Hot

[Near Tahoe, August 2009

.]

Suddenly, am impatient for fall. All that previous whinge about the fleeting days of summer aside, tonight I feel ready for thicker sweaters and warmer scarves. This perhaps does not make sense given my previous sighing-over my favorite season; and I will admit to a mercurial — some might say ocean-like — streak on occasion.

Mostly I think it’s because it’s 80+ degrees here in the city by the bay and let me tell you I feel every post-70 degree this Friday eve. I went for a run in the park earlier and felt a bit like I was swimming through a humid haze awfully reminiscent of my days in Washington, DC. Lucky, then, that I was able to have a brief respite when I saw my friends on their cheerful blanket by the flower conservatory sipping champagne as the sun sunk lower over the trees (only a glug of water for me, though). I’ve been drinking lots of iced cranberry juice and sneaking a tofutti cutie or two from the freezer and hoping sleep isn’t as elusive as I predict it will be (how-ever did I manage all those years in un-airconditioned houses during Maryland summers I’ll never know).

Heat like this makes me dreamy and restless, somnolent and slow. It makes me wish for last weekend when it was hot, too, but at least I was flopped out for hours along a lake with girlfriends and sparkling wine and potato chips (though lest you think we didn’t eat well, oh, we did: an enormous breakfast Saturday morning of scrambled eggs with mushrooms and spinach, homemade tortillas, banana pancakes and blueberry pancakes, cut-up plums and nectarines, sliced pineapple, strawberries, and blueberries; and dinner that night of peso with extra toasted pine nuts, spinach salad, cornbread, sauteed squash with basil, brownies. And other little snacky meals of hummus and cheeses and good bread and sungold tomatoes and sugar snap peas and dark chocolate.) Heat like this makes me want to drink iced coffee and g&ts in equal measure, but mostly I just drink a lot of water.

Heat like this makes me just want to eat salads and salads of tomatoes sprinkled with salt, maybe 1/4 of a chopped red onion, corn cut from the cob. I want simple things, fresh things, fruits and vegetables to perk me up against the high temperatures. Tonight I sauteed patty-pan squash in a bit of olive oil, threw in a handful of grape tomatoes and a faux sausage, added shredded spinach at the end until it was a delicious stewy mess of the last of the produce in the drawer. I can’t wait for the market tomorrow morning. Heat like this I love and also hate, but mostly it makes my mind wander to thoughts of cold December along the Sonoma coast.

Suddenly, am so impatient for fall. I’m eager for bright October light and sun in Golden Gate Park, long runs through the cool shade down to the sea. I feel on the cusp a bit, and that’s a lovely feeling to have. Or maybe it’s that I feel the upcoming seasonal shift poking me gently in the ribs to remind me a change is coming regardless of whether or not I want it, and I might as well start getting ready.