my summer, in retrospect

That's right I'm back. After a little more than a month long hiatus, I hope to start posting more continuously. That sounds pretty ironic because I just started school, which means I'll have less time, but this also means I'll have more time to procrastinate, i.e post. Starting school has also inspired me, due to the fact that I'm now chalk full of cynicism and spite, since I'm rather perplexed about starting up school AGAIN.

So before I start spewing bitter and spiteful idiosyncrasies, I will reflect on my summer, in all it's glory.

Ahhh summer, by far my favorite season. Being that I've been in college twice as long as the lay person, without having yet attained a degree, summer means more to me because I don't have a real job yet. Sure I go to summer school and work part time, but that doesn't constitute the crappy "real world", where you find yourself in a daily drone which entails being crammed in a cubicle from 9 to 5 . The commencement of summer for the college student is pretty much grounds for ape shit time. Cramming for finals and all the suffering leading up to it is a great way to gear up for getting plastered daily for 3 consecutive months with no real commitments to bog you down. The beginning of summer brings a sense of relief, a sense of freedom (although short lived) and detachment from all things obligatory. It's a mind blowing era of our lives.

After the June gloom clears the weather starts getting spectacular, especially here in San Diego. I fondly look back on my numerous weekdays at the beach, with a 12 pack of Tecate beer, a few limes and a packet of cigarettes. I don't smoke, but this summer I REALLY indulged in most of the quintessential vices. It's not something I'll be able to do often, or really plan to, but let me just say that getting wasted on the beach is freakin' awesome. If you get a chance, please do it. I have a beach that I frequent called "windansea", which I adore. It is a small, private looking beach where the waves tend to break right on the shore. The surf is only for skilled, due to the rough tides, so it attracts a lot of veteran surfers. The water and it's surroundings is one of the more beautiful settings San Diego has to offer, in my opinion. It also doesn't hurt that the people who attend this beach rank super high on the attractiveness scale, for the most part. When else but summer, would I get to lie on a beautiful beach an average of 3 times a week, soaking up the sun with a beer in my hand and the salty mist hitting my face, while numerous pieces of eye candy parade around in front of me. This is happiness.

Beer. I love beer. Beer beer beer. Get into my belly.

I drank copious amounts of alcohol this summer, but of all the spirits that were most frequently consumed, beer and wine took the crown. The wine did not stop flowing in summer of '05. I attended a wine festival in Ensenada, a wine tasting tour in Livermore, CA and a kick butt wine and cheese party hosted by a close friend of mine. I drank the stuff until my teeth turned purple I tell ya. I had the opportunity to sample many different types of wine, so I guess that makes me somewhat of a connoisseur. My love for wine is unprecedented, and even more so now that I have a little wine sampling experience under my belt. Thanks to all the tastings, I have a new found appreciation for white wine, which I never was a real fan of before.

Nothing accompanies a good buzz better than some good food. I ate like a queen these past few months. What I love about summer cook outs is the smell of the barbecue grill. Even a vegetarian has to be able to appreciate the smell that exudes from the grill cook out; it's capable of activating any set of salivary glands. You could roast dead squirrel on that thing and it would still smell bitchin'. It's a beautiful thing. When it comes to food, I don't mess around. I can eat. And this summer, I ate. On a really good day, I once ate 6 fish tacos, sushi, 2 scoops of ice cream, a hot dog from a street vendor, some candy and washed it down with a couple of beers. I don't know why I'm not obese. I love food! During those moments where I sat and consumed endless burritos, grilled steaks, pastas, seafood platters, hearty breakfasts and the occasional gourmet dinner, I experienced the warm and fuzzy tell tale feeling of true happiness. Nothing beats a good meal.

Going to shows is one of my priorities in life, but in the summer, the need to see shows amplifies 10 fold. I lost mucho cash to ticket master, but it was worth it. This summer I was able to check off Prefuse 73, The Faint and Bright Eyes, Digable Planets, Cafe Tacuba, Kinky & Eli Guerra, Femi Kuti, Mos Def, Transglobal Underground, Heiroglyphics and Los Amigos Invisibles from my 'to see' list. I feel that I didn't get to see all the shows that I wanted to, but my checking account only allowed so much. It was amazing to see Digable Planets reunite after so many years of absence; they were incredible and sounded better than ever. Kicking off the summer concert fest with Prefuse 73 was a treat, because I got to see this very amazing and experimental group of musicians perform at a place called the Casbah. The Casbah is a beautiful thing, because if you're blessed enough to stumble upon a talented band before they blow up, you may be fortunate enough to see them in a small and reasonably priced venue such as the this. Small venues rule all. Once the venue gets bigger the distance between the band and their fans, both literally and figuratively, grows big time. When in a small venue like The Casbah, you are right there with the band, on the level. None of that looking up at them from a distance malarcky. You could reach out and touch them if you wanted to.

I was super pleased with all the shows I went to, except for Mos Def. Mos Def really pissed me off because the anticipation I felt before seeing him perform was so great, due to the high amount of praise he received from fellow concert goers who had seen him before, and the amount of respect he's attained in the hip hop community. I blew off studying for my Animal Physiology test for him, because I felt he would be worth it. I was wrong; he sucked. First of all, he did the premadonna thing and took 3 and a half hours to get his ass on stage. Then he wasted more time by lolligagging around with a bandana, telling jokes and playing Michael Jackson songs on a boom box. Mos Def, you blew it! I got a C on my Bio test because I went to see you suck ass on stage. Eat me.

My final hurrah in terms of summer came with a road trip to the Bay area. I visited San Francisco for the first time in my life, with a stop in Big Sur on the way home. Two of my friends and I left San Diego for the Bay area at 1am on a Friday morning and pulled an all nighter like the hardcore bitches that we are. Having always heard about San Francisco and being told I would really find myself at home there, I had relatively high expectations going into the trip. I was not disappointed. I loved it there. My feeling is that I need to live there at some point in my life. Those are my people! San Francisco has a very urban metropolitan feel to it, it reminds me of the east coast. The weather is colder so I think the people that it attracts are quite distinct; very artsy fartsy. I was able to visit Haight and Ashbury, buy some albums at the Amoeba record store, have clam chowder at Fisherman's Wharf, see the Golden Gate Bridge, Chinatown, downtown and the Mission. I drank Hefeweizen at two bars and got smoked out in a back room of a restaurant by a random dude named Marty Party. It was all kinds of awesome. My whirl wind trip ended with a drive down Highway 1, right along the coast. A stop in Big Sur was necessary and worthwhile. To observe nature and revel in its beauty is something that I don't do enough. It's fulfilling to do so, because you can take everything before you in, and just shut the fuck up for a minute while you reflect on life and the beauty it holds. Even if it was just for 3 minutes, I did just that and walked away from it just a little more changed as a person.

This summer was a blur of emotional melt downs at work, late bed times, musical discoveries, meaningful conversation, dancing until dawn, late night walks, warm sweater-less evenings, great reads, fervent laughter, seaside sunsets, indulgence, vulnerability and self discovery. I can't wait until next summer.