Summertime

It's pretty hot here already. I think I missed spring altogether somehow, with my traveling back and forth. I certainly missed Washington spring. I maybe experienced Brussels spring, but only for one week.

Hot summers make me think of how I spent my summers when I was little. A lot of the summers I spent at my grandparents' houses, in Texas and Louisiana. My Texas grandparents had a lake house and when my grandpa got home we would swim in the lake. Wearing life jackets. Which wasn't that great for swimming but maybe kept us alive, I'm not really sure. My New Orleans grandparents had a pool in the backyard. It seemed to me that every afternoon, right when I wanted to get into the pool, there would be a thunderstorm. But I still spent enough time in the pool one summer that my black and white striped bathing suit made me have a striped tan on my stomach. I'm pretty sure I have a photo of me in that suit at that pool - I'll try to post it for you guys maybe this weekend.

For some reason, though, the summer pool memory that keeps coming to me today is the memory of going to the pool with my friend Suzi and our sisters. We didn't do this often. But I remember running around the pool deck (which wasn't allowed), doing headstands under the water, and this red pitcher her mom kept lemonade in for us.

Last summer, I met up with Suzi and her family on the beach in Delaware. They still had the red pitcher! Only this time, in addition to lemonade, there was some vodka in there too. Grown up lemonade, maybe!