Pep Talk #20: Brave New Summer
The great frontier.
It is now June, in case you were unaware. Usually I would know this sooner, because school would be ending. One year ago, however, I stopped going to school, probably forever (unless I go to grad school… should I go to grad school? FOR WHAT?), and time is a lot harder to keep track of. I still feel an involuntary lurch of fear/arousal coinciding with the temperature increase, but there’s no sprawling three months of freedom to satisfy it, just an appreciation for stores with AC and more couples in the park day drinking and lying on top of each other. OMG YOU GUYS ARE SOOO CUTE! I love watching strangers make out on a ratty towel 7 feet away, so thank you for that.
Yesterday I ate two tacos from a truck while walking home and wondered if that meant I was moving too fast and not being truly grateful/appreciative of the moment because I could, in theory, eat the tacos at home, at a table, sitting down, maybe even with someone, like my roommate, but the idea of the tacos being outside of my body for a full 20 minutes made me want to jump off of a bridge.
I live in fear of “The Day Getting Away from Me.” Each day that passes is one day closer to death, so every time you allow some part of the day to slip through your fingers, a part of you dies. This is why “the day” is something to “seize” and not something that “happens to you.” This is why working jobs that require you to say, “Anything else I can get for you?” and “How can I help you?” and “My pleasure” and “You’re all set” for 6 straight hours can, in some cases, turn a person into a watery piece of bread.
Anyway, summer without college on the horizon makes me think of summer in the suburbs, which always translated, for some reason, into hanging out on people’s trampolines at night. On one of these nights, someone brought their light up JBL speaker and their parents’ vodka that they had replaced with water (OK GENIUS?!?). We were listening to Long Time (Intro) by Playboi Carti from the album Die Lit. I can’t remember what we were talking about, but I remember that there were stars, and that I felt okay, which was rare for me in high school, and I was also aware that I was going to remember lying on the trampoline in the future.
I also have a different summer memory on a different trampoline in high school where someone was playing STOOPID by 6ix9ine as a 16-year-old boy explained what a “bubble butt” was. I remember being shocked that there was a categorization system (a taxonomy, if you will) for women’s butts. I remember wondering what else I didn’t know.
Here are some signs in my neighborhood and why I like them:
BTW if anyone is seeking a beer can designer, I would love to actualize my dream of designing a beer can… click this link to see my watercolor paintings…
PS: cartoons!
Please like and restack, if you feel so inclined :)
Cap’n Crunch is almost perfectly square. Maybe that’s what you’re not supposed to feed the birds?
last week I went into a restaurant and ordered one taco and waited for it at the table and ate it in less than a minute and left. it brought me great joy and nourishment within that minute but also might have tasted better outdoors. it was mostly lettuce which although I enjoyed the taste and texture of made me question if I'd gotten my moneys worth. I read this post at work from behind the bookstore info desk and it made my shift much more enjoyable thanks