1. I have no air-conditioning, and I have leather seats. At the end of the day, when my car has been baking for hours in the sunshine on the square, I like to jump into it like a Duke of Hazzard, and try to avoid all things metal. Then I roll the windows down and hang my head out like Ace Ventura. Sunglasses are handy for controlling the glare while simultaneously keeping the bugs from getting lodged under my eyelids. You may catch me in my bra towards the middle of August, looking like I have just finished an eight ball, alone, because I am red faced and dripping with water from my bright blue Misty Mate. It even has a fan with little foam blades!
2. On my days off I like to drive around trying to find an empty apartment pool. I steer clear of the ones that have copious amounts of college kids cannon balling into the deep end. If I can’t find one suitable, I bug one of my coworkers until she lets me use hers. Night swims are also a great thing…as soon as the Square shuts down on a Friday night I make plans to ice down a cooler and go skinny dipping. (Chewalla Lake in Holly Springs is also a great place to cool off. It has a smallish public beach consisting of a little sand and some rocks, but the water is cool and clean, and the picnic areas are great.)
3. Making mixed CD’s to play during porch parties is a favorite pastime. I don’t have an iPod…I still miss mixed tapes…I have a little trouble with letting go. My summer CD’s mostly consist of chick rock, but I will throw a little Sublime, some Tool or Korn, and some old school 90’s rap into the mix just to liven things up. Recently a friend brought over a bitchin’ mix that started out with Foghat and got even better from there.
4. The aforementioned porch party is one of summer in Oxford’s greatest gifts. Some citronella candles, a pizza, beer/wine/whiskey, couple packs of cigs, and 5-10 people is just about perfect. On our porch the parties end when the supplies run out or when someone falls from the bathroom into the hallway with their pants around their ankles and tears the thermostat right off the wall! (You know who you are, I don’t have to name names!)
5. I read. A lot. In the summer I tend to read funny stuff or scary stuff… in other words two ton tomes on the Industrial Revolution need not apply. Just read House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski (scary!), and I am now rereading Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris, and Bleachy-Haired Honky Bitch by Hollis Gillespie (both extremely, laugh out loud, pee your pants funny). Other good reads I would suggest would be Everything’s Eventual by Stephen King, Deer Hunting With Jesus, by Joe Bageant, and St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised By Wolves, by Karen Russell.
