so long sweet summer

Time did that thing it always does: fly. And here I am staring fall in the face, while still sweating in the 100 degree temps.  This weekend was a good chance to stop and put things on hold for a bit and I really tried not to worry about all the work I need to do for my classroom (we have parent night on Thursday, eek), all the reading I need to do for grad school (yeah, that started back up this week) and all the ‘stuff’ I always feel like I need to be doing (keeping the house clean, laundry, eating a halfway decent meal).  Mark and I went separate ways for the long weekend - he went to visit college friends at the lake, while I stayed home and hosted college friends who were visiting Dallas.  Two of my best girlfriends stayed with me for a night, and we got to all get ready for the night together {just like in the DG house}, catching up while we curled our hair and did our makeup, wondering aloud who would get married next, have kids next, or just stay the same.  On Saturday, we got to meet baby Hadley, and then watch the Texas game together on a {hot} patio.  But the best part was when we all stayed up until one in the morning, sipping wine, eating bon bons (literally) and just being together.  Times with friends like that are harder to come by these days, when we all live in different cities and have to, you know, go to work every day.

Now I have the Sunday Blues on a Monday night, anxious about a paper I need to write for grad school and a presentation I need to put together for parent night, and it reminds me of the same anxieties I would have at UT, when I was juggling classes and jobs and the social calendar of a college student.  It’s not that I’m worried I won’t get it all accomplished - I know it will all get done - but I still have that little nagging feeling that I should be reading or studying right now, not watching a game on TV or going out to dinner with Mark.  If I’m awake, I should be being productive, right?  At least folding some laundry or unloading the dishwasher?  But I tell myself it can wait until tomorrow.  For now, it’s all on hold.

College

Howdy.  This post is coming straight to you from TWU, where I am working towards my master's degree.  My lone class this summer has an orientation this evening and I got to campus over an hour early.  So I'm sitting in an old building, surfing the web and waiting for 5:30 to roll around.

Thoughts on college campuses: they all smell the same.  I walked into this building and was hit with the smell of.... college.  It was like I was back in Jester, cutting through on my way to a class in the that great big lecture hall building.. that I can totally not remember the name of.  Help me out, Sadie.  The one next to the PCL and across from the B-School?  With all the escalators in it?  How have I been out of college for so long that I cannot even remember the names of the buildings anymore?!  Ah.

But anyways, college buildings are all pretty much the same.  They are all a little dated [built in the 70's-ish], have really random furniture scattered all around them [tables in the hallways, mix and match arm chairs] {currently sitting in one now} and have lots of empty hallways and old elevators.  And they all smell the same.

Over and out.

Girls in White Dresses

I just finished reading Girls in White Dresses, by Jennifer Close, which captured life of an almost-thirty-year-old (gasp) perfectly. Following a group of girlfriends from college into their late 20's, I found myself relating to their years of bridal showers, baby showers, break-ups, job changes, those friendships that stayed strong and those that fell apart.  I read it on my Kindle, so I highlighted several passages as I went along that made me think, ohmygosh, yes. this is so my life.  Last night, after I had finished the book, I went back and read everything I had highlighted.  This passage from when one of the characters was visiting BC, where she had gone to school, pretty much sums up exactly how I feel whenever I go back to Austin.  That feeling of homesickness I get from just being in that city, the nostalgia that pulls at my heart when the UT tower first comes into view as I drive into town.  It makes me wish I didn't have to "grow up" --

It made her sad to think they'd never be back there again, never bounce from bar to bar drinking and dancing just because they could, just because they should.  It wasn't that she wanted to be in college again, exactly.  No, she just missed it sometimes, the aftermath of those nights out, inexplicable bruises and lost wallets, phone numbers being requested, make-outs with near strangers in crowded bars.  

I don't want to be in college again, not exactly.  I love where I am now - with my husband, my friends, my house, my life.  But there is a part of me that wants to go back to being in school, where I lived with my best friends, slept late everyday, and never had to worry about actually cooking a meal.  If you are in your post-college life and still manage to live like you're in school... props to ya.