How do you like to have fun in the summer?
What do you like to do for fun in the summer?
I am enjoying a delicious cocktail that reminds me of summer - The Bee Keeper (there are other more complex versions online if you like to get fancy).
3 parts gin (I recommend Death's Door!), 2 parts orange juice, 1 part honey simple syrup. Ice & shaker....party!!!
This weekend I may go play some mini golf or go to a local fair....hit up some estate and rummage sales and do some yard work. I also enjoy music festivals but that is for another time. To kick off summer this Memorial weekend I would like us to share some of our favorite summer activities! Maybe we will inspire each other to try something new! In the summer I farm! Besides my own large garden that keeps me busy, I get my butt out of my home office and work part-time on a local farm. The work is hard, rewarding, and like a mental vacation. This spring I tried foraging and found some edible mushrooms (morels) and greens I'd never had before which were incredibly tasty, and I'd like to continue that type of education.
This summer I want to finally get comfortable skateboarding. I bought a longboard last year and didn't get a chance to use it much before the weather turned crappy. I'm definitely an old dog that likes new tricks, I just have to find an appropriate place to practice where I can be an uncoordinated idiot in private. Also, I got a new kayak last year that I'm looking forward to getting in the water! The nearest city pretty much has music festivals every weekend, so I hope to get to a few of those, and I'd like to do some short-distance roadtrips, just see what's to be seen within two hour drives. There's a goat tower south of here I wouldn't mind seeing :D We painted the inside walls, brought in a futon couch and an old CRT television. Then we filled the whole thing with every single video game console we had, and lined the shelves on the wall with all the games. We strung Christmas lights throughout the whole thing and brought in a toaster oven for pop parts. Finally, we ran an ethernet cable from my friend's house to the shed so we could have internet access if need be. This was before WiFi was widespread, in the summer of 2004.
We found an old hidden rock quarry on a level B. A little while later there was this creep who started hanging out with one of my buddies (the rest of us hates this douche) he had stolen a rope off of a water tower. It filled a huge barrel. We went and bought 2 come-alongs. Attached rope at opposite ends of the quarry to trees and had a bad ass zip line. Ussd bike handle bars with a pulley attached using a clevis for easy rival from the rope. I miss that place. What's the appeal of summer when you're an adult with a full time job?
I've never understood why other adults love the summer so much. We're doing the exact same thing we've done all year, except it's hot outside. We don't get two months of vacation like we did when we were kids. We're not staying out all night having fun since we usually have somewhere to be in the morning. Most of the daytime hours are spent working, so we don't really get to enjoy the sun. Are you really having a "summer fling" if you only really spend time with the person on the weekend? I graduated high school in 2014 and immediately got a job and I haven't really enjoyed summer in the same way since. Same shit, different weather.
Well for me, I like the freedom of going outside in shirt, shorts and shoes. No heavy winter coat, no gloves or hat to keep track of. I can go to the pool after work for night swim and then there is the food! Fresh vegetables out of my garden, barbeque, lemonade and potato salad all the good summer foods. Band concerts in the park, little league games, the Fair, and just seeing the sun until 9 or later. In the winter we go to work in the dark & come home in the dark, so Summer is really nice. The summer between my 9th and 10th grade years I went on a canoeing/camping trip on the Suwannee river for 6 days. It was just six kids and two adults in four canoes. We traveled over 90 miles on the river. Camped wherever we found space along the banks. We got badly sun burned, rained on for two days, sang silly songs and learned the medical terminology for bodily functions. I was so glad when it was over. Swore I would never do it again. Fought like crazy the last few days with my best friend. It was a mix of just enjoying my time to relax and play video games (Pokemon), and playing sports. It helps that I grew up in a house with open fields literally out my back door, and the local kids (and Dads!) would often team up almost every day to play some football/soccer.
I never went far during summers unless it was with family, but then again I would have hated something like a summer camp. Totally not my style of thing back when I was younger. Same family trips too though, like to theme parks, unusual tourist attractions. Even just days out to the parks. Spending time even just exploring local areas with your kids isn't a bad idea at all imo. Skipping stones at the river with my Dad, having battles with various plants and sticky jack wars on the walk to and from the river. You can make a simple visit to a simple place memorable just by doing it with your kids. Maybe let them bring a friend along too.
My parents once sent my brothers and I to a week long back-packing camp. Hiking around from point to point carrying all our food and water was certainly a new experience at the time, and forced us out of our comfort zone (a good thing got teenagers).
My Student Council advisor sent to me a statewide "leadership camp" where i knew no one, forcing me to improve my social skills. Had a ghetto kid teach me the Crip Walk oddly enough. 13-15 is a good time to explore interests, get a taste of making your own decisions, and meet different kinds of people. Not old enough to be left alone to deal with more serious things, but not young enough where you just need to be entertained while your parents work.
When I was 15, my brother was 14 and we went to church camp one year. It was great! I was cheered on by the whole camp for burping the ABC's in one burp. We found this huge see-saw thing that 4 of us could jump on one side to send one person flying. One friend broke his ankle. It was great!
The most memorable part was when my brother and I decided to go to this big cliff over looking a river. We climbed down to see if we could. At the bottom we realized it was about to be food time so we needed to hurry back up. We decided to race back up the 100+ ft rock cliff face.
Each of us took our own route. He took the straight shot, where I decided it would be easier to loop around. I get to the top and proclaim my victory aloud. Then I yell for my bro to see where he was so I would know by how far I won. At first I don't get an answer. Realizing that I hadn't seen or heard him for awhile, my heart sank. I quickly hop down a few flights of boulders to where I though he should be coming up at. I yell again. He answers this time. Whew... I am relieved, but his voice still sounded distressed. His voice was coming from under me, so I get on my belly and stick my head over the edge to see where he is. Turns out he had hopped onto a ledge that he couldn't get off. There was an inverted, 10' flat face above him (where I was), an impossible jump behind him, and a curved jump ahead of him. When he was climbing he couldn't see how the gap he had to jump over was obstructed by the a protruding rock face. So he basically had leap a 6' gap and turn in mid air. It was like jumping from in from of the driver side headlight of a car to the passenger side window in one jump, without going over the hood. He was stuck. We had no rope. So, I climb on down and get footing on the ledge that he needs to jump to. I find a crack in the rock that I put my left hand into, and reach my right hand around the front bumper. Only my left foot is still on the ledge, my right foot pressed against the rock below my right hand. He places his back against the rock and reaches out with his right hand to reach mine. Only our fingers touch. I yell, "Are you ready!?" He just starts counting down from 3, "3, 2, 1.." He takes a leap of faith that I will be able to grasp his wrist, then pull him around the rock, back to where I am with one hand. We both squeeze to early hand have a hold of the bases of our thumbs, just below the wrist. Not the best hold, but with a death grip. He had leaped out and away from the cliff so that he didn't bump the rock and lose momentum. For a half second he was stretched out over a 100' drop help by my one hand. I do remember that looked pretty cool, like an action movie or something. I was able to pull him back in. He came in fast, and the small ledge was barely large enough for both of us, but we made it.
We climbed back up together and went to eat. No one saw us, or had any idea that we both could have just died. That absolute knowledge that someone was trusting their life entirely to you was something that I will never forget. I know when someone gets in the car with my now, they are essentially doing the same thing, but in that moment, there was nothing that sacred me more, nor made feel prouder to have his trust like that. It wasn't like the blind trust that my kids have when they leap off the bed and yell catch me daddy! I don't know, but it was pretty great. There was a giant blackberry thicket behind my house between my home and that of my neighbors (we were best friends at the time). In the winter, we'd cleared out trails to one another's houses, and by the summertime, the vines had grown back over in arches making faux-tunnels. We hung out there all summer in our secret little fort doing everything you could imagine. "Magical" is definitely the perfect word to use for it. I absolutely hate it. Besides the fact that I sweat like a pig, I can't do anything outside because it's just too hot. I don't like wearing T-Shirts and Shorts, I just feel uncomfortable in them. I want to wear sweaters or button ups and long jeans. I'm always thirsty in summer and last but not least there are massive amounts of people outside and everything is so loud. Also I constantly need sunglasses to see anything at all.
There aren't any places in my city in summer where I can sit alone on a bench like on colder days in autumn or winter. And don't forget these bugs that attack you from everywhere. Here's my current situation: I'm a university student who is on summer break right now. Previous summers, I would work at McDonald's for the July and August (highschool summers) but now that I have May-September off school I'm trying to use this time in order to develop strong habits for next school year (bombed this year).
I'm a bartender during the night at a popular club (I live in a tourist, beach destination in Canada) so my shifts normally start around 6 or 7 and go til 3.
My question is, instead of sleeping the day away what can I do to fill my time productively?
I currently exercise regularly (lifting weights at the YMCA), run whenever the urge strikes, and I'm practicing coding on codeacademy. Just starting. It's interesting me a lot, really. . but not something I want to wake up and work from 9-5 on before my real job. I also eat quite clean and avoid drinking most of the time, unless it's a special occasion like a buddies birthday. So my tl;dr question is this: how can I productively fill my time for this summer, and come out a better man than I was before?
Obviously my first step is waking up earlier. Have been reading tips on that from this subreddit (just discovered this yesterday). Any help you guys have would be greatly appreciated! I'm going to assume there's a reason you don't seem to think you have friends. It could be that they're all away for the summer, of course, or it could be that you're not very confident when it comes to making new ones. Social anxiety and general awkwardness is common in all walks of life - and it can be crippling (I know!). The reason I recommend LRP is that it allows you to step into someone else's shoes. It's like Improv acting, but cooler - and for longer stretches of time. You can don a mask (figuratively or literally) and be someone else for a weekend, which is surprisingly cathartic. You can charge into battle, pickle yourself in mead, sing around a campfire, argue fictional politics, plot, scheme and connive. The best part is that the people you face these adversities with will become some of the greatest friends you could ask for - and your 'how we met' stories will be incredible! The key is to find a good group. I can recommend some in the UK, but others exist worldwide - many of a very good quality (both in plot writing and kit). The stereotyped look and ridiculous feel of the hobby is becoming a thing of the past, and it's developing into a surprisingly mature and accessible pastime! The best things to do alone are retrospective. Hiking is one of those things since all you need is motivation and a backpack. Swimming is another since all it requires is a pool or body of water. The best thing to do is to take a hiatus. Go somewhere you haven't been before. It can be a fun park or just another city. The possibilities are endless in this endeavor since everything you do on your trip will be new and interesting. Remember it's not the destiny that thrills it's the journey. I didn't tell her where we were going; I just gave her the address. It was a strip mall with a run-down K-mart. I walked up to her car holding a baseball bat, which unsettled her at first. I said "trust me," and she took my hand. We walked around the building to the batting cage entrance. I could tell that she had never been inside one of these places. I explained how it worked, and then I get in the cage and went for the first round to show her. When it was her turn, she stepped right up to the plate. She missed the first few balls, but then she really got a hold of one. She turned and looked at me with wide eyes. She loved it, and I knew I was probably going to love her. I'm not really that into baseball, but I just loved the way she showed no fear or doubt in herself. She just gave it a shot. Even after missing the first few balls, she did give up, she just kept trying, and she eventually got it. That's the kind of woman I wanted. We got married about a year later, and we are still very happy. Go to the art museum in your town and make a scavenger hunt list of things you need to find. We were fortunate to be able to do this at the Met so ours included "best ass" in the greek & roman statues section, "bitchiest twink" in Renaissance paintings, our dopplegangers in another painting section, "best weapon" in weaponry and so forth. Super fun. We also included activities like having to say "INTERESTING" really loud in front of a painting, kind of like the "penis" game. Go to the park and choose a person to "spy" on. We basically just chose an interesting looking person (an older guy in black leather eating a popsicle) and followed him around central park for 2 hrs keeping a wide distance and so he wouldn't notice us. At one point we were face to face with him. I'm not sure if he figured it out. It ended when he received a mysterious package and we lost the trail.
I am enjoying a delicious cocktail that reminds me of summer - The Bee Keeper (there are other more complex versions online if you like to get fancy).
3 parts gin (I recommend Death's Door!), 2 parts orange juice, 1 part honey simple syrup. Ice & shaker....party!!!
This weekend I may go play some mini golf or go to a local fair....hit up some estate and rummage sales and do some yard work. I also enjoy music festivals but that is for another time. To kick off summer this Memorial weekend I would like us to share some of our favorite summer activities! Maybe we will inspire each other to try something new! In the summer I farm! Besides my own large garden that keeps me busy, I get my butt out of my home office and work part-time on a local farm. The work is hard, rewarding, and like a mental vacation. This spring I tried foraging and found some edible mushrooms (morels) and greens I'd never had before which were incredibly tasty, and I'd like to continue that type of education.
This summer I want to finally get comfortable skateboarding. I bought a longboard last year and didn't get a chance to use it much before the weather turned crappy. I'm definitely an old dog that likes new tricks, I just have to find an appropriate place to practice where I can be an uncoordinated idiot in private. Also, I got a new kayak last year that I'm looking forward to getting in the water! The nearest city pretty much has music festivals every weekend, so I hope to get to a few of those, and I'd like to do some short-distance roadtrips, just see what's to be seen within two hour drives. There's a goat tower south of here I wouldn't mind seeing :D We painted the inside walls, brought in a futon couch and an old CRT television. Then we filled the whole thing with every single video game console we had, and lined the shelves on the wall with all the games. We strung Christmas lights throughout the whole thing and brought in a toaster oven for pop parts. Finally, we ran an ethernet cable from my friend's house to the shed so we could have internet access if need be. This was before WiFi was widespread, in the summer of 2004.
We found an old hidden rock quarry on a level B. A little while later there was this creep who started hanging out with one of my buddies (the rest of us hates this douche) he had stolen a rope off of a water tower. It filled a huge barrel. We went and bought 2 come-alongs. Attached rope at opposite ends of the quarry to trees and had a bad ass zip line. Ussd bike handle bars with a pulley attached using a clevis for easy rival from the rope. I miss that place. What's the appeal of summer when you're an adult with a full time job?
I've never understood why other adults love the summer so much. We're doing the exact same thing we've done all year, except it's hot outside. We don't get two months of vacation like we did when we were kids. We're not staying out all night having fun since we usually have somewhere to be in the morning. Most of the daytime hours are spent working, so we don't really get to enjoy the sun. Are you really having a "summer fling" if you only really spend time with the person on the weekend? I graduated high school in 2014 and immediately got a job and I haven't really enjoyed summer in the same way since. Same shit, different weather.
Well for me, I like the freedom of going outside in shirt, shorts and shoes. No heavy winter coat, no gloves or hat to keep track of. I can go to the pool after work for night swim and then there is the food! Fresh vegetables out of my garden, barbeque, lemonade and potato salad all the good summer foods. Band concerts in the park, little league games, the Fair, and just seeing the sun until 9 or later. In the winter we go to work in the dark & come home in the dark, so Summer is really nice. The summer between my 9th and 10th grade years I went on a canoeing/camping trip on the Suwannee river for 6 days. It was just six kids and two adults in four canoes. We traveled over 90 miles on the river. Camped wherever we found space along the banks. We got badly sun burned, rained on for two days, sang silly songs and learned the medical terminology for bodily functions. I was so glad when it was over. Swore I would never do it again. Fought like crazy the last few days with my best friend. It was a mix of just enjoying my time to relax and play video games (Pokemon), and playing sports. It helps that I grew up in a house with open fields literally out my back door, and the local kids (and Dads!) would often team up almost every day to play some football/soccer.
I never went far during summers unless it was with family, but then again I would have hated something like a summer camp. Totally not my style of thing back when I was younger. Same family trips too though, like to theme parks, unusual tourist attractions. Even just days out to the parks. Spending time even just exploring local areas with your kids isn't a bad idea at all imo. Skipping stones at the river with my Dad, having battles with various plants and sticky jack wars on the walk to and from the river. You can make a simple visit to a simple place memorable just by doing it with your kids. Maybe let them bring a friend along too.
My parents once sent my brothers and I to a week long back-packing camp. Hiking around from point to point carrying all our food and water was certainly a new experience at the time, and forced us out of our comfort zone (a good thing got teenagers).
My Student Council advisor sent to me a statewide "leadership camp" where i knew no one, forcing me to improve my social skills. Had a ghetto kid teach me the Crip Walk oddly enough. 13-15 is a good time to explore interests, get a taste of making your own decisions, and meet different kinds of people. Not old enough to be left alone to deal with more serious things, but not young enough where you just need to be entertained while your parents work.
When I was 15, my brother was 14 and we went to church camp one year. It was great! I was cheered on by the whole camp for burping the ABC's in one burp. We found this huge see-saw thing that 4 of us could jump on one side to send one person flying. One friend broke his ankle. It was great!
The most memorable part was when my brother and I decided to go to this big cliff over looking a river. We climbed down to see if we could. At the bottom we realized it was about to be food time so we needed to hurry back up. We decided to race back up the 100+ ft rock cliff face.
Each of us took our own route. He took the straight shot, where I decided it would be easier to loop around. I get to the top and proclaim my victory aloud. Then I yell for my bro to see where he was so I would know by how far I won. At first I don't get an answer. Realizing that I hadn't seen or heard him for awhile, my heart sank. I quickly hop down a few flights of boulders to where I though he should be coming up at. I yell again. He answers this time. Whew... I am relieved, but his voice still sounded distressed. His voice was coming from under me, so I get on my belly and stick my head over the edge to see where he is. Turns out he had hopped onto a ledge that he couldn't get off. There was an inverted, 10' flat face above him (where I was), an impossible jump behind him, and a curved jump ahead of him. When he was climbing he couldn't see how the gap he had to jump over was obstructed by the a protruding rock face. So he basically had leap a 6' gap and turn in mid air. It was like jumping from in from of the driver side headlight of a car to the passenger side window in one jump, without going over the hood. He was stuck. We had no rope. So, I climb on down and get footing on the ledge that he needs to jump to. I find a crack in the rock that I put my left hand into, and reach my right hand around the front bumper. Only my left foot is still on the ledge, my right foot pressed against the rock below my right hand. He places his back against the rock and reaches out with his right hand to reach mine. Only our fingers touch. I yell, "Are you ready!?" He just starts counting down from 3, "3, 2, 1.." He takes a leap of faith that I will be able to grasp his wrist, then pull him around the rock, back to where I am with one hand. We both squeeze to early hand have a hold of the bases of our thumbs, just below the wrist. Not the best hold, but with a death grip. He had leaped out and away from the cliff so that he didn't bump the rock and lose momentum. For a half second he was stretched out over a 100' drop help by my one hand. I do remember that looked pretty cool, like an action movie or something. I was able to pull him back in. He came in fast, and the small ledge was barely large enough for both of us, but we made it.
We climbed back up together and went to eat. No one saw us, or had any idea that we both could have just died. That absolute knowledge that someone was trusting their life entirely to you was something that I will never forget. I know when someone gets in the car with my now, they are essentially doing the same thing, but in that moment, there was nothing that sacred me more, nor made feel prouder to have his trust like that. It wasn't like the blind trust that my kids have when they leap off the bed and yell catch me daddy! I don't know, but it was pretty great. There was a giant blackberry thicket behind my house between my home and that of my neighbors (we were best friends at the time). In the winter, we'd cleared out trails to one another's houses, and by the summertime, the vines had grown back over in arches making faux-tunnels. We hung out there all summer in our secret little fort doing everything you could imagine. "Magical" is definitely the perfect word to use for it. I absolutely hate it. Besides the fact that I sweat like a pig, I can't do anything outside because it's just too hot. I don't like wearing T-Shirts and Shorts, I just feel uncomfortable in them. I want to wear sweaters or button ups and long jeans. I'm always thirsty in summer and last but not least there are massive amounts of people outside and everything is so loud. Also I constantly need sunglasses to see anything at all.
There aren't any places in my city in summer where I can sit alone on a bench like on colder days in autumn or winter. And don't forget these bugs that attack you from everywhere. Here's my current situation: I'm a university student who is on summer break right now. Previous summers, I would work at McDonald's for the July and August (highschool summers) but now that I have May-September off school I'm trying to use this time in order to develop strong habits for next school year (bombed this year).
I'm a bartender during the night at a popular club (I live in a tourist, beach destination in Canada) so my shifts normally start around 6 or 7 and go til 3.
My question is, instead of sleeping the day away what can I do to fill my time productively?
I currently exercise regularly (lifting weights at the YMCA), run whenever the urge strikes, and I'm practicing coding on codeacademy. Just starting. It's interesting me a lot, really. . but not something I want to wake up and work from 9-5 on before my real job. I also eat quite clean and avoid drinking most of the time, unless it's a special occasion like a buddies birthday. So my tl;dr question is this: how can I productively fill my time for this summer, and come out a better man than I was before?
Obviously my first step is waking up earlier. Have been reading tips on that from this subreddit (just discovered this yesterday). Any help you guys have would be greatly appreciated! I'm going to assume there's a reason you don't seem to think you have friends. It could be that they're all away for the summer, of course, or it could be that you're not very confident when it comes to making new ones. Social anxiety and general awkwardness is common in all walks of life - and it can be crippling (I know!). The reason I recommend LRP is that it allows you to step into someone else's shoes. It's like Improv acting, but cooler - and for longer stretches of time. You can don a mask (figuratively or literally) and be someone else for a weekend, which is surprisingly cathartic. You can charge into battle, pickle yourself in mead, sing around a campfire, argue fictional politics, plot, scheme and connive. The best part is that the people you face these adversities with will become some of the greatest friends you could ask for - and your 'how we met' stories will be incredible! The key is to find a good group. I can recommend some in the UK, but others exist worldwide - many of a very good quality (both in plot writing and kit). The stereotyped look and ridiculous feel of the hobby is becoming a thing of the past, and it's developing into a surprisingly mature and accessible pastime! The best things to do alone are retrospective. Hiking is one of those things since all you need is motivation and a backpack. Swimming is another since all it requires is a pool or body of water. The best thing to do is to take a hiatus. Go somewhere you haven't been before. It can be a fun park or just another city. The possibilities are endless in this endeavor since everything you do on your trip will be new and interesting. Remember it's not the destiny that thrills it's the journey. I didn't tell her where we were going; I just gave her the address. It was a strip mall with a run-down K-mart. I walked up to her car holding a baseball bat, which unsettled her at first. I said "trust me," and she took my hand. We walked around the building to the batting cage entrance. I could tell that she had never been inside one of these places. I explained how it worked, and then I get in the cage and went for the first round to show her. When it was her turn, she stepped right up to the plate. She missed the first few balls, but then she really got a hold of one. She turned and looked at me with wide eyes. She loved it, and I knew I was probably going to love her. I'm not really that into baseball, but I just loved the way she showed no fear or doubt in herself. She just gave it a shot. Even after missing the first few balls, she did give up, she just kept trying, and she eventually got it. That's the kind of woman I wanted. We got married about a year later, and we are still very happy. Go to the art museum in your town and make a scavenger hunt list of things you need to find. We were fortunate to be able to do this at the Met so ours included "best ass" in the greek & roman statues section, "bitchiest twink" in Renaissance paintings, our dopplegangers in another painting section, "best weapon" in weaponry and so forth. Super fun. We also included activities like having to say "INTERESTING" really loud in front of a painting, kind of like the "penis" game. Go to the park and choose a person to "spy" on. We basically just chose an interesting looking person (an older guy in black leather eating a popsicle) and followed him around central park for 2 hrs keeping a wide distance and so he wouldn't notice us. At one point we were face to face with him. I'm not sure if he figured it out. It ended when he received a mysterious package and we lost the trail.
