SAD

I feel compelled to explain my long absence.  I'm back in Florida now - have been for almost two months.  And for a variety of reasons, I've been taking my sweet time getting back into my daily routine: reading, writing, knitting, cooking.  Some things come back faster than others.

For instance, I've been reading some great stuff: Ann Patchett's State of Wonder was the highlight of my summer, and recently I read Ready Player One by Ernest Cline - a Young Adult novel for those of us who are definitely beyond the Young Adulthood phase of our lives.  I've been slowly getting back into the knitting (more on that later).  And the cooking - well, I do have to eat.

But the writing has been slow to return.  Sure, I scribble stuff down in my journal but that's not really fit for human consumption.  I blame the weather for my relative reticence.  This time of year when the days are noticeably shorter, I slow down.  I hibernate, cocoon, whatever you want to call it.  To be more precise and clinical, I have Seasonal Affective Disorder. For me, April is not the cruelest month; November is. 

When I lived in New England, it was very pronounced.  But being young and melancholy at the time, I just thought I was depressed and if I waited long enough, it would pass.  It wasn't until I moved to Philadelphia that it occurred to me that I might have SAD.  Now that I live in Florida, Autumn is much, much better.  Moving to the Sunshine State - instant cure for SAD!

http://www.soupandsun.com/wallpaper/wallpaperimages/sadrain/rain-1024x768.html

Except, it's been a particularly rainy Fall this year.  Did you know that West Palm Beach is the fourth rainiest city in the country?  It's true and after these past few months, I believe it.  There's been a lot of cloudy days.  A lot of rain.

Everytime I look into buying a sun lamp, the real sun comes out for a day or two.  A small reprieve to brighten my mood.  Here's a little sunshine to end a rather somber post - a photograph of my friend Teagan sporting the duck booties I knitted for her way back when.

Teagan's grandfather (the artist Mark Kashino) concocted the duckling in baby booties.  Just what I needed.