Fall

It's October, and fall is here. Due to a combination of dry summer and slightly damp autumn, it's not very spectacular. The sky's as blue as ever and the smells are right, but the leaves aren't as vibrant - only the yellow ones are really making a go of it (the big tree next to Rollins is still, by far, the loveliest on campus) and I don't see much red or orange in the forest, only green, not-green, and the bit of yellow here and there.

I literally can't process the fact that I'm halfway into the semester. I've never had time fly by this quickly. I've just been busy, busy, busy - almost every day is full and when I do take time off I feel like I'm purchasing it dearly, can't just relax with friends and build the emptiness of days - we have to each steal a costly hour to spend together, to prove our worth to each other - and it's almost too stressful to enjoy. I don't like this part.

Things are better, now that I've recovered from the conference. If I work my butt off during the week, I can rest on weekends. I only have four classes, but they're trying their best to take me down. I'm actually getting organized out of sheer necessity.

My place feels like a home by now even though I've only unpacked 2/3s of the boxes and the map poster keeps falling down. Also the oven still doesn't work, which is obnoxious.

But living downtown is still great. I get annoyed with early morning construction noise (sometimes its so insanely loud, and I can't even figure out WHAT they are doing - sounds like a truck but louder than any truck I've ever heard - certainly not just a hammer or a drill or GAAAAHHH WHAT IS THAT!!) and I get annoyed with people partying at 2 am in the alley right underneath my window (really guys?) But I have such a nice, short walk to class, and I love being able to go get Sparky's Ice Cream or India House or whatever. Btw Columbia is even more diverse and perfect now than ever. The Middle Eastern Market has a huge new location, there's a French bakery with Macarons and a Korean barbecue place downtown with $5 Kimbap. 

Tutoring is blarggghhh. I'm scheduled for 9 hours a week but people keep not showing up. Oh, they're sick. Oh, they have car troubles. Oh, they just don't show up and later tell me they overslept. Is this just my bad luck? I didn't have these problems last year. Two students have even cancelled. I'm not even hurt or sad - hopefully the new ones will be better. 

I went camping last weekend with Nash and Isa, who is my American Life partner this semester. She's tall and German, a biologist, and the way she talks reminds me a bit of Rachel. She's a nice girl.

I'm thinking about graduate school next year. Not sure what to do.

I'm reading a bit. I don't have a car and there's no exciting hiking to be done here anymore and it can be hard to get friends together at the last minute, so I'm discovering this ancient old-fashioned past-time of spending time with paper and ink. Last Places is the kind of travel book I want to write, but maybe a bit too exaggerated for my taste - or have Iceland and the Faroes really changed so much in 30 years? Probably a mixture of the two. Travel journalism has certainly changed. Sometimes I think the title refers to the "Last Places" you could get away with writing about like that - certainly the last places in Europe.

My friend Jerry from Florida turned 100. Still writing, still learning all the new internet tricks. He's an inspiration.

And now, I have to run again...