Ode to night blooming memories and other heat induced ramblings

I am fairly certain that the only reason I endured summer during childhood was the countless hours spent running through the sprinkler or going to the public pool.  In my teenage years, I actually liked it because it meant pool parties with boys, driving around endlessly (or until we stopped for ice cream) with friends, and laying on the couch in the same pajamas I had worn all summer watching Gilligan's Island and cartoons, eating popsicles.  As an adult who rarely goes swimming, no longer has a car, and doesn't keep popsicles in the house because, well, they're just not dinner dammit,  I have begun to detest summer.  All the pit sweat, tit sweat, and toenail polish maintenance is sticky, exhausting, and embarrassing.  I could go on and on, but that is not what this is about.  NO.  This is about how I remembered that summer truly is a wonderful time, and that in truth I could not live without it and all the other wonderful days of the year.

Tonight. walking home from work I happened to pass a garden.  I rarely pass this garden at this time of day as I'm rarely afforded the luxury of walking home from work.  It is usually much too late at night, and I'm forced to take a cab for safety reasons.  But, tonight, I got out early, and tonight I took the El to my neighborhood, and tonight I passed the same garden I see nearly everyday, and tonight it smelled heavenly, and tonight I remembered all the beauty there is in summer.  

Whatever those heady floral notes may have been - in my mind it is always night blooming jasmine if I smell it at night - they, like most smells, conjured up fond memories of summer and caused me to wonder at the things I do enjoy about summer, despite the current lack of sprinklers, Gilligan, and popsicles.  

I have always loved the night smells.  The awful sun bakes everything - concrete, people, garbage - and those smells overwhelm.  At night, by contrast, the natural smells take over and one can smell the flowers, and the dirt, and the coming rain.  Night air in the summer is completely intoxicating.  So much so that my mind wandered to all the lovely things about summer, putting me a more pleasant mood than I ought to be on a 86 degree at 11pm kind of day.  Saisons and cold sesame noodles, plump juicy tomatoes, dresses, cab rides with the windows down.  These thoughts followed me home.  These are the thoughts that make me happy and inspire me to share.