Is my least favorite month, even in Chicago. I don’t enjoy heat. No matter where you live, save down under, I imagine it is the hottest month of year. And after two months of summer I just don’t have it in me to endure one more month of over 100 degree heat. June and July have taken it out of me and I have no fight life. I ended July trying to have a good attitude about August. I am trying to pretend that August is the month equivalent of Friday. I have even made half-hearted efforts by saying, “Thanks god it’s August.” It isn’t working. I am, it feels, in a weather induced state of crankiness( it feels like a mix of fatigue, low blood sugar and PMS).
Therapists world wide take August off. And I thought I was going to have the month of August off from Igor. He usually takes August off and as much as I love seeing him I will admit to feeling disappointed when I heard that he wasn’t going to be taking the whole month off. He is only taking the last two weeks of August off and those two weeks I will be out of state and because of that I feel strangely ripped off. When he told me that I would be seeing him tomorrow I was uncharacteristically disappointed. It is too hot to be poking around in my psyche. It is too hot to make interpretations. I just want to sit in my apartment with the air conditioner on high and read and sleep and watch Bravo and eat Popsicles. It is too hot to be thinking about my mother or my father or my many assorted complexes. There is a reason therapists take August off.
Tomorrow I will throw on a sundress and put my hair into some kind of ponytail or chignon and slap on some tinted moisturizer and I will drive the 405 to see Igor and I will feel like the kid who is going to summer school when everyone else is at the beach. Really, I have nothing to talk about. I could complain about my toe. I could tell him that I have had insomnia and because of that there are no dreams. I suppose I could tell him how annoyed I get when my mother calls and tells me all the things she is worried about and how I feel dumped on. I could tell him about my scratched cornea and how much my eye hurts and he might turn it into some Oedipal symbolism and that would annoy me. Or I could tell him how much I don’t want to be there. That would get him going. He would think that has great psychological meaning. But I think it just means it is August and it is hot and I am feeling burned out.
I feel sure that tomorrow will be one of those sessions where nothing happens. It will be one of those sessions which I will feel was a total waste of time (those do happen). I have a feeling that until I have had a proper vacation and the heat is below 80 that no big insights will happen. I tend to have more insights on days that require a sweater. My theory is that there is only so much suffering a person can take before they check out and go into a mildly dissociative state. I am very aware that when the temp is over 90 that my I.Q. goes way down and that extreme weather has a direct impact on my capacity for self-awareness. And because August is the most extreme weather in L.A. I feel sure that I will have no self-awareness for the rest of the month. Or maybe because I said that here, maybe something good will happen and I will be forced to eat crow and write a post telling you how wrong I was…but I doubt it.
It may not be much consolation, but at least the temperature on this side of the hill will be in the low 70′s….
I hate the warmer months too. It feels like when you have to walk to the beach, and you have half a mile of slogging through deep sand carrying your cooler and folding chair before you get to the firmer moist sand and cool water (November).
” It feels like when you have to walk to the beach, and you have half a mile of slogging through deep sand carrying your cooler and folding chair before you get to the firmer moist sand and cool water (November).”
EXACTLY!!!!!!! Enough already!!!
One never knows. I find August to be the saddest of months. The aging of the summer is much more melancholy to me than the dead of winter.
Interesting. Maybe some people really morn the loss of their therapist in August. For those like you who find AUgust sad, it would be a great month to have support.
You should try living in England. It hasn’t stopped raining for the last two weeks. Whenever we get a break in the rain everyone rushes outside to enjoy the ‘summer’. We go on our annual holiday to a cottage in Wales on Saturday, if the weather’s like this it’ll literally be a wash-out. Pah!
Rain!!!!!!! Love rain. Want to trade? That said, I hope it dries up for you by Saturday.
Aren’t you allowed to take an Igor vacation…. Even though he’s around?
And I am sooooo with you on the heat. I am thinking retirement in Maine or Montana when that time comes….
I only get two weeks off a year that I don’t have to pay for. I could take more time off but I would still have to pay for the session. That motivates me to show up.
Maine and Montana sound my speed. Cool!!!!
Your loathing of heat & humidity is one reason why I love ya. Think America should take a page from les Français and shut down during August?
Does Igor know of your disdain for this weather? If so, I would think that should be a built-in Get Out Of Jung Free Card. Nothing ratchets up the Cranky-O-Meter than dripping sweat in the dozen feet from front door to car door.
Yes! Wouldn’t it be great if all of America took August off. That would be brilliant.
I constantly bitch about the weather to Igor. My weather moaning might get me out of Jung-free but Igor isn’t a Jungian and so I get no time off for humidity. I have to walk 3 whole blocks to his building. Cruel and unusual, is you ask me.
I had to go to Santa Monica yesterday morning. It was perfect. Enough beach to feel cozy but a Starbucks is never far away.
Go think deep thoughts while watching the ocean. Then go shopping!
Santa Monica has great weather. I envy them their Ocean breeze. Your day at the beach followed by shopping sounds lovely.
If I am made to do something I really dont want to do, things often go wrong or something breaks. I think it would be a good idea to tell Igor ‘See you in September’. Tell him you’ll just write your blog in August and all the armchair therapists a turn to diagnose!
I love your solution. I have things go wrong and break( toe and now my eye). I think I might see him tomorrow and take off next Thursday. I don’t want anything else to go wrong. And I look forward to the armchair therapist analysis.;-)
I agree, why not take off August? As you say, though, Igor might make psychological hay out of your avoidance of him! (But remember, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar!).
Seriously, though, here in the East I always find July to be hotter than August. August days may be hot but the evenings cool down. In fact, I do find it rather melancholy by the end of the month when August starts to feel more like September. I’ve really been feeling the heat this summer, more than I ever have before. Maybe I was just spoiled by some unusually cool summers lately but this is killing me. Even the dog can’t take it.
I have to pay for sessions I miss. I only get two weeks non-paid a year except when he takes vacations. So cheapness is the reason I am not taking all of AUgust off. I think I will take off next week and then the last two weeks he is taking off.
August and September are often the hottest in L.A. Don’t know how I can manage another 1-2 months of this. Enough!!! Lily hates the weather. She doesn’t even like going for walks and that is just not her style.
We’ve had such a warm July here and August seems to promise rain and cooler temps. But while I’m not one to enjoy too much heat (we’ve never had any urge to do a tropical vacation, for example), I usually find August sad because once the crickets start chirping (they do, every year, some day in early August round here), I know the leisurely pace of summer is almost over and I’ll soon be back to lectures and marking and meetings . . . and the fall rains and the muddy roads of a long dark period. Which has its own charms, admittedly, but I always feel just a bit older, a bit finished something that I can never retrieve, in august. So I’m with you at least partially. Hope your visit with Igor surprises you in some positive way and makes the most out of your August tomorrow.
I think if I lived on your island I would NEVER want summer to end. And I can imagine that the Fall pace for you is a big change from Summer. It must take some adjusting.
Haven’t you people had a very cool summer? You can take a tiny bit of heat
Don’t get me started on the heat. Whatever temp L.A. is we are often 20 degrees hotter. It can be nice and cool in l.A.(70) and we are 90. 90 is not very cool!
Too funny LBR, the connection between heat and IQ! I suppose it is much hotter in Valencia than in Pasadena, I cannot complain and au contraire, my biggest sadness, is that it is August, which means that summer went by, I did not even go to the beach once, I have tons of things that I wanted to do in summer and I don’t believe my summer ever started. Wasn’t summer supposed be the time to get oneself ready for school year…arghhh! If I continue I only get depressed.
BTW, Chicago was kind to us…no extreme heat, although humidity was greater than in Pasadena…I know I am lucky.
I hope your Igor session proves you wrong, I hope lovely discoveries come out of it. I hope your toe feels better soon…your toe and my thumb, both so essential. Love to you and really, we are getting together soon!
xoxoxo
Yeah, Valencia is hotter than everywhere in L.A. I envy you your Pasadena temps. This summer did race by. It was June just a minute ago.
I do hope your thumb gets better and that you get to the beach before Summer is over. I look forward to getting together.xoxo
Beach seems out of reach and so do you…I am glad you are taking two weeks off, you are on the French schedule of August holidays! When will you be back? Where are you going? xoxo
I am closer than the beach! I leave the 19th and I am back the 31st. I can’t wait!!! I will be writing more about my upcoming trip very soon.xo
It is too hot to be poking around in my psyche. – that line made me laugh! I appreciate this post because I am sitting here feeling groggy as all git out and wondering what is going on…. and now I get it, it’s just August!
Yep, August turns one’s brain to mush. And when I say “one’s” I mean mine.;-)
Ugh, here in Scotland it feels like autumn, it was freezing last night.
I think we should house swap!
Yes!!! Love that idea!!!
Suddenly my door swung open. In walked trouble. Redhead, as usual. She said she was hot. I had to agree. She sashayed past me and a waft of scent followed close behind. Epice Noir? Ceviche?
She needed to talk – had information about the case. She hadn’t an appointment but things had been quiet round here lately. I sat down at my desk and reached for the magnum. There are two in the office. One’s a gun and I keep it loaded. The other’s a bottle. It keeps ME loaded.
She headed for my couch and stretched out. It looked for a second like there was a God after all, but she said she felt more comfortable this way and started to talk, so I put my feet on the desk and leaned the chair way back as I reached for the bourbon.
I’d been looking at her case briefly earlier today when a couple of suspects popped out. ‘The Swede’ and ‘Cottage Cheese Rita’ belong to a gang known as ‘The Therapists’. I’d made a note before they disappeared. That keeps happening to me. Maybe it’s age or maybe it’s the slugs in me. One’s a .38 the rest are 40% proof.
She talked about not being able to sleep at night, living in a complex and a guy called Oedipus. I made a note to add him to the list of suspects for investigation. That Greek connection again. Talking about connections, Igor also cropped up in the conversation. Seem like she thought he was gone for now but he made contact and wants a meet. The Russian connection again too. A pattern seems to be forming. The dame was certainly giving me lots of ideas but I ignored them all and concentrated on the case. She talked about her lack of dreams and what that could symbolise. I had to stop her there. Symbols and the Interpretation of Dreams I don’t do. I’m a private eye and I prefer facts.
She blabbed on about the heat and the need to get away. I agreed she should lie low if possible. There’s stuff going down here I don’t understand and she can be framed easier than ‘Whistler’s Mother’. As she left, the sound of greenbacks hitting my desk came wafting across to me. I still have a case then.
I’m not an opera critic, but that sounds like music to my ears……….
Yes, I do have a disappearing blog post to report. I knew you would be on the trail. I think, Al, that post got away from me before it was ready. Rita the cottage cheese eater( post #1) and I are done. Yet I felt I needed a little more back story to do on the Swede Cycler.
And there will, i think, always be Greeks. I spent too many years with the Jungians to not be a bit of a Myth dropper. Suffice to say that where ego is myth will be. The Russian isn’t as big as a Greek lover as I am.
Hope the greenbacks keep you cool and that you can come up with a way to frame my mother…no, i mean whistle like a mother…no,no….well, you know what I mean. Don’t you? Just put your lips together and blow.
p.s. I LOVED the Epice Noir and Ceviche reference. You are a HOOT!!!!!
Relax. I’m on the case Doll Face.
even when you think you aren’t working on your psyche, you are. and this post proves it. and your work always makes mine all the more interesting.
great post as usual.
Really? I am? I did? Thank you?
“I tend to have more insights on days that require a sweater.”
Exactly.
Glad you understand.
Ah, the heat is on! I feel this way about November and Feb (the most depressing months, IMO). It’s dark, it’s cold, it’s impossible to wake up. I think the key is to live in North Carolina.
Yes, let’s all move to NC!
I feel the same way about August. I always associate it with the color brown. Dead, dry grass brown. Burnt out, all done.
Then around mid-September my mood lifts.
I hope August in Oregon is green, cool and rainy as I am going to be there soon.
When I move to the UK, I’ll swing by and pick you up. I can’t take this heat, either. I close all the blinds and turn the A/C down low.
(I told you one of our new neighbors thought Jesse didn’t have a wife bcause I never left the house, right?)
TAKE ME WITH YOU!!!!!!!!!
LOL!!!!!!! I so relate. I am like a mushroom. Curtains drawn and A/C blaring.
Perhaps it has something to do with the redhead mutant gene…I too hate the heat of summer…I am impatiently waiting for Autumn…
The day I need to put on a sweater I do a little happy dance…Quite similar to Snoopy’s dance I am told…And the first snow fall! Well…It’s like little prozac flakes falling into my open mouth…Yum. Fall and Winter.
Respice finem…
xo
Andrea
Looks like I’m representing for the Southern Hemisphere today down here in Africa… August here is winter starting to end, with the almost promise of spring on the horizon. But still with cold enough days in between to make getting up at 5am a bitch!
I’m with you on the heat though – can’t function properly if I’m a hot, sweaty mess.
Oh my dear friend… I am so with you on this one.. I am trying to take th emonth of August off from all thought and physical requiring therapies.. Its too hot!!! Even here in the Ontario – north of the border, we are feeling it!!
I can’t wait for fall – my fav season~
… stay cool..XO, HHL
Belette
How ironic is this post. I hate August even though it is my birthday month. I HATE HOT and have even thought of printing tee shirts stating this. All my friends know I am useless after 83 degrees and call to laugh and make sure I was still alive. I also hate too many sunny days. I feel energized and safe on rainy days. Snowy days make me positively ecstatic! Here in S. Illinois we have had 43 days of over 90 degrees and I am sick of it. I tend to like to “hide under my bed” anyway but on days like this I am tempted to tape newspaper on the windows to block the sun and heat even though I have the best air conditioner in world working it’s little heart out there! I am a winter person and a democrat in a land of republican summer lovers. I had to have minor knee surgery today and that has given me a great excuse to stay in and not leave, teehee the dogs have to go to work with my husband since I can’t take them out.
Alas I can only hope August goes by as quickly as July and them it will be FALL. I say you take the month of August off even though Igor chooses to stay in town. After all he’s not the boss of you
I am sitting in here in my workout clothes wondering why I am so tired and can I just go change my clothes into something more comfortable like my pajamas and drink some chilled rose and eat a cold sandwich and some olives and then sleep because I am so tired today and I think my brain just melted.
Seriously – climbing into an old car with a black interior that’s been sitting out in the Georgia heat for hours? Brain. Melted.
August 2010 in the Bay area has so far been a total bummer of a different variety. Fog every day. Today’s high in San Francisco was supposed to be 60 degrees. I long for the dog days of summer.
I hate August. I hate heat and I feel like a melted puddle incapable of pulling together a solid thought. August is usually hot and dry here, but it has been unusually hot and dry since June, so I feel like we have been tortured enough. I feel like we deserve an early fall, but am not counting on it.
I can’t imagine what the heat must feel like, especially with your toe and eye all awry. I’m sorry you’re baking!
Maybe tomorrow won’t be a wash; maybe Igor’s office will be perfectly cool, and you can have an iced non-caffeinated beverage, and you can put your foot up, and close your eyes, and something will come to you, and the session will be fruitful.
Let’s just hope it doesn’t multiply.
Some miles further north the summer has never quite arrived this year. We’re having very cool overcast mornings followed by sun and breeze in the afternoons. Perhaps you won’t have to suffer the entire month of August there.
I will confess something to you: I have never been to a therapist and the thought of ever going to one terrifies me. More than anything else. It reminds me of the time one of my aunts took me with her to the home of a prophet where we were made to kneel while this woman placed her hands on our heads and pronounced what was bothering us and what we should do to resolve it. Scary stuff.
Wow, I don’t believe I used a single comma in that entire post.
I’m totally with you! Give me February over August any day!
oxox
Denalee
hello darling, thank you for being there, sweet friend,….i would feel ripped off too so would start an argument to which there would be no end, no way to wrap up by the end of the hour, something to really make mine squirm because i am just that way…i get uncomfortable and start lashing out….good thing it’s been cool up here…i highly advise you consider SF as a new home…they weather suits you much better….or malibu.
xoxoxox much
I’m so sorry for your heat. It’s late winter here in New Zealand and I’m loving the rain and cold. A rainy day is the best day. Lily would enjoy it here – she does have a raincoat doesn’t she?
So with you on the heat of August. As your neighbor (living in Las Vegas), we barely survive the heat. The only thing that keeps me going is the knowledge that 3 generations of my family before me survived it here **without** a/c. During the summer months, I ask my mom how they survived. She said, they didn’t have a choice. I’m just glad we do (and can crank the a/c doooown!).
PS: I’d love to send you an inky letter (hand stamped card)! Lmk!