Heat Waves & Dance Raves

Being a teenager is all about learning to preoccupy yourself during the summer. Everybody has those days (Hannah Montana urge resisted) when they solemnly swear that they're up to nothing at all (Harry Potter reference used). It's so blazing hot outside and even the tar on the roads is melting. Team iPhone users are losing the smartphone battle and their phones can't function because it's hotter than the surface of the sun. It's absolutely unbelievable and totally unprecended. You've got to find ways to beat the heat. This is heat waves and dance raves.


Beating the heat requires you to be a whole lot of creative and prepared to do whatever it takes to stay cool. The most obvious thing would be to stay at home in the sanctity that is your air conditioned house. When it's so hot outside that heat advisories have been issued, follow the suggestion and stay home at all costs. The likelihood of heat stroke, and dehydration is high. Listen to your local meteorologist (they're right for once, it's sweltering otuside) and stay inside if possible. Now, if you don't have air conditioning it might be well worth investing in. If it's not an option you're going to need a couple of fans and two tubs of ice cold water. Place the fans at windows that are adjacent to each other and the ice baths (ewe, chemistry) in front of them. If you do it right you can create a current that has a polar breeze like freaking Clark Kent speeding to the artic palace known as the Fortress of Solitude. If you're stuck inside, you've got some options. Cold showers anyone? The lowest floor on your house will be the coldest, trust me I know. There's even a noticeable difference in the second floor, main floor and basement in my house, that ish cray. You can supplement your daily food consumption with cold everything. ICEE cups, ice cream, popsicles, slushies, smoothies, cones, sandwiches - it's literally whatever and they all taste amazing. Watching your figure, try frozen grapes - they taste vaguely like ice cream (I learned from Zoom back in the day). If worst comes to worse, you play with your clothes. Apparently freezing your undergarments and wearing them while you sleep keeps you cool during the night? Looking to get out of the house, make sure you're sporting the sunscreen like there's no tomorrow. There's the obvious choice of hitting up the pool, but let it be known that it's socially unacceptable to be swimming in a community pool before noon. Like who does that, have some class. Also, if you don't live in a neighborhood, and you're not at the pool with anyone that lives there then you're trespassing, that's just plain ratchet (you don't even live here). If you're at the community pool please look presentable because it's creepy to have you neighbhors scoping you out, or seeing all of that hang on out. Go out for ice cream or frozen yogurt. Hang out at the library or mall (read a freaking book kiddies or shop til you drop) both are heavily air conditioned, and you can browse for hours on end. You've got to do whatever it takes to beat the heat. It's heat waves and dance raves.

Friday started off with a change for once. Instead of it just being the three two of us (my brother doesn't understand the meaning of stay home) my dad's friend's kids came to hang out with us all day. Well, they're our age, and they understand us, especially in our double identity lives as Africans by way of birth and Americanized school life. It's 10:30am when Kevin, Derrick and Tiffany show up to come and hang out. My sister, Bianca and I were still a mess, so we just went to take showers and look a little bit presentable. We spent the morning cooking breakfast (over easy eggs > everything) and hashing out why our lives are so ridiculous with the unobtainable standards from parents, and the ratchet mess that is people from church. We literally geeked ourselves out so hard, I talking about literally rolling on the ground laughing. After some video games it was my world famous special spaghetti (you haven't tasted relevance until you've had it). We would periodically check outside and every time it was sweltering. It was hotter than Africa (not that I've been, but I have been to the equator so I would know) out there, just 104 degrees like it was NBD. It was finally time to dance it on out. We started with Just Dance 2, and y'all know I'm perpetually really good at everything (not really, but dancing is actually my thing). I take out everybody, and then it's on to Dance Dance Revolution where I'm playing on the most difficult level, because I can. We go down to the basement to fool around (it's even cooler down there, temperature wise) and we do some jumping, run around, throw pillows and see how fast we can run on a treadmill. We're just sweating up a storm and having a great summer time. It was one of the most fun days of my summer for sure. All of sudden, instead of being unbearably bright outside the sky becomes overcast and we realize that all hell is about to break loose. We get a call from our dad that a storm is coming, and sure enough we see our trash cans and recyle bins go flying into the backyard. Branches, leaves and grass start flying through the air and the winds are flying so fast the trees are hitting their wobble. Lightning striking all over so close and the whole house shakes. The power went out for a few seconds and we were playing some gamecube. The rain torrents and pelts the windows and it's a Shane Harper "Dancing In the Rain" montage like none other. Finally the storm passes, and Kevin, Derrick, and Tiffany get picked up and peace out. It's left with just Bianca and I left to fend for ourselves and finally Christian comes home, we're no longer stranded. Apparently, the stoplights are out in every other part of town except for where we live, and it's a chaotic mess. Bianca and I take to the streets and see the traffic so we decide to get some Chinese food, well everyone else had hte same idea too - because the line was not even hitting it. We make it back and that's the end of our night. We made it through a crazy day. It's heat waves and dance raves.

Being a teenager is all about figuring out what to do with yourself when there's absolutely nothing else to do. It's called preoccupying your time and making every moment interesting. It's about the stupid little things you do when there's literally nothing more to do except be completely silly. It's about making it through the heat waves with some dance raves.

My blog post question for the day is ... how do you beat the heat? Me, I cower in the confines of my house surrounded by the refreshing, filtered breezes provided by air conditioning. So many #firstworldproblems.