Summer Solstice

Today was the first day of summer, aka the best season of all seasons, mainly because the days are longer, there’s more vitamin d to go around, and it usually involves a beach or a vacation at some point, which most importantly (let’s be real), leads to a tan.  It’s noteworthy to state that my date of birth is the day before summer, therefore the second longest day of the year, therefore a sign that the universe just can’t get enough of me. (…just kidding).  But really if you’re born on December 22^nd, which is Winter idk, winter solstice or winter wonderland or something, you get seriously snubbed out of daylight.  Unless you live in Alaska, which either stays dark or light 24 hours for some ridiculous period of time.  I’d look into the exact details on that, but really, who actually gives a shit?  When is anyone under the

age of 75 going to Alaska?

If my memory serves me correctly I actually remember HATING last summer, because it was So. Damn. Hot.  I was counting down the days until winter.  And then winter came, and I was like, wait this seriously sucks.  I wake up at 1pm, and it’s dark an hour later.  It’s like I’m not living at all.  But I can’t be a downer, and hate every season, because that would mean I hate life.  If you hate winter, you hate 25% of your life.  If you hate winter plus summer, that’s 50% of your life.  That can not be healthy?

So the options are to either to move to a more regulated climate, or suck it up.  Therefore I am sucking up the unbearable heat and humidity that is sure to come this summer, and I am enjoying everyday of summer…potentially.  Including rainy days, because that means I have more of an excuse to support my television addiction.

So where am I going with this blog post, now that I’ve officially displayed I have some form of ADD?  Well, in honor of such a noteworthy and wonderful event of the year, I decided I needed to celebrate.  Doing a rain dance in woods was completely out of the question.  Camping was even more completely out of the question.  So I decided to go to the zoo, which is a magical place because adorable and exotic animals are close enough for you to look at, and far enough away where they don’t attack you or require touching them.

Walking around looking at peacocks and lions, I realized life is so great at the moment.  I am so lucky I don’t have a mom that wears a visor.  Or have a family that wants to camp. And I don’t have to live in a cage, away from my natural habitat and have to be stared at all day by a bunch of sweaty strangers of a different species.

So Summer Solstice was a success, because my mind was reborn.  Realizing summer isn’t that bad in air conditioning.  When times get tough, and by tough I mean a temperature of 85 degrees or higher, I can now just think to myself…at least I’m not a zoo animal, and thank god visors and fanny packs are out of style for my demographic.

Dealing with Loss and the Infamous One-Upper

            Everyone deals with the passing of a friend or family member at some point in his or her lives.  Some are harder or more devastating than others depending on how close your relationship, but either way, the bottom line is- it sucks.  Well most recently I was unfortunate enough to experience a loss of an older family member.  I didn’t think I would be so affected by it.  I mean not to be blunt, but she was old, it was time, it seemed almost better this way.

     Strange no matter how hard we try, we can’t control our emotions, our thoughts, or our feelings.  Time and space exist only in our minds, but our bodies operate on their own scale.  It’s weird how when someone passes away, guilt comes into the picture.  You wish you could have given more love, you think you should be grieving more, and then a small part of you thinks you’re being somewhat dramatic, as death happens to each and every person.  You cry when you’re not supposed to, and stay dry eyed when you feel like you shouldn’t be.  And why is it you start to miss other people in your life that are long gone?  Isn’t there a cut off date of when the grieving stops? 

I feel like grieving the loss of someone is the only problem people don’t try and one-up you on or judge you about.  It’s almost comical really how people always try to make out their lives to be “so much harder.”  For example if you say: I’ve been really depressed lately.  Boom, the one-upper goes on a rant about how their getting thinking about electro-shock therapy.  I have a sore throat, they have tonsillitis.  I only got 4 hours of sleep, they’ve been awake for 36 hours.  I had 4 wisdom teeth out and couldn’t eat for a week, the one-upper instantly rebuttals: I had 6 out and lost movement in my jaw. Where does this shit come from?  Like come on.  It gets to the point where I just want to say something ridiculous, like “I was once a starving child in Africa for a year.”  You can never beat starving children in Africa. I'm sorry you just can't.  It's an untouchable rebuttal.

But the passing of someone close to you is the one thing we all seem to connect upon and understand.  You don’t have to explain your feelings; it’s just a mutual understanding amongst humankind.  And somehow despite the tragedy, you’re given a much-needed sense of clarity, as if the veil has been lifted and suddenly you see how much love there is in your life.  The little things aren’t worth it and don’t even really seem like problems anymore.  So let the one-upper have his or her moment to be self-centered.  It weeds out the genuine from the non-genuine.  A person who actually cares about what you’re telling them won’t try to one-up you, they’ll just listen :)  

Rebirth

In difficult situations we can either hold it together or we can fall apart.  Someone once asked me, if I preferred the highs of life or if preferred the lows of life.  I was stunned.  Because I actually I had to think about it for a moment.  Of course I preferred the highs of life, but did I?  It’s so easy to feel sorry for yourself, it can become somewhat soothing after awhile.  50 years from now, will this bad day matter?  Will what I’m stressing out over, even be relevant in my life?  No, it really won’t.  What will matter is whether or not you kept your character throughout.    

Let go of what you can’t change.  Stop making excuses for other people or things that are out of your control.  Sometimes you have to pick and choose who is worth giving your empathy to and who is worth forgetting.

Moral of the day: Keep calm and carry on.  

Keeping it Under Control During a Heat Wave

So it’s been a little hot lately.  I don’t do well with heat.  And by heat, I really mean anything over 70 degrees.  I was just not made for hot weather.  I don’t quite get it.  I mean how do people in India survive?  Actually how do people in Florida survive?  I’m perfectly tanned, in shorts and a t-shirt, and I look like I’m about to melt.  And I look over and see someone in jeans and a sweater looking like they could use a jacket.  I just don’t get it.  People must think I’m on drugs, and that going through withdrawal or something.  No I just get really hot.

So a few days ago, it hit, I don’t know 90 going on 110 degrees.  I laid on the floor, with a fan against my chest, blowing what felt like hot air onto my entire body. I was too hot to move, too hot to think, too hot to speak, too hot to function.

Normally when in a less than spectacular situation, self-medication is on its way.  Buts it’s too hot for any of that.  My pillows feel hot.  The air feels hot.  My bottle of water feels hot.  I really just don’t understand how they survived before air conditioning.

            So naturally I took the next step, and I started googling symptoms of a heat stroke.  I took my temperature and it was almost 99 degrees, and that’s almost 100 degrees, which is almost a fever.  Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to believe that I needed to be hooked up to some type of IV, even Wed MD implied I was overreacting.  When Web MD tells you it’s not a big deal, that’s a serious sign to calm down.

It can be argued that more crime occurs in the summertime.  I can completely see that.  The heat transforms me into a monster and I’m relatively easy-going, I can only imagine what it does for someone who is a normal member of society.

So to prevent any additional malicious behavior, I simply embraced the heat.  I just let it go.  Let me be hot.  Let me just sweat it out and accept it.  And like clockwork- the heat wave ended.  Go figure.  However, I now have a full stash of frozen items that I’ll be ready lay onto my entire body when next heat wave hits.  Moral of the story: Always be prepared.