bzz bzz is the sound

of a graduate student thisclose to being done with her work on campus. The windows are open. The coffee is perculating. The kids outside the window are smoking. There's a stack of argument papers, a stack of resumes, a stack of revised papers, and a grade book that needs four more little red columns of numbers. The iPod is charged and I am not leaving this desk until it is all finished and all I have left is to walk home with stacks and stacks of books I can't leave behind.

Everything is moving so quickly. The trees have full leaves now and the halls are quiet already. Letters arrive daily. I feel ready to pack this stuff in for a while, wait tables, coast along the lazy currents of summer. Bring me a beer and Hinniker Pond.