Summer

Up here on the Drescher Campus the students have left.  A few will be back for the summer term, but for the most part, the library will be relatively quiet for the next four months.  It's getting a little warmer here, too: instead of high temps in the mid 60's, we're having more and more days when the thermometer tops out around 72.  The collective mood on campus is lifting, too, for like the liturgical calendar for some, the academic calendar's rhythms have a direct impact on the psyches of most university employees.  Tomorrow night is the annual chi-chi faculty/staff appreciation dinner at the Millennium Biltmore downtown, and most nights I can open the windows and let cool ocean breezes blow through the house while I listen to Vin Scully call the Dodgers game.  Oh how intoxicating are summers in Southern California.

I haven't always liked summers.  In fact, growing up in Alabama, I hated summers.  Summers meant boredom, oppressive heat and humidity, bugs, scout camp.  I think I associated baseball (especially Atlanta Braves baseball) with all these things, so I never really liked baseball as a kid, either.  I still hate the Braves.  Instead, I loved Fall.  Fall meant many good things: school (lack of boredom), college football, pretty leaves, cooler days and nights, holidays around the corner. 

Now, Fall is my least favorite season.  October is our hottest month in California, and the Santa Anas that bring this heat often bring wildfires.  People here don't particularly care for college football, even if God's Gift to Humanity (the USC Trojans) play nearby.  And I don't care for all the Christmas music around these parts come November - it's hard to take any faux Victorian character seriously who sings "oh the weather outside is frightful" when it's 75 degrees out and sunny.

I'm looking forward to this summer because hopefully it will be lazy.  C is going to Spain for a quick research trip, but the most exotic places I'm traveling to this summer are Minnesota and Tennessee.  In late May, Pepperdine is hosting this year's Christian College Librarians conference, so between now and then I'll be spending a lot of time planning that bacchanalia, but other than that I can't say much else is stressing me right now.

I would like Andruw Jones to at least bat his weight.  But I guess his pathos is to be expected from a former Brave.

Comments

[Mike the Eyeguy]

I stayed at the Biltmore in August, 1970. It was my only trip to LA thus far, and the occasion was the American Postal Worker's Union National Convention (my dad was a delegate from Virginia).

We drove cross country in the family truckster and managed to hit every major tourist attraction and National Park during our trip there and back (it took nearly a month). People don't take vacations like that anymore.

The convention was at the Biltmore and we spent a week there. As fate would have it, Cincinnati was in town for a series with the Dodgers that week, and I was just beginning a long stint as a fan of The Big Red Machine (which came to an abrupt end when I married a native St. Louisan).

I will never, ever forget walking into an elevator at the Biltmore and looking up and seeing Hall of Famer Tony Perez. I was too awestruck to even speak much less ask for an autograph. He looked down at me and smiled.

It's an amazing and wonderful memory.

It is a cloudless and balmy 75 degree day in Northern Alabama. That kind of weather is probably the closest I will get to Southern California this year, but I must get back out there again someday.

[Jennifer]

Tennessee? Do tell.

[Baron]

You sound bitter. Come to think of it, are you supporting the Big O for Prez? If so, your bitter sentiment is right on...

[JAW]

Jennifer...yep, we'll be in TN (Nashville) June 26-28 for the Christian Scholars Conference; then on to Gatlinburg with the fams from June 28-July 2. We'll have to catch up.

[JAW]

Baron -

I'm supporting Obama because Kmiec told me to.

[Jason Middlekauff]

Nashville, huh? Sounds like the wife and I may have to make a little drive one of the days you're there.

[Larry Franke]

Somehow I don't picture a Christian College Librarians Conference as a bacchanalia. Hmm... maybe times have changed?

[JRB]

It's no surprise that we shared that brooding sense of summer in the South in childhood. Fall was so much of a relief in the climate and full of the most passionate distractions.

It's also no surprise that I love, love, love summer now that I dwell in the academy. In private practice, nothing changed but the sweat, but now the heat ushers in the most luxurious of job perks: summer break.

Bring it.

[RLS]

I, too, used to love fall until I came to SoCal. Now it's winter - green hillsides; cool, moist breezes; blooming trees and flowers - even with students, it's paradise! :)

[Rebekah D.]

Fall is still my favorite season in AL, too, but after penning two boys inside all winter, I have been LOVING this warmer weather. They play outside all morning; they nap all afternoon! What's not to love? And I've discovered the key to loving summer in AL, too: Marry a guy whose brother owns a boat and a river house! (Actually, Nathan came BEFORE the boat and river house, but still...) I know the Tennessee River is not the cleanest in the world, but you still just about can't beat jumping in off the back of the boat on a hot summer afternoon, then grilling out for supper back at the river house. Bugs? That's what OFF is for!
I guess I'm just full-on back into "I love Athens" mode after taking my kids to the Dogwood Festival this morning and having fun with them there and seeing lots of friendly, familiar faces. I think I'm just cut out for small-town life. I still want to come and see you two out there sometime, though.
We'd love to see y'all while you're in Nashville, but it sounds like you already have a packed schedule. We'll be heading south June 28, anyway, to Orlando with Nathan's family. Yep, I'm going to attempt the drive with a one-month-old. I know it's dumb, but I can't stand the thought of not going ANYWHERE this year. I'm not going to attempt Disney with her, though; we'll take it easy by the pool and let the guys brave the crowds.
Have a great summer and enjoy those ocean breezes!

[New England Librarian]

Larry, I remember being told in library school that cities love to host librarian conferences because we drink like fish, but don't break things. With the CCL, only half that aphorism is true...

[Larry Franke]

I'll be attending my first ALA Conference in Anaheim at the end of June. I will be watching for the "drink like fish, but don't break things" behavior.