Hot, hot, hot

"Isn't this one of the reasons we left the east coast?" a friend of mine said recently, only a week into the current heat wave that shows no signs of abating. Apart from desperately missing June Gloom--which, this year, was more like May Gray--I find myself coping with the hot weather in a number of self-deceiving yet self-preserving ways. Here are my suggestions.

1. Do everything in the morning. When I wake up, my place is cool and breezy, even though I find that the apartment cools off later and later every night. But in the morning it's easy to think, I can deal with this. What's the problem? So I get a few things done. Then I drink some hot coffee and start to shvitz, and before I know it, it's afternoon and the air is heavy.
2. Relative thinking. Very few apartments in Paris have air conditioning. So it's even worse there. On the other hand, they're in Paris.
3. Don't move. Yesterday afternoon, after a dance class in a studio without a/c , I came home, showered, and sat. I couldn't move. The TV was my best friend. Suddenly, anything that was happening on E! was more interesting than anything else in the world. But what was I thinking, doing the Pony at 3 in the afternoon on a hot day?

When the going gets tough, grab the laptop and head for the Beverly Center. You'll be in good company.