This is me at the beach. In December. In Florida. I haven’t been back to the beach since.
Kalo mina! Happy first day of August!!
Can you believe how fast the summer is flying by? I’ve been so busy I feel like I’ve barely even begun to embrace summer.
A few years ago, I read Laura Vanderkam‘s 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think after hearing her read at a Mediabistro party. I’ve written before about how I was inspired by her suggestion to create a list of 100 Dreams and also by the idea of trying to do something twice a week instead of having all-or-nothing thought patterns. Another concept she writes about in her book is how we often squander our time by not planning ahead. She writes specifically about how entire weekends can fly by without us feeling like we’ve accomplished anything, feeling like we rested, or feeling like we had fun. She suggested it’s better to pre-plan and schedule even things like going to the park in our calendars so they don’t fall to the wayside.
With this in mind, I created a Pinterest board called “Summer in the City.” It’s partly a mood board of images that remind me of what I love so much about New York City summers. Outdoor concerts in the rain. Sculpture gardens. Fresh corn on the cob. Wine tasting on Long Island. It’s also a bit of a to-do list. It’s so easy to get caught up in work and errands and writing and blogging and this and that and then fall comes and wonder what happened to the summer. So, I created a visual inspiration board. I would have a spectacular summer. The only problem is I spent more time creating the Pinterest board than doing the events! I forgot Vanderkam’s golden rule to pencil the activities in. Now I’ve taken the initiative now to reach out to various friends and start living out the summer I want to have.
Here’s a few of the items I’ve already checked off my Summer in the City to-do list:
- Move — Done and done. Yeah, I actually kinda sorta moved twice. It’s a long story.
- Attend my college BFF’s wedding in Dallas — I’d missed her and her family so dearly. It was lovely. And, now I can say I’ve been to Texas.
- Attend my sister’s wedding — There were lots of wedding festivities.
- Go on the Crown Maple Syrup tour — Sooo much fun! And delicious!
- Watch Before Midnight — I love this trilogy so bad, and this particular movie was filmed near my house in Greece so I had to see it. I saw it at the Angelika, my favorite theatre in New York.
- Attend Howl Festival — I can’t believe I’ve been remiss in blogging about this. I went by myself and had an awesome time.
- Check out the exhibit Punk: Chaos to Couture exhibit at the Met — I went with a friend who wrote a punk novel, and we had a good laugh at the CBGB installation.
- Picnic in the park — My publishing friend treated me to a picnic of baguette and cheeses and wine in the Brooklyn Bridge Park, where we watched a Shakespeare production.
- Eat fresh fruit from the farmers market — A friend made me dinner in Brooklyn one night and served up fresh Southern peach slices. Afterwards we went and danced in the rain.
- Read in the park — I wrote instead.
- Attend BEA — Always enjoy this.
- Listen to the orchestra play in Central Park — Went with two friends and had a magnificent time.
Okay, so looking over the list, I realize I actually have done a lot this summer. Maybe I have high expectations, but I want to do so much more. Like eat a cronut.
What’s on your summer bucket list?
Stephanie Nikolopoulos 
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