High summer

Things are really cooking now.

The day is July 6th.

I’ve had my first beach day and my first pool day respectively in the same weekend. My A/C is chugging along like Thomas the Train Engine, doing her best to spew some sort of relief into my apartment. My Scandinavian hairline is starting to show. I spend more time talking about the cast of Love Island USA more than my real friends, job, or anything actually happening to me. My shin is scraped from swimming in the Long Island Sound and hitting a rock. My hair has that weird film from the chlorine and humidity that no matter how many times I wash it, it won’t be the same until the temperature drops below 90.

I’m a week into being 26. Enrolling in insurance was way easier than I thought it was going to be. I’m having a lot more fun than I was when I was 25, but the activities of the past few weeks make it hard to not. Camp Olivia, multiple dinners with friends, heading back home to have a wholesome, good old fashioned Fourth of July with fireworks on the beach and sandbars and playing Rummikub and not feeling drunk despite drinking five or so High Noons, Love Island on 5/7 nights of the week—who’s luckier than me?

Before writing this, I wrapped up Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke, a book that some are saying is the title of the summer, some of whom I would be in agreement with. My friend Rae told me to read it, and I immediately picked it up from the McNally in Williamsburg on my lunch break, finding myself day in and day out completely engrossed in its ridiculous, brilliant plot—a successful “trad wife” influencer wakes up one morning transported back in time to 1805, unsure how she got there or how to get back to her luxurious, seemingly-perfect life. I won’t spoil the ending because the ending wasn’t spoiled for me and I love a surprise, but I promise it’s worth the read for a maniacally hilarious, engrossing ride. This is the type of book that makes me think writers are genius, and hopes one day I can replicate something just as great myself.

Speaking of Yesteryear, I felt like I was in my very own time-traveled situation after our power went out in Connecticut due to extreme heat Saturday evening around 7:30, and didn’t come back on until 4 AM. It was so hot I thought that my organs were cooking inside of my stomach, and the fireworks my neighbors were shooting off in their free time sounded like muskets straight out of the Revolutionary War lineup. It was as if I woke up on July 4th, 1776. Almost exactly like that, however I had an iPhone and I was wearing Brandy Melville pajamas. At around 1:30, I asked my boyfriend if he thought it was possible I was having heat stroke, because my head was throbbing and I was in and out of consciousness responding to people in my dreams out loud to him in the room. He said no.

I feel extraordinarily lucky to have grown up where I did in Connecticut. The town was eerily empty and quiet for what I grew up knowing—roads closed for miles leading up to the annual firework show at the beach, traffic due to parades, night cap after night cap at random bars. This was almost better. It felt like a genuine vacation of peace and quiet, somewhere so close yet so far from my life in Manhattan, a place to enjoy the sound and the chlorine and my best friends and a sausage grilled by one of their fathers. I would like to flex at this point that I went the entire weekend unscathed by sunburn. I believe in miracles.

Due to the Saturday evening debacle, I’m feeling extremely grateful for power and air conditioning and television and the new computer I got for my birthday that I’m writing my first Coffee Order on right now.

The World Cup has seemingly caught me hook-line-and-sinker after I told everyone I couldn’t care less. I had a similar egg-on-face situation this weekend after defending Taylor Swift with my heart and soul to everyone from co-workers to my own family, insisting she would never actually get married at Madison Square Garden and that it was a complete farce. I’m rooting for Norway because I love how Erling Haaland looks and I’m pretty sure I’m slightly Norwegian or something (maybe a supportive relative reading this could correct me). It’s nice to have on in the background because you can read or focus on tasks without missing half of the plot. The United States men’s team does nothing for me, sorry to be so unpatriotic during our 250th birthday. They just became good and as someone who saw the USWNT come out during Bad Blood at the 1989 World Tour in 2016, I know where my loyalties lie.

If you’re looking for a Love Island update, my girl and guy rankings are as follows:

Girls:

1. Kayda

2. Melanie

3. Trinity

4. Kenzie

5. Aniya

6. Parmida

7. Titi

Boys:

1. Bryce

2. Corbin

3. Carl

4. Zach

5. Sincere

6. KC

7. Dylan

Couples:

1. Trinity and Bryce

2. Kayda and Zach

3. Parmida and Corbin

4. Aniya and Carl

5. Kenzie and Dylan

6. Titi and KC

7. Melanie and Sincere

I’m glad we’re working with a leaner team now after sending home five people who made zero impact. I really did not need an hour to see Gal get the boot, and Amora for the second time might I add. You may be shocked by my ranking of Corbin and Parmida, however them trying to get Melanie and Sincere off was tea, and it’s interesting to see Corbin on the right side of history about Sincere being two-faced. Like I said to Eliza:

The way Corbin was looking at Parmida during the deliberation, and the voice he used that was never-before-heard in love, he won me over. He looks like a Disney lion cub come to life, and he won me over.

I need a new book, what should I read? I had plans to watch The Sopranos, however it’s kind of the last thing I’d like to do at the moment. What should I watch? I may sub out the World Cup and Love Island tonight for Obsession, since I feel insane for have not watching it yet. Another thing that hasn’t been spoiled for me, but how long can I test my luck?

Let’s talk about beach/pool things I need to survive during the summer as a fair-skinned ginger woman:

1. This sunscreen is the best of the best. Multiple people borrowed it from me this weekend and got a surprise glow. I use it from my scalp to my chest.

2. For the rest of my body, I would recommend something like this, especially because of the sweat and water. I don’t want to know about all of the chemicals in it and how bad they are for me because few things work so well. If anyone has a cleaner alternative, let me know.

3. Really, deeply obsessed with this hat from Favorite Daughter. It’s basically a portable umbrella, and you can pack it without destroying it.

4. Another Favorite Daughter hat that I love if you’re a visor person and use retinol.

5. I got this coverup from the Target on Grand Street. It looks like it could be Doen (if you spin around 10 times and do a handstand).

6. The single best pair of flip flops on the planet. I ordered more because of writing about them just now, in Mint and Black.

7. Playing Rummikub with me is a sign of great respect in my culture, and if you mean business, you need a Rummiklub set.