End of Summer

Summer may be on the calendar for another month, but in my house, it feels like the end.

My older daughter came home from her job as a camp counselor at a sleep away camp and is now in the process of switching everything over to college mode -- securing a new job at school, making firm decisions about her classes, getting excited about her new roommates....next week we'll make the five and a half hour drive to drop her off.

My high schooler is finishing up summer reading (Note to my town's English department: She did not like the required reading this summer) and working on the essay that must be turned in the first day of school. She's finishing her math packet and getting excited about the Fall Show her drama group will put on. Her official schedule is up online, and one of her classes is Driver's Ed. (I won't say more about that, for now.)

It's still hot out but the stores are showing winter fashions, and Halloween is already making its way into Target. (Really? Isn't it just a tad too soon?)  And I feel myself growing more blah every day.

I hate winter. There is no way around it. I don't find one thing pleasant about it, unless you count my daughter's birthday.  Cold weather makes me extremely uncomfortable, from the constantly chapped lips to the need for many layers, from having to heat my car up for a few minutes before I get ready to drive to wearing a heavy winter coat everywhere I go.  I hate the dreary landscape and the snow. For me, there is just nothing positive about winter.

Further, I do not understand people who love winter.  People who say they can't wait until it gets cold. People who love to do winter sports, like skiing and snowboarding, so they're freezing and sweating all at once.

I hate winter sickness.  From colds to the flu and then to the most dreaded, the stomach virus, I can't stand it.  The scratchy throats, the stuffed up noses, and the fevers. I hate the cost of heating my house, and the fact that I can never quite get warm, even if the heat is on 72.

I hate the snow and the ice. I hate driving in it, walking in it, and shoveling it.  (Luckily, my husband does the shoveling.)

So by now, with the sun setting earlier and earlier every day, with school in just a couple of weeks, all I'm doing is dreading. Dreading the six months -- October until April -- that I'm cold. I'm already looking forward to next spring.  And taking my jacket off. Wearing flip flops wherever I go.  Eating in the outdoor seating areas at restaurants. Smiling, because finally, it's summertime again.