Labor Day Weekend. Lessons Learned.

[Photo by Ben Watts]

This Labor Day weekend I fully realized the extent of how different the "Hamptons' experience" can be for different people.  Whether you're the type to spend all weekend golfing, to be the social butterfly out and about mingling in different outfits at every planned party, to be spraying champagne over your new best friends at the nightclubs, to be hosting bbqs and bonfires, or to opt out of all of the above and be a beach bum all weekend (my favorite), it's up to you to make the experience the one that you most enjoy.  This weekend, for the first time, I feel like I really got all of it in: visits to an art exhibit with all of the fabulously dressed socials followed by drinks and dancing at (dare I admit it) DUNE, days on the beach, ice cream in the afternoons, dinner under the stars with debaucherous bonfires to follow, champagne sprays, milky ways, boogie boards, and dark and stormy's.  The dichotomies that I came across this weekend were plentiful, as the Hamptons may be best described as anyway: The ULTIMATE dichotomy.

Some lessons I learned this weekend:

Simplify your life, all you need is a nice cotton white dress and a sweater to carry you through the weekend. Persian rugs thrown on grass are a great way to encourage story telling at dusk.  Get in the ocean every chance you get, it is the BEST way to start your day, and the only thing you should be concerned about doing until at least noon.  Be Silly. Don't forget to look up at the stars, it's not everyday you get to see the milky way.  Go to events if they suit you, if they don't, forget about it...there is no use fretting over how to spend your time on Labor Day weekend.  Remember: You. have. nothing. to. do. Repeat this over and over until it gets good and set in.  This doesn't happen often and it is hard to know how to handle but you must try. Get ice cream daily.  Wrestle in the grass without worrying about grass stains on aforementioned dress.  Forget about calories.  Tell long stories about haunted houses, childhood memories, future dreams, anything.  Encourage people to start new life journeys.  Eat key lime pie.  Get seconds.  Sit around fires with old and new friends fighting off the sunrise.  Sleep in.  Take naps.  Celebrate birthdays twice in a row.  Find things to toast about often.  Get your workout in without realizing it by building sand castles, swimming with the jelly fish or boogie boarding across the Atlantic.  Eat too much, drink too much and be lazy.  If possible do this next to the ones you love.

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