summer has arrived.

Warning: this post is of a highly sentimental nature.

Tonight when I got off work at 11 pm I decided to go to school to finish up the grading for this quarter. As I walked into campus, I was struck by how absolutely deserted it was. I walked for blocks upon blocks without seeing a soul - and this at 11:30 at night, when campus is usually still humming with activity. Just two or three days ago, things were so different around here.

I can't believe the first year is done. It went so quickly...so much has happened and I've grown and changed so much. And now, rather abruptly in my opinion, it all comes to a close.

This morning I woke up to go to church, and when I stepped outside, I was struck by just how cool the air was. This certainly isn't the midwest; no humidity here. Crazily enough, I miss the humidity. I guess it goes to show you that homesickness is not always entirely rational. I miss the energy sapping blanket of heat and humidity that characterized my summers growing up. I miss stepping out of the Welcome Center at Newton Hills into a blanket of heat. A sauna that was just as near as stepping out the back door.

Of course, I don't really miss it. I'm sure one second of it would have me kicking and screaming to come back to Washington. And yet, sometimes, just sometimes, it'd be nice to be uncomfortably warm, if only if it would remind me of home.

Tonight I committed an unpardonable sin at my new job - I had a real conversation with a coworker. I remember the first few shifts I worked there, when I told myself that I must avoid all relationships with people so that it'd be really easy to quit come September... looks like that's going out the window. It is increasingly hard to avoid people, though. If I want to be successful at my job, I need to work with others as a team, and I can no longer play the "I'm new" card.

I also told myself that I wouldn't believe the managers when they complimented me. After all, I'm fairly certain that they really have no idea whether I'm "doing a good job," since they never work with me. I'm fairly certain it's just a motivational line they tell everyone so that people will have good attitudes and work harder, not realizing as acutely the fact that they are slaving away for minimum wage at a store that is raking in the dough hand over fist. And yet, those managers are just so disarmingly nice! Why must they compliment me? WHYYYY???

So tonight I committed two unpardonable sins. I talked to people, and I took a compliment and let it motivate me to work even harder. Tsk, tsk, Marilee. Tsk, tsk.