Summer Is X-tremely Fun

The older I get, the more I realize how much I really love summer. Granted, I prefer to live in a house with central air, because I'm pretty sensitive to temperature, and because heat exascerbates insomnia. But I tend to be a happier person in the summer months. When I look back at my favorite memories, aside from the many, many Christmas-related ones, the majority involve being outside, in the sunshine, usually in the summer.

Five years ago, heading into summer, my gaggle of girlfriends in Boston all decided we should embark on "The Summer of X-treme Fun" or "SOX Fun" for short (a play on words, since we're all obviously huge Red Sox fans). And at the time I was living that summer, I think I did consciously realize that it was a very fun summer, but because I was enduring the end of a bad relationship, its final demise and the immediate aftermath of that, I don't know that I fully appreciated it the way I can now, with the distance of years and the insulation of a good relationship (no better way to really highlight the bad than to compare it to the good that came after).

That summer began with a trip to Nantucket for my friend's 30th birthday. We went Memorial Day weekend, or FIGAWI weekend, as it's known. For the unititated, Figawi is an annual regatta on Nantucket, known for its chaotic nature (The name originated from the saying, "Where the figawi?"). On the way to the island, my then roommate and I flew on a 9 passenger plane with Tom Brady and his then girlfriend, Bridget Moynahan. This was 2004, so Tom was obviously at the absolute pinnacle of his cache. So...pretty cool way to kick off a summer of x-treme fun.

And we continued to have an absolute blast all summer long. We drank wine on my friend's "roof deck" (In Beacon Hill, pretty much any roof you can access is referred to as a "roof deck."). We searched out cute boys (for several of us, it was our last summer as single girls before getting together with the men we'd eventually marry). We walked the esplanade and occasionally enjoyed free concerts at the Hatch Shell.

Additionally, that summer, I had one of the most fun vacations I've ever had. Two of my friends got married up in Bar Harbor, Maine, and a group of us spent the week prior to the wedding up there. We hiked (and I conquered a fear of heights by doing a hike I'm told is notoriously terrifying to heights fearers), we swam in a resevoir (conquering another fear of mine, of dark water), we played bocce at one of the coolest outdoor bars I've ever been to, and we just generally enjoyed time with our friends.

That summer also marked my first trip out to the Hamptons. My sister in law threw a surprise 35th birthday party for my brother. We all went down and had our first (of many) beach clambake. It was a truly phenomenal weekend of perfect weather and family partying.

I've always loved summer, but I really think that, as far as my adult life goes, that summer was the one that put it over the top. Since then, I get more excited as summer approaches. Now I know the endless possibilities. It's not that I want to go back to that time in my life. You couldn't pay me enough to do that. But I remember with such fondness the various adventures and shenanigans, and I appreciate the things I learned about myself that summer - both inwardly and outwardly.