Making Plans

This afternoon I am feeling much more optimistic (and less punch drunk) than I was yesterday. I tried to set up an appointment with the Dean of Students, but she’s going to be out for the next week. When I talked to the folks last night my father’s response was “stick to your guns!” and my mother’s was “oh my!”

When I woke up this morning I could recognize the overnight vandwellers in the parking spaces next to me. There’s a guy in a blue pickup with a cap on the back and curtains over his front windows. There’s a woman with an old white fifteen passenger van. We don’t talk to each other, we just kind of signal acceptance with proximity.

After work tomorrow I’m heading up to New Hampshire, my birth state, to attend the preschool graduation of my nephew. He’s not really my nephew, just the son of friends I’ve known since before they were Mrs and Mr, much less mom and dad. We have a wonderful deal worked out. They put up with my foolishness, let me crash on their couch, let me borrow their children (which legitimizes my own childish behavior) and in return… I’m not really sure what they get in return but the deal’s great from my side of the fence. Oh! I let them sleep in for a bit in the morning because their six year old wakes ME up at five instead of them. That’s a perk, right? I’m trying to teach him to start the coffee pot. Anyway, I have all sorts of stuff planned for the time I’m up there including a car inspection (the car’s registered in NH) and meeting my father’s new puppy, Freya. Best of all (well, maybe not best, but really great) is that I get to visit the ocean. I’m not sure if anyone else gets this but you can feel when you get too far from the ocean and the salt and the tides. I’m not talking about anything weird or mystic, it’s just like a hole in your stomach that I think you’re prone too if you grew up near a lot of water and find yourself cut off from it. So I’m going to go walk the rocks and dip my toes in the limited New Hampshire coast line.

That’s it on my end; a beautiful day, a hectic week ahead, a hectic week behind. And my coworker says it’s the first day of summer! Happy longest day of the year.