Oregon is the farthest north I've ever lived. The long summer days are even longer here. In late May it's already getting light by 5AM and stays light till 9 or 10.
Because I worked so many breakfast shifts I've always been aware of the lengthening of days. It's nicer to walk to work in the light.
Walking to work in the morning you see joggers, other workers, sometimes in uniform. You see people coming home from a possibly long ribald evening. Makeup has lost its line. Clothing is rumpled. We pass each other. The workers with a day just beginning and the players with a day finally ending.
In New York I walked with my eyes down, careful to step over the streams of urine flowing from a wall to the curb. Broken vials of powder. Still burning stubs of cigarettes. In some parts of San Francisco it's similar. But New York has 24 hour mess and throb. You need to be alert.
I live above a coffee shop in the middle of a small city downtown area. Oak Street is also highway 30. Semis that look like they might be bigger than my condo go by all the time. The mornings start early with delivery trucks, breakfast smells, mufflers grinding. If I wanted to sleep late it might be a drag but I never do. I wake up earlier in the summer.
I always went into work early. I'd set up and then make my own breakfast, drink coffee and smoke some cigs. I miss the coffee and tobacco combo. The still dreamy drifting minutes before the work begins.
People who are outside a lot love long summer days. I'm not outside but I do love having light late into the evening. But I also enjoy the fall. I like things getting darker and colder. I like tucking in. The dark days last longer here too.
3 comments:
24 hour mess and throb. I'm using that.
XOXOXO
I want to steel lots of little nuggets from all these stories, such thoughtful and beautiful writing. You're Inspiring me to dig in again to my own writing. I think I've been too afraid because of all of the feelings that will emerge when my pen finally hits hugs the paper.
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