Summertime....

And the living is easy
Fish are jumping, and the cotton is high
Your Daddy's rich, and your Mama's good-lookin'
So hush little baby, don't you cry

(And by the way, Peter Gabriel's version of that song is the best, ever)

Yesterday was Graduation Sunday at Chapel Hill: lots of newly minted PhD's (and, I supposed EdD's, JD's and MD's) wandering around in their new Full Academic Regalia, a fair number of old PhD's et al wandering around in old and sometimes moth-eaten Full Academic Regalia, and a veritable TON of 22 year olds in their light blue robes, parents at their sides, and all parties about to absolutely burst with pride. Good stuff. Brings a tear to my eyes, on so many levels.

And even better?

OMG, my commute gets SO much better in the summer.

A disclaimer: I am a total commuting WUSS! In my defense, I've done my share of lousy commutes in the past. I think the worst was when I lived on Staten Island and worked in Manhattan; we'd leave the house about 7:00 am and get home at 7:30 pm, and took four (yes FOUR) different modes of transportation: bus, ferry, subway and foot power. And, yeah, I've crammed myself onto overcrowded subway trains where I got felt up and had my wallet snatched, and I've lived where I had to walk to work even in the rain and heat and blinding snow, AND I've even done a 6 year stint where I braved I-40 (back when it was ALL 4-lane, none of this namby-pamby 6 and 8 lanes like they've got now) twice a day.

But now I live 5 miles from where I work. On a really, really bad day where I leave too late AND it's raining AND there's a wreck my commute takes 15 minutes (maybe 20). On a normal day it can take as little as 6.

So, yeah, in the world of commuters, I am a wuss.

But, even though I'm a wuss, I do still have a commute, and it does still have an ebb and a flow to it. If I leave my house by 7:30 or earlier, it's easy. If I wait till 7:45, it's harder.

And, year in and year out, the summer is SO easy. And, yes, because I live in a college town, summer runs by the collegiate calendar, and runs from Graduation Sunday to the first Sunday before the new semester (typically mid-August for UNC).

Life slows WAY down in Chapel Hill in the summer. Restaurants are less busy. There are fewer pedestrians jaywalking on campus and Franklin Street. And, yeah, traffic gets WAY lighter, and I can make it in to work in about 7 minutes EVEN when I leave late!

Ahhhh, I love summertime!