Summer days drifting away...

When you are a kid, summer is the greatest time of the year. When you are an adult, it seems as if summer is just a nostalgic memory.

The best summer I ever had was the summer after 8th grade, before I began high school. It sounds like it would be some "right of passage" type of summer, instead it was the last time spent with some of my bestest friends before we all had to attend different high schools in the fall. Every day seemed to be filled with something fun, even if it was just riding our bikes to get a Slurpee. This particular summer was one of the best summers for movies (I am going to date myself here...) This is the summer that my friends and I saw Grease 32 times! Yes, we PAID to see Grease 32 times, by the end of the summer we would go see it at the Drive-In (again, I am aging myself) and would sing along and dance around the car. "Greased Lighting" was especially fun at the Drive-In, we had a car to use as a prop! Grease and Slurpee's were not the only things that filled our summer days, we spent plenty of time at the beach. Not being able to drive ourselves, we relied on "older brothers" to take us to the beach. This meant a bunch of teenage girls riding in the back of a truck down to the beach. Again, un-heard of today, ILLEGAL today! That summer was filled with friends just being together, enjoying the day.

I am experiencing a summer like that now. The last couple of weeks have been sprinkled with days not unlike the days of that summer so many years ago... There was the day Joey and I sat at "Table 9" on the patio at La Palapa on the beach. Darian and Jakki joined us later and we all sat there watching the sun fall into the ocean. There was the day Nicole, Amy and I went to Disneyland and went on no rides, but had a VERY fun time. There was the day that Jen, Valerie, Toni (Valerie's daughter) and I went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. We could not WAIT to see the movie, we are all such HUGE fans! The movie did not disappoint, though I won't be seeing it 32 times! There was the fun day at the beach with Jen, Owen & Edie, who joined Ruby & I at Mother's Beach. There has been Concerts in the Park, breakfast or lunch or dinner with good friends, sleep-overs with Ruby (watching Grease till we fall asleep, of course!) and a very fun "game night" with the girls. I have not ridden my bike to get a Slurpee, but I did ride my bike to get a cupcake!