Weather in America's Finest City has been the opposite of desirable many times this summer and the past few days have been the icing in the cake. Only if that were a literal statement, the icing would melt right off the cake and evaporate upon hitting the ground. To say it's been hot is beyond an understatement. It’s been like living on the surface of the sun cooled only minimally by moisture filled clouds that tease at rain. And the rain that falls, although filled with alligator sized raindrops, stops about as quickly as it begins poking fun at the promise of relief.
My entire body has cooperated with an angry Mother Nature to ensure my eczema is adequately inflamed.”They” (mother nature and my mind/body/spirit) have ensured that even with the air on and sleeping on the lumpy sofa bed in the bottom story of my home, that the humidity keep deep sleep from settling in and that I stay away from cooking a healthy meal for my family simply because I don't want to turn the oven on further heating my already inside-a-brick-oven feelin’ home. So to say it's hot is not accurate. Not hot, but for many of us, we’ve arrived in a torture chamber of humidity and 88 degree nights. And in all my “suffering,” I can’t begin to think of those without the air conditioning that many of us only use 10 days out of the year or working or going to school in places that are truly ovens.
The comment too often overheard when San Diegans complain about said heat is that, “It's so much hotter in _____.” Or that, “This is nothing, back in the olden days when we weren’t walking uphill, in the snow, both ways, with only one shoe, we didn't have any air conditioning.” Ok, ok, we get it! It’s much worse in many places not so far from here. It’s temporary. Blah, blah, blah.
Truth is, there is validity in all those statements. We San Diegans have the luxury, and literally pay the price, to live where people pay good money to make their vacation destination. People convention here and their pasty non-beach bodies scream to us what their smiles have already revealed...they wish they were us. That the beach was no more than 20 minutes away from almost anywhere. That 70 is the norm most days of the year and that we live in a place, in America, where flip flops are welcomed in many workplaces and visors and boogie boards are commonplace. Sunglasses, rosy cheeks and outdoor living rooms are the norm here. We know it.We live it. We love it...even through the traffic.So, when it’s hot as if we were living on Mercury instead of our lovely corner of the earth, we complain. We whine and wine, have meltdowns like our poor ice cream cones and sit on our patios in hope of a cooler evening and the possibility of sleep.
So, as I caught myself in mid whine, well vodka & lemonade because red wine is not refreshing on a hotter-than-Hades-day, I asked myself why I did not whine when I lived near Austin and this type of weather lingered from late April through the brink of October. I thought about “The Day” I realized that I had adapted. My second summer in TX and the day I walked across the acre long Target parking lot from the air conditioned car through the blazing blacktop. I thought about the moment I walked into the arctic tundra that was the Target entrance and realized a miracle had occurred...I did not sweat gallons as I traveled through the parking lot and I didn’t even think a complaint. I made it to the store and was looking at my shopping list before I had the chance to think, “It’s hoooot.” I smiled both then and now realizing my mind, body, and spirit had acclimated to my new surroundings. That I could make it through the heat that at one point in my life had me on my grandma’s porch swing, wet rag on my head, moaning from misery, was a momentous occasion, even in the Target entrance next to the neat rows of baskets. I was from that point forward, not going to let the heat get to me. Granted, life there is centered around knowledge of the heat.Indoor playgrounds, a universal air conditioning setting of 70 often times making you carry a light sweater for indoor use. Gyms for indoor workouts were abundant as were keeping the kids in until 7pm for outdoor playtime.
My fellow 619, 858 and 760 area coders, if this San Diego Diva could adapt to Texas heat, we all can. It’s all about acclimating and adapting. Just like in life. If we can’t change the heat, we can change our response to it. If we can’t change our circumstances, we can change our reaction to them. We need to change what we can and that is our thoughts. Is it hot? Uh duh. Do we have to like it? Hell - literally - no! Can we continue to be San Diego Princes and Princesses and affirm that we live in a place better than Mother Nature is treating us...like the riff raff in so many other parts of our country? Of course. Do we have to be happy through it? Well, there is the lesson. We can control our feelings. We can smile while those beads of sweat make their way down our foreheads, backs and in all those places we’d rather not think about sweat pooling. We have a choice. Play this nasty weather hand we’ve been dealt and wait for a new hand, or complain our way through further oven temperature torture. Our attitude is our choice. Sweat will fall, whether we smile or frown. What is your choice? I choose to pop on my tiara and sweat my way through the day, knowing in the end, it will be ok, I will be ok and glisten while doing it.
