June 24, 2010

In Which Unemployment Feels Like These Hot Summer Days


These summer days move slowly.  Heavy with humidity, the morning dew hangs in the air all day.  Cool, morning showers un-purpose themselves by mid-morning.  As does every moment of my morning routine: choosing an outfit, hot coffee, rolling over in bed to check my email...I have all day.  By afternoon I am struggling against the allure of the couch laid out under the fan.  Afternoon heat-induced naps run counter to my well known air-conditioned office afternoons of summers past.  Those summer afternoons with crisp, cold air that nudges the afternoon quickly along.  Productive, linear, and direct, in sync to the air-conditioner's hum.  Now even those memories hang hot and heavy in the air around me.  I check the weather for a forecast I know I will not find: a break from these hot summer days.