so long sweet summer

It's official. Fall is in the air. So it's appropriate and fitting to say goodbye to you, summer. I have to say it's been a good one. There's something about the change of seasons that makes things seem possible. A new promise of things to come. For me, I've started school...again, so there's that feeling of stress and excitement. There's also the nostalgia for the languid days of heat and sun that haven't quite left us, but we're ready to move on from. Needless to say, I've purchased boots.

It used to be that the end of summer meant that you had to return to real life. Since I've been living in the real world for a few years now you'd think I'd be accustomed to the fact that real life never really put itself on pause, but there's that part of me that never relinquished the freedom of sea shores and the lazy twilight of late evenings. But tonight, I can see the bright lights of the Empire State building and breathe in the cool air with ease. I'm curling up under my forgotten covers and plotting an apple picking expedition.

This summer, despite the sweltering heat of Astoria, I spent more money than I'd like to admit at the Beer Garden, I stopped to enjoy the music at the park, I cheered on the Yankees (and Mets, those poor Mets), I watched meteors fall out of the sky, and watched friends promise forever to each other. I had Shake Shack for the first time, rocked out, and froze in the movie theater. I even fell in love. But just today, sadly enough, on the day Rich Cronin of LFO passed away (oh, Summer Girls, I have a signed copy of that single somewhere in my historical vault of a bedroom in my parents house), I felt a bit robbed by how fast all these good times go by. I was listening to an album by The National that came out a few years back and lamented that I didn't know about them when "Boxer" came out. I felt cheated out of years of planning out my life soundtrack with "Fake Empire" blaring in the background. It's a feeling I can't remember having before. If only I'd known you sooner, maybe something would have been different. Somehow I think there are more moments like that to come as life goes on. It's a strange and somber feeling, and a reminder how time, opportunity, possibility, can slip away without knowing it.

I can't say these are the end of summer blues, but just a glimpse into the perspective I'm gaining as an adult. It's all the more reason to take the promise of a new season and turn it into something worthwhile. It'll be easy to get caught up in life, in school, and in myself as the months roll on to the inevitable Christmas holycrapihavenotimeormoneyforantyhing meltdown. But in any event, thank you summer. You were really something, weren't you.

And for anyone who doesn't already know, I give you The National "Fake Empire"

Stay out super late tonight
picking apples, making pies
put a little something in our lemonade and take it with us
we’re half-awake in a fake empire
we’re half-awake in a fake empire

Tiptoe through our shiny city
with our diamond slippers on
do our gay ballet on ice
bluebirds on our shoulders
we’re half-awake in a fake empire
we’re half-awake in a fake empire

Turn the light out say goodnight
no thinking for a little while
lets not try to figure out everything at once
It’s hard to keep track of you falling through the sky
we’re half-awake in a fake empire
we’re half-awake in a fake empire