Sunday, July 12, 2009

The Slacker's Guide to a Successful Summer

Ah, right in the midst of another summer. This post is dedicated to all the slackers out there who get out of school or take the summer off and just enjoy the dog days of summer.

1. Go swimming. Whether it be the local community pool, the beach if you're on a Coast, the YMCA, the elegant McDonald's Swim Stadium at USC, at a swim camp, or just the swimming hole near your house that periodically fills with water, make sure you go swimming in the summer. Unless you're Michael Phelps, other professional swimmer, or certified fish, summer will be the only time you go swimming. So channel you inner Poseidon/ Aquaman (I've been watching too much Entourage the last few days) and put on your trunks.

2. Eat Hot Dogs, Ice cream and watermelons. Something about the summer, July 4, and screams these foods for me.

3. Baseball. Comes in many forms, skill types, sizes and time commitments, including minor league baseball, your favorite pro team (if you're in LA, the Angeles were recently rated the most fan-friendly franchise in all of sports), rounding up the usual suspects in your neighborhood to go play (a la the Sandbox), sitting at home playing fantasy baseball, collecting baseball cards, or just simply bringing the gloves out and playing catch, baseball is very summer-friendly. Couldn't have imagined my own summer without it.

4. Summer Festivals- Check your newspaper, talk to your friends, go down to the barber shop, just listen around, and you'll hear of your community having a festival/fiesta/fair. Ferris wheels, cotton candy, face painting, sweet corn, dunking contests, carnival games, the aforementioned hot dogs and ice cream, bumper cars, every festival has at least a few or all of these things. Do it to it.

5. Water gun fight: wait for a really hot day around mid-day or so, or 2:00PM (hottest time of the day), when the water will feel like salvation, and it's so hot that the water will dry before you even get home. Perfect.

6. Car washes: easily could turn into a water fight.

7. Summer Romances: lot of the previous stuff had a guy bias to them (consider the author), but this one is on the Venus side of the sex balance (maybe 50-50 cuz most relationships need man and woman). Many summer flings turn into lifelong bonds. But most are just summer flings, and there's nothing wrong with that.

8. Sleeping: When you have all the time in the world, saving some of it for a snooze is warranted; better now than during 3rd period math class in the school year (although being the slacker's guide, some might argue that sleeping in class is better.

9. Summer vacations: The summer vacation is unlike any other time of year: make sure the destination is right. For the sensible travelers, switch it around and go somewhere cool: save LA, Florida, and the hot-temperature countries from when you need a break from the winter blizzards, go to Alaska, or Canada, Greenland, or (gasp) the North Pole!

10. Old television re-runs: with the major networks taking a break from pounding you into submission with new shows and every-week-there's-something-you-gotta-watch-cuz-it's-all-new-and-everyone's-talking-about-it, time to crank up that old show that you never had time to get to, plug it in, and let it wash over you.
10b- Reading: Perfect for kids to do in conjunction with a summer reading program. Voracious readers like myself can devour quite a few books in the months that you get.

Above all, have fun, live your life to the fullest, make sure you enjoy what you're doing, and create some memories. And oh,

Fantasize on,
Robert Yan

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