour cold beer, maybe Abita Amber, into a frosty mug. You pick up the glass, the handle cool and wet in your hand, bring the mug to your lips and let the juice of gods slide over your tongue and down your throat. The cold makes its way down to your belly, and you let out a resounding, "Ah." Back to the subject.)

And I think most people agree because a lot of summer activities for adults have a theme of alcohol running through them. House parties always offer drinks of all kinds. When I go to the beach, I generally bring a bottle of wine. If I don't, one of my friends does. Plenty of fellow beach goers follow suit. Festivals abound, Seattle hosts tons of these events every summer—Ballard's Seafood Festival, Italian Festival, Bumbershoot, Hemp Festival, Tattoo Festival, Seafair, and Folklife, just to name a few. Though drinkers are herded into beer gardens, fenced off or caged from the rest of the community, these spaces always gush with people wanting to take a load off and sip some beer. Additionally, there's no shortage of pubs and restaurants near any given festival in any given neighborhood. Usually, those same pubs and restaurants will extend their happy hours. Gods forgive them if they don't.

I say this: Drinking is not a necessity for fun on summer days. However, it's probably the most popular and by far the most accessible. (If I want to climb Mt. Rainier, I can't go to my fridge to do it, duh.) I do not want to say that alcohol is pushed on me by media and my immediate surroundings, but it totally is. Now, is drinking in the winter better than drinking in the summer? That's an issue for a different post. Start mulling it now, though.

But what if I don't want to drink or even leave my house? This brings me to my next answer re: What does it mean to waste a day in the summer? "Waste" in any form is such a subjective word. And for a moment after I decided not to attend the beer festival, I looked at the rest of my day as wasted. And then I thought some more.

As I sat in my front yard, sweating out my hangover and getting some badly needed vitamin D, occasionally playing with my dog and spraying him with the hose, I thought about what else I could do so as not to waste the day. Playing with my dog, lying on a blanket in my front yard, reading a fresh copy of Us Weekly, and listening to my iPod turned out to be my Saturday cup of tea. There's nothing else I could have done that would have satisfied me as much as watching my Corgi try to kill the hose stream or reading about Jennifer Aniston wrecking marriages even though she knows what it's like to be cuckolded. (Yes, I realize she's a woman and technically cannot be cuckolded, but deal with it. Sexual equality calls for us to use the term for both parties. I say to you, go and cuckold and be cuckolded, regardless what set of privates you have.) I needed not drink nor company to squeeze the last drop of fun out of my Saturday afternoon.

Why do people use the word "waste" when speaking about daytime activities or the lack thereof? Isn't our goal to relax on the weekend or whatever day(s) we might have off? Is it because of our parents? Is it because when we were little we had endless energy and the thought of not playing outside during a nice summer day sounded ludicrous to our sun-burned ears? Whatever the reason, we must stop. If someone wants to sit on the couch and look out the window every hour, let her. Don't act spiteful, but feel free to be disappointed.

Relax in your own way.

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