From the RevGalBlogPals:
1. Favorite summer food(s) and beverage(s)
Foods: I am loving Breyer’s fruit bars right now. All natural, not too large for the girls to handle, 40 calories, refreshing.
Homemade ice cream.
Guacamole.
Gazpacho sounds good to me.
That broccoli salad with the bacon.
I could live the rest of my life without eating watermelon.
Beverage: Margarita, though not this summer.
I am addicted to Perrier at the moment, since I don’t do soft drinks, coffee or tea, and I am really getting tired of water.
2. Song that “says” summer to you. (Need not be about summer explicitly.)
Any college friends who read this will laugh, but… Don Henley’s “The Boys of Summer.” Grand Poohbah of our group of friends played this song constantly one spring/summer, but it’s nostalgic in its own way: “Thought I knew what love was; what did I know… Those days are gone forever, I should just let ‘em go but, I can see you…”
Also REM’s “Nightswimming” because it reminds me of the CGs and the circumstances under which we became the CGs. That was ten summers ago.
3. A childhood summer memory
I remember a rosy evening when all the kids on our block were on our bikes, and we just rode up and down our street again and again playing “tag.” There was a slightly older boy that I liked and I let him tag me. I still remember the tap on my shoulder and the puff of breeze as he whizzed by.
Incidentally, years ago I heard Peter Buck describe the writing of the song “Perfect Circle”:
The most moving moment I’ve had in the last couple of years was at the end of one of our tours. I hadn’t slept in days…. I was standing in the City Gardens in Trenton, New Jersey, at the back door, and it was just getting dark. These kids were playing touch football, the last game before dark came, and for some reason I was so moved I cried for twenty minutes…. I told Michael [Stipe] to try and capture that feeling. There’s no football in there, no kids, no twilight, but it’s all there.
It really is, because that song has always reminded me of reading my bike that night, of evening softball games…………
4. An adult summer memory
Someday I want to write about this more fully, because it was a cool tradition that began spontaneously…
Each year on the night before college graduation, we would send off the graduating seniors with a campus tour. We’d just wander aimlessly and see what happened. I remember a climb on the statue in the middle of the quad, and one year we ‘broke into’ the stadium and ran around. My personal favorite activity was going to the geo building and jumping up and down in unison to get the seismograph needle to move.
5. Describe a wonderful summer day you’d like to have in the near future. (weather, location, activities)
My entire family is coming for the fourth of July, and I’m looking forward to tailgating somewhere in the area and seeing fireworks together. There are lots of places where people in the suburbs go to see The Fireworks without going all the way downtown.
I’m also looking forward to Scotland of course, but a highlight will be July 27, after the week at Iona, when we will find some little Scottish bookshop and buy The Book.
Those are both likely to happen, so I’ll imagine a mild day on the Chesapeake, just a few wispy clouds and low humidity, with the girls playing in the sand and water. After a picnic lunch we return to a cool, dark, air conditioned place where they take a long nap while I read on a porch, accompanied by a light breeze. Then we eat some righteous seafood and hit the sack early. (This is very similar to a day we had with C several years ago—I am not very imaginative today.)
Optional: Does your place of worship do anything differently in the summer? (Fewer services, casual dress, etc.)
Pretty much no.
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Asides
» I have been remiss in posting SBJ’s latest stats: 23 pounds and 27 inches at six months. Yes, I’ve got the big mama biceps.
» Aaaaaand little she-who-is lost another tooth this week!
» SBJ is four months old, 19 pounds 5 ounces, and 26 inches tall. GIGANTOR!
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Y’all jumped up and down to make the seismograph needle move??? Guess everything they say about Geek U is true.
Sorry about the college world series loss and the margaritas!
Jumping up and down to get the seismograph needle to move strikes me as a very “Rice” thing to do.
kids napping, good book, and cool breeze. sounds lovely.
“Nightswimming” is one of my all time fav songs. My hubby doesn’t “get it.” The thought of buying HP in Scotland sends chills up my spine! It would be too cool as Z says. Nice play!
We’re looking forward to getting the book as well. My younger sisters (twins - a la Fred & George) have been ordering the Brit versions of the series online.
The last time we were in London, we picked up a couple spares, too. I’ll try to ignore the pangs of jealousy for your trip
that dream summer day sounds great!
Ah, The Book!
A WEEK on Iona? Oh my. Take snacks–lots of fresh fruit, granola bars or other cookies that you love, etc. And take your warmest flannel nightgown, and socks to wear in bed. The coldest (and hungriest) I have ever been was on Iona in July. Of course, the food may have improved, and perhaps they now provide blankets…
cool!
I hear you on the endless glasses of water. And an amen to the watermelon. I’m going to go look for those Breyer fruit bars, because those sound really good.
Though not an alum of your alma mater, that sounds like something we would have done…
I am exceedingly jealous about your trip to Iona. I have been dying to go back for…oh, several years now. The two happiest summers of my life were spent there. (I was neither cold nor hungry, though!)
I second your watermelon answer. Why? Why eat that? It has neither pleasant taste nor nutritional value…
Oh, “Nightswimming”…
Hadn’t thought of THAT, but now I’ve got a whole OTHER batch of memories rolling around! Thanks!
does tonic count as soda? if you’re sick of water and don’t drink soda you could try lemonade and tonic or o’doull’s amber—a nonalcoholic beer that is quite tasty and refreshing. we enjoy both of these.
we also enjoy the italian sodas from trader joe’s or wegman’s, but they are indeed sodas, so might not please you.
i think soft drink mfgrs should make a non-sweetened soft drink that a person could sweeten as she pleases. i think all soft drinks are too sweet (either w/ sugar or w/ non-sugar substitutes). if i were in charge of the world, i’d have them do this.
I love your memory of playing outside in the summer.
You climbed on Willy? (gasp)
Some other seniors once actually turned him around, but I think that was a bit before your time.
A whole week on Iona…I am so envious…I hope we can go back someday.
Please post the broccoli and bacon salad recipe!
I like Breyers fruit bars too. They are my treat when I know I should NOT be snacking on other bad things around the house!!!
Scotland and HP sounds absolutely wonderful…
d