Hot, Cruel Summer.

 Writing Wednesday is a place for me to write whatever I want to write.   

    The following is a piece I wrote in my summer writing class last summer.  It kind of goes along with my post from last week as it was also inspired by summer warmth.  As I am typing this, it is about 93 degrees and I have braved the outside warmth a few times today, each time coming into my air conditioned house being grateful for central air.  Yes, I am a spoiled brat.  Enjoy a little piece from the past:

    The girl from Wisconsin isn't made for the heat.  You know, the blazing, I'd rather just jump out of my skin into a pool filled with icy pops and ice cubes kind of heat.  The pops would be so much more tasty but the cubes would offer a bit more wetness with its cold.  And it is always nice to have a grape ice pop on hand when the taste and heat inspires.

    Now, a pool filled with ice cream would be cold, I'll give you that, but it wouldn't be as pleasant.  Being creamed doesn't feel like it would be my life choice.  Now, chilled, yes a lifegoal, sticky and creamy, not so much.

    An ice cold drink is my also help with feeling too hot, but through a straw is best way for an iced drink, in my opinion.  I'm against the too cold embrace of my upper lips on ice as the liquid battles for space into my mouth.  And my drink of choice is definitely going to be the carbonated goodness of soda.

    Now, there's another thing to battle.  Is it soda or pop? I've seen maps showing which states use which label.  I think it is about 50/50.  I used to care about "right" answers but I now find diversity or variety the right answer, although I may be less bugged by soda.

    I think my favorite solution is the way my high school friend's dad would offer me a "soda-pop," with a tiny emphasis on the POP, on warm summer days.  It was endearing the way he would push the sugar filled drinks on us teens.  He was like a cute 60s hair slicked back kind of a drug dealer.

    Now, the only soda term from that map that I do not stand for is Coke. When they say "want a coke?" in the south it doesn't necessarily mean a red can with swirly Coca-Cola embedded on the side.  Nope.  It is like asking: "Want a soda, or want a pop?," but bringing back some milk.  Maybe I prefer Pepsi.  Will I end up eternally thirsty because I didn't want a Coke?

    So, in crazy places where they ask you if you want a Coke, is there a follow up question?  Like "what kind?" Or is it just a lottery style, you get what they give you, or what they have in their fridge?  At least when you say want a soda(or pop)? you know there will definitely be a follow up, usually offering what the options are in the fridge.

    Maybe people in Cokeland only like Coke.  Or maybe they have seen all the cute polar bear advertising and have assumed that Coke just makes everything better and therefore is the only answer.

    Maybe I am not just hot right now, but maybe I am also very thirsty.  I guess those often go hand in hand.

    I don't care what you call it, just get me a drink already.  And make it cold, like my heart, but not as cold as ice.  Please and thank you.

What Does the Heat Make You Thirsty For?

       Thirsty-Thursdays are a place to talk all things thirst. Thirst can be actual, physical thirst and direct us to the subject of tasty drinks, but it can also drive us toward a mental thirst, the thirst for information.

It is going to be hot, hot, scorching hot the next few days here in Utah.  It's the beginning of June, and seriously 90s?  I know, I am very much a wimp when it comes to heat.  I think it is the thick Wisconsin skin.  I can handle negative temps, but get close to 100 and I die, or at least melt. 

    It was also a little toasty nine years ago at my wedding reception.

Reuben and I at our Utah reception

    Just like the heat, I am also not a fan of the typical Utah wedding tradition of a reception line.  This basically is where the groom and bride, their parents, and anybody else in the wedding party line up and people come through the line and greet the wedding party people.  I have walked through many of these lines, and they can be so long and plainly a little boring.  You usually only know one person and that is the bride or groom.  You awkwardly(at least if your me) talk to everybody in said line, but really, you are there to talk to that one person you actually know, for two minutes.  Anyway, I digress.  Not my favorite, but it is tradition and you do things because of tradition sometimes.  

    Anyway.  It was also hard to be the bride in a reception line.  There were many people who I did not know but they were genuinely happy for Reuben and I.  Don't get me wrong, I am very glad they came to celebrate us, but it did make for a long day.  But, there was one special thing that happened at that reception, Diet Coke.  See those cups in our hands?  I have always been a fan of soda and it fit well with our baseball themed wedding.  A friend of mine kept coming to me with a new cup every 20-30 minutes the whole hour and a half we stood in that hot line, and it was a godsend.  It made bearable the roasting necessity that was that line. Refreshing, revitalizing and restoring bubbles got me through that line.

Me and my Dad at the Wisconsin reception

    Now, we didn't have a line at our Wisconsin wedding.  (We did have a softball game though!) But it was July in muggy Wisconsin(as you can see by my hygrometer hair), so a thirst quencher was also needed to survive all the fun.  This time it wasn't Diet Coke, but 1919 Root beer*.  It is my favorite draft root beer and it is found in many Wisconsin bars and restaurants.  I think it is a big part of my childhood and has carried into my adulthood because of my non-alcoholic drinking ways. See, in places where they make good beer, they also make amazing root beer.  My mom specially ordered a half of barrel of 1919 for the occasion and it truly was one of the highlights.  

    Now, as it is getting warmer, water is probably best.  We all know it, but there is just something about having something a little more delicious to sip out of an ice-cold sweating glass.  Comment with the drinks you love to enjoy in the heat.  Maybe you will inspire somebody across the internet waves to try something different.  Also, feel free to share your memories attached to your special drinks.  I want this space to be one that can connect us all to one another.  So, here is me begging for comments...beg, beg, beg, grovel, grovel.

*Stay tuned to the next Thirsty Thursday to learn all about 1919 Draft Root Beer!