A cure for the summertime blues

I need a cure.

I met a friend on Sunday from Italian class to practice (after a rocky start, words started to come back to me) and she asked me if I was looking forward to the summer. I told her summer is the toughest time for me in L.A. She was surprised.

I used to think my summer funk was crazy. While I was in NYC the other week, I was talking to a friend who moved back to NYC after living in L.A. for 8 years. She told me she used to get really depressed during the summers. Now she can't wait. She's renting a house in the Hamptons this year.

I did go to the beach a couple of times during my summers here. I pack my car with a chair and umbrella, grab scripts and head to Zuma. The drive up PCH is pretty. I have also been to a couple birthday parties in Malibu.

I miss the community feeling of Sag Harbor, 'the Shore' or Fire Island. Before I moved to Los Angeles, a friend (a native Angeleno who lived in NYC) rented a house with two couples in a small villiage on Fire Island. You can't bring cars on the Isand and it's accessible by ferry. It was the most relaxing weekend get away. We were far from the day trippers section, Oceanside and the Pines which is the happening gay area. There was really nothing to do but sit on the beach, hike, read, eat, drink, and talk. I met some of my closest friends that summer. The guests were eclectic and interesting, a fashion designer, a documentary filmmaker, an exec at a non-profit, a woman who is now a senior editor at Vogue. We would visit one of our friend's parents which how we ended up spending a Friday night playing charades with the 60 plus crowd.

At sundown people go the litlle pizza place by the dock, get a slice, a beer and talk to the neighbors/meet friends arriving. Once the sun sets everyone claps. Those old school red wagons were very popular on the island to cart groceries from the market or young kids. Sunday night we would take the last ferry out, then the train, arriving back in NYC at Penn Station. On Monday I would walk into work feeling like I had a true mini-break.

Other summers the same friend rented a place in Sag Harbor. Sag Harbor is great because it's not so crazy as other parts of the Hamptons. There isn't really a scene, it's just a cute villiage. People are friendly and some of the nearby beaches are just gorgeous.

You didn't have to be rich to get out of town. Assistants or poorly paid jr. media execs would do shares in houses. One year my sister and I drove out to East Hampton. I still think about that market in Amagansett.

Staying in the city on weekends was also fun because almost everyone cleared out. No lines at the movies, museums, or the supermarkets. I would walk uptown to Central Park or the Met and afterwards just sit on the steps and people watch. A perfect day of doing nothing.

I thought maybe the culture out here was different since most people live in houses. They didn't feel the need to get out of an apartment. However, when we lived in the suburbs most of our neighbors rented or owned houses at "the shore". Every town had it's own vibe. Bayhead was stupid wealthy and kinda Waspy, Long Beach Isand (LBI) cool for families, certain beaches were "the tacky non-ironic beaches". The further south in Jersey you went, the beaches became more Philly friendly. This presented a problem when discussing things like football (Giants vs Eagles). My family went to the Caribbean mostly but we did go to Ocean Grove a couple times. The first week of school, my classmates would go on and on about their shore romances.

I will not go through the summertime blues this year. Hopefully I will be in production. Out of town shooting is usually a 6- day week. Working 16 hours a day plus trying to write an hour before going to set will give me little time to get sad about anything. (like the fact that almost half the year is gone, and I still haven't been on a single date).

If for some reason the movie falls apart, I am going to try and be more social this summer. Maybe I can get a group to the beach for a cookout or something. I can hear the moaning already, "I have scripts to read," "I don't want to drive that far west", "I'm going to be in the office all weekend". I not trying to hear any excuses. Some of these same friends complain they don't have a life. Well, it's time for us to change that.

I can't put my life on hold until I move to Rome, who knows when that will be?