blogger profile

Cory Bordonaro

Journalist

Cory is the editor of skirt! magazine in Birmingham. A University of Georgia grad, she moved west to Alabama in pursuit of her journalistic ambitions. Cory had aspirations of working in magazines from a young age. Her first title, Cory's Story, printed on college-rule (using Crayola), was published...

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This is Why I'm Hot

Cory

Today marks the one year (and one day) anniversary of one of the coolest days of my life. Just 366 short days ago, I was suffering from the results of my stubborn frugality. What was normally a full-house, was only half-inhabited during summer months-- meaning there were just three of us to split the exorbitantly high utility bills. Cheap to our very cores, we decided, we would not be had by Charter. We would not be bamboozled by Georgia Power. No, siree, they would not get our summer business. They would not rob us of our measly minimum wage job paychecks.

We would go the entire summer A/C-free.

Late May was bearable, even pleasant at times. I remember lying in bed at night with the windows open. As the crickets chirped and summer breeze passed through the trees, I thought, “If I weren’t us right now, I’d be jealous.”

June rolled around and I changed my tune as the Georgia humidity moved in. Despite the warrior efforts of our ceiling fans, I’d still awake in sweaty sheets each morning. Taking showers became practically ineffectual, as the drying and styling of my hair would result in an even dirtier and sweatier condition. Because the interior temperature rivaled the torrid outdoors, afternoons were spent in the solace of the front yard shade.

July 1 came, and found us plastered to the couch, under the fan that, with every revolution, threatened to un-mount and land on the living room floor with a violent thud. We scarcely had the energy to get up and ref-fill our super-sized water glasses in repeated effort to combat the cotton mouth that had become all-too-familiar. We sat back and admired our valiant efforts that day. We had come so far. Suffered much. Saved at least a hundred dollars apiece. But, the fight was over. July 1^st would be the day the July heat declared victory. So, we flew our flag of surrender, awarded ourselves a badge of courage, and made our way over to the wall unit.

The following are a few pictures of the well-documented, over-dramatic “Day of Inaugural Air Conditioning.”