Summertime!

Well, we've reached the halfway mark of the summer, and I have had some thoughts, believe it or not.  You could say this is a midsummer day's post.  

p.s. this post is dedicated to my niece who shares this title as her middle name (exclamation point included. just kidding, but what if that was true??  What if my actual given name were "Jennifer!" ha haha. Even better if your name had a question mark and you made everyone say it that way. Hi, my name is Jen?  i think i'm onto something here. )

1.  First of all, i have a pair of sunglasses.  They're black.  I don't know where they came from because they're not really mine.  But i wear them. See, I found them in my car one year, a couple of years ago. We had gone camping with some friends and it was around that time that i found them so i asked these friends if the glasses were theirs. They said no.  Really? I wondered. Because who else's could they be? i am certain i asked everyone who they could possibly belong to.  So, since no one claimed them, i wear them, cuz they're cool.  But every time i do i get a little paranoid that I will wear them around the real original owner and they will see me and know i am wearing their glasses and think me a thief.  But i tried!  So, they're kind of tainted. But i still wear them. I guess all sunglasses come with some risk, after all.

2.  I have these ice cubes that aren't really ice cubes. Hold on, Jen! you are thinking. What could you mean?  Well, i'll tell you.  They are these.   These are the handiest things i've ever purchased.  So they're water-filled plastic cubes.  You put them in your freezer and freeze them. Then, when you need a cold drink, say, lemonade, you put them in. Not only do they chill out your drink and make it fun with their frosty blues, they don't dilute your drink!!    I know!!  I'm still in italics!!  

Also, they're super handy for cooling down hot soup. You may put real ice cubes in your hot soup but guess what? Same thing, these won't dilute your soup. Also, am i going crazy or did dilute used to have two l's??  there are just some words that i am certain were spelled differently in an alternate life. 

Guess what else they're good for? Teething cubes. When they've melted down a bit.

Guess what ELSE? I put them in a little insulator bag i take on long outings and they keep the food cold and again--NO MESS!  I can't stress enough how much i love them. It might be silly, but is it? is it?

3.  I have Suave Shampoo. It smells like coconut. It smells like summer. It costs like $2.  It immediately takes me back to the summer of '01 when i in college taking some summer classes and studying by the pool every day.  It probably sticks out so much in my "smemory" (smell/memory) because i did a lot of poolin', and therefore did a lot of hair-washin'.

4.  There are few things better than a summer rainstorm.  We've had a few this summer including a real doozy. Like, lightning hitting around the perimeter of my apartment, i'm sure, and incessant booming thunder. Something i love about these storms is the beginning of them. The clouds are swarming, the sky getting darker, and oft in the distance, the thunder begins. It's a low rumble but it becomes loud and quick, far off but looming.  I looove that. And then i thought, why do i love it? And then i thought, you know what that reminds me of? A T-rex! Periodic ominous tremblings getting louder and scarier. And then i realized my question was answered.

5.  Sean has been working on a project (pictures to come) and he told me he was going to "spaint, i mean, spray paint it"  and interjected--"No no. Spaint it. Perfect."

6.  I have learned a valuable lesson this summer.  First, you should be able to recognize a hot pepper when you see one.  Perhaps assume all peppers are hot? I'm not sure. But it could save your life. Our garden neighbor friends are out of town so we're "taking care" of their garden (aka, eating all the stuff) while they're gone. I went out and grabbed two little miniature bell peppers--FALSE.  They were hot ones.  I sliced them and threw them into a bowl and forgot about it. Forgot until my fingers became literally AFLAME.  Holy shlamoli, so painful! So so painful!  We looked up remedies and they didn't work.  Luckily we had the olympics but even they couldn't distract me from my pain. It felt like demons!  The only thing i could do was rest my hand in a bucket of ice water. Finally we tried another remedy and it worked. Apparently--and remember this-- putting the firey fingers in olive oil for an hour will eventually do the trick. It hurt for a long long time so i didn't think it would work but at long last, the pain was gone, and how exquisite was the relief. In the words of Sean, "there's nothing like not being in pain."   So, take note.