Happy Summer (And Things)

it is apparently -- officially -- summer.

we know that because we've celebrated memorial day and so now it is the next weekend and it's sunny and thus, it must actually be summer.

so i have talked a friend (Mr. QA of the cubit) into doing the most summery thing of ALL with me today.

that's right. we are going to the beach.

now, you might think urban-dwellers might not be very good at doing beachy things. and you would be very right.

i mean, i used to spend my entire summers at the beach, so it's not an altogether foreign concept to me. but then, somehow in the course of growing up (such as i have), it's become far from second nature.

so in getting ready this morning for The Beach, i have done the following things:

• realized i do not own a bathing suit
• realized i do not own anything resembling a beach towel or blanket
• or bag
• or suntan lotion, though i do own some fake tan stuff which also has spf 20 so i'm currently sitting here at the computer half naked as my skin is not supposed to touch anything (like clothes, apparently) for a good half-hour after applying the fake-tan lotion, which i have just applied
  
• gone to walgreens to buy needed beachy items: unfortunately, when faced with the "seasonal" aisle at the drugstore i became a bit overwhelmed, so instead i purchased the following items: wet cat food (i'm hoping the "friskies sliced" will work though we all know it won't, but walgreens doesn't carry fancy feast sliced, so what's a girl to do at 8:45 a.m.?); dry cat food; conditioner; feminine products (yeah, i feel oh-so-summery...); and 4 sticks of string cheese in, i might add, impossible-to-open plastic sealing (which has thus required the use of scissors -- so yes, i am sitting at my computer now, typing, topless, smelling of fake tan, with bits of string cheese cut out of their wrappers all around me) (hey, at least i'm not eating carbs!)
• made my bed for a completely unknown reason
  
• put together my makeshift beach bag, which is really just my yarn bag full of the knitting i'm planning on doing (how beachy!) but with the addition of my journal, in case i want also to write
• decided, after much deliberation, against bringing a laptop (even though Mr.QA is bringing quite an assemblage of electronic devices because that is what his version of beach behavior is; "i'm certainly not bringing a frisbee" he said, and we both laughed at the thought of my throwing the frisbee to him and it hitting him square in the chest because he hadn't noticed it because he was busy text messaging someone)
  
• been dreaming of the starbucks i will be buying on the way to the beach
• put my hair in pigtails and unearthed my flip-flops: the only two things even remotely resembling appropriate beach-going apparatus
• packed my iPod because the time it takes to get from here to the beach via public transportation is considerable
  
• blogged
  

and there you have it. how urban-dwellers prepare for the beach.

happy summer!