I loved the feel of summer so much that I became a professor in hope of always having a summer vacation. But as a professor, summer is no longer lazy and long. It is short, packed and harried. It is the time to prep courses, write lectures, finish the articles whose deadlines have passed, get a jump on funding proposals, purge files and somehow dig out from under nine months of e-mails I just didn't get around to answering. I spend more time staring at the computer than gazing at cloudless summer skies.
But sometimes the siren of summer calls so sweetly that I cannot resist. I take off my shoes and wade in the Woody Woo fountain. I buy a bomb pop from the ice cream truck. I read a novel. I make at least one day last forever. Still ... I miss summer.