I am at a coffee place. Not because I'm busy. Not because I need caffeine. Because I have no air conditioning and waking up with your white sheets stuck to your face is like one of the best feelings in the world... if you are a masochist.

Let's get this straight. I'm not complaining. It is summer. And every single time I think of how hot and sticky and dumb it is in my apartment, I think about the frostbite I got this year. Yeah. On the tip of my ear. And then I think about all the times I shivered while walking to get to the same place I am sitting in right now, only this very second I am with shorts and a t-shirt and sunglasses and a smile that I don't have to worry about frostbite.

But air conditioning, like so many things in the city, is a commodity you have to take care of yourself. My friends back in Wisconsin or who live in suburbs don't really get this: "Wait, you don't have central air?" And when you shake your head and mention that you still have to have ceiling fans and little unsightly window air conditioner those people who do have central air give you a look much like the look people give you when they hear you lost a toe or your got an infected paper cut or that you had to watch Oprah twice in one day(kidding Oprah, KIDDING!)-- you know, that look of grief that also says: "I'm so glad that isn't me."

But here's the thing. I do have an air conditioner.

This is how that works. So I'm not a, well, mechanical guy. I can put batteries inside things to make them work. I can screw a screw in something that already has hole to put to the screw in to. But I'll complain about it. I'm just not good with my hands. I don't have the "building" brain. If you don't believe this, ask Josh. The guy has been my faux husband in the sense that he has put together half of my apartment. Shelves, check. Curtain rods, check. A shelf in the bathroom that I adore, check. Helping me through the "sans-boyfriend for a long time and needs to learn how to do put an air conditioner in to his own window that needs to be sized to his window because the window is too big for his air conditioner" situation, check.

He's been busy and good God I need to give the guy a break because he also deals with half of my emotional shit. Poor guy. Really. Medal for him. Gold all the way.

So there my air conditioner sits.

I'm still getting used to this. The heat, yes. The new apartment that warms up faster than any place I ever lived in. Having to ask friends to help me when I used to have someone else that I lived with to help me-- to put curtain rods up and use power tools or to do things that help keep me calm, comfortable, to keep me happy. To help me keep my cool.

Because it's so much cooler when you figure out how to keep your cool on your own.