Tumbleweed Tuesday: A Farewell to Summer

So here we are. It’s the day after Labor Day—Tumbleweed Tuesday, as Long Island locals like to say—the day that marks the end of packed bars with $20 covers, of 45-minute lines at the bagel shop, of bumper-to-bumper traffic on Route 27: the official end of summer tourist season. Out east, those who remain after Labor Day are looking forward to a full month of warm, beautiful beach days, minus the herds of out-of-towners.

Here in the city, depressed New Yorkers are spending Tumbleweed Tuesday lamenting the fact that their tans will soon fade, their bathing suits will get shoved to the back of the closet, that they will have to work a full day this Friday instead of skipping out at lunchtime. But, as much as I have resisted the end of summer, instead of being overcome by my usual Tumbleweed Tuesday blues, today I actually feel kind of…relieved.

My yoga teacher, Heather, talks about how much the seasons dictate our behavior, and summer, she says, is when we should be our most active. We should move and sweat and travel and spend time with friends. We should wake up early and stay up late and in between we should be outside, soaking up the sun. And I have to say, this summer, I did exactly that. Now, after three months of traveling every weekend, staying up too late, drinking too much, and being over-scheduled to the point that couldn’t even find time to do my laundry (how very yogic of me, right?) I am ready for my life to calm down a bit.

This month, while I’m looking forward to a few last weekends of quiet beach days (ones that maybe aren’t so drenched in rosé), I’m also feeling pretty jazzed about getting back into my routine. I’m excited to spend the month ahead cooking with fresh, late-summer produce, organizing my closet, vacuuming my rugs, repotting my plants, hanging the paintings that have spent the last three months propped against my radiator, taking my shoes to the g-d cobbler. I’d like to take this month to slow down, to check things off of my to-do list, to decompress.

On that note: Hello, September. It’s really nice to see you.