Summertime

[brigdh]

Everyone knows my feelings about the weather, no matter how I try to refrain from telling you all, once again, that summer is simply the best season there is. Because, after all, repetition is boring, and I need to be wildly interesting so that I might get comments and thus have my existence validated.

But. I have to make at least one post in ode to summer. Because there's a wordless, bone-deep pleasure in riding in a car with all the windows down so the roar of the air overpowers the radio and conversation, and all you can hear is the air rushing past your ears, cool from its speed even though you can still feel its warmth, whipping your hair until it stings your face. Fireflies and crickets and sunsets after 9pm, days that go on for so long that it seems like night will never come. And the colors of summer: everything is so rich and deep that it feels gaudy and extravagant; the deep denim blue of the sky and the million shades of green and the way roads shimmer in the distance with mirages of water. The crunch of dead grass, yellow-brown and stiff enough to feel even through the soles of shoes. Stars that the damp turns into a haze against the soft indigo of the night sky. I love sweat that runs like water from the back of knees and the crook of elbows, skin that tastes like salt, turning brown as caramelized sugar.

And the contrasts, too- hours in the heat are all worth it for how very, very good it feels the first instant back in air-conditioning. Or how the humidity and sweat and stickiness turn a shower into something that feels like being born again, when you feel so fresh and cool and clean afterward that you could be brand new.

Okay. Now I'm done.

Comments

[lynndyre.livejournal.com]

Insanely, my first thought was 'who have you been licking?'

...gomen. Have been working all day.

I think I need to do this kind of ode to autumn.

[kohakutenshi.livejournal.com]

I have to agree with lynndyre, who have you been licking? XD

And once again you have a wonderful sense of imagery that makes me actually see and feel all of it.

Of course, the fact that my skin is burnt/tanned and I'm a sucker for sticking my head out the car window helps, too. XD

And the shower thing? Try exercising in the summer and then taking one.

OMFG. It feels so nice... *squee*

[osumbhulk.livejournal.com]

Well said. More than anything, I love the smells: tanning lotion, chlorine from a pool, the air just before sunrise (cool but carrying a hint of the heat to come). Also, gotta love a good summer thunderstorm.

[cyne-dias.livejournal.com]

Ditto, just. I love your imagery.

And just because of this I'm going out to the freshly-mowed lawn (the smell!) and lie there under the sun until my eyes sting.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

*laughs* Just myself. There's something strange about licking your lips and tasting like a magarita glass.

And yes, you should! I love to hear other people's thoughts on the seasons.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

*snerks* You people! Get your minds out of the gutter- I was just talking about myself. I go to lick my lips after I've been outside afew hours and it's like licking a salt bowl.

And thank you. ^^

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Thanks! And oh, yes, I missed the smells! I love all of those- especially chlorine <3- plus new-mown grass and lightening's ozone.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

#^^# Thank you.

And mmmm, yes. I adore newly mowed grass.

Having nothing to do with summer . . .

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

Except that I always enjoy your descriptions of it, that is: they're like very good travel writing, conveying a glorious sense of a place that I wish I could visit, and know perfectly well I probably never will --

It is now (obviously) Friday, and it is perfectly clear that I am not going to have your yaoi_challenge story done before you leave today. (Indeed, I am not at all convinced I'm going to have it done by Sunday, if by "done" we mean something I'm satisfied with, and not merely something with a bunch of words in it.)

But the first section's pretty much done: there may be minor word changes between now and Sunday, but it's not going to change in any way that's likely to be noticeable to anybody but me. So, want to read the first 1000 words or so? Or will that only be annoying?

I was unreasonably tempted to just email them, but that may be lack of sleep talking.

Re: Having nothing to do with summer . . .

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Ooooh. I terribly tempted- of course I want to read them- but you'll have to tell me: will the wait just be worse if I read it? I'd hate to be left on a cliffhanger all that time.

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting question, to which I am not at all sure I have an answer. I don't think the more-or-less finished section ends on a cliffhanger: nothing particularly dramatic's going on. It's more or less the response to the part of the prompt that goes, 'they meet by chance;' it stops before we get to wariness giving way to attraction, let alone to consequences.

In fact, the whole story is beginning to remind me of that line from Henry V: "[They] talk and talk and by God! Do nothing." And it's awfully long for a piece that reminds one of that line.

Or it may just be writerly neurosis talking here. Who knows?

Anyway, if that sounds like it's more likely to be fun than maddening, I shall send you the sneak preview. And if it sounds more maddening than fun, I certainly understand. I just hate for you to not get any of it before you have to leave.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Well, send it to me, then! I am not convinced by your modesty; I'm sure, aciotn-heavy or not, that it's wonderful.