From the Archives: Midnight Blues

I made up my mind. I love summers with all my heart. 

It's midnight, mid-July. I've got the fan spinning, midnight blues playing, a small desk light flickering, the window wide open swinging lightly, no external sounds disturbing this idyllic peace. I've made up my mind, it doesn't get any better than this.

Today was a really hot day. The forecast estimated a 35°C high and simply walking made us sweat and hunch down in search of shade. What we decided to do to spend this hot summer day properly is to go rent a boat. The Danube is full of such boat-renting businesses so that's where we went. Now it's a Friday afternoon and as we expected it's completely packed but after walking around and arguing back and forth we finally find a small shop hidden in the side behind trees. Our hopes rise the instant we see there isn't a line of twenty people waiting impatiently for the next boat. To our relief, they had one last boat available for us to take. We take the electric boat they had on offer and drive off into the river. We spent the whole afternoon driving around looking for nice spots to swim and then jumping into the water for a quick refreshment. There's music playing on the speakers, some of us lying in the boat with our bucket hats enjoying the sunlight. Others are hopping into the river to cool down. You can hear sounds and voices but they're all so faint. It's like the world has stopped for a moment. This day is ours and ours only.

My sense of hearing has drastically increased. Actually, it's more that I've really started to notice sounds and get pleasure out of hearing them. I first realized this while watching Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019). Chewing, leather couches, shoes, cans, cars, voices... It's as if I see color for the first time except it's with my ears. Does it make any sense? Again, I feel like I missed out on when this update happened but here I was: drifting away in the water with my eyes closed listening to the trees, the people, the boats, the music, the wind, and especially to my friends' discussions. They argue about all kinds of things. 

The camera pans towards the sky. Sounds grow quiet. Re-enter the present time. Location: my bedroom near midnight. Don't get me wrong. I love winter too. There's something really special about every season. But goddamn are summers extra-special. Having the window open listening to this sleepy city be quiet with the occasional walker-by with extra-loud heels. There's something addicting about it. The heat never bothers me in this country. And yet, as clearly as I've confessed my love for summers, nights like these give me the blues. I can't stop daydreaming -more like night-dreaming if that's a thing- about what could be and what may be. I want to be out there all the time. I want to take it all in. Every bit of life. From scaling the Himalayas to diving deep in the oceans near the Caribbean, to talking to locals in Mongolia. There's no shortage of things I want to do. It's days and nights like these where I feel my senses reactivated for the first time. I'm aware of what's happening. But until then, until I experience all that which I want to do, summer days like these are comforting too. Days with no worries, no responsibilities, and not a single thing that troubles us.