I woke up this morning feeling decidedly not awesome. Between cops shooting an unarmed black man (again,) Donald Trump’s dsytopian hellscape portrayed not just in his RNC Convention speech, but throughout his entire campaign and wrestling with the biggest bummer of all- that season seven of Game of Thrones has been delayed, there’s a lot of bleakness out there right now.
But dude, I don’t want to feel this way and as the morning went on, I felt compelled to steer my ship of withering emotions in a different direction. If I’m feeling not awesome, then I was determined to feel awesome. And in order to do that, I started thinking of things that were awesome and compiling a list of things that could succinctly fall under one important category: “you know what’s awesome.”
So let’s go.
You know what’s awesome…
Summer
I love summer. Your favorite season might be fall because you dig sweaters; it might be winter due to your devotion to snowboarding or skiing or for some reason, shoveling. But I think we can all agree summer is awesome. I love having the windows open, I love eating dinner outside on the deck, I love going to the beach. I enjoy mowing the lawn and listening to Pearl Jam or Widespread Panic while doing so and I enjoy iced coffee and crab cake sandwiches. Sure, there’s a heat wave coming through this weekend and that cancels out the whole “having the windows open” thing, but whatever, it’s summer. Summer means people randomly shooting off fireworks and summer means cutting out of work a little early on a Friday. Summer means flip flops, bathing suits and awkward tan lines. Summer is the best.
You know what’s awesome…
Summer beers
My favorite seasonal beer by far is a good summer ale. They’re not too heavy, usually have visually appealing labels and most importantly, you can knock back a handful and not suffer too much the following day because of it. Fall beers are cool, but a lot of them are pumpkin-spiced and that has limited staying power and winter beers are totally fine if consumed wisely. They pack a punch; a punch that gets increasingly harder to recover from the older you get. But not summer beers! No way! Oooohh and they taste so good in an ice cold bottle. I have three favorite summer beers: Brooklyn Summer, Flying Fish Farmhouse and the Mack Daddy, Daddy Mack of them all, Shipyard Summer. Although I’m always open to try more.
You know what’s awesome…
Watching baseball
Whether it’s in person or on TV, admit it, watching baseball is awesome. It’s a different kind of awesome than how watching football is awesome or watching basketball or hockey is awesome. Watching baseball is relaxing at times and super intense at times. Watching baseball can be done while doing other things or watching baseball can be the only thing. I for one am a big fan of a nice Saturday or Sunday afternoon game, tuning in sometime during the first inning, starting to stretch out on the couch by the second or third, taking a little snooze through the middle innings and then waking up for the eighth and ninth innings. A lot of people knock baseball and while they are more than welcome to have their own opinions, they are most likely missing the point of baseball and frankly, that’s their own damn fault. Baseball is awesome.
You know what’s awesome…
Your friend’s boat
Because yeah, it’s kind of more awesome than owning your own boat. You don’t have to pay for repairs when something breaks down on your friend’s boat and you don’t have to pay for storing your friend’s boat. You simply enjoy your friend’s boat. Enjoying something is most definitely awesome.
You know what’s awesome…
Not going anywhere or doing anything on the weekend
Summer weekends can fill up fast, almost too fast. You either have people coming to visit or you’re going to visit them. As a result, having that one weekend in July where you’re not going anywhere, no one is coming to visit, no major household chores need to be done – that weekend is pretty awesome.
You know what’s awesome…
Summer concerts
Due to the presence of a very active 15 month old in our house, the Wife and I will not be attending any concerts or shows this summer. And that’s fine, I’ve gone to plenty in my life to let one summer pass without attending one. I have the memories- the fun times had in parking lots, the amphitheaters, the slabs of concrete, the stadiums and seeing bands like Dave Matthews Band, 311, the Roots, Phish and more. Going to see a concert is always awesome, but going to see a concert in the summer is super awesome.
You know what’s awesome…
Summer jams
You know, those handful of songs that seem to define a summer and provide the soundtrack for it. Yeah you might get sick of them come fall, but in the heat of the moment, summer jams serve a purpose not unlike summer beers or sunscreen. They are necessary. And it’s great when a summer jam lives on past the summer. The summer of 2015’s summer jam was “Lean On” by Major Lazer and it really wasn’t even close. But perhaps the best thing about that song was it’s staying power. Those Major Lazer dudes might be onto something. I think that right now, there are two front-runners for summer jam of 2016, with each one occupying a certain lane. “This Is What You Came For” by Calvin Harris and Rihanna is probably the ultimate front-runner right now and definitely the cool choice for summer jam. However, “Can’t Stop the Feeling” by Justin Timberlake might be the more mass appeal front-runner. You can’t go wrong with either one, though and hey, the summer isn’t over. Another song could emerge and enter the race.
You know what’s awesome…
The return of Jiminy Glick
The verdict on the variety show Maya & Marty is still out, but I’ll support it for one reason and one reason only- it means we get new spots by Martin Short’s Jiminy Glick. Dear God I love this bit. I love it so much I have to watch it twice because the first time I am laughing too hard and I miss stuff. So far he’s interviewed Larry David, Drake, Ricky Gervais, Kelly Ripa and Jerry Seinfeld. The Larry David one was an obvious winner, but they’ve all been good.
You know what’s awesome…
Pictures of Maine on Instagram
It might not be all that awesome for you, but it sure is for me. I find that a constant in my life is that I will “like” any picture of Maine that is posted on Instagram, largely from either Downeast Magazine, The Maine Mag or LL Bean.
You know what’s awesome…
Fish tacos
Explanation seems pointless. Fish tacos are awesome. You either agree or you don’t. There is no middle ground here.
You know what’s awesome…
The Summer Olympics
They’re coming up soon and the Summer Olympics are great. Well, maybe not this year.
You know what’s awesome…
Ben Affleck ranting about Deflategate
Because it is.
You know what’s awesome…
Reading
It is. I recently made a pledge to put my phone away when I go to bed and read instead. It is mildly troubling that this is something I had to “pledge” to do, but such is the way of the world and actually, the way of the world and more importantly the state of the world and how it’s commented on via Twitter was messing with my sleep. And I like sleep. I like sleep a lot more than I like Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. So I started putting the phone away and grabbing a book. I think I had been reading the same book for the past year or so (for 15 months and 18 days to be more exact.) Yet under my new policy, I finished a book (Difficult Men by Brett Martin) in a week and am now on another book, a biography about Otis Redding and Stax Records. It’s been a game changer. I can fall asleep somewhat peacefully now, not finding myself bothered or wound up by the dumpster fires reported on and talked about on various forms of social media. I strongly recommend this.
And finally…
You know what’s awesome…
Sharing this blog with your friends
Uh, maybe?
Categories: Life Lessons, today in awesome
Giddy Up America 
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