Summertime

We are steadily progressing through May and before we know it, summer will strike. For many, it’s a much awaited time of the year but then, there are folks like me who cringe at the prospect of long days and very short nights.

I am a night owl. Nighttime holds a very special place in my routine. It’s the time when I can finally relax without having to answer to my boss’s calls or be annoyed by my loud neighbors. I can unhook my bra, throw it far away and lean into my pillows. Then, I pick up the book that’s been calling out to me the whole day. The moment when the book opens and the fragrance of its pages reach my nostrils, I know I am home.

Sometimes, the plot in the book is so good that it will keep me awake all night. Unless it’s summer. Summers barely give me a few hours to enjoy my books. By the time, I get into the good parts, the sun comes out and the birds begin to cry out. As if on cue, my annoying neighbors wake up to go for their walks and I can hear them arguing loudly about the declining state of our country. That is when I have to shut my book and wait for nighttime to come again, so I can go back to nirvana.

The weekends during summer are dedicated to walks in the park, barbecues in the backyard and may be to go on a vacation. Time for socializing increases, but my inner night owl hoots and shrieks to go back to my solitary bedroom where I can spend my free hours with my books, undisturbed and untroubled by norms of the society. It yearns to wear the most comfortable (ugliest, most faded) PJs and sip a warm cup of tea with cookies on the side.

So, while a majority of human kind will be enjoying their pool time activities, I’ll be staring out into the void with a frown on my face, waiting for autumn to come, to bring back the longer nights.