Ten on Tuesday (Take One)

I got this idea from my friend Courtney and I thought it was quite fun, answering 10 random questions on Tuesday to get my imagination and memory going! I've changed a few of the questions from hers, but the idea is still the same--thanks Courtney! Feel free to join in with your own! Today's is summer-themed since we're supposedly in the middle of summer here.

1. What is the best summer job you ever had?
I've had a lot of random office jobs over summers before, which include working for my dad and the Burger King corporate offices of Sacramento, but I think my favorite summer job was the year I was a nanny for 4 different families. I would spend mornings with one family, move to another home in the afternoon, spend all day Fridays with a third, and another day with a fourth. All the kids were under age 3, and were absolutely delightful. All four families had baby boys, who were each about 6 months old when I began with them, and I LOVED the time spent with them!

2. What was the worst?
My year at Aaron Brother's Art & Framing store took me through a summer and I hated that job. There wasn't a whole lot (other than the employee discount!) that I enjoyed about that one! Especially when I had to go in about once a week at 3:30 AM to unload our shipment truck...that was brutal...

3. What is your favorite summer activity?
I like picnics in parks, although for some reason, we don't do them that often. Grilling out or doing a potluck in a park with frisbees, volleyball, possibly some water balloons...yup that's a great summer afternoon!

4. What is the best summer dinner of all time?
That's easy! Mom's teriyaki burgers with grilled pineapple, mom's pasta salad, mom's pea salad, mom's broccoli salad, corn on the cob and watermelon. And yes, those recipes have to be specific, I don't like just any pasta or pea salad--only Sue Hanson's will work for me to be on the "favorite food of summer" list! (If anyone needs ideas, I'd be happy to share the recipes, I do now have them all!) That was our standard fare around our house each summer (or some variation on that menu, usually burgers, chicken etc thrown on the grill, a variety of cold salads, and watermelon, lots and lots of watermelon!)

5. What is one smell that brings back summer memories?
I didn't even realize it existed until last summer, actually. For those who don't know, I grew up in a suburb of Sacramento, and spent all my summers there until I graduated from college. Last year, I drove up to the Fresno area to visit my sister's in laws (my sister and brother in law were there) and it was while driving away from their house that I caught a scent that immediately took me home. It's not the scent of cows, there weren't many cows around my home in Sacramento, but it was the smell of agriculture. Of earth, soil that had been warmed all day by the HOT sun and was starting to cool. Of grass freshly mown mingling with the rich smell of soil, the stray wiff of smog, and the sticky sweet smell of tomato plants ripening. You can't smell it during the day, it's too hot, it's a scent that only appears as the sky grows dusk, the intensity of the sun dips behind the horizon, and the first starts begin appearing. All these scents blended together and all of a sudden my husband looks over and I have tears rolling down my cheeks. "I miss childhood summers," I said to him. "I think I'm homesick for a time of the past."

6. What one summer activity don't you like, and why?
I love being out on a lake in a boat--I love riding in ski boats that are flying over the water, but I do NOT like being pulled behind one for any reason. Tubing, wake boarding (yes I tried last summer, I was not a fan!) and the likes are not my cup of tea.

7. What was a typical summer day like for you when you were a child?
Glorious, that's what they were like! We'd sleep in, lounge around in our pjs reading if we wanted to, and generally changed straight in to our swimsuits. Days were spent bouncing from the swimming pool in the back yard to the swing set to dry off, to the TV for re-runs of The Brady Bunch over lunch, back into the pool until dinner or until we got a little too sunburned and would come into spend the hottest part of the day reading or doing puzzles inside. After dinner sometimes there would be more swimming, or family bike rides to an ice cream shop, or a neighborhood game of hide and go seek in our cul-de-sac. Trips to the library every week were a must--we needed to cash in our prizes for their summer reading programs! Dinner would usually be on the grill, neighbors were constantly running back and forth to various pools in the neighborhood. Some of the best days of my life.

8. What is the best summer vacation you've taken?
I have no idea how I'm going to pick just one. We traveled somewhere almost every summer (I was spoiled to have parents who valued seeing new places as much as I do). Probably the two that stand out the most are our cruise to Alaska about 5 years ago and the European cruise our family did with my cousins' family in 2001 I think it was? The four of us kids had our own rooms at the opposite end of the ship as our parents and we saw a bunch of great cities--Normandie, France was my favorite of that particular trip I think.

9. What is one thing you don't like about summer?
When it's too hot. I know, it's summer, it's supposed to be hot, but I really don't like the heat. I don't like being all sweaty if there's no pool for me to jump into, and I really hate not being able to sleep at night because our apartment now doesn't have a/c in the bedroom. So yeah mild summers are the best for me, which is why living in Seattle was absolutely perfect!

10. What is the best "Summer Time Song" that became part of the summer soundtrack of your life?
Summer Nights from the Grease soundtrack. Best summer-time song ever!