Summer has been my least favorite season ever since I graduated from college. Growing up, of course, it was magical – my grandparents had a summer house at Harvey Cedars on Long Beach Island along the Jersey Shore, and I spent many a lazy summer day searching for whatever treasures the tides had left on the beach and experiencing that pleasurable mix of fear and exhilaration while body surfing at high tide. Nanna had her rules: don’t go to the beach until your chores are done, don’t go for more than two hours, don’t go when there’s a west wind because of flies, etc. But all things considered, it was a little like what I imagined heaven to be.

Fast-forward to graduating from college and taking on my first real job. What a shock it was to go from having all summer to kick around doing close to nothing, to having just two weeks of vacation for cramming everything I wanted to enjoy into much too short a time. When that first June came along, my desire to “go down the shore” was so strong that I almost quit my job! [Read more…]