2. summer is also the time for magical connections between two people that would usually not be made otherwise. opportunities and situations present themselves on those hot days and nights that would never arise in the other nine months of the year. you find your summer-self behaving in ways that your fall-, winter-, and spring-selves would either shy away from, sneer at, and avoid completely, respectively.

say, for example, you’re at the house of a friend of a friend, enjoying a cool drink inside their well air-conditioned den. your friend and your friend’s friend are hitting it off and having a great time all on their own. you, too, are enjoying yourself, watching reruns of a favorite show while sitting next to the friend of the friend of your friend. he offers you a sip of his imported beer, and, seeing the big drops of condensation slowly sliding down the crystal clear glass, you can’t help but lick your lips in anticipation of the rich, dark refreshment. even though the air-con is on full blast, you realize that you’re still pretty stuffy and maybe it’s a little cooler outside. so you take the offered glass into your own hand and, while the glass is being transposed from one owner to the next, your fingers brush against his. you raise the glass to your lips but then realize that you’d much rather be outside. so you get up from your seat and head for the door, hoping that the friend of the friend of your friend follows behind you. when you open the door, you breathe in the sweet, night air and feel the cool breeze wrap you up. behind you is the friend of the friend of your friend. he shuts the door behind him and watches you as you finally take a sip of the indian pale ale he is so graciously sharing with you.

as you sip from the tall sweating glass, he says, “man, it’s hot out.”

finishing the sip, you reply, while looking down at your exposed toes (because you’re wearing sandals), “sure is.”

you look up at him, he smiles, and says, “uh, you’ve got a little froth-stache.”

embarrassed, you raise your hand to your mouth, ready to wipe the offending new accessory. before you can do the job, though, he grabs your hand and intertwines his fingers with yours. “wait,” he says. so you become this subservient version of yourself for a moment. with his free hand, he places a curled forefinger under your chin and uses it to tilt your face up. you think that this is the part in the movies where the girl gets kissed underneath the cloudless night sky when you can see so many stars, but then you feel that he’s really kind of just kissing that funny spot between your upper lip and nose, your cupid’s bow. and then you realize that’s perfectly fine because that part of you never gets properly kisses so you’re not going to complain.

“thanks,” you say as a hot flush creeps across your cheeks.

“no problem,” he replies.

when you realize that he still really hasn’t moved away and he’s standing a little too close, you look up at the sky because you can’t really stand looking into his eyes because you’re sure you’ll fall right into them and never get back out. as your heart rate slows, you decided to try to look at him. he, too, is looking up at the sky, at the stars, at the endlessness of it all. you see the taut skin that stretches over his adam’s apple, and you can’t help yourself. you bring your lips to that esophageal protrusion and get to know it.

after you get walked to your side of the car later that night by that nice young man and after he kisses you goodnight, you drive away with a warm feeling in your stomach that has nothing to do with the weather. there is some magical force that is pulling up the corners of your lips, whether you like it or not. then you realize that had it not been for the warmth of the summer breeze or of the position of the moon and venus in the sky that night or the freezing air inside the house or the shared pint of beer or that feux-froth facial hair, perhaps you would never have done any of the aforementioned. hypothetically, of course.

but that’s just what summer is known to do to people.

3. about three halloweens ago, i dressed up as an electrical outlet. silly, i know. it was a total diy last-minute costume and to kind of spice up the whole ensemble, i donned a long black wing with blunt bangs across the forehead. stupid costume aside, i thought i looked pretty cool, and it was mostly because of the wig. so that night, i kinda decided that i wanted to have my natural hair just like that. long, dark with bangs. fast forward to last summer and my hair is getting pretty darn long. i have never had successful bangs but i put on a brave face and head to the hairdresser’s. with me, i take my bff zooey deschanel (a picture of her anyway) and say, “i want those layers and i want those bangs.” she looks at me. “please,” i finish.

when i walk out of the salon, i feel awesome. that wonderful cathartic feeling that comes with shedding some hair buoys me for a good week. the next couple of months, however, are filled with me complaining about my goddamn bangs and how annoying they are and how they’re always in my face and some days i wake up and they’re just being totally uncooperative and now with these bangs i can’t skip out on washing my hair because then they get really oily and it looks like i have nasty grease hair and whydidievergetthesestupidbangs???

it’s been about a year since i got the bangs and i’ve grown them out. mostly. i can almost completely tuck them behind my ears and i can pull them up if i want to have an alarmingly high bun or ponytail. i miss them sometimes because i think i looked pretty okay with them.

now, though, my hair is kind of long. as in, down to my waist long. and i don’t know what to do with it! i’d love to do bangs again but they’re more trouble than they’re worth.

4. so this is potter-tastical year. in two days, it will be the 1-month anniversary of universal studio’s wizarding world of harry potter theme park. my brothers and i are planning a short vacation over to the park next month and we’re all stoked! the park was completely designed with j.k. rowling signed on as a consultant so everything’s got her stamp of approval. even the butterbeer is supposed to taste exactly how she imagined it. in her mind! j.k. rowling’s mind! butterbeer!

later this year, in november, the seventh installment (and part 1 of 2) of the film series will premiere. harry potter and the deathly hallows should be an amazing film and i can’t wait for it to come out.

5. i’ve come to the conclusion that ever july, i go into a mini-depression. luckily most of my friends are away for school or visiting family or something that takes them away so i’m allowed to sulk at my own leisure. this month i’ve been missing my younger brother like crazy as he’s currently on an epic road trip with my dad. one of my bffs is flying up east to visit her family, another is in california doing some crazy internship at a hippie school. another bff just got married and moved to florida and another one is in spain. i miss them all terribly, but this allows me to kind of feel sorry for myself and also really concentrate on my class and get an a+++.

+1. if i don’t update for the next month and a half, enjoy the rest of your summer and remember to free yourself to all opportunities!

2. The semester is fast coming to a close and I can’t wait. The long semesters always drag forever. I just want it to be over already. Although I hate summer with every fiber of my being, I always enjoy taking summer school because of its brevity.

3. My car was out of commission for a few weeks. On a night out with some friends, it just mysteriously stopped working. For a while, I couldn’t figure out what to do with it. Since I’m a mess when it comes to dealing with cars, I was just asking my parents to tell me what to do. They kept trying to get these flakey mechanics to come do a house call but they always bailed. Because they’re flakes. It had been pretty upsetting. Finally, I got it sent to a local reputable auto shop but, to repair it, it was hellishly expensive.

4. Since the repairs turned out to be so expensive, my grandmother offered to help me out. I said yes, but only on the condition that I would be allowed to pay her back. She didn’t want to agree to this at first, but she compromised, saying she’d let me pay her back half the original amount. It’s still a lot so I’m thinking I’ll get a second job for the summer.

5. Mad Men is returning July 25th! Awesome, right? I can’t wait.

2. This cinematic genius, Eli Roth, is currently dating a disgusting English socialite, notorious for poor behavior and drug abuse. Now, there are many reasons why I find her to be unworthy of his attention, but if I really went into all of it, I’d hate myself. I don’t want to waste effort writing about her, but I really think Eli could do much better.

3. I know this is a little late as the Academy Awards were almost a month ago, but I really want to go see Tom Ford’s directorial debut, A Single Man. As I live in a culture-less city, of course, the film never made it to theaters regardless of the fact that it was released in December of last year. Not only do I feel that Tom Ford is a talented individual and that is good enough reason to go see the film, it also stars one of my favorite actors Of All Time, Colin Firth. In the supporting cast there is also the fantastic Julianne Moore and the charming Matthew Goode.  In short, it has all the makings of a movie that I seemed to be programmed to love. Unfortunately, however, it seemed I would simply have to wait for the dvd or something because I didn’t know how else to see it. Earlier today I was checking the movie list on Fandango because I really want to watch Clash of the Titans, only instead of looking at those showtimes, I see that our local dollar theater is currently showing A Single Man! Isn’t that great? I really want to go see it tonight so, yes, I will be doing that definitely today. I’m sure I’ll love it.

4. I’m a pretty poor blog keeper. Clearly. Since I was about twelve (ten years ago!), I’ve kept some form of online diary. As horrifying as the idea is, it’s true. There are bits of me scattered all over the web, most of which I couldn’t find if I tried. None of them, however, have I ever had to pay for up until this blog. I have been paying for it for about seven months now, and I need to use it! I’m going to try much harder after my winter hiatus. I just wish there was some program on my computer that I could have that would just pop up every day and not leave until I’d written something substantial. It’s not that I find myself at a loss for what to write. No, that’s not it at all. I’ve got words coming out of my ears. I just think I’m easily distracted and I really have to sit down and concentrate on doing a simple task like writing a fairly unsophisticated blog entry like this. But, yes, from now on, I shall try to keep regular posting.

5. This month has come with crazy awesome magazines. On PAPER, Beth Ditto is on the cover. Nylon has Zoe Saldana; Esquire has Tina Fey; Details has Sam Worthington. These are the four that have caught my attention. I know Shia LeBeuouf is on the cover of GQ but, eh, he’s not that great. Of those four first mentioned, I only have PAPER, thanks to a gift subscription. I need to go get the other three. I read the article on Zoe from Nylon, and it was really good. She seems like a really rad person. I could have dedicated a whole FF bullet on her, but I didn’t want to make all five them totally related to films. So, yeah, go out and buy a good magazine because that industry needs support!

2. this past week was the last week of classes at my school. this really makes me happy. next week, i only have four finals to worry about: two on monday, one on tuesday, and one on wednesday. after those four puppies, i’ll be done for the year. i won’t have to work about school again until late april next year when spring semester finals are coming around. after school lets out, though, the administrative offices stay open for an additional two(ish?) weeks and i’ll still be working. this is pretty awesome. if i wasn’t, i’d be totally smagotally broke. i mean, i could go work at my grandma’s place for extra cash, but eh. i’m looking for the winter break either way!

3. speaking of winter break. in the third week of december, there is a very special day that happens. lots of people celebrate and it never fails to bring a warm, happy feeling in the pit of my stomach. the day that i’m talking about and that you should already know??? my birthday! this year, i shall be celebrating my 22nd birthday on the 22nd of december. i think people call that the Golden Birthday. whatever that means. i’m pretty excited about my birthday, because i always am. it’s a great day. i’m just worried that it will be an anticlimactic after last year’s The Big Two-One, the real golden birthday where i was finally legally able to buy alcohol and go to most alcohol-serving establishments. i mean, twenty-one is a big deal for lots of people, myself included. but what exactly does twenty-two entitle? i don’t know. i’m looking forward to it anyway. it will be fun.

4. today while i was at work, i was doing the very tedious task of going through packets of faculty evaluation forms, making sure that all fields had been addressed and that all the bubbles had been penciled in completely. exciting, i know. on a serious note, though, i much prefer doing this task than finding myself task-less. i hate sitting around idly in my office with nothing to do. after a few hours of this, i started feeling my writing (right) hand cramping up and the callous on the left side of my middle finger where a writing utensil has rested for the past eighteen years was feeling particularly rough. i wanted to let my hand rest, but i didn’t want to look like i was slacking off. instead, i picked up a pencil with my left hand and started filling circles. i realized that this wasn’t too hard of a task and a thought occurred to me: i should try being able to write ambidextrously! so, something that i’ll be working on during the winter break will be my left hand handwriting. i can write. it just looks like a child’s handwriting.

5. so it’s the first week of december here and it’s finally getting cold here. i’m happy! there were lots of rumors of snow in the south texas area last night. i didn’t believe it (i was right, no snow), but i’m just happy that it’s getting to be under fifty degrees. it’s so friggin hot here the rest of the year, that i just shiver with excitement at the thought of cooler temperatures. people here are really sensitive to the cold. as soon as it gets under sixty degrees, they break out their delta vega/hoth-parkas, crank up the settings on their heaters, and lace up their fur-trimmed snow boots. it’s a little ridiculous. i like to enjoy it a bit more. yesterday, all i wore was a v-neck with a cotton vest that serves only for fashion statement purposes. i did get a bit cold, so today i wore a hoodie. at one point i started getting a little warm, so i just walked around in a tshirt for a while. it was awesome. i love the cold!