Oh the humidity.

It's summer in the Caribbean which means lots of sunshine! Yep, gotta love those humid summer days! Okay actually it's like this year round and it's freaking hot.

We knew what the weather was like in PR before we moved here, and we knew it would be sticky and toasty. What we didn't know is that our tile floors would sweat and that our furniture would be dripping wet and we'd have to do weekly mold checks on our surfaces. And yes, we find mold. Our fridge leaves a puddle of water in the floor everyday from the water and ice dispenser sweating. Nothing is ever dry here. Even clothes coming out of the dryer aren't really dry. Anything that can rust or corrode, will. I bought an awesome metal desk lamp and within one week it had rusted. The doorknob to my studio looks like an old boat covered in barnacles.

I used to be a shower every other day person, now I have to shower daily. I sweat through my clothes before lunchtime around here. I saved my favorite pair of jeans from TX and the thought of putting them on for even 5 minutes makes me cringe. I live in shorts and a cami and quite often I don't wear a bra. Bras are already generally uncomfortable even when they aren't soaking wet and sticking to you. I was never into wearing much makeup, but what little I do wear melts off pretty quickly. Oh and I had pretty great skin before, but now I'm an oily mess. I guess what I'm saying is it's oh so glamorous living in a tropical climate.

Keeping and prepping food in high humidity has proved to be quite challenging as well. Cakes fall after they bake and get all gummy and chewy and weird. Chips and crackers go stale pretty much right when you first open them. Basically anything not in a can has to be stored in the fridge, including produce that isn't supposed to be stored in the fridge. My flour, bread, onions, and cookies are all rammed in there next to the normal fridge stuff. These things melt and mold and become fruit fly factories in about 48 hours when stored at room temp. BTW, room temp here is 84 degrees. All the time, day and night, year round.

My next humidity challenge is paint. I'm starting a new series of artwork that involves paint and liquid mediums, and I have no idea if everything will stick once the work is shipped back to the states. I'm building a small test piece that I'll send to Texas, like a science project, to make sure the painting doesn't literally fall to pieces when it leaves PR. At least it will go to a place where it can actually be dry.

Yours in moistness,

Steph

P.S. You're welcome that I devoted an entire post to humidity and not once did I use the term "swamp ass".