there’s so much that i love and miss about DC, but the weather isn’t one of them. i’m reflecting on this after spending the past month in the bay area’s inland (a confusing phrase, i know) where i let the afternoons slide by as i basked in the endless sun. returning to the LA coastline where, contrary to popular belief, most days are overcast, i found myself preparing to go into a fit about the dramatic decrease of sunshine i’d be getting.
this, i admit, is an egregious complaint, especially in these times. the fact that i’m sitting out here in my yard, typing away in shorts and a tank top, is a sign of that. if i were in DC, this morning writing session would have already been foiled by hot mugginess, relentless rain, or both. the climate might be the district’s only enduring form of bipartisanship – how the sun can burn and the clouds can pour, all within a day, all within an afternoon, all within an hour. in LA, the weather knocks before it lets itself in. the sun and clouds will engage in a game of will they / won’t they before finally settling on one side or another for the last hours before the sunset.
LA is the kind of place where you can determine the weather by stepping outside. DC is not, and july is the worst. DC is the kind of place where you bring an umbrella even if it’s 90 degrees and sunny. it’s where you’ll find a poor hill intern in a suit, on a skooter, drenched from head to toe because he thought the dry sun on k street would last until m street. newbie moves.
my newbie move happened in july 2013 – my first july in DC, and one where i was juiced to debut my first smithsonian exhibition. “a summer block party!!” i thought to myself with content. why show art in a stuffy building when we could project it in silver springs’ town square? BECAUSE CLOUDS, BITCH! replied the sky. i spent the two nights of the exhibition opening biting my nails while the clear mornings gave way to the blanket of gray, the crescendo of thunder, the breaking of lightning, and finally, the invasion of rain.
“we might have to end this,” the tech guys warned, as they explained how they could only shield the projectors from the rain in blankets for so long before they’d overheat. will they / won’t they?
the weather was one of the big incentives for moving back to california, an incentive that i huffed to myself every time i found myself biking through a surprise downpour halfway through my daily commute. we’re definitely spoiled here in california, and i’ve already become impatient when the clouds part an hour late according to the forecast, or if the sun doesn’t let out a ray as yellow as yesterday suggested it would. in those moments, i recall the times when i’d enter the DC metro on a cloudless afternoon, only to reemerge greeted by torrential rain. i recall how everyone in DC seems to be in such a hurry to get to the next thing, except for in a storm. how we would all just stand by the top of the escalator, huddled beneath the curved covering, waiting, knowing, quite confidently, that in no time at all, this too would pass.