revisiting the best summer of all time

i'm not sure what makes some summers more magical than others, but it's totally a thing. a delicate balance of experiences, people, and music come together and create the perfect set of memories that become what you eventually (or, now) refer to as "the good old days." and the summer of 2010, my friends, was that for me.

it began with my 24th birthday, which i inexplicably celebrated twice. once with an extremely new england family trip to mystic, connecticut filled with tons of seafood, ice cream, and beach-laying, and again with my friends. we went glow-in-the-dark bowling, and then migrated next door to rain, malden's most delightfully sketchy nightclub, where we danced—whiskey sours in hand—to taio cruz and jay sean on the light-up dance floor while go-go dancers gyrated in cages above us. clearly, things were already off to a good start. then, a couple weeks later, i went to see the backstreet boys at mohegan sun with this girl from my book club that i barely knew and who i'm pretty sure was a vampire. i wonder what happened to her...

i was also happily settled into my first job out of college as a copywriter at a travel company, writing ads and generally feeling like i had a handle on life. my coworkers were awesome, and we'd frequently go out for brazilian barbeque at this delicious hole-in-the-wall in downtown woburn or to a no-frills roast beef place we referred to as "guns and beef" because of the decor. 

plus, i was living in my favorite apartment to date (that is, until the one i just moved into last week). it was a converted attic in a huge victorian house in melrose, with a roof deck, central air, in-unit laundry, and a fucking turret in the living room. yeah, i had a roommate, but i didn't know how good i had it, man! the town was so picturesque, and i loved wandering the little downtown.

the fun continued with a ridiculous day in which my friend kari and i went to the dew tour—a less prestigious x-games—and then went to rain nightlife (again) to meet the situation from jersey shore, at which time i accidentally photobombed him.

for the 4th of july, i went to new york city—mainly because i'd won a two-night stay at a doubletree hotel at my office christmas party, and one of the qualifying properties was the one in times square. the night i got in ended up being one of the most ridiculous nights of my life, and involved a visit to all of the bars in the standard hotel with my friends jeff and jacob. there was the boom boom room, where i took a selfie on the toilet because i couldn't deal with my life, some rooftop bar with astroturf where i just sat in a lawn chair feeling extremely drunk, and le bain, where there was a goddamn hot tub with naked hipsters in the middle of the dance floor.

unsurprisingly, i paid dearly for my fabulous new york city evening the next morning, though i did have to chuckle at the fact that vomiting violently in my times square suite was almost akin to kevin mcallister gorging himself on ice cream sundaes in home alone 2. sort of. i recovered by lunchtime and went to see rock of ages on broadway with gleni, which was absolutely delightful and still among my favorite musicals. then we had dinner on the patio of a cute mexican restaurant in brooklyn.

jeff dragged me to hoboken on the actual 4th of july, which i protested vehemently, because jersey. naturally, i ended up loving it. we had a low-key gathering with burgers at our college friend's apartment with some other marist folk before going to see the fireworks on the water. i vividly remember watching/making fun of the music video for "my first kiss" by ke$ha and 3OH!3, a song that i'm pretty sure i haven't thought about since 2010 but is a total jam.

lol remember when cake boss was a thing

a few weeks later, i flew to vegas for my friend's bachelorette party, and discovered that seven girls on one trip is WAY TOO MANY. despite all of the drama, we barely paid for a thing and had some great times: hanging out in a caesar's palace pool with junior seau (RIP), partying with rich kids from north carolina (and their rich uncle), and seeing the beatles cirque show.

one of my best friends, alissa, got VIP tickets to see O.A.R., who i hate, but it was free and it was  nice night for an outdoor concert, so whatever. the best part of the show (and the only thing i remember) was when the dude-bro in front of us, high on a combination of various substances, just ralphed on himself in the middle of the show.

finally, my friend tati came up from albany to go to the something corporate reunion show with me and it was a perfectly emo evening as the summer came to a close.

now i'm about to cry because i feel old and like summers aren't fun anymore, so let's all reminisce together. 

what was your favorite summer?

the (unexpected) best part of traveling

totally bit this post idea from cup of jo, but it got my wheels turning about one of the best parts of traveling: doing nothing (or, ordinary things) in a new place, which somehow makes the experience way more magical. what are some of your favorite random travel moments?

- eating a huge dish of bread pudding in my hotel bed while wearing a plush bathrobe during a solo trip to san francisco

- using binoculars to spy on people in the apartment building across the street (and making up stories about them) with my cousin when we were staying in my aunt's parents' apartment in new york

- my roommates and i thinking the back door in our barcelona hotel room was broken until we realized it was actually a window, and laughing until our stomachs hurt about it (...guess you had to be there)

- on the same trip, my tour group was staying at place called chateau camiole in the south of france, about an hour outside of nice. before we left for the six-hour trip from barcelona, we stopped at a grocery store to stock up on meat and cheese and snacks. i'd gotten super-sick a couple days before, and it was the first day i was feeling better, but i was still pretty tired by the time we arrived in france. since we were so far from civilization and it was getting late, our tour director got all of us together in one of the flats, and we spent the whole evening snacking on our meats and cheeses and baguettes, drinking wine, and learning more about each other. it was fantastic.

- the next night, the girls in my suite and i snuggling on one bed, watching an SVU marathon that was totally in french

- riding around aimlessly at night, listening to kanye's college dropout with my childhood best friends during a trip back to my hometown of syracuse in high school

- going vintage shopping while half-drunk on hurricanes in new orleans

- singing along to zayn's "pillowtalk" in a london pub

- sitting with gleni on one of our beds in paris while she tinder swiped

- eating pizza and drinking wine with my mom on the patio of a pizza place in st. augustine as a guy covered "i am the walrus"

 - when my friend requested that "trap queen" be playing as i got into our uber in portland, maine

- eating an incredible ham sandwich at this adorable deli in the adorable town of hood river, oregon where i stopped to charge my phone (weirdly, most of these moments involve food or music)

- on that same day, sitting on the curb in portland with a new dutch friend eating a rice bowl from a food cart

- trading "that's what she said" jokes with a stranger in a SXSW shuttle van