It’s finally fall in Florida! Or at least for a couple days. It’s 80 degrees out at 6:30 at night and I’m snuggled up in a sweatshirt and big comfy pants.

I asked Russell the other day if it was disloyal to Florida to admit that I was excited for cooler temps. We agreed that in the Midwest, we’d be yearning for warm weather to return after those long, dreadful winter months, so it’s OK to say it: I’m ready to see 79 degrees on the dashboard.

Before we moved here, and even our first year here, I raised an eyebrow at friends and coworkers who claimed they were “freezing” when the thermometer hit below 75. The Tampa Bay Times ran a front-page article when we experienced 60s in November 2013, a few months after moving here, that urged readers (in all caps, nonetheless) to “GET OUT YOUR BLANKETS.” Definitely called my dad and snickered about that.

But… a funny thing has happened. YOUR BLOOD REALLY DOES THIN. Last year I traveled back to Mom and Dad’s sometime in the winter and I’m not exaggerating – it took me 24 hours to feel warm after I arrived (and that was with lots of time spent near the fireplace and under giant blankets). It’s a real thing!

What I really want scientists to tell me, though, is why I still get hot just as easily as before. Yes, I need a jacket as soon as there’s a breeze down in South Florida but I have to decline my coworkers’ invitations to walk across the street to get lunch in the summer because I won’t cool off for hours (trust me, it’s true).
If anyone knows the answer, let me know. I’ll be contemplating this unfair phenomenon with the A/C blowing in the background, screen door open, Pumpkin candle burning while “tee-hee-ing” at my Facebook friends’ pictures in sweaters…