A Tale of Four Seasons

First off, I have a confession to make. I am addicted to 24. You know, with Jack Bauer? Which is now off the air? Thank God for Netflix - they have the first 7 seasons on instant play mode. Mark and I have been watching it obsessively. It's so bad...

Now that I've gotten that off my chest...

It's official. I'm ready for fall. I've been trying so very hard to be patient with summer. But today, as I was getting in my car to meet Mark and Samford for lunch, my patience ran out. Momentarily, at least. Because it is so. fricking. hot.

The high temp has been BELOW 90 for THREE DAYS out of the last 51!!!!! And out of those 49 above 90 days, 22 of those days have been 94 degrees or higher. It's getting ridiculous. We've had a couple reach 100. I know that there are parts of the US that are indeed hotter than Alabama - but not many. And combine the high temps with the high humidity levels and serious lack of breeze, and man, it gets scorching.

Don't get me wrong. I love summer. It's probably my favorite season, second to spring. But I'm dying over here. Luckily, I think God gave us different seasons to make us appreciate variety. I'm funny with seasons - my mood changes throughout the year based on the season and weather. If you graphed it, it would look something like this:

Actually ... that's not entirely true. Here's a more detailed, accurate graph:

So. There are my seasonal moods. I'll break it down for you:

January-beginning of March:
A fairly dreary time for me. I am OVER WINTER at this point. This is always the time, especially February, that I am the saddest/most depressed, because I feel that spring is NEVER GOING TO GET HERE. I get a little bit dramatic. This past February, I remember having a mini-nervous-breakdown, and when Mark asked me what was wrong, amid really dramatic sobs, I said something to the effect of "I feel like *sob* it's never going to *sob* be spring. I *sob* think it's going to *sob* be cold FOREVER *sob*." It is also very, very dark in January and February. Light has a lot to do with my moods, which is why I love summer. Winter is dark. And not very happy.

Mid March thru beginning of May:
The light at the end of the long, cold, dark tunnel is in sight! My graph should actually be sort of schizophrenic during this time, because the temperatures are always so up and down, but it starts getting warm and sunny, and I start getting happier. The end of March is also my birthday, so that makes things considerably better. I equate looking forward to my birthday with looking forward to spring. My heart gets lighter, and I get out of the extreme funk of January and February.

May-June:
BLISS. It is spring and warm and getting hotter by the day and happy and I love, love, love it. When the temps reach the mid-70's and the sun comes out for good, I just want to pull on a sundress and go frolic in a field somewhere with posies in my hair. My heart literally feels like it is going to burst out of my chest from sheer joy. I grin, and smile, and laugh, and want to go on all-day-dates with Mark and play and never ever go to work. I am SO HAPPY during spring.

July-mid-September:
By July, I'm pretty used to summer, and am over the OH MY GOSH IT'S WARM AGAIN elation-al period. But I still love it a lot. Summer veggies are my favorite, and even though it's fairly sweltering in Alabama, everything is green and lush and wonderful (even if I do sweat a bit.) I can handle heat a lot better than I can handle cold, as long as I don't have to do any intense outdoor activity. (Picking tomatoes or going for a walk doesn't count as intense unless the heat index is about 100 degrees.) I'm still definitely happy, and I still marvel at how gorgeous a blue sky with white puffy clouds can look against the mountains' silhouette. This is why I love the South so much. It's just too pretty for words.

Mid-September-mid-November:
Harvest time :) I used to not be much of a fall person. I didn't appreciate it like I do now. I calm down a lot in the fall. There's something about the stillness of it, the slow beginning stages of plant-death, the turning of the leaves. I slow down. I think. I get extremely nostalgic in the fall - I don't know if it's because I miss school so much, because I feel like I should be starting classes again but am not (I know it's been three years. I still miss it.) I don't know if it's because of all the time spent with family or the cooling down of the temperatures or what, but fall, for me, is a feeling unlike any other. It isn't a bad feeling, and it's not sad. It's just ... poignant. I feel poignant for like 3 months.

And then it gets cold.
Mid-November - December:
I start to freeze. I start to get grumpy because of that, and because I hate wool and it makes me itch, but it's hard to find warm sweaters that AREN'T wool, so I'm either cold or itchy all the time. However, there are two FANTASTIC holidays during this period - I vascilate between which is my favorite, Thanksgiving or Christmas, every year. I love the time I spend with family. I love that the holidays keep me go-go-going so I don't have time yet to get sad about the cold weather. I love the sights and the smells and the Christmas lights. Around Thanksgiving, especially recently, I really do stop and think and thank God for all the blessings that I have - my family, my privilege, my country, for everything. And even more recently, I've come to realize that Thanksgiving is around harvest time for a reason, that people used to harvest their crops and give thanks for haivng something to see them through the winter. I understand that now more than I ever did before. And I believe wholeheartedly in the Christmas story of the Gospels, that Jesus came to Earth as a baby born to a virgin, the Christmas miracle. And that, above all, is my favorite part of Christmas. But I also love the gifts, the family time, the lights and decorations and the movies and stories and the magic of Christmas. It's a wonderful time of year, and while I'm still feeling quite nostalgic and poignant (and cold), there's an excitement in the air that only comes that one time per year.

And then it's January again, and I get sad.

I am so thankful that God gave us variety during our year, though, because no matter when it was, I'd get tired of the same-old-same-old I think. (Although, a constant 75 degrees might be acceptable. I might could find a way to live with that.) I know this has turned into a ridiculously long post, but it's nice to sit and think about what I have to look forward to while I'm melting away on this hot, hot day. (By the way - it's 94 degrees in Birmingham right now, and feels like 100. Yeesh.)