What June in Austin looks like...

Work, work, sweat, sleep, eat, sweat, work, sweat, swear, sweat, apply sunscreen, sweat, work, eat, sleep, pay high electric bill, work, eat, sleep naked, work, eat, sweat, apply sunscreen, repeat.

Also:

Laugh my ass off when the weatherperson on the news channel refers to this time of year as "spring."

Get angry at the dog for wanting to go outside when it feels like 110 degrees, but worry that the sidewalk is burning her feet.

Notice that the entire neighborhood in the mid-day heat smells like garbage and dog shit.

Designate the hour upon returning home from the office following taking the dog out "naked time." Fall in love with my ceiling fan.

For my Charleston friends back home, June in Austin feels like August in Charleston. I'm imagining that July and August in Austin is going to make me want to move into my refrigerator. And that thing about Texas heat being "dry heat?" Lies.

Why I do not look pretty on the weekends...

If the sun is shining (the Texas sun is brutal, y'all) and I'm not doing anything social, I usually spend the day covered in sunscreen because I put it on every time I take the dog out. Weekends are also the days when I exercise most, so in addition to sunscreen, I also wear giant sunglasses and a really ugly (told you!) sun hat.



a) No matter how good the sunscreen is, and even if it is "oil-free," no one looks pretty covered in white paste.
b) I look terrible in hats. Always have, always will. My head is big. Hats are small.
c) Hair is dirty because I usually wait until evening to shower, knowing that it's going to get sunscreen in it and have a hat on it.
d) I don't feel self conscious walking down the street dressed head-to-toe in black with incognito sunglasses and a sun hat because my neighborhood is culturally diverse, I see men in dresses and women carrying sun umbrellas, plus Austin is a little weird so they probably just look at me and go, "oh, vampire...no biggie."
e) I am not smirking in this photo. I am grimacing because I was sweaty and got sunscreen in my mouth and sunscreen tastes like shit.
f) Yes, mom, I put my nose ring back in. It's part of my mid-life crisis and I'm enjoying it.

Forecast for a Sunday morning bike ride...

Hot, hazy, humid...

...and happy that my sunscreen is working.

I'm the one in the middle...

“Summer Tan, Summer Not” © Nikki Hardin