up north 2012

Photo

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 16:21:46 -0500

I WILL DO WHATEVER I HAVE TO DO TO DO THIS. I WANT TO GO TO...

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 17:53:39 -0400

I WILL DO WHATEVER I HAVE TO DO TO DO THIS. I WANT TO GO TO THERE

Heaven on earth

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 11:29:49 -0400

Heaven on earth

Shelving: you’re doing it right

Sun, 27 May 2012 13:29:14 -0400

Shelving: you’re doing it right

it's a takeover!

Fri, 25 May 2012 22:49:27 -0400

so, i realize i’ve only been up here for a week and a half, but it’s been a pretty awesome week and a half. and for the most part, i’ve been able to feel pretty local. sure, i summer up here, but i do work and contribute to the local economy and atmosphere and will continue to do so in a consistent manner. i love it. i’ve always been a big fan of community building, even if that just means integrating yourself—your whole self—into local business and local people. i’ve made a big point of local and getting to know the customers who come to the shop on a regular basis—especially the teachers.

cue memorial day weekend.

this morning when i left for work, i was the only one in the parking lot, and it was easy to get a parking spot in the convenient free parking lot. i just got back from working and going out with my co-workers (which was a blast. i LOVED being social and just having fun for a while), and my parking lot was FULL. like, i had to park across in the other block of condos full. not a fan.

now, i knew this would happen. i did. i knew this. and historically, i’m well aware that i’ve contributed to this phenomenon. but this time, it feels so different. i haven’t felt like a tourist up here in years, but this year is especially different. i feel so possessive of this area and these two towns in which i’ve found myself laying sapling roots. and now, i’m realizing what living in a tourist area means. on a surface level, it makes me realize how much i’ve loved things like playing music with the doors open and having the beach to myself and not wearing my beach pass.

but i am very quickly learning and living smaller but more significant lessons. i realize why things like car pooling matter. why supporting local business like the grain train on a CONSISTENT basis matter. i keep bringing this back to local business, but i’m already seeing the effects of what it means to buy local. and more importantly, to buy local whenever the opportunity presents itself.

mark my words, it will be thge theme of this summer.

but yeah. local business is good, and i feel like i’m getting closer to the people i work with and the community at large. it’s really lovely. it has a dirty side, which i’m sure i’ll feel more and more as the summer goes on. but for now, i’m happy and healthy.

this is good.

beach reads

Thu, 24 May 2012 19:13:00 -0400

beach reads

driving to work

Thu, 24 May 2012 19:12:16 -0400

driving to work

week 1 reading…CHECK.

Thu, 24 May 2012 19:11:29 -0400

week 1 reading…CHECK.

my morning is perfect

Wed, 23 May 2012 09:52:28 -0400

my morning is perfect

springs!

Mon, 21 May 2012 17:22:31 -0400

springs!

bridge

Mon, 21 May 2012 17:21:05 -0400

bridge

so today got a little crazy.

Mon, 21 May 2012 17:15:00 -0400

today started out really nicely. it was grey and cold and drizzly and wonderful. it was perfect weather to snuggle up in an old sweatshirt and a blanket and drink tea and read.

apparently “and” is my favorite word today.

but yeah, it was great. i finished rosie dastgir’s small fortunes, which comes out in a few days and started reading wallflower in bloom by claire cook. SF was really nice—a good family story told through a post-colonial lens. i wouldn’t say it was a brilliant first novel, but it was a good one, and dastgir didn’t totally botch the ending the way a lot of authors seem to in their early work. i’d recommend it. WIB is already going to be a disaster, i can tell. but i’ll have to recommend a lot of “beach reads” this summer, so i might as well familiarize myself with the ones coming out in hardback.

but anyway, i was just relaxing, when i realized i’d have to call this woman from law school C back, so i did. got offered a full tuition scholarship, and i’d pretty much only have to pass my classes to keep it. it’s a tough decision. school C is located where i don’t want to be, it’s significantly lower-ranked than where i deposited, and nothing about it really holds my interest. but it’s full tuition. i’d have to be an idiot to pass that up, right?

so i’m freaking out about that and decided that it looks like it’s clearing up, so i’m going to go walk off the stress on the beach and clear my head. should be calming.

BUT IT WASN’T.

on my way out the door, i get a call from law school B2, we’ll call it. in off the wait list. this should be exciting, but it’s not. it’s stressful. i want this decision to be over. i’m tired of it looming over my head, and i would just like to have my life in order.

i promise this won’t be thoroughly depressing. in fact, it’s about to get a little sappy. i warned you.

as i was walking and freaking out and trying to calm down while trying to make sense of things, i saw something that i have seen every time i’ve been on that beach for however many years i’ve been here. i watched the water from the springs meet the water of the lake. and i realized, it’s all going to be ok. whatever i choose, wherever i end up, it’s going to be ok. will i continue to have mini-seizures every time i think about law school for the rest of the summer? probably. have i magically come to some sort of all-decisive conclusion? absolutely not.

but as i watch the water bubble up from those tiny natural springs and rush into the waves that tried to push them back but ultimately had to take it on, i realized that that sort of struggle was natural. that kind of crazed individualism, which somehow has to fight against forces so much more massive than itself in order to get to its destination,—and then succeed—is part of the natural order. and that in spite of this decision, in which i feel like i have to plow through things like loans and financial aid and roommates and JOBS, i will get to where i need to go and be a part of something bigger than myself.

and now that i’ve convinced myself that i’m not crazy and that picking the school that will determine my whole career is nbd, i’m going to make dinner and leave you all with a visual aid.

i’ve had all of this to myself

Sun, 20 May 2012 14:35:53 -0400

i’ve had all of this to myself

making friends

Sun, 20 May 2012 14:31:32 -0400

making friends

i don’t question the books i find here

Sun, 20 May 2012 14:25:04 -0400

i don’t question the books i find here

don’t mind me, i’m just walking to work. luckiest...

Sun, 20 May 2012 14:23:45 -0400

don’t mind me, i’m just walking to work. luckiest view in the world.

it's almost been a week!

Sun, 20 May 2012 14:21:45 -0400

so it’s time to get ths thing rolling!

working at the shop as been great so far. even though i’ve only been there for what? two days, really? i already feel like i’ve been adopted into this weird little family that i already love far more than i ever anticipated. being with all those people has been helpful, especially with the whole “i don’t live in a giant building with all my best friens anymore” thing. i’d be lying if i said it wasn’t a bit lonely at times, so far, but i anticipate that to change. the fam will be in and out, and i already like so many of the people i work with, i’m sure things will pick up.

and hey, all that time that i could be spendign being social? i’m reading my butt off. it’s glorious. so far, the tourism season still has yet to kick off, so i’ve had pretty much the entire complex to myself. the best part of this? free reign over the beach. i have the entire beach to myself and a few loons, the occasiounal gull (where are they?!), and swarms of bugs. sounds weird, but it’s actually the best.

it’s exciting and absurdly pretentious, but summering is the best. summer as a verb. it’s a whole new thing for me, and i love it. i keep waiting to find myself in the middle of an episode of revenge.

something consumed me

Tue, 15 May 2012 15:58:47 -0400

to make a blog about this summer. so… that’s what i’m doing.