The M-Word

I loved the opening credits of Season 1 of the tv show The L-Word when a bunch of different words that started with the letter 'L' would appear on the screen. Love, Longing, Los Angeles are the first three that come to mind just now. It was a much better opening than the one the show adopted for the following seasons which had an annoying theme song and all the characters in poses they would never normally be in. Each time I watched an episode of Season 1, I would try to spot a word I hadn't noticed the last time.
Today I was thinking about the month of May, specifically May of 2008 compared to May of 2009. And then I began to think about all the words that start with the letter 'M': May, Mom, Mountain, Magic, Marigold, Mad, Magnificent, Magnet, Miss, Mind, Maybe, Mango, Mail, Mud, Millions, Malicious, Mild, Magpie, Man and the list could go on and on... Quite an assortment!
But sticking with the first word on the list, I find the month of May a bit of a fickle month. Is it summer or is it spring? Is it cheerful or is it gloomy? Is it genuine or is it fake? At this exact time last year S. had arrived in Austin and summer had begun! As we drove off into the sunset (or really just west towards LA) I remember feeling super positive about the month of May because I knew that that month I was going to see all the people I care about the most in the world.
Now, a year later, I keep thinking about last year and making note of all the differences. This time around, summer won't begin for me for another month. I won't get to see all the people I love best and I'm going to be spending it pretty much in one place. But on the bright side, the prospect of staying here the next month is totally fine- unlike last year when I wanted to get out of Texas so badly that I practically cried tears of frustration as we passed El Paso and still hadn't reached New Mexico!
Last May had been anticipated for so long that though it lived up to all its expectations, I could still pretty much taste them (they were mostly sweet thankfully) in much of what I did that month. The lack of expectations for this May is actually sort of freeing, and hopefully a good thing. And if all else fails, I have lots more episodes of The L-Word to watch.