Boston Baked Boswells

I actually started this blog over a month ago. I started it in my head, while pushing Claire's stroller uphill, drenched in sweat, knowing that I would not have a comfortably cool apartment awaiting me at home.

When we announced we were moving to Boston, one of the most common things folks said to us was, "You're going to have to learn to handle those harsh winters." Now, having lived here for a winter (and a cold, snowy one at that), I can say that Ukraine was still worse. Both years that I lived there. That's not saying that Boston isn't cold in the winter: it is. It just wasn't something new to me. Additionally, this past winter, I was pregnant and running on a ridiculously high internal temperature that made me not want to wear a coat at all. I may or may not have asked Brad once or twice whether or not I actually had to wear a coat out into the snow. I was warm, y'all.

Anyway, we survived the winter just fine.

The summer has been another story.

I am from Alabama. I have lived in Tennessee, the Middle East, and in the Sahel Desert of Africa. I have done really hot weather. Goodness, even Ukraine can be unbearably hot in the summers. But LAW...Boston can be straight misery. Like, crack an egg on the sidewalk and fry it hot. And, air conditioning is not the norm here.

Friends, when I live in foreign countries, I can wrap my mind around no air conditioning. When I live in the United States, I just can't comprehend it. It makes no sense to me at all. 

Please note, I have heard the reasonings:
1) It's not hot enough for long enough to warrant air conditioning.
2) Boston's architecture is so old that air conditioning isn't compatible.
3) There are probably others, but I have no patience for any of the reasons anyway. The bottom line is that I do not like to sweat, and I like air conditioning. And Boston is stodgy about it.

In our apartment, we have a monster of a window unit (that sucker hangs out the window about a foot or so), which is a blessing. The only thing is that it really only cools off the living room and sometimes the kitchen. It doesn't reach any of the rest of the apartment. Thanks to our friend, Karl, we have a box fan for our bedroom, and thanks to the fact that the back of our apartment is underground, Bearsy's room is automatically cooler (we do have a little table-top fan back there, too). If we use the stove or oven, the whole house is a furnace. We're like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednago. 

It's humid, too. Thank you, Charles River. We're so grateful.

And, Bear and I missed the worst part while we were in Alabama; the whole three weeks we were south, it was hotter in Boston than it was in AL. Seriously?? Not ok, Boston. Not ok.

There's absolutely no point in fixing my hair, so I've been sporting the ponytail/bun/headband combo. I definitely look like I'm 16, rather than pushing 30, but hey...you do what you have to, right?

Also, Claire is extremely hot-natured. She sweats, bless her. Church is the worst for heat, I hate to say. Our church building is beautiful and old and classic. It also has high ceilings that trap the heat and let it stagnate. It was pretty much the epitome of heat-induced misery. I actually took her and sat in the balcony stairwell for a while, as it was about ten degrees cooler in there. Desperate times.

All that to say, next time you hear someone say they're moving north and feel compelled to mention the harsh winters, pause a moment and continue that thought with "...and the summers are brutal. Best of luck."