Where Oh Where...

Could someone please tell me where the summer has run off to?  I move back to school in just a week.  The first half of summer goes by slowly, nicely, as if one were taking a leisurely stroll in a forest full of possibilities.

"Oh, I could actually finish that story I've been working on."

"Oh, I could finally make that collage of my semester abroad (which I bought the supplies for a whole year ago), to hang up in my room, complete with souvenirs and pictures and everything."

"Oh, I could probably work on and finish that oil painting of the isle Capri that I started three summers ago, I've got plenty of time for that!"

"Oh, I could definitely clean out my closet of all that crummy, trashable stuff at the bottom and maximize on space in my room."

"Oh, I could read Madame Bovary.  I could read I, Claudius.  I could read Dracula.  I could read A Tale of Two Cities.  I could read Ulysses.  I could read The Name of the Rose.  I could read The Brothers Karamazov.  I can choose the novel for my senior project!!"

And so on, and so forth.

I've done parts of some of these things.  I've done none of the rest of these things.  Started Madame Bovary, finished This Side of Paradise, which wasn't on the list.  Read a plethora of Meg Cabot books, and they're quite fun, but academically speaking a 'waste of time.'  Worked on my stories a bit, worked on my oil painting for a week in the beginning of the summer, then stopped.

I have a theory that the second half of the summer, let's say starting around July 15th, goes by much more quickly than the first half.  You blink at that time and then it's time to go back to school.  The theory is that the space-time continuum somehow speeds up in that month/month and a half.

Think about it.  You know it's true.

Anyway.  I have goals for the new academic year.  One of them is to dress more professionally on a daily basis.  Wearing khakis/slacks instead of jeans, wearing more of my skirts, different shoes than tennis shoes, nicer shirts without so much writing on them, or graphics, etc.   We'll see how that goes.

Other goals are more vague.  Some of them are personal, but most are professional.  I should also have a goal to make dean's list again, since that only just happened for the first time last semester.  But sometimes I feel like that was a fluke, given how distracted I was then.  Of course, for once Latin wasn't dragging me down, but pulling me up.

It's going to be interesting not having a Latin class this year.  Finally, after 7 years of studying it.  It usually lowers my GPA...

Anyway.  Since I said a couple days ago that I hadn't been writing, of course I wrote a bit later that evening.  That's how it works, isn't it?  Some of this one story (probably a novella, not a whole novel, the way it's turning out) wherein the main character tells a group of new friends about her various failed, would-be romances from the past five years.  I take some situations from my real life to make up her stories, but I'm hoping to make it more exciting than what really happened, of course.  Does anything quite so exciting ever happen in real life?--I'm starting to wonder.

My birthday's coming up.  The 17th.  I'm feeling rather old lately.  Compared to what?  I don't know.  I'll be 22.  The song "Countdown" by Phoenix comes to mind...  "Do you remember when / 21 years was old?"  As in, when you were a little kid, I'm interpreting that to mean.  You've probably heard "Lisztomania" by Phoenix on the radio.  They're a French band, did you know?  They're pretty cool.

Anyway.  I can't seem to shake the whole LAUD thing.  I can't stop being a student...seeking purpose...much like I can't stop breathing.  I guess it's part of me, the whole quest.  It's a bit exhausting.  I've been going through a different job possibility each day.  Most recently, librarian assistant, greeting card writer, and (again) secretary/administrative assistant.

We shall see.

Christine out.