Summer People

I think having been born in August has given me a bias towards summer.  The day I was born was probably a really hot one with the grass completely brown from thirst (not unlike August 2010) and humidity so thick in the air that it was like an invisible cloak.  I'm sure that I came out screaming with joy that it was just as hot outside of my mother as it was inside, and thus a lover of all things summer I was born to be. 

I feel like I can make a good case for summer, even to a winter person.  For one, there is the whole no-school thing.  Even when you are a slave to the man working a nine-to-five all year round, you can still see the sparkle in kids eyes when it comes to endless days of no homework.  Sure, there are summer camps, but it's called summer camp, not summer school, in order to trick kids into not realizing that they are learning about things like survival skills, world history, or space travel. 

And summers provide lots of opportunities to be outside.  Sure, winter people can say that they have snow skiing and building snowmen, but I think that swimming, boat rides, picnics, and baseball games have a more broad appeal.  Between the fact that I'm prone to sprained ankles and that I'm a summer person, I never had any desire to learn to snow ski, anyway. 

Then there is food.  Now, I'm not just talking here about what you can get on the corner farm stand (although I haven't been shy about my preference to shop from what's available locally), but summer makes me crave foods like mangos, creamy avocados, salty tortilla chips, margartas (rocks with salt), and pretty much anything else you'd imagine eating at a resort in the Carribean.  Because in the summer, you can sit outside and eat it here and feel like you might actually be there.

We had some mahi mahi fish tacos last night and even though the end of September is creeping up on us, I felt like summer was still lingering here with me.  Winter people--who are savoring every day that the temperature dips a few degrees lower--are really missing out.