Summer Lovin'

Ah, there's nothing like summer for an adolescent crush, don't you think?

I just returned from a weekend of camping: lying on the glorious shore of Lake Michigan by day, drinking and dining and gazing into the fire by night. The weather was perfect: low humidity, cloudless sky, warm sun and cool breeze. At night the nearly new moon set early, leaving behind a sky so studded with stars that I was able to reacquaint myself with the Milky Way, last seen in my childhood before light pollution was invented.

In short, the perfect circumstances for being in love.

I am almost 49 but conditions like these can turn anybody 16 again. So as I lay on my beach towel listening to the waves, I indulged my latest crush with great relish. I haven't been infatuated for quite awhile. But by fortuitous timing, I have just fallen hard and fast for John O'Hurley, lately of J. Peterman fame and more recently the heartthrob of ABC's "Dancing with the Stars."

One can never predict where and when Cupid will strike. As I recently posted, John is not the most likely candidate for hunk status...but he has that je ne sais quoi that I (and millions of others, apparently) personally found very winning. And for reasons the heart alone knows, I am at present utterly smitten.

And what can compare with being smitten in summer? It is the most young, fresh, inspiring kind of erotic feeling. My imaginary dance partner Mr. O'Hurley makes me giddy, graceful, entranced, lovely, out of control, tenderhearted, playful, transcendent. I shed twenty years when I think of him. Sorrow and trouble are forgotten and happy wonder takes their place. Everything feels softer, tastes sweeter, has a lilt. My rose colored sunglasses are on, there's a smile on my face for the whole human race...

...why, it's almost like being in love. (Thank you, Lerner and Loewe.)

Of course I do not personally know this man. His wife seems lovely and I hope their marriage is a delight. I don't even have a desire to actually dance with him...I'm sure I would be too overwhelmed to enjoy it! But in my mind he represents something I cannot help but love and which cannot help but make me wild with romance.

Add to that a little sun, a little sand, the smell of Coppertone and the calling of seagulls...

Sigh.