Why July 2 is the Sweet Spot of Summer

I have decided that tomorrow, Saturday, July 2, is the unofficial best day of summer. 

I'll tell you why, but it may take a minute to get there. Hang with me.

Recently, I came to a personal realization about weekends. The best part of the weekend is, in my opinion, from about 7 pm on Friday until 7 pm on Saturday. 

Why, you ask? Here's my reasoning, based on a regular, 8-5, M-F work schedule.

So at 7 pm on Friday, I have a whole evening plus two days of weekend ahead of me. By 7 pm, I'm doing whatever it is I'm going to do on a Friday night, celebrating the end of a work week in any fashion I see fit. I'm looking forward to Saturday, and not even thinking about Monday. 

On Saturday, I have the promise of a whole day ahead of me - this is the weekend sweet spot. It's not until about 7 pm on Saturday that the weekend vibe starts to wane ever-so-slightly. The next day is Sunday, which means at some point during that day I'll have to start planning for the work week, whether that's doing laundry or grocery shopping or thinking about weeknight dinners or checking my schedule of upcoming meetings and to-dos. It's still a nice day, but by 7 pm that night, the initial thrill of the weekend, my friends, is gone. 

It's the same thing when it comes to summer. June, to me, is like a month of Thursdays. I'm kind of still getting used to the fact that the days are longer and warmer and that I'm able to come out of hibernation and spend more time doing outdoor things rather than sitting around wishing the weather would f*cking warm up already. 

July is the weekend of summer - well, most of it, anyway. July USED to be the weekend, before they moved the start of school up to the middle of August, sometimes earlier. That's a load of crap in my opinion. Kids should have their summer and not start school until after Labor Day. I know there are a zillion reasons why this isn't the way anymore, but there's something about three months of summer that just feels, well, deserved.

Now, July is my absolute favoritest month in the world because both my sons were born in July. Early July means Wimbledon and that means my oldest son's birthday, which was exactly what I was watching in the hospital while waiting to give birth to him. Late July is my younger son's birthday, so it's like a Sunday when you don't have to work on Monday, if that makes sense. 

But I digress. 

July is like being right smack in the middle of the weekend. In July, you're not even thinking about it being cold, or having to go back to school, or Christmas. There's a change in attitude. People are just a little more laid back; a little more casual. We're taking an extra few minutes to have coffee on the patio in the morning, or taking walks at 8:00 at night when it's still light out. We're getting on bikes, hopping into kayaks, jumping in pools and running through sprinklers. July is the sweet, smoky smell of the neighbor's grill, a whiff of freshly-mowed grass and the ever-present scent of sunscreen on your children. It's BLTs with fresh tomatoes from your garden and an inevitable loaf of zucchini bread from a neighbor's too-bountiful harvest. 

But if I'm going to drill down July, there is a sweet spot, in my opinion - and it's July 2. Here's why. 

So if June is Thursdays, July is the weekend, but after July 4, even though it's technically the height of summer, I still feel like I'm on the downside of it. Back-to-school sales start ridiculously early. Most vacations are in July since August is such a transitional month nowadays. We're always looking forward just a little too far once July appears on the calendar. 

July 2 is when summer seems like it will last forever, and grocery stores are yelling at you to buy their hot dogs and hamburgers and watermelon and potato salad and everyone's flying their flags and nobody's tired of going to the pool and even though it's hot we're all not saying the stuff we say in August like, "Boy, I can't wait for fall!" 

We're still infatuated with summer on July 2. Just like we're infatuated with the weekend on Saturday morning. 

So tomorrow, I hope you'll take full advantage of what is, in my opinion, the sweet spot of summer. While we still have a lot of the season left, from here on out it will all go by in the blink of a weekend.