Try as I may, I have not been able to shake the melancholy feeling of wishing that the summer was over.  I know: blasphemy!  But, as much as I love the summer: laying out in the sun, the feel of sand between my toes, the healthy sun-kissed glow of my skin, the seemingly endless amount of daylight (notice a pattern here? lol), I can’t help but feel excitement in anticipation of what is right around the corner: autumn.  I think autumn may in fact be my favorite season, actually, it definitely is.  There’s nothing like the slight chill in the air that it brings (slight chill, not the frigidity of winter), or the feeling of leaves crunching beneath your feet.  To this day I will still occasionally stomp on leaves, sort of the same way that I’ll still try to make pigeons fly away by different means (running, stomping, swinging something at them, etc), although sadly, they have become immune to such tactics.  When I was a child, we would spend hours in the forest picking up fallen pinecones, which we would then go home and decorate the house with (after we decorated the pinecones of course, with glitter and sometimes colored glues).  I’m not sure which was more fun, the picking or the decorating…they were both a lot of fun.

The start of autumn also brings the different farm activities.  I, personally, love apple picking (I also love apples).  I remember the first time I did it, I was young, so I had no idea how many different kinds of apples there actually were, and that you could taste all of them at the orchard while picking and choosing.  And of course, pumpkin picking, because, who does not smile when that thought pops into their minds.  The thought always makes me smile and remember the fragrance of roasting the pumpkin seeds in the oven after carving (ok, attempting to carve) a jack-o’-lantern; the end result of hunting for the perfectly shaped pumpkin and hayrides, which always seem like more fun than they actually are. 

I am already dreaming about the different shades of browns, oranges, and other earthy tones that will once again be fashionable to wear, the feel of pants on legs that have been bare since the start of the first heat wave.  I cannot wait to wear jeans and boots again (don’t forget sweaters!), and to have hair that does not ruin upon the very hint of humidity.  I also cannot wait until my office is heated rather than air conditioned, because it might as well be winter in my building.

I know that my last post was talking about how excited I was for the official start of summer, but, like last year, I seem to be developing a pattern in August of wanting the summer to end.  The beach doesn’t feel quite as nice as it did in the beginning, and I am sick of the humidity and the heat (more so the humidity).  After another one of our girls’ nights out, I was on the couch with Z watching the weather yesterday morning, and when the weatherman mentioned a cold front coming in overnight, a smile was brought to my face only to be washed away seconds later when the 5-day forecast was shown and the temperatures did not look to resemble anything of the sorts.  It was responsible for the storms of last night, but that was pretty much it.  We had been trying to decide if, despite the cloud coverage, it would be a good idea to lay out on the roof top and catch some sun; both of us had laid out the day before (me at the beach and Z on the roof), but we were a little sluggish when coming to a decision.  I’m not sure if it was the slight hangover that we both had, or the fact that when we did eventually decide to “try it” and walk outside, the humid heat hit us like a wall that just made me want to run back indoors and hide.  I wasn’t’ the only one thinking that apparently, because, after stopping at Dunkin’ Donuts and getting iced caramel lattes, we stepped out onto the roof to find absolutely no one up there.  I snapped a couple pictures of the incredible view, and we retreated back to Z’s apartment.

Not too long after, I decided to embark on my travels home.  Despite my better judgment, I decided to walk the sixteen blocks from Z’s place to the subway so that I would take one less train; by the time I was on the platform waiting for the 7, my face was literally soaked.  Normally this walk does not produce such results; I blame it on the humidity.  When I finally got home, I spent the rest of the day indoors, watching tv and lounging on the couch.

So, the question is: why am I over the summer?  I’ve always gotten over the winter really quickly, but I’ve never been a fan of the cold…so, why summer?  Honestly, I am really not sure, but I do not want to continue this line of thinking into anymore consecutive Augusts.  Action must be taken.  From this moment, every time I have an inkling of a negative thought towards summer, I will immediately dismiss it and replace it with something positive.  For example, this evening, instead of deciding on a somewhere to have dinner, my bf and I will wander around the West Village for a bit and stumble onto a place.  Although the weather is hot, there is something to be said about just walking around the city in the summer: you never know what you’re going to see or where you’re going to end up.  Huge bonus: the humidity is supposed to leave this evening and the temperature is supposed to go down to something like 69.  Crossing my fingers that it happens and I can finally open up my windows which have been shut since Friday morning when the humidity started settling in.