I don't do well in the heat. I feel like I start to melt into the ground and all of the energy is drained out of my body. I don't even want to be outside if I can help it, and 100% humidity is impossible to ignore. It smacks you in the face when you walk outside, makes your entire body feel weighed down, and your skin is instantaneously covered in a fine coat of glistening sweat that drips down your back.
When I visited New Orleans 2 1/2 years ago, I came home telling Andy that we should move there. He quickly reminded me how hot and humid it is there and how much I hate the heat. I recanted that perhaps we can have our winter home there. Naturally, he retorted that perhaps we should get a non-winter home first before we start thinking about the luxury of a second. He always likes to quash my daydreams with his pragmatism, and I usually come around out loud while still dreaming on the inside.
Summer can be so sweet, full of quality time with the kids and fresh produce bursting and flowers blossoming all around us. I love the flavors of summer with shaved ice and slushies topping my personal list of favorites. The colors of summer keep me in an appreciative mood, though I seriously long for my favorite season: Fall.
Midwestern summers can be oppressive. My father likes to call up and rub it in on days that it is hotter here than it is in his neck of the Floridian woods. The heat drives us all inside during the summer, except for those without A/C. When we lived in Cleveland we spent more time in the shaded backyard with the kids in the kiddie pool and running through the sprinkler. We still go to shaded parks here, but not to escape the heat of our living room as the sun streamed in through the constantly open windows.
But I'm settling in to summer now that it is halfway over. We're settling into a routine, and I'm getting used to the heat that seems to creep up the thermometer a couple more degrees every day. I really want to like the heat. I want to like being outside when it's hot. I just don't. It has turned into another one of those things that I have realized about myself and come to accept. Just because everyone else in the world seems to love summer, doesn't mean that I have to as well.
Annika & Mayzie enjoying a cool rainy July day in Berlin one year ago.
I'm definitely longing for the Northern European climate again!
