Beach Reads

i sit at my desk today with the same view everyday. although i'm a whole 20 floors up, and you would think my view would give me access to the bustling streets of new york, the hot dog vendors, tourists and manic cab drivers...i'm actually left to twist my head slightly to the left and stare directly into the offices that occupy the newscorp building next to me. they are not even interesting...no one having scandalou offices affairs or sleeping on the job...nothing. if i stare hard enough and look down ever so slightly, i will catch a few glimpses of the street below, but it's like a mirror backwards, so nothing makes that much sense. it's torture heading up to other floors or walking into those "corner" offices to see what they get to look at everyday - central park! rock center! the hudson river! me - glass and steel.

i'm writing about this because today, it's even worse. i can barely even view my "view" because the rain is coming down in sheets, SHEETS. actually, right this moment it seems to be taking on that quality of complete fake rain - you know the kind in the movies that they use to make it look like rain when it's a perfectly nice day otherwise? it seems as though the rain has orchestrated itself into attempting to flood new york. and part of me feels as though this island of manhattan may be the only place getting this bucket o' water at this moment. its also dark...and ominous. to a point where i may need to turn on the overhead heinous light in my office. (note to self: be thankful you have an office).

anways, all this gloom has got me thinking about how much i love summertime. not just because of the lazy days, ocean breeze, late sunsets, and flip flops but because of the excuse to read total non-serious, lighthearted, some say ridiculously unreal, "beach reads". call it what you will, i am obsessed. something in these books takes me back to the summers i used to have - the ones where i actually was on the beach or at the pool reading these books. now, i'm on the crowded subway or in my cubicle apartment envisioning how great it would be to sip a cold beer on an ocean front porch.

no matter what, I can never and will never get enough of the coast and all that it entails. since i'm not reduced to staring at hoboken, nj or brooklyn, ny while standing on the edge of the manhattan "coast" - i have found an entire new appreciation for getting lost in tales of summer romance, wine sipping and boat rides. I will always be a girl who carries the ocean and all that it entails with her. i will never be the girl who is completely at home staring at steel and glass and concrete. i will always be the girl who prefers thunderstorms over the ocean. i will never be the girl who lives for the first snowfall. i will always be the girl who savors a glass of wine and a book. i will never be the girl who savors take out thai food on the couch. i will always be the girl who finds slightly burnt skin satisfying. i will never be the girl who finds pale skin to be "in". i will always be the girl who wants a boat. i will never be the girl who wants a car and driver. i will always be the girl who finds nothing better than the ocean over the waves at night. i will never be the girls who finds nothing better than the orange lights of nyc over the hudson river beautiful. i will always, always be the girl who belongs at the coast, on the sand, in the water...and i will never be the girl who turns her nose up at the suggestion of taking on a "beach read" beacause it's so much more than just that.