1. Actual Meteorological Evidence (deal, Wikipedia): DC has two seasons only--Rainy-suck and Hot-suck. There are short transition periods of about two weeks between these in October and May known as "Spring" and "Fall." Those collective four weeks are the most amazing weeks in DC. Everything is breezy, mild and pleasant. If you blink, you will miss them. The May transition period ("Spring") ended about five days ago ((*blink*)). We have now entered Hot-suck--if you walk outside, expect to sweat immediately and forever.
2. All sort of awesome (if sweaty) summer events have started: Screen on the Green (movies on the national mall on a giant inflatable screen!), Jazz in the Sculpture Garden (exactly what it sounds like), pools are opening, everyone on earth is having a yard sale (no, I don't want your shower curtain!)!
3. The Capital Hillbillies showed up in Lincoln park yesterday. That means a man was playing a piano under a tree. 'Nuff said. (Sorry this is an awful picture.)4. We saw Eleanor Holmes Norton shopping in our CVS. That in itself is not really an indicator of summer, but she was wearing a pink sundress. The woman is nothing if not an important barometer of the state of affairs (and seasonal changes) in DC.
5. As I said on Facebook, I've had "One Week" by the Barenaked Ladies stuck in my head for days. This really has nothing to do with summer in DC in particular, but it happens every year when summer comes. Everything about BNL makes me think of summer. Sue me.
6. Tourists. Not the regular small, family groups of tourists that are always present, but tourists with matching t-shirts, have started to arrive and stand in the doorways of things: museums, metros, coffee shops, chain restaurants. Any doorway they can find, they will happily congregate in it--loosely enough to take up space, but tightly enough that you cannot penetrate their force-field of confusion. This weekend there were thousands and thousands of bikers in black leather on the Mall. Sweating. In their leather. Looking around for doorways to congregate in.
7. Slugs have started squeezing under our back door so that they can infiltrate our trashcan. This experience is unique to DC. Luckily/Blessedly they don't seem to have figured out that the trashcan is in a kitchen full of all sorts of other amazing non-garbage things to eat. They pretty much just go for the trashcan. If that horrifies you and makes you not want to come to my house... I have to ask, were you planning on eating out of my trashcan? I put down a barrier of salt so don't worry about it. They should stay outside. And so should vampires. Or witches. Or something, I can't remember what salt barriers are supposed to keep out.
Anyway, there are all sorts of other indicators. Like the air on capital hill smells like grilled meat, it's almost my birthday, H&M is selling nothing but sundresses, I want to eat every meal outside, the sun doesn't go down until 9:00, I'm taking a summerclass, and we can hear the fireworks from the ballpark at our house. SUMMER.
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