40 Things Everyone But You Is Doing This Summer
Eating corn on the cob and getting nothing in their teeth at all. Not even having to check that there is corn on the cob in their teeth. Knowing that theirs is a cornless smile. Being confident in a cornless smile.
1. Finding perfectly ripe avocados on sale. They are scooping out the pitts, creating no irregular divets, leaving no flecks of greeny goodness behind.
2. Raising their arms to the cloudless sky, in jubilee.
3. Laughing.
4. Oh, yes. Tossing their heads back and laughing. Clear, bright laughs. Like a chorus of mermaids. Like a bell buoy on a breezy morning. Like a happy gull! Caw!
5. Lying in soft, soft sand. The grains do not adhere to their skin. The grains simply fall off, and do not remain anywhere inconvenient.
6. Holding hairless arms with many bracelets over heaping plates of fruit.
7. Holding hairless arms with many bracelets over heaping plates of fresh herbs.
8. Consuming so many fresh herbs. Fresh, fresh, fresh, fresh herbs.
9. Making the absolute most out of every weekend.
10. Getting lots of things done. Placing cups of iced coffee (condensation-free) on the butcher’s block kitchen table. Beside that, placing a Macbook Pro with a perfectly clean screen. Typing quickly. Getting everything done in plenty of time.
11. Gathering fresh-cut flowers. Placing them in a vase, perfectly trimmed. Snippity-snip. Perfect and in a vase and fresh. Fresh.
12. Finding a summit, and hiking to it.
13. Taking long trips in the car with their friends—their many friends. They have many more friends than you have. They are convening somewhere surrounded by a copse of oaks, cars parked on gravel paths. They are gathering in shorts and t-shirts that look so casual and so comfortable. They are casual and comfortable as they stand half in sun and half in the shade, not sweaty, not chilly.
14. Gathering around the campfire, with each other’s company, with no cell phones. Just love and fire. Just love and fire and smiles and friends.
15. Playing songs on the guitar. Not the same songs you always hear. Not Wonderwall or Wagon Wheel. They are playing creative songs, songs you wouldn’t even think of, even if you had a lot of time to think. And yet, everyone there knows the words. Everyone is singing along. Singing and laughing and laughing.
16. Staining reclaimed wood in the garage.
17. Drinking frothy summer ales at tables by the shore. All of the legs of the table are the same length.
18. Belonging. No matter where they go.
19. Fitting in. Deserving it.
20. Running their long fingers through soft, sleek, frizz-less hair. Their long fingers are clad in many rings.
21. Walking down the lane with ice cream with their two best friends. Casually holding the two-scoop cone in one hand. It does not drip. It simply sits frozen, but not too frozen. It is soft and perfect for licking. It is not too little or too much.
22. Running through the waves with abandon.
23. Finding the sandbar. Not looking for the sandbar. Simply stumbling upon it. Below, in the sand, a starfish winks up. Hello, starfish. A hermit crab waves. Hello, hermit crab.
24. Riding on a boat! Perfect day for sailing! Perfect day for a sail!
25. “Hangin’ With The Fam!”
26. Holding a clean baby cousin and laughing. The baby cousin is not laughing. The baby cousin is looking mildly bemused, which makes everyone laugh even harder, except for the baby, who is still bemused. The baby cousin’s cheeks are flushed pink. The baby cousin is not oozing in any way from any part of it.
27. Kissing a lover. Kissing a lover wherever and often and in many differing states of dress and undress.
28. Wrapping their arms around one another as they stroll over the boardwalk.
29. Sitting in a hammock with one another, perfectly comfortable, not having to move, not having to adjust, just lying there. No need to worry about rope marks on their arms and legs. Just being.
30. Sitting on the porch and enjoying all things, utterly free of care.
31. Discovering new uses for coconut oil. New uses. New recipes. New manners in which to rub it on the skin. New manners in which to rub it in the hair. Rub rub rub.
32. Crafts!
33. Saying yes to crafts! Saying yes to crafts with rope! Saying yes to crafts with sand! Saying yes to crafts with anchors!
34. Throwing a lawn party. Playing croquet ironically. Playing cornhole ironically, also. Two different kinds of irony in one garden party. Droll!
35. Collecting several perfect sea shells. Laying them out in a line. A line of perfect sea shells.
36. Making corn on the cob with vibrant, unexpected spices. The spices are adhering to the corn. The spices are not falling off the corn. The butter is not falling off the corn.
37. Eating corn on the cob and getting nothing in their teeth at all. Not even having to check that there is corn on the cob in their teeth. Knowing that theirs is a cornless smile. Being confident in a cornless smile.
38. Carving watermelon into several nautical shapes.
39. Fun-running.
40. Taking the bike out. They’re just taking the bike for a spin with the fam. It’s so fun to see a new side of this city, of this town, from the saddle of the bike. What a day they are having. What a magical day. What new things they are discovering. What new things they are seeing, saying, thinking, feeling, together and without you. What sights. What afternoons. What a summer. 
