SIZZLING!

Coming from the tropics is barely preparation for 100-degree days in Washington.

It's hot and sticky. Breathing's difficult, movement laborous. I'm not sure if the intense politicking in DC is adding a degree or two?

In Manila, when it's hot, you perspire, you feel the sweat falling down your cheeks. Not here. The humidity, it seems, sucks the moisture as soon as it peeks through your pores.

I throw my cigarette butts carefully, stomping on them to make sure they're dead before I walk off. In California dying embers spark forest fires. I was in LA during the summer, and I remember how brown it looked. Hot and dry in the day, breezy in the evenings. I thought it had everything to keep it dry. Rain was frontpage fodder for LA newspapers.

Thank God for the trees in Virginia. Their cool shade is a refuge in summer. A water bottle is essential, as indispensable as morning coffee or an iPod. Rehydrate, dehydrate, rehydrate. That seems to be the immutable cycle of summer life here.

Summer's just started but I'm starting to wish it were Fall already. Strange. Before, I just had two choices -- wishing it would rain, and wishing it'd stop. Very simple.