wires crossed

some wires must be seriously crossed in my brain. that’s my only conclusion. where i grew up, for the first 18 years of my life, it almost never got over 75 degrees. and on top of that it was almost always foggy, overcast, damp and dreary every singly day of my life. that’s 6,570 days of fog, many without ever seeing the sun – probably enough to bring the average person to the brink of suicide. you know what they say about not having enough sun and all that seasonal affective disorder crap – you just need sunlight to function better.

well, i don’t actually like the sun, don’t need it, not interested in it really. somehow i managed to live through the first 18 years of my life hardly ever seeing it and that worked out just fine. i mean, except for those rare occasions when i would be away from home with family or friends and get the sunburn i thought was going to kill me with accompanying sunstroke that kept me in bed for two weeks. how can you not love the sun when that happens to you?! so i made every effort to not go places where the sun was actually shining – what exactly was the draw?

and then at 18 my family moved twenty five short miles away from where i grew up. twenty five short miles to a place where, in the summer, the temperatures reached a lovely 110 degrees on a nice day. i thought i had moved to hell – literally. people ditched work in the summer to be by the pool, spending a lazy summer day in the sun – what kind of insanity is that? it was 110 degree! the only sane place to be was where it was intensely air conditioned. (the house where i grew up didn’t even have air conditioning, there was no need because year-around the weather was so cool.) i so didn’t get it.

but then, just to show my own insanity, i moved from california to the boston area. have you been to boston in the summer? there is no humidity in california – even when it is 110 degrees. i had entered a whole new level of summer heat hell. people here actually enjoy the hot summer days and sit outside in the heat and humidity on purpose – while i’m thinking, i could go to a movie or the mall where it is air conditioned! and then, on those RARE days in the summer when it is cool, and perhaps even overcast, people here are disappointed and hate the weather. those are my favorite days! seriously, i talk to people and keep thinking, some wires must be seriously crossed in my brain because i don’t think like other people. and especially when they find out i’m from california, they assume i love the sunshine and want to go sit outside in the heat and humidity with them. uh, thanks but no thanks. please show me to the nearest air conditioned room. i’ll see you when fall arrives.