Summer lovin', had me a blast!

Ever since I was young and first saw Grease (or was it Dirty Dancing?), I've always understood the importance of summer romance. Girl goes on vacation and meets a gorgeous bad boy, girl learns how to dirty dance, girl moves to boy's high school, girl wears leather pants and starts smoking, they fall in love and live happily ever after. I might be mixing up the movies here, but you get the point. Summer romances can be life changing!

Well, bad news. It's mid July and I haven't had a summer romance yet. Truth be told, I don't think I'm the "summer fling" type. But for some reason, I'm always disappointed when I don't have one. It's possible that I'm too old to be thinking about summer romance but I guess all those movies from my youth have really stuck with me. The good news is I still have part of July and all of August.

The way I see it, I have three options for summer romance. Two of them I summarized above (learn to dirty dance or move to a new school and meet up with my old summer flame). The other option is from the movie The Great Outdoors. In this scenario, I go to a resort town, meet a jaded local, and convince him that I'm not like the other girls who visit that town - I'm different. Better. This movie tops the charts when it comes to the cheese factor. Those of you lucky enough to have seen it will know what I'm talking about. ("Cammie....if you're out there....")

I'm thinking that since I'm not in school anymore the Grease scenario is out. The Dirty Dancing one sounds like fun, but involves way too much drama. Plus I'm not sure I'm flexible enough for that one (physically or morally). I guess that leaves the Great Outdoors option. I happen to be leaving for a week's vacation tomorrow so this one might work out perfectly.

But the question is, what characteristics do I look for in a summer fling? When I was 13 it was easy. I had a huge crush on this guy I met on vacation. He had everything I was looking for in a guy: a moped, a rebel attitude, and he was super cute. You have to remember I was heavily influenced by Richard Marx and Paula Abdul back then. But now...I'm not sure a moped would do much for me anymore. And I haven't listened to Richard Marx or Paula Abdul in weeks.

When I look for the common thread with all these movies and with my crush from all those years ago, there's one thing all the love interests share: the rebel attitude. While this can be cute when you're 13, it's a little dangerous in an adult man. But then again...if I must, I must! Summer romance, here I come!