thirty-one

I turned older yesterday, and sent out four or five wildly ambitious poetry submissions, and today I am grading four classes' worth of revision logs and tomorrow I collect four classes' worth of final portfolios and there is a light at the end of the tunnel. We also received the official, official word that we are employed for next year, and over the weekend I made enchiladas and Boston cream cupcakes and had people over to eat them, so I don't have many complaints right about now.

I'm teaching two courses this summer--four weeks in late June through July. I struggled with the decision to sign up for summer school, but ultimately I realized that the idea of making enough money to comfortably live on over the summer totally wins out over worrying all summer that I will run out of money before September. So instead, I'm splitting town on the 16th and driving up north to the Adirondacks to hang out with my college roommate for a week, and then I'm going to take the car around to the north side of Lake Ontario and hang out with the sculptor that I made all that trouble with in Vermont last year, and then I head over to live in Jeano's house for a few weeks. Then we'll roadtrip over to a different cabin, one way up in Door County, and talk about writing for a few days, and then I'll make my way back south and settle in for the summer classes.

It is nice to have a car that will take me to these places. It will be nice to go up and see the people I miss and catch the start of summer up north. I will have two summers, and that is a good way to turn thirty-one.