Musings | Late Summer

It's feeling very much like late summer around here, and I had this obvious thought last night while I was making dinner- this is nice. 

I usually start feeling summertime sadness in August, somewhat like the Sunday scaries, fear that cold weather is looming over me like Monday looms over a Sunday afternoon. It's often so intense that I can't appreciate that late summer is actually really freaking nice. What if I could forget about what's coming inevitably and just like, enjoy right now?

I mean, that would take a headspace change that's 34 years old, but I'm trying. 

I know I need to live somewhere else. I know it. Not all the time, just part of the year. The Monday of the year - January to April - that is looming over my summer Sunday. I just read this in The Vanishing Half this week - committing to the decision to change is the hard part. The rest is just logistics. If I could just commit to this place is not for me, the rest would just be ticking boxes on a to-do list. Find a place to live. Find a job that doesn't care where you're located today. Pack your things. Etc etc. 

I think about this so constantly - perhaps as evidenced by every blog post being opened with some commentary on the weather - that at some point, I know I have to commit. But change is hard because comfortable is so easy. And right now, everything is very comfortable. 

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Anyway, I'm just going to switch gears with a conscious jolt because isn't some portion of this purely attitude?

Last week, I surprised Duke with a trip to Michigan's Adventure. He's never been and I haven't been since I was a teenager. Maybe even a kid. I can't really remember! I planned this weeks ago, taking off a random Tuesday to try and beat the crowds and it worked out really well. We got short lines, more Dip 'N Dots than is healthy and really put our SPF to the test. 

Because it is still summer and late summer is nice. Really nice. 

There's still so much to look forward to. September is always one of my favorite months of the year. Duke's birthday is coming up and over the weekend, we made a chain with 31 links made of construction paper rings. Every day he gets to rip one off until his birthday. It's a fun daily thing and it also alleviates me from having to answer "how many days until my birthday" every day, usually more than once. Count the rings left, kiddo! 

Also enjoying the late summer lessening of the crowds. May and June are so power packed with people, high off the first warm weather of the year. Us included. August comes along and kids go back to school, and all the other stuff that occupies our time, and suddenly the good parking spots right on the beach are open again.

Also sweet corn and tomatoes are in season. Good tomatoes too, not the ones that are watery tasting and strangely devoid of color. 

The sun is not up when I get out of bed anymore, which sometimes makes me sad because I know it means the days are shortening right up again, but I do get to watch the sky light up while I drink my coffee and that's not nothing. 

One of my coping mechanisms is to set some sort of imaginary boundary. Like, don't worry about X until Y. I do this with a lot of things, and today I'm actively thinking, don't worry about cold weather until October. Start having your sad feelings then, but until that day, it's late summer. Enjoy it. 

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