On Core Memories

Recently, I was chatting with some colleagues about ice cream cake.

My birthday always fell around the last day of school as a kid.

I'd have a party with my friends and I always asked for ice cream cake. The party would happen and then summer vacation would start.

Ice Cream Cakes

I don't actually like Dairy Queen's "ice cream" and didn't realize until I was an adult that you could get a Blizzard on the top instead of vanilla ice cream, but hey.

I'd get an ice cream cake with vanilla ice cream, the cookie part (the part I wanted), and the gel icing drawing of whatever franchise that I was interested in at the time: Pokémon, dinosaurs, cars, whatever. It was something I looked forward to every year and my mother stressed out about every year.

Summer Chillin' Core Memories

Since the party was right before summer vacation started, I'd always end up with the leftover ice cream cake in my freezer and tons of free time.

My family homestead has a massive veranda on the front and a hammock. Always has, always will.

Each year, my summer started with a few weeks of having ice cream cake for breakfast while laying on a hammock in the cool-yet-warm mornings.

If that's not a core memory, I don't know what is.

This year, I'm going to get an ice cream cake for my birthday and enjoy it in a hammock just because.