We're having our first all-out thunderstorm of the year here--finally. It's been an extremely cool spring, even by Duluth standards (apparently). Many of the trees are just starting, or have yet to start budding. Most days, even the clear sunny ones, start around 40 and top off around 45 or 50, which is about my favorite temperature, but can get tiring when it should be warmer, and when you're on a lawnmower and a windy bluff at 8 in the morning.
I had a day off after school finished before I started my summer job. I hadn't even finished my grading yet, but I landed a pretty great gig working at...wait for it...a cemetery. Being gone for three weeks in the middle of the summer made the job search a little more difficult, but I'm pretty happy to have something where I'm outside all day with probably one of the best views in all of Duluth. It's the biggest cemetery in town and it's spread out over a couple hundred acres of very steep hillside, high above the west Duluth bays and harbors. I'll try to get some pictures of it. I mow and trim all day long. I sing songs to myself as they come to me. My neck turns red in the sun and my hands grow numb and calloused. It's wonderful. The oldest burials there date back to the civil war. I look at the moss covered stones, read old names and dates, and smell pine and grass all day. I let my mind wander.
Our wedding is in 12 days. Lisa and I both have to move all of our stuff out of our places and over to our new place by Wednesday. We've recently had the strange and delightful experience of buying real furniture. We've never done that before. But don't worry, we're still hoping to have some classic thrift store items. If we're lucky, maybe the average age of items in our apartment will be something like...66, roughly. A good age.
I'm halfway done with grad school, which is exciting and daunting at the same time. I don't really know how to describe it when people ask 'how do you like it?' It's a mixed bag of opposing extremes. Overall, I wouldn't trade the experiences and things I've learned for anything, but this last semester tried my patience and will more than the first, despite some very positive things. There's something about it for me that's like being buried alive; it takes a part of your self away until you complete the necessary tasks and jump through the required hoops. You're just trapped there until it's done, and then you're set free again. This varies by class and task, but generally applies. It sucks up so much of my time and concern that it's difficult to process other aspects of life properly, and that's been troubling in the last five months.
That being said, I'm really looking forward to my classes next semester--an independent study on Existential Literature in which I'll get to read Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard and many others. It's actually a philosophy course, but I basically get to design it myself. I'm going to watch some cool movies, too...Ikiru, Pickpocket, Being There...etc. Then I'm doing a Teaching Practicum in British Lit, which should be good as it's with a professor whom I appreciate.
But thankfully, none of that will come before this summer. Lise and I are traveling up highway 61 after the wedding, from one end of MN to the other (almost), concluding with a canoe/camping trip in the Boundary Waters. After that, we're looking forward to having a home that is ours rather than crowded, make-shift places compromised by those we share them with; we're excited to explore and enjoy the many activities in and around Duluth, to visit friends and family, and to turn the record player up loud (with less worry about neighbors) and dance to Dylan in the kitchen.
Hopefully we'll see most of you for more dancing in a few days.
1 comments:
You rock,rock.
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