This summer I enter into my fourth decade here on planet Earth. And along with my collection of anti-aging potions, the new lines around my smile and the subscription to MORE magazine, I’ve created a list of ways to (not) act my age this summer.
Here’s how you can, too.
- Wear a string bikini. Even if your stomach has more lines than a Shakepearean play and your “girls” have relocated from Maine to Boca Raton, throwing on a bathing suit held together by dental floss is wildly freeing. You don’t have to wear it down the water slides at the community pool. Simply sit in your own backyard with your baby oil, Ray Bans and boom box blaring “Jesse’s Girl,” and have yourself a very Jr. High moment.
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Find a Harley and climb on. My husband recently purchased his mid-life mistress named Harley, complete with studded seats, a deafening engine and loads of chrome. Now I have a crush on her, too. Want to feel like a rebel without a cause? Rent a motorcycle for a day, find out which of your Facebook friends has one and will give you a ride or ask for a test drive at your local Harley Davidson store. Trust me, you’ll feel 16 in 10 seconds flat.
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Get frisky al fresco. Remember making out with your boyfriend in the high school parking lot and not caring who saw you? When you’re young, public displays of affection are de rigueur. You may have traded a school parking lot for a suburban backyard, lakefront playground or condo balcony. Either way, wait till dark, grab a blanket, go outside and well, get it on.
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Go all retro on your kids. This summer I will introduce my kids-and re-introduce myself-to the following:
- The cinematic classics: “Goonies,” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and “Sixteen Candles.”
- Kick the can and neighborhood scavenger hunts.
- Duran Duran, Culture Club and the beauty of the 1980s’ “one-hit wonder.”
- Pop Rocks and Coke.
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Go to your 8-year-old place. Pick a day and eat way too much sugar, pick a bunch of dandelions and put them in your best vase, throw a water balloon out the second story window just to watch it explode and have a burping contest with your kids. Sometimes you simply must act your shoe size, not your age.
