Sense Memory

It's been seriously warm lately.  Saturday and Sunday were both around 90 degrees.  I barely put my winter coat away last week and now I was digging for a pair of shorts (which I did not find - probably in the basement, bleh). But there's something else about this weather - it transports me back to the years past where summer came upon me. 

First I thought about this week last year: I was finishing my thesis, getting ready to hand it in May 1.  I was getting ready to move, getting ready for my trip to Ireland, getting ready to graduate and find a job.  There was so much anticipation.

But even more than that, I feel old months of June when I would walk to school and feel summer bearing down on me.  I never enjoyed summer as a child because there was no school and I didn't have many friends to go out and play with.  It wasn't that childhood you think of where summer is a time of freedom and imagination.  I felt trapped in the house with little to do but - of course - read my books.  I much prefered being in school, and still do. 

When I stepped outside today, I closed my eyes for a second and when I opened them, I actually felt surprised that I wasn't outside my parents' house with my Walkman, heading toward the high school.  The weight of summer heat brings so much with it.