That post (Summer 2006)

It’s that time of year again, where I log in to Myspace, Facebook, and Xanga all at once and browse through people’s pages in order to refresh my head of their names so that I don’t look retarded when they say hi to me and I draw a blank. It happens every year at about this time and it’s basically the start of when I realize that school really is just about to start. So here I am, going over all of the faces and names that I might have come across over the past year in hopes that I can remember who they are and how I know them and how good of a friend I am to them. It’s especially hard to do when I know for a fact that the last time I saw some of these people was the last day of class back in May. So it’ll be weird to see them again for sure on the first day of classes (it’ll be great to gauge how fat or skinny people got over the summer; I’m sure people will be doing the same to me as well). Wow, classes for me are just less than 12 hours away. Summer really is over!

I say summer is over however with a feeling of satisfaction inside of me. It’s been a while since I’ve had a truly fun and awesome summer and think this summer trumps all past summers by a whole lot. This, in fact, is my best summer since I’ve been keeping track. To some, the hardships of not being able to find a job during the summer season or go anywhere for vacation would have been a a real let-down, but I think it was because I didn’t find a full-time job or go anywhere that really made this summer what it was for me. Sure, cash was hard to come by at times, but it wasn’t like I was purchasing anything incredibly expensive or that I was out of any type of cash entirely, so it worked itself out in time. Plus, not having a full-time job really just allowed me to stay out late, meet up with folks, and just catch up on doing things that I don’t get to do during the school year.

I don’t quite know how to sum up my summer. I initially started writing this entry because I wanted to officially “close” summer off with a good write-up of all the fun I’ve had and all the good folks I’ve spent time with (and all the things we’ve done), but coming to this point, I’ve realized that that’s gonna be quite a hard task.

But to…

all of the barbecues, the sunny days, the fantastic heat, PUMA (Serena, Frank, all of the Joe’s, Mike, Pete, John, Michelle, Ian, Clara, and everybody else who I’ve come across while interning there), Joyce Shen & our movie hopping (11 movies!), RS-100’s, free goods, footwear, apparel, and hookups, Jared and letting me update JustJared.com (and being my only true source of income this summer), the Nintendo DS Lite, my trusty Canon cameras (SD450, Rebel XT) for all of the candid photos and the eternal memories captured in digital rectangles, the Sony miniDV cam that finally found some use after 2 years, all of the drawings on the walls, Melanie Kwan, really good hummus at Cafe Mogador, eating in Brooklyn, eating out at new restaurants, discovering new hangout spots, Joyce Shen, re-inventing the city’s sights and sounds, plastering in the pouring rain and getting buffed the next day, riding my bike, getting tickets, trespassing, stenciling in Queens with Joyce, spray paint, the “lactating southern homosexual” voice I can do, ruining perfectly good mailboxes, Pam, playing UNO in Staten Island with Bran and Pam and making up new rules, Gtalk, Gmail, TiffWong for painting the “YO” in my room, Meggie for staying out late and trying to catch rats with me, eating bologna, new music (way too many to name individually…), iPod sharing, Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, eating at Sea with Tiff Liu and Yelena, the Honda Pilot and the many distances I was able to drive it, driving Joyce home, driving Pam home, fantasy house hunting in Staten Island, driving to Ashley’s house in Long Island and swimming in her pool, laying in the grass in DUMBO with Joyce, playing would you?, the Juggernaut, accidentally hitting the car near the waterfront (and driving away like nothing happened!), going to the PUMA/Fader fashion show with Melissa, Mun’s surprise birthday party, Cindy Yuan, driving upstate and getting into an accident in the big red van, jumping in the alley with Simon & Norman, jumping some more with Andrew, Ian, and Jared (and then again with Tiff Liu and Yelena), watching July 4th fireworks on the rocks with Joyce, eating at Woodrow Diner with Pam, meeting Pam’s grandparents (especially her grandma), playing in the park late at night, breaking night with Cindy at Seaport, seeing Kevin Lee at Dunkin Donuts in Queens, eating ice cream with Ann, Joyce, and Sandra, eating gross Italian food with Jeff Chin and his crazy-ass girlfriend (Laura), Dunkin Donuts runs, going to Long Beach with Pascal, Justin, Jessica, Connie, and Lauren (and his friends), really missing people far away, not wanting to get dark/tan because dark/tan is the new ugly, sitting on my roof and enjoying the view of the avenue with Joyce, seeing the Bodies Exhibit with Tiff Wong, hanging out with Mike Zhou and Darrel at Jackson Hole, eating Afghani man in Alice’s office with Sook and Pam, Hudson River Park, killing time with Enid in Duane Reade, cooking hot dogs and spaghetti (truly, this summer’s menu), drinking tasty shakes with blueberries (ANTS) at the Shen’s, meeting Josh from PA, going to TiffWong’s get-together, awkwardness, flings, dings, having two different set of parents ask their daughters if I was dating them, meeting Carmel, going to NYC’s smallest public park with Carmel and Pam, bowling upstate, flying a stunt kite, meeting Julien and riding our bikes all around the city with Bran, long phone calls, getting over it, watching Pirates of the Caribbean with Jocey, making videos with Bran, Yelena, and Melanie, teaching Joyce how to play drums, Joey and Bonnie, my family, holding secrets, having secrets, holding hands, craving fat cats from Rutgers, drama and gossip, Meebo.com, visiting Josh Ng and Kaitlin Ho in the mall, The Office (Jim, Pam, Michael, Stanley, Dwight, Kevin, Ryan, and all the other characters — you made my summer funny and gave me lots to talk to people about), Flickr, driving to Columbia with Meggie in the red van late at night, wicked cold hot chocolate at Jacques Torres, sleep overs, having the apartment all to myself, not worrying about time, having fun with no effort at all, being totally inappropriate and not caring, hugs & kisses, shopping at Pathmark, having a ball watching the comments flow in on JustJared, being ’sexyback’ with Tiff Liu and Yelena, driving Yelena home, friends who aren’t camera shy, hazelnut iced coffees, photographing dance performances with Keith, drawing on my wall with colors with Melanie, seeing Law, Mike Zhou, and Jullian again, making car mixes, that damned Verizon commercial with Promiscuous playing in the background, funny black girls in dark theaters, singing every word to Semi-Charmed Life by Third Eye Blind, dancing, YouTube, not making any plans and having the time of my life, good friends, good times, and good memories

…I thank you.

That most definitely would have been better as a list, but I didn’t consider that until about half way through and I know that most of you will probably not read it all anyway so I didn’t feel like there was enough reason to change the entire thing.

Wow, that certainly is a lot of good times to remember. Of course, I probably left out some things here and there, so don’t kill me for it. And there goes the official end-of-my-summer entry. But the fun won’t stop there. No, it won’t. Leave one. :)

If you want, some pictures of this fantastic summer are in my Flickr photostream. You can check the photo sets too if you want.

So there it is, my summer 2006. Winter break is gonna rock!