Theme Week, Day Two

Jeremy’s Sametime Status Proudly Presents

Rejected Vacation Theme Week Ideas Week!  Day 2:  Top 5 “Sunsations” Stores


Wait.  They have Sunsations down where you went on vacation?  Interesting.  I've heard about them, but only in legend.  


One of the problems with going to a popular tourist area for vacation is the glut of touristy shops you come across.  So many places that make their living selling kitschy locally themed merchandise made somewhere entirely other than that particular locale.  In the case of a tourist beach, you get snow globes, personalized bottles of sand (I actually found one with "Jeremy" on it...totally didn't buy it), shot glasses, commemorative spoons (Nobody's ever managed to explain this phenomenon to me to my satisfaction), printed t-shirts with modern hip catch phrases, those signs for your house saying stuff like "I'd Rather Be At The Beach," and other random crap like that.  Sometimes, you get lucky and one store takes care of all of your kitschy touristy crap souvenirs for you...and in my case, that store is called "Sunsations."  

Since all of this garbage is located conveniently in one store, you'd think the need for multiple establishments would be limited...and boy would you be wrong.  No, sir...there are in fact an astounding 14 Sunsations stores in a roughly 10-mile stretch of beach coast.  This is nonsense.  So much so that the glut of Sunsations stores is a bit of a running gag while on vacation.  Phrases drenched in sarcasm like "Oh my goodness...they have a 'Sunsations' here?" and "If only there were a 'Sunsations' nearby," ring out nearly non-stop.  It seemed very appropriate to rank my Top 5 "Sunsations" stores and present them to you for your edutainment. 

Here's the catch...up until about Day 5 of my vacation, I had never actually been in one, leave alone five or more.  Also, my reaction to being in a "Sunsations" was more one of "Dear God, get me out of this store as soon as possible," than of excitement or even, quite frankly, lukewarm interest.  These factors make it remarkably difficult to feign joy over any one of the stores over any of the others.  So, unfortunately for you, you'll have to discover for yourselves which "Sunsations" store is the best...since this idea for a Theme Week never got off the ground. 

Theme Week, Day One

Jeremy’s Sametime Status Proudly Presents

Rejected Vacation Theme Week Ideas Week!  Day 1:  Top 5 Places Out Of Which to Clean Sand 

Wow, Jeremy.  You come back from vacation and dive right back into this Sametime Status thing with a Theme Week.  Exciting!   

Well, I haven't had a Theme Week in a little while, and they're usually a hit, so I felt I owed it to the loyal readers.  So all this week, I'm bringing you the Top 5 ideas I rejected while coming up with a theme for this week.    

Though you seem to have started it out a little blue.   

Which is precisely why I couldn't make it a Theme Week.  See, the original idea was innocent enough.  Spending a week on a beach involves a lot of preparation and paraphernalia.  Personally, I had all kinds of stuff like swim suits, a chair, a folding table, an umbrella, a duffel bag, a book (more on that later), a phone, a camera, sandals, a water bottle, a cooler and so on and so forth.  That's a lot of junk.  Now, all of it contains an entire week's worth of sand.  While the bulk of it has been shaken clear of the majority of its sand, I'm certain to be finding remnants of the beach for weeks to come.  In the case of the duffel bag, there is a reasonable chance that should I return to the beach next year, it will still contain some of the sand from this year.  It's just how it goes.  

So while I thought a Theme Week of my trials and tribulations trying to clean off all of my beach-going gear might be a fun and silly idea, I also quickly realized just how poorly the idea can be communicated in type.  No, I was not referring to orifices out of which I'll be washing sand over my next week of showers...that's just disturbing...yet, I can see how most readers' minds would go that direction upon reading the Theme Week title.  Therefore, as excited as I know you all are to hear about me doing laundry and vacuuming sand out of my duffel bag, you won't get to, since this potentially wayward idea for a Theme Week has been scrapped.