A Thing Called Summer

So this crazy thing happened to me recently. I think they call it summer, but it lasted too long for it to have been only 4 months, and it passed too quickly for it to have been roughly a third of a year. In any case, summer is drawing to its end, and while I've been up to a lot of fun things this summer, I haven't been writing or really documenting any of it, so for those few benevolent souls who are interested in the goings-on of my life, I've prepared a brief (if you know me at all, you know that to be a baldfaced lie) recap of whatever comes to mind of the past four months.

So, this happened. Also, just as a side note, I'm almost
perpetually pale, so if you think the sickly pallor is the
unfortunate result of cool lighting or something like that,
rest assured that it is actually just my pasty self in all its wonder.

So there was graduation. That was a thing. Then I kind of stared the wall for like five days, and then I filled out job applications for a month or so while learning Javascript and reading in my free time. So many good books this summer: Faust, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Hafiz, Oscar Wao, No Country for Old Men, as well as an epic fantasy trilogy of which I've grown less fond with each subsequent novel. Alas, I digress. As you might have noticed, I said that I filled out job applications for a month. I should have said "for two months," but I wanted to break it up into separate segments so it would sound less pitiful. I still had (and have) my job at the missionary training center, and while it pays very well, it only gives me like 5 hours a week. So, I filled my days moving infinity friends to new homes/apartments, devising herb bread recipes with my roommate Ben (who is apparently a connoisseur of artisan breads and all things African), and working on my First. Video. Game. Ever.

Amarillo

New house! Yay!

Ever since I started college, I've dreamed of living in a house, and somehow this semester, the housing gods smiled upon me and things worked out just right. I guess I've always kind of gone with apartments simply because it's what my older siblings did, and added onto that was the fact that during spring and summer terms, I am incapable of living anywhere that doesn't have a good pool. I think I might spend more time during the summer swimming than sleeping, and that probably deserved some psychiatric attention, but nonetheless that's how it is. Anyway, I'm in The Amarillo House. For those of you who speak Spanish, you invariably read that wrong, because it's actually pronounced just like it looks in English. I know, strange, right? But despite the hick American feel that I get every time I tell someone where I live, I really like the place. Part of that might have to do with having my own room for the first time in about six years, but among other pluses are a washer and dryer, utilities that are included in the rent (which is oddly cheaper than any fall/winter housing that I've paid for), a family of quails in the back lot, a friendly neighbor dog, and some pretty cool roommates. I moved from my previous apartment with my roommates Joey and Aaron, and then we ended up with another guy named Greg who is really cool so far. I am really liking it so far, in any case.

School starts back up Tuesday, and that means that the next week will be full of much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, but it also means that people have started flooding back into town and the streets are crowded with lots of Freshmen who look about fifteen and lots of worried moms who look like they have lost fifteen years of their lives worrying that their kids won't have enough food on the meal plan. I, on the other hand, have been trying to squeeze the last bit of hakuna-matata out of my two-week summer vacation. That means lots of swimming, reading, friends, piano, and writing, among other things. I've been going through some old journals, and I've been working little by little on typing up some old writings, so anything that I find over the next few days that seems to be of any worth will likely end up here. Here's a little tid-bit that I found from my flight to Moscow. It's short, but I thought it was kind of quaint, so here ya go:

The horizon was an endless rainbow with reds like deep, auburn sandstone and blues so blue that you don't ever even think to ask whether it's cerulean or navy. And right down the middle was a broad band of green--the first I had ever seen in a sunrise. It was as if the entire sky were alight with hope and majesty, and the blanketed forests rolled out beneath us as spindly veins of taillights snaked across the expanse below us. Lifeblood of the land, these streams of sparks stretched on and on, spiraling out from the glowing clusters of the small Finnish towns that jumped out of our way as we passed. 

I honestly don't know what awaits me in the year to come. I think these next two semesters are pretty much set in stone, but then I'll be done with school and on my way to somewhere or something. I think sometimes how funny it is that we always seem to be rushing off to nowhere in particular, but I guess that's just the way it goes sometimes. I have thought a lot about teaching English in China next summer, which is another secret (or maybe not-so-secret) wish of mine. A lot could change in two semesters, though, so we'll see where life directs me. In any case, I'm going to really try to make the best of this last year at BYU, because I'm realizing more and more how unique of an experience it is to be here. I've had my struggles with certain things in the Happy Valley, but it really is a wonderful place in so many ways, and I think when it comes time to leave, I will miss it as I have perhaps missed no other place.