The Smells of Summer

I once read that smell is the sense most keenly linked to memory, and I can certainly attest to that theory.  When I was 14 or so I went away to camp in Ithaca for two weeks.  I am still brought back to the dorms and the grounds there when I smell Alberto V05 strawberries and cream shampoo.  I had bought the cheapest thing I saw for camp because my bottle at home was nearly drained, and I never really used the shampoo again after that, so it's smell is a powerful memory trigger.

During summer there are a lot of smells that signal my most favorite and beloved season.  Yesterday, the temperature here in the Hudson Valley nearly reached 100 degrees, and of course I spent much of the day in the comfort of the pool.  In my mind, chlorine is one of the best smells ever.  It evokes multi-sensory images of the West Point pool in High School, the Highlands Country Club in grade school, and Pop's pool through the years.  I love it.  Last week we had a sun shower one afternoon, and for some reason the smell of rain hitting hot dirt and asphalt always makes me inordinately happy.  And of course, what says summer better than the glorious aroma of burgers cooking on the grill?  My mom and her siblings always say that they love the smell of gasoline because it reminds them of Pop when he would come home from work years ago.  My brothers and I have a similar affinity for the residual smell of cigarettes on wool.

Smell is unequivocally tied to our past emotions and experiences, and there's something about the summertime - maybe it's the heat or the humidity, I don't know - that heightens my sense of smell and makes me indelibly grateful for all the good things in life.  As the scent of the grill or the pool or the cut grass washes over me, I suddenly don't mind the oppressive heat, the sunburn, or the huge bugs that sometimes get in my way, because I'm just so lucky to be here.

Crazy Embodied

Twenty-twelve is just around the corner, and the number of emails I've received from the Obama campaign for re-election has exceeded absurdity.  I delete indiscriminately.  I'm not exactly chomping at the bit to contribute to our President's bid, read his staffers' long-winded sales pitches, or support the impotence of the democrats in general.

The disappointment I feel with Barrack is nearly insurmountable.  That being said, I continue to be appalled by the the right wing in our country, and I am truly afraid of some of the people the Republicans somehow consider normal and/or mainstream.  Case in point: Michele Bachmann.  Michele Bachmann?!  I say it twice because it is surreal.  They have got to be kidding.  I don't really know how this woman has remained an elected official since 2003, and the fact that she is a legitimate potential for the party nomination says so much about our current political state, and it's a sad tale to tell indeed.  Let's review some of my favorite Bachmann tidbits.  She thinks Americorps fakes volunteerism but actually runs "re-education camps" that recruit and indoctrinate our youth to be crusaders of political-correctness and government agendas.  (read: her son was accepted into and joined Teach for America shortly after she said this.  Props, Harrison Bachmann.) During the healthcare debate, she declared that the extremely watered-down version of "Obamacare" as well as its inceptor sought to annihilate us through acorn and the healthcare legislation.  Her statements have frequently crossed the line from nutty into dangerous.  In 2010, she encouraged her constituents and the American public to boycott the census because she felt that it was unconstitutional.  Forget the fact that the census is directly sanctioned in the first article of...wait for it...the constitution. (duh) She preaches to the government (right after cashing her congressional paycheck) to stand down and stay completely out of her life and her business, yet her family's farm receives tens of thousands of dollars each year in subsidies.  Meanwhile, she deems all government programs designed to help people less fortunate than her as full-on socialism.  Apparently government handouts to rich white people is capitalism at its finest, but anything else makes us a bunch of communists.  By the way, those same farm subsidies, mostly in the form of corn subsidies, are directly responsible for famine after famine all over the developing world, but that's an entirely different story.  So, not only does our national agriculture policy prevent people all over the world from feeding themselves, it also lines the pockets of the bootstrap slinging, government-hating {fill in the blank}s we continue to elect into public office.  Outrageous doesn't begin to cover it.  

My main question is essentially this: how can anyone take her seriously?  It's true that all politicians are just that, a bunch of politicians, but Bachmann is a fringe figure at best and she is really being considered as a possible presidential candidate.  She's an extremist, there's no getting around that, and as the tea party amasses a death-eater-like mobilization (their policy agenda is based on fear and ignorance, and I'm convinced that their leadership is pure evil), Barrack continues to marginalize the left.  If he loses the general election it won't be because of the swing voters, the tea party, or any other group that they say matters in the news.  It will be because of the disenchanted libs and young people who have stopped adding to his coffers and, dare I say it, may not bother to vote the second time around.   For the love of God, Dems, try to pull it together.  I don't want to live in a country where this woman is considered half-way normal.  There's no nice way for me to spin it; she's nuts.

Yippee!

We're smack dab in the middle of the first full week of summer vacation.  Honestly, there was a moment or two mid-June when I thought we'd never get here, but now the school year has ended fairly smoothly and the next one will surely be here in a flash.  I spent the early days off finishing up classroom funding proposals on Donors Choose (which you should check out here and donate to, by the way).  I've now transitioned into working on my tan at Pop's pool and whiling away hours playing with Lola.  Ever since I started teaching, I've found myself so busy with work during the school year and so raring to go in the summer that I basically try to pack a whole year's worth of fun into two short months.  Lately I've also started to feel the need for new and fresh traditions with the family and friends, some of which I'm working on this July and August.  Here's what I've got on the docket for summer 2011:

• Yanks/Rays game tomorrow night.  Went to a ballgame with my brothers last year; this time around it's me and 16 others in my crazy family.  Hilarity will undoubtedly ensue.  It's looking like Jeter's three-thousandth hit may take place while we drink beers together in the grandstand.  Awesome. 
• Playtime with cousins.  My dad's cousin's kids are in town from Florida for a few weeks, and I'll be playing with them and taking them around town for much of July.  Definitely planning on going to the Bear Mountain Zoo, the Ice Cream Shoppe in Highland Falls, Children's Museum in Poughkeepsie, and some pools around Garrison/Cold Spring.  Where else should we go?    
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. Holy Cannoli I cannot wait to see this movie.  Just watching the trailers gives me major goosebumps.  I started reading the HP books when I was 14, and I love the story so very much.  Too grown-up for the little cousins though, so I'll see it with the older ones or with Michael.  
• Housewarming party at the new apartment.  This is mostly to encourage me to get the new place set up in a timely fashion. Hopefully I'll get this together pre-wedding, but it may not happen until September.
• Bachelorette party.  Girls, spa, lake, mountains, kayaks, etc.  
• Wedding.  Marriage.  Yikes.  I think this means there are no more doubts that we're actually grown-ups.  I also think I may always feel like adulthood is impending and looming rather than actually upon us.  
• Honeymoon in Thailand (after a 20 something hour flight that is).  Nearly three full weeks touring a far away country.  
• US Open.  Went last year for my uncle Joe's birthday, and second annual tennis fun night will take place early this September.  This year, Mama Hask will join us for a Friday night match in Arthur Ashe stadium. 
• Untold hours of relaxation, swimming, reading, lying in the sun, planning for next year (yes, this is actually something I enjoy; yes, I know that I am a nerd),  and doing whatever else I want to do.

Good summer = the understatement of the year.