Summer Dwindles

Riding the Ferry back from Provincetown to Boston (Which is the Fairiest Ferry I've ever seen) this weekend, I suddenly realized that it was really and truly September. Anyone who has been to Boston knows that autumn creeps into the air just a bit earlier than in the nation's capital.

The air was crisp and cool at night. The daytimes were filled with warm sunshine with enough of a cool breeze to remind you that summer was loosening its grip.

Returning to Washington on Tuesday night, I was greeting by fairly cool air. However, in true DC fashion, I was forced to keep my windows closed at night due to the cackling, fighting and screaming by the denizens of the night that choose our front walk as their hangout. I was longing for the week I had spent in Massachusetts, the quiet, the cool air, windows flung wide open.

In the morning I was greeted with warmer (and slightly more humid) weather than I had enjoyed in Boston. I was reminded that when you live in the Capital City, summer doesn't come crashing to an end at midnight on September 1. However, I began to think about the days slowly growing shorter and the inevitable chill, the first fire, and the first day I would wear a jacket.

I think back now on the summer that seemed to fly by with the speed of a train. I think of the birth of my blog. I reminisce about Sventlana in the quiet office I now occupy alone. I think about hurricanes, about excrutiating heat and broken air conditioners, about late evenings out in Washington. There were great dinners, amazing trips, scary baby dolls and rabbits at the gym. It seemed to have gone by so quickly.

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a great dislike for cold weather and, in fact, love the summer. However, it occurs to me now that I am not mourning summer for the first time, perhaps in my life. It could be the fact that it was possibly the hottest summer I have known and that having no air conditioning for two weeks ruined, for me, the season I love. Illustrating this idea is the fact that this was the first summer since moving to Washington that I didn't venture to the mall, spread a blanket on the lawn, pop a bottle of wine and watch Screen on the Green.

All things come to an end. The infamous Washington summer will soon give way to cool autumn days filled with brilliant color.I think now about what a unique experience it is to live in the city of Washington. Life here is never the same as other places. It is sometimes exhilarating, sometimes frustrating but it is never boring.