Ah, summer! How I have missed the high temperatures, the chirping of bugs as the sun goes down, and the delights of eating ice cream like a messy 9-year-old! What delights await in the rising of the dawn each day?
I will always remember my summers growing up in Lakewood, CA, living just a few yards away from Bloomfield Park: a menagerie of wade pool, two playgrounds, table games, and picnic tables always full of parties with free food. I say free food, because if the party was a birthday party for a child, well, being a child, I was always invited to partake in the festivities. I'm sure I was mistaken as a friend of a friend, or as the daughter of a friend, to whom was invited to the party. Either way, I didn't care, as long as I got some free birthday cake out of it!
As an adult, though, summer evenings have become much more somber due to the fact that it is in the evenings when I earn my living working at CaptionCall as a Communications Assistant. A fancy title in a big company designed to relay calls for those who just cannot hear as well as they used to. That doesn't mean I can't spend my time dreaming of yesteryear, though.
In the relative coolness of the shade of a tall spruce, I used to sit and dream of becoming an adult. I wouldn't have anyone telling me what to do and not to do, how to dress, where I could and couldn't go. My 9-year-old self could not comprehend societal rules and norms to which I followed because my mom told me to follow them.
Now I realize that there are certain things we do and there are certains things we don't do, as adults, because it is not considered 'acceptable.' Who decided that it was unacceptable to spill ice cream all over the place like a 9-year-old anyway? If I want to be a messy eater and thoroughly enjoy myself, well, that is my right as an adult!
My inner-child rejoices because I can finally do what I want, dress how I want, and go where I want.
So enjoy your ice cream, folks! Enjoy it however it pleases you best to enjoy it. I'm going to drown myself in rainbow sherbert and get it all over my face and lick my fingers clean!
