I love summer. I do. I love it. The pool, the beach, vacations, the heat, tan skin, having to constantly have clean shaven legs. :)
Today I am going to my aunts pool with my brother and friend. I suspect that it's going to be great. When we all get along, we have good times.
But nothing will beat summers spent at my grandparents house in Claremont, CA.
They had this crazy big pool shaped like a weird ant. The head was the shallow end, a circle with a 12 foot diameter and a depth of around two and a half feet. We used to walk with our hands, pulling our bodies through the water like we were water snakes. 
In the middle was a huge, odd shaped circle that gradually went from four deep to around 7 feet deep. It was in the deeper part of this section that the slide ejected you. I'm not sure when the water houses in the slide stopped working, but we didn't mind. We improvised and tied the hose at the top. There was this patch of flowers behind the stepping stones by the pool and when you chewed on the stems of the flowers, they emitted a slightly sweet but mostly sour tasting liquid. We could swim and chew on those for hours upon hours. The deep end always scared me. It was around nine feet deep and at the bottom was this drain thing. When we played mermaids (which we played a lot), that was where Ursula lived. The memories I have of this pool are things I will never lose. Sounds and smells that I associate with those memories easily take me back to a time where it didn't matter how much you weighed, if you had acne or if your bathing suit was bought at a thrift store.
I'd give up a lot to have summers like that now. I know it's not possible to have 3 solid months of that, so I'm going to attempt to recreate that feeling for one day.
Sorry for my poor drawing, but I knew that my words just wouldn't do it.
Summer:
One of those days:
You know it's bad when even drowning your sorrows in cookie dough doesn't help. I had a bad day, and it feels like it just gets worse as the day goes on. First, I'm working a double "shift" today, so I started out the day knowing it was going to be a long one. Then, the kid literally sat for 1 hour staring at his food before he took a few bites and I decided I couldn't take it anymore and just decided to let him go hungry. Then his mom mentions maybe giving him a breathing treatment, but she didn't make it clear, so I didn't give him one. Then, we go through the same routine at lunch with the not eating. So when the mom gets home, she gives me a mini lecture on how "if I'm ever not sure, to just call" and "do I know what his wheezing sounds like " followed by an example of his wheezing. At this point, I'm on my 3 hour break and am driving through Vista (more like sitting through Vista. the traffic was horrible) to go pick up my moms friends dog that we're watching over the weekend when my mom calls me and says her car broke down. Now, believe me when I say that we have NO extra money. We don't even have enough money to pay for our already-cost-efficient life.
It was at this point that I kind of snapped. I started driving like I was on drugs and I was rude to my mom on the phone. I finally pick up the dog and get home. I arrive home with about 2 hours left of my break. I check my email and find that the son of the lady I am a caregiver for would like me to start working Friday through Sunday instead of Saturday to Sunday. I am fine with this, assuming my hourly pay stays the same. And that's what I tell him. Minutes after I send my response to him, he shoots back an email stating that they want to decrease my pay by $1 an hour. This may not sound big, but it is when you consider that I've worked for them for a year and they're the ones who want to increase my hours!
So I went and got some cookie dough from the fridge and tried to eat it, but I ended up crying after one bite.
So it's just been a bad day, I guess.
I'm so excited:
If I'm being completely honest, there are 2 reasons I log on to myspace (I prefer Facebook):
1) Bands I follow that haven't been signed yet
2) Will Frankens blogs
Imagine my joy when I finally notice that Mr Franken has a blogger page that I can follow with my blogger page! I could hardly contain myself (I managed to, but just barely).
So, if you're not easily offended (or you if are but you like it), check out Will Franken. Mind you, I may not agree with all that he says (or even half of it), but he is a darn good read.
My Summer Plans:
It recently came to my attention that I'm going to have more free time than I've had in a while. I have since been trying to think of things that I'd been wanting to do, but have never had the time. One of those things is making soap (don't ask me why, I just want to). But by far the thing I most want to do is plant flowers in the flower boxes in front of our house. More specifically, I want to grow Gerbera Daisies:
They are my favorite flower I discovered, after receiving a simple bouquet of them from one of the families I work with (if you're reading this, thank you Maria!).
So my plan is to head to Lowe's or Home Depot this evening to check out the prices and get some instruction as to how to successfully grow them.
As for my window box plans, I just need to get some plants and flowers that thrive in shade and indirect sunlight...
Wish me luck!
