The week summer actually starts

Published May 26, 2026 · HMNTY — Find things to do. Meet people who go.

Memorial Day is the starting gun. Whatever you put on the calendar this week — the one right after — is what your summer ends up looking like when you flip back through your camera roll in September.

I learned that the unromantic way. The first summer I moved back to Omaha, I kept saying "yeah, we should do something" to about nine different people through June. By the Fourth of July I had been to Memorial Park twice — both times alone — and watched most of the season happen from a screen.

The next year I did one thing differently. The Tuesday after Memorial Day, I sat down and put eight things on the calendar. Not abstractions. Real things, with a place and a time and at least one other person who knew they were going.

That summer was the best one I've had as an adult. Not because Omaha got better. Because the plans existed.

What "set the table" actually looks like

A summer in Omaha doesn't fill itself. The city throws plenty at you — concerts at the Astro, Storm Chasers at Werner, farmers markets on Saturday, jazz at Aksarben, league nights at Beercade, sunset volleyball in Elmwood, free movies in Stinson, half the breweries running trivia — but none of it walks up and grabs your wrist. You have to grab it.

The trick is to front-load. The first week after Memorial Day is when summer is still soft clay. The week between July 4 and Labor Day, that clay is hard. People have routines. Their kids have camps. Their weekends are already half-booked with weddings and trips to the lake. If you didn't get on their calendar in late May, you're competing against momentum.

So this week — this exact week — is when one Tuesday afternoon of planning is worth ten texts in July.

Eight things on the list

Here's what I tell anyone in Omaha who asks. Put eight things on the calendar between now and the Fourth.

• One thing you'd go to alone if no one else came. A concert, a market, a long walk somewhere new. The point is to stop needing permission to leave the house.
• Two recurring things. A weekly run club, a Tuesday trivia, a Sunday brunch with the same three people. Recurrence beats novelty for the friend-keeping part of life.
• Two ambitious things. A festival, a road trip to a small Iowa town, a cabin night, a concert two hours away. The kind of thing you'll still be telling people about in October.
• One thing that scares you a little. A class you've never taken. A pickup league where you don't know anyone. The thing where the worst case is "I don't go back next week."
• One thing for someone else. Help a friend host the thing they keep saying they want to host. Show up to the open mic your coworker is doing. Be the person who said yes when it would've been easier not to.
• One thing on a Wednesday. Wednesdays are where summers go to die. A Wednesday plan is worth two Saturday plans.

That's eight. Pick the dates today. Text the people today. Don't wait until you "have time." You will not have time. Nobody has time. The people who end up with the best summer are not the people with the most free hours. They're the people who got specific.

Why we built HMNTY around this exact problem

The version of this that used to happen on a paper calendar now happens across six apps. Group text. Instagram DM. Facebook Event. Calendar invite. A Discord. A second group text where two people got cut. Nobody owns the plan. Nobody is sure who's coming. Half the people thought it was Friday. The plan dies.

That's the problem HMNTY exists to fix. One place where the plan lives. One tap to say I'll be there. A list of what's about to happen in Omaha, so you don't have to be the friend who figures out where to go and the friend who herds everyone there.

It's free. It's an app for adults who would like to see their friends more than they currently do.

A small ask for this week

If you're in Omaha and you read this far, do me one favor before Friday.

Open the calendar. Put one thing on it for the week of June 1. Just one. A place, a time, a person you'll text. If you want help, the app has a list of things happening this week that other people are already going to. Pick from there if it's easier.

Then tell me what you picked. I'm at support@hmnty.app, I read everything, and the founder of the local app cares more than is probably professional about whether your June is good.

The summer is soft clay this week. Press into it.

— Michael, Founder

Find things to do. Meet people who go.

HMNTY is live in Omaha. Free. App Store. Android coming.