No longer being a kid during the summer royally sucks. I cannot effectively express my distaste for having so many responsibilities and being forced to be an adult, but I sure can try.
I miss the days of completely blowing off work for a week and heading to the lake to just sit back and relax. I'm grown up now, I no longer make attempts to blow off work and I follow my morals. However, the problem with this is, that it's tough to go to the lake when It's almost three hours away, and I have work the next day.
So what are the perks of being an adult in a vacated college town?
1. Drinking at the bars becomes way more spacious and tolerable
Do you like elbow room when you enjoy a cold adult beverage after a long week or a long day? Do you like not having to wait in a line to get a drink from a crowded bar? Do you like to be able to hear the person you're at the bar with? Then summer is the perfect time in Grand Forks for you.
It's significantly easier to ignore one incredibly drunk person singing karaoke for one song every few hours than listening to a line of overly hammered college students singing the same six songs every three hours.
2. The races are pretty cool, if you're into that
Specifically, in my college town of Grand Forks North Dakota, we have races on Friday and Saturday nights, and they're a huge hit.
I, for one, have not been the world's biggest fan of people racing cars around in a circle. There's a lot that goes into that, and I fully understand and respect the people with the gonads to do that sort of thing, but River Cities Speedway is always poppin' every single weekend when it's dry out. You can hear it all around town, and you hear about it on the radio and on the news. It looks like everyone that goes absolutely aches to go all throughout the work week.
It's the highlight of a lot of people's lives, and that's a good atmosphere to be in.
3. Want a pizza from somewhere? It'll get there significantly faster now
If you're like me and hate leaving your house when you feel like being completely lazy and decide to order pizza, you thoroughly hate when it takes too long and you find other things to munch on waiting for the pizza to come, only to end up being full after signing the receipt. Granted, it's not the worst thing to ever happen when a pizza takes longer than a half hour, but it's breathtaking when you get it 20 minutes after you placed the order.
4. Everyone loves a good gathering around a fire pit
Bring the booze, the tailgates, the friends, and the laughs and memories will flow like the ancient rivers of Babylon. The weekends are wonderful times to be stranded in small midwest towns that typically are filled with college kids. Being at home with your best friends and sitting around a perfectly stoked fire is one of the most blissful and relaxing things to do after a 60 hour work week.
5. Grilling every night never gets old
I could destroy cheese burgers, steaks, chicken, hot dogs, and anything else that is typically cooked on the grill. There are so many recipes on how to cook amazing delicacies on the grill, that you could have something different every single night from when the snow melts, to when the leaves begin to float graciously to the deteriorating grass.
If you're a vegetarian or a vegan, you can always figure something out — like grilled corn on the cob or other different ways to grill vegetables. Also, thank you for leaving more deliciousness for the rest of us this summer season.
I'm not sure if it's just me, but does everything taste much better after it's been grilled? Science? Can we get someone on this to make it a proven fact and to discover why that's a thing?
