I hate summer in Tucson. My brain processes at half-time. I lack any energy and enthusiasm. The simplest tasks require too much fortitude.
My friends back East suffer from (SAD) Seasonal Affective Disorder, which mainly describes winter depression. Who’s responsible for overriding the season to only apply to winter—some Harvard professor? It should be rightly renamed to WAD (Winter Affective Disorder), and Arizonans can then claim SAD (Summer Affective Disorder) as our own torch song.
In the summer, I spend numerous hours being HAD (hydrating all day) and then am more BAD (bitchier and dizzier) than usual.
This summer, I made a pact with no one in particular that I was going to make the most of the next four months instead of going underground. I promised myself to listen to more live music, view midday movies, take advantage of those $20 dining deals and interact more directly with people. Since I am self-employed and work from home, I can go for days without going anywhere or talking to anyone except to my dogs, who appear rapt by idle chatter.
Stay cool.
This article appears in Jun 1-7, 2006.
Look on the bright side (this from a neighbor from the “Great White North”) – there’s very little chance you’ll ever be “snowed in”. Perhaps on the cusp of another withering summer, the idea of a snow day is muy appealing. Rehydrating with ice-cold Dos Equis makes life a little more tolerable (if a little less distinct). May I recommend the Canadian band The Constantines, playing soon at Plush. Chill.
You are right on that one. Tucson summers are always preferable to snowed in winters (grew up in NE Ohio). What’s worse than months of interminable winter or summer here are earthquakes.
Having lived in Los Angeles for too many years, a few seconds of the earth lurching and grinding beneath my feet while bookcases come crashing down, kitchen cabinets spew forth dishes and glassware, is heart-stopping scary. No special effects are needed.
I was once on the 15th floor of a downtown office building when out of the corner of my eye, a lone chair started to move across the carpet and another second later the room swayed and all hell broke loose as some of us screamed (probably me) and we crawled under our desks like good little soldiers. The fun part (not) was walking down 15 stifling flights of stairs in the dark.
Yep, don’t miss that at all.