Growing up what was your favorite day of the year? I'm guessing somewhere in your top five, the last day of the school year and official start of summer as a kid, had to be one that you counted down towards every year.
Vacations! Camp! Amusement parks! Camping! The Beach! Sleepovers! Sleeping in! Parties! Less parental/teacher oversight! Summer movie season! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Summer rocks!
While I realize that not everyone had some of the recreational opportunities I had growing up in the summer, I'd have to imagine that almost any kid (except for perhaps some of the more academic zealous AP kids), celebrated the ~ 75 day stretch of no binders, backpacks, chalkboards, and text books from mid June to late August.
It's not just me who romanticizes those days. Movies like The Sandlot, Stand By Me, American Graffiti, National Lampoon's Vacation, Dazed and Confused, and Wet Hot American Summer all shine a light on various themes and aspects of summer that make it so special growing up.
I obviously knew that some of the freedom and fun that summer brought as a child would eventually fade, but now at the age of 31 I find myself shocked that I've grown to almost hate it so quickly from being removed from college. For the last 75 days or so, I've almost felt as if I was being held under water as time stood still, hoping to surface and gasp for that sweet fall air. Below I retrace the agony that was the last couple of months.
Sports Suck
Two groups of adults probably disagree with this post: Teachers and baseball fans. Even with a lot of respect and passion for baseball as a sport (Go A's!), summer is the only season where only one of the most popular 5/6 American sports is taking place without overlap of any of the other sports. No NFL,NCAA Football, NBA, NHL, nor NCAA basketball.
If you don't have a MLB team that you root for or maybe your team is just not that good, well you're pretty much shit out of luck as you're months away from the start of your sports of choice. Sure the Summer Olympics, World Cup, golf, tennis, and auto racing prevent some viable alternatives but from a pure popularity standpoint, they're is quite a void in the summer in terms of America's favorite team sports.
The lack of sports compound itself as many folks like to watch daily sports programming like PTI and SportsCenter. With less highlights to show, the summer becomes this stretch of mostly drivel commentary and the somewhat new programming tactic of fishing for anger.
Arod Cheated and lied! Manziel signed autographs! Dwight Howard is flip flopping! So and so is cheating on is wife! National sports shows essentially float these news items hoping the public will sink their teeth into them with outrage. Instead of highlights, we're served a menu of top personalities and the murky details of what they may or may have not done off the field. Frankly, I just don't care. I miss the games.
Even with the A's having a good summer, the lack of sports to follow slows the summer down to a crawl and provides less excuses to go to a game, watch a game, or stay engaged with the national sports news media.
Television Is Awful
While the August returns of Breaking Bad and Hard Knocks injected some late life into television, my god the summer is just a wasteland of reruns and shit programming. Essentially if you're a popular show, then you're not in season in the summer. Favorites like Modern Family, Boardwalk Empire, Mad Men (ended in June), The League, It's Always Sunny, Shark Tank, Nathan For You, and so many others are all out of season. Even 60 Minutes goes on hiatus in the summer!
So sports are quiet and now you take away the bulk of my favorite television shows? I'm not 23 anymore and don't go to the bar 3x a week. I need to sit my big butt on the couch and watch some shit that is good to maintain my sanity. The void of good content even has caused me to relapse into watching MTV again where The Gauntlet is essentially the same thing every year and Catfish is basically a 60 minute infomercial on how and why to use Google image search.
After a long day, there has to be a 30 minute or hour long escape to unwind to. Unfortunately in the summer, more often than not you're left with nothing. Almost makes me want to read a book. Almost….
Its Hot!
Here in Bay Area, it isn't so bad but when traveling or hit with a heat wave, hot temperatures really suck. There are few things in the world that suck more than not being able to sleep because it's too hot.
Sweating leads to stinking. Suddenly you're debating if mesh shorts can be worn with polo shirts and if you're going to look like an asshole if you don't wear jeans to a social event. Oh you have air conditioning! Well than the summer is basically a $500 seasonal tax so you don't hate life in those months.
Then there is day drinking which seems to take a toll at any event I go to. "I don't know what happened to me that day. I just got terribly sick for some reason."
Listen bud, you're 30 now. You should know at this point you have to eat food and drink water to sustain a lengthy period of drinking out in the sun all day. How you can be "that guy" at every BBQ , tailgate, or concert every summer continues to baffle me.
Movies Disappoint
Summer blockbusters! I would guess that half of my old VHS collection are movies that came out in the summer in the 90's.
Maybe it's my taste in flicks changing over time or Hollywood stinking up the joint, but of late the majority of touted summer releases haven't really impressed. I know find myself looking forward to the late fall/winter releases of films that get Oscar consideration. My apologies to Grownups 2, The Lone Ranger, After Earth, and RIPD, but there really isn't any scenario I'd see you and most other summer flicks in theaters.
Going Forward
For the reasons outlined above, summer is now something I dread which is funny as I used to dread the end of it and the onset of fall as a kid. It's totally flipped.
Summer does suck, but perhaps it can suck less next year . Given the drudgery that I experience in the dog days of summer, it's clear to me I need to revamp this stretch of the year. Proactively I have to plan trips, find good shows to binge watch, eat a lot of ice cream, join a fantasy baseball league, find some outdoor hobbies, and so on to bring summer back to a respectable level once again. Perhaps sprinkling in some TREAT YO SELF days into the mix will do the trick.
At the end of the day, I'm pretty sure that the sports calendar, global warming, and the television fall lineup isn't going to move at my behest and ultimately it's up to me rebuild summer back into a respectable month. Or maybe I can just be drunk the whole time?
