back to school

And so the summer draws itself to a close on a Monday evening. It's post-run time, post-dinnertime, post-called-down-to-the-picnic-table-to-eat-cake-and-ice-cream-with-the-neighbors-and-watch-as-they-discover-their-dog-has-eaten-all-of-the-other-neighbor's-Brussels-sprouts-stalk time (yeah, it completely negates the run, but there was butter pecan and chocolate buttercream involved). All that remains is to pick out the outfit for tomorrow and repackage today's lunchtime leftovers as tomorrow's lunch and set the alarm for two times: one ambitious time that gives me tons of time to walk downtown and navigate the bus and get to the Einstein Bros. bagel place next to the first classroom of the day and grab coffee--and a less ambitious time that will give me enough time to get in the car and zoom out, no pre-show bagel.

Yeah, guess which one's probably going to win.

This summer started off so poorly and then took a big right-hand turn and became a great summer. I remember freaking in mid-May that all summer I was going to be stuck in a cube correcting comma splices written by some idiotic woman in Chicago, and then suddenly I was doing phone interviews, and then that same day the phone rang with a Michigan number and the guy on the other end and I chatted for thirty or forty minutes and it ended with a job offer. I was still sitting in the Camry, parked in the marketing firm's lot, when he hung up, and I drove home and walked in the door and the B said, What's that look? and I said, I think I just accepted a job in Michigan.

Three weeks to the day later, I was at the beach and then it was a month of just Madison and hanging out with the B like I had dreamed of all winter, and then the moves, and now I'm writing this sitting in an upstairs window watching the guy across the way stomp out his post-dinnertime cigarette and the lights in the tower at Lacks change from magenta to blue and orange and back again.

Over the past two days I've spent much time thinking about The Old Days, and looking through albums, and listening to old songs and hearing from old people: texts regarding the magical powers of my own ass, and that an old, old friend is expecting her first and living in the subdivision on my middle-school bus route, and that another is striking out for a two-week solo West road trip, and that yet another is marrying and moving out to Boston. Another friend is getting married, and I sat in the bathtub and talked to a friend that is relatively new but that I feel I've known forever, and I even learned today that the women in China, according to a source, dress themselves like they are Christmas trees: all sparkles and mismatches brights and lace at the collar, at the boobs.

And then today Liz was here for two short hours and we walked around the neighborhood and ate sandwiches and admired chimneys, and it confirmed it for me: everything seems to be as it should. Things are happening, people are accomplishing great things, and sometimes all I can do is sit back and marvel at each success, admire that these people I have been fortunate to know are moving down these paths. I feel so very lucky to know everyone that I do. I feel so happy to be able to watch their lives take them where they may. It could just be that I didn't sleep much last night and was up early to Skype with Colleen, so there is [still] much caffeine rushing right now, but really, this is what I am trying to tell you:

how wonderful it is to end the summer here on a Monday night, the bag under my desk filled with the first syllabi of the school year and seventy-eight index cards, and marvel at the fact that everyone is going someplace, that our lives turned out to be surprising and messy and sometimes hilarious and mostly just okay, just right.