Sunshine & Summer

#1 The Pacific Northwest is kind of killing me right now. We've had more consecutive dark gray-colored rainfall than anyone rightfully deserves. Don't get me wrong, I love Portland, OR, and when I moved here from Maine four years ago I was really stoked about not having to shovel snow in the winter, no mosquitoes in the city, not having to warm the car up for 30 minutes before driving anywhere, not having to wear LL Bean boots everywhere for 4 months out of the year, dry heat in the summer (instead of crippling humidity that makes any hairstyle other than curly impossible). Fast forward four years to now and I understand why the Pacific Northwest has the highest usage of pharmaceutical mood enhancers than anywhere else in the country. I understand why we have warnings and suicide hot line numbers on all of our bridges. I need sunshine, Damn it!!! I've even hit the tanning bed a few times just to remember what radiant warmth on one's skin feels like. (It's gray and raining even as I type this.) So, when I hit the ol' rock bottom of sun deprivation-induced delirium- -I like to look at these photos of people playing by pools or otherwise conducting themselves in the sun. *Sigh*