Summertime, and the [stir-crazy] is easy.

Hello everyone, just thought I would give you a little update on the goings on, or should I say lack thereof, of my life. I have now been back in Eugene for a little over two weeks, and I have to admit, it's been pretty relaxing - my job doesn't start until July 8th so the amount of work that I have to do right now is very limited (not that I'm complaining about that though). I do however want to make one complaint in that I am going stir-crazy as hell. Ever since I've been back in Eugene I have literally been nowhere, and so I literally have nothing to talk about. Okay, that's not true, it's just the things I do have to talk about I guess you could say are somewhat routine and/or mundane. Probably the most exciting thing to happen to me thus far has been spending time with some of my best friends from high school. Oh, and then last week my friend Andre came down from Shoreline, WA and spent three nights in Eugene with me. Not to downplay any of that at all, because were I not able to see any of these people, I would certainly be pulling my hair out by now and I am super grateful for my friends. But I am so freaking bored I honestly do not know what to do with myself anymore. I want to go somewhere; vacation, travel, get out of my house for more than six hours at a time. Gah. Okay sorry, I will do my best not to rant my way through this post. Let me give you a little more detail about the whole "seeing the friends" thing.

So far, I have gotten to see Bre, Margaret, and Jana here in Eugene. Jana left today to head back up to Portland for summer nursing classes, and Margaret is now back in Cambridge (MA) to work at Harvard for the summer, but luckily I got to see them and/or have coffee with them both beforehand.

Pause: I just want to mention that a Christmas song just came on my shuffle right now and I am suddenly overcome with the desire for it to be December. I mean, it is raining here right now, why not just flash forward about six months?

One coffee date I had with Margaret a little over a week ago though, let me shed some light on, because it comes with some news that might actually be a little bit more exciting than I thought. Or well, I guess it just slipped my mind that I had this news when I first started writing this post. It's not really "news" per se, rather information that could potentially be exciting in the future, if it follows through. Anyway, I digress. This coffee date was with our former AP Euro history teacher from high school (that I dedicated part of a previous post to), Mrs. Alderman. Now neither of us had seen her in a while, but for me it had been over a year, so when I saw her of course hugs were exchanged, but all the while I was thinking OMGOMGOMG I HAVE SO MUCH TO TELL YOU I MIGHT EXPLODE. So it was probably a good thing Margaret was there to prevent said explosion. We sat in The Beanery in downtown Eugene for about two hours and talked about everything from how college is going (and during this time I took the liberty of explaining my move to Oxy in the fall...) to the issue of gay marriage...and don't even ask me how that last bit was even brought up. Honestly, I think Alderman is now taking advantage of the fact that Margaret and I are now in college and are apparently supposed to be exponentially more knowledgeable of societal issues. Yeah, that sounds about right. But the thing that we spent the most time talking about was actually Alderman's teaching position, or should I say positions. Now we had kind of gotten word of this beforehand, but apparently next school year our dear teacher is going to teach abroad at an American education style boarding [high] school in the country of Jordan. Yeah, Jordan...I was surprised too. I mean, I could always kind of imagine her teaching abroad, because she travels abroad just about every summer, but now that it's actually happening, I'm kind of surprised! The name of the school is King's Academy, and like its name, it's run by the monarchy itself in the city of Madaba. Here's the website for it:

http://www.kingsacademy.edu.jo/public/main_English.aspx?Lang=3&Page_Id=548

And then of course Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King's_Academy

Seriously though, check it out. It's like a freaking university (in part because it costs $36,000 a year go to there...) Alderman is going to teach both AP Euro and AP Psychology, which is awesome because she hasn't been able to teach AP Euro for two years now and she is amazing with that class. She said her contract is for one year as of now, but once that year is up she will make the decision of whether or not she wants to stay another. (I however think she'll stay more than one...I mean what an opportunity). What she also said was that her apartment in Jordan has an extra bedroom, which got Margaret and my mind to thinking. I looked it up, and all together it would cost about $900 round trip to fly to and from Amman, Jordan (the capital) during our spring break next March. Since I am transferring to Oxy and am now on semesters like Harvard, we can now travel together during spring break week, since it'll be the same week! Yay! Anyway, we got to talking and we kind of want to do a trip over there next March to visit our teacher. I'm really trying not to think too hard about it right now, since there's like a 90% chance going over there won't happen. It's really expensive and I would have to work really hard to get the money, but I was thinking with my birthday coming up and my summer job and Christmas and whatever job I'll be working at at Oxy...it could happen...maybe. What if we really did go? I have never really thought about visiting the Middle East, what with all of the wars and what not going on, but where Alderman is living it's really not that bad. According to her, she's living about "10 miles from where Jesus was baptized." I mean...holy crap, that would be so amazing to see, and since I'm not doing a study abroad anymore...hmm...but yeah that's the potential good news on my part. Here are some pictures of the town for your viewing pleasure:

Downtown

Madaba visitors center

Downtown shops

Archaeological Park

Greek Orthodox Basilica of Saint George

6th century mosaic map of Jerusalem in Madaba

Thanks Wikipedia. So yeah, hopefully that trip happens, and I'm super excited for my teacher :)

As far as everything else goes, again my friend Andre came down to Eugene for a few nights last week, and that was pretty nice. I have only really done the "tour of Eugene" thing once before so hopefully I did it justice this time. Basically it consisted of Saturday Market, Voodoo Donut, Dutch Bros. coffee, UO campus, and my friends Bre and Jana. Oh yeah, and then we went to Florence (the coast) last Thursday and it basically looked like this the entire time:

But oh well, we ate some pretty awesome seafood and cookie dough ice cream. haha. Seriously though (and yes I know that's like the second time I've said that in this post), the ice cream was like one of those cookie sandwich things but mixed together...like it was layered...does that make sense? Anyway it was delicious and my taste buds were like, dying. 

I should mention too that I am really grateful to have spent as much time with Bre as I have. Since I worked in Yellowstone and she started school almost right after I got back, I barely got to see her/spend time with her last summer. This summer we have thus far spent too much money on multiple shopping trips, gone to movies (like Brave, which we saw the other day and I totally recommend), and just hung out a lot. It's been nice.

Yay for super old high school pictures that I really felt needed to be in here!

That's about it for right now folks, not a whole lot else going on. Like I said, I really wish I got to go on a vacation during this time that I have off between school and work. I don't even care where just, somewhere. I brought up going back to Wyoming for a little bit to my mom last month, and she was like "are you crazy?!" So that was a no go right off the bat. I guess I'm just waiting for the day when my parents surprise me and say we're finally going on a family trip to Hawaii, or Harry Potter World, or even San Francisco, or some other place we've never been. Ha yeah right...but I should not be complaining at all, and I realize that. I get to go to Oxy in the fall, which in itself is a humongous blessing. I guess it's just all the stir-crazy and boring-ness in between that is really getting to me. I just wanna go...ADVENTURE for fuck's sake. Ah well.

I hope you all are having a lovely and adventure-full summer :) Now, back to my incessant listening of Fleetwood Mac.

~Erin

Tears, goodbyes, and home.

Well folks, I am all done with my sophomore year of college. Technically I've been done as of last Thursday at about 11am, but to be totally honest this is the first day I've actually been able to muster up the energy to talk about it. Not that I'm overly tired or anything, I'm just...overly tired, physically and emotionally. Luckily both are now starting to subside, and I can start to move forward with my life. Let's just say it's about damn time. The missing is still there, it's there pretty much all the time, but it's getting better, and it'll continue to get better with time. Now, let me give you the gist of everything that has happened since finals ended. It'll be good, I promise, but bear with me a little bit because I might go into detail, just for sentimental purposes, and because I think I really need to write it out. So sorry if it gets a little list-y.

I ended up finishing the theology paper I talked about in my last post at around 3:00 Thursday morning, in the good company of my dear friend Andre, who I had again summoned (I seem to do that a lot with him...and hi Andre, yes I know you're reading this...) to motivate me to get shit done/keep me company. I know, I know, great planning on my part. But in all fairness, it wasn't exactly within my planning to procrastinate as much as I did on it, the thing was that it was my very last final and I was already completely done with everything else, so I was just ready to be done, if you know what I mean. I think I worked on that paper for around three-ish hours the night I last blogged, and then about five the next night. It was insane, and if you ask me, that final paper was completely unnecessary anyway! I mean, we had just had a presentation and another paper due the week before, and not to mention the fact that we also wrote three other papers over the course of the term. It's like, whyyyy couldn't the presentation have just been our final? Haven't we demonstrated that we do the readings and pay attention in class well enough already? Gah. Theology professors...I tell you.

After finishing up with schoolwork, it was time to pack. And with packing, came a lot of emotions, most of which came with tears. All throughout the week it was hitting me hard, the fact that that was my last week as a student at Seattle University, with these people, living in this room, being in this city. But Thursday night, man. My roommate Arielle can attest to this, there was much sobbing on Thursday night. That night was Arielle's last before she moved home for the summer, and I think it was right before we decided to go eat dinner when we both just stood at the entrance of our room, looked at each other, then immediately hugged and started sobbing (ugly, ugly tears). I honestly don't think I have cried that hard in a long time, and I certainly hadn't cried in front of her before (and for those of you who don't already know this, I rarely cry in front of anyone). It was good and bad - bad in the aspect that it marked an ending that neither one of us had anticipated would ever get here, but good in that we both needed to get those feelings out. I have always loved that girl as a best friend, but as best friends we've always known that we're going to see each other again and live together again, and this time we didn't have that knowledge, so it was weird, different, and unfamiliar to us. We just stood there as we cried, and eventually Lauren came in the room, so we stopped, and that was that. Earlier that day I had said goodbye to one of my good friends Joe, and then the next day (Friday), more came my way. I ended up having lunch with Nichole which was really nice, and we talked a lot about next year and the way things were going to play out with that, and then you know she gave me instructions as to what to do if I ever see Daniel Radcliffe meandering about in LA next year (basically I'm supposed to somehow ruffie him and then get him on a plane to Seattle from which Nichole will then pick him up and convince him to marry her...sounds legit). Oh yeah and then when it came time to say goodbye to her I almost started to cry but she wouldn't let me. Well fine. The next came with Shelby, when she came to our room to say goodbye before she finished packing. I did cry at that one, no matter how much she told me to stop. However, I gotta say the fact that sentimental Disney music was coming from Arielle's laptop at the time did not help.

I think I lost it the worst when Arielle left that night. Her checkout appointment time was set for 4pm Friday afternoon, and throughout most of the day her dad had been in the room helping her get all her stuff loaded into the car. After the RA came in and gave her the all-clear to leave, it was finally time to say goodbye to the person who had stood by my side more than anyone else these past two years. I told myself I wasn't going to cry in front of her again, because I would see her again, it just wouldn't be for another six months when I go back to Seattle to visit during my next (and now longer) winter vacation. Lauren and I went down to her car with her, and then her dad took a picture of the three of us together as roommates. We all hugged again and then she was off. I could feel the tears start to well up and my throat get that huge lump as her dad drove off, and once Lauren and I went back upstairs and she went to go check on her laundry, I went and sat on Arielle's now-empty bed and sobbed. I just couldn't believe it - she was gone, and I had done this to myself. It was my fault I wouldn't be seeing her for six months, and it was my fault we would no longer go to school together. Yes, I needed change, but I sacrificed her and I couldn't - I can't - believe I did that. But I had to pull myself together. I could do this, it would just take time. And long distance friendships are not the end of the world; my best friend lives in California right now and I don't love her any less. Yes I always miss her, but now it doesn't hurt as bad, because I gave it time.

*I am just going to take a moment right now and tell you that yes, I am currently crying. I'm gonna go put on some happy music. Brb.*


Okay cool, now I have Train to cheer me up. I adore them, and if you knew what's good for you, you would too. Luckily, I didn't have to say goodbye to Lauren or Andre until later. Andre came and hung out with Lauren and me pretty much all of Friday night, which consisted of dinner here:

(taken with Instagram for super awesome artsy effect)

which had a really cool bathroom sink that looked like this:

Oh yeah, and then we took a walk through downtown because we were so stinking full from dinner and needed to do something to avoid feeling like total fatties. We saw street art that looked like this:

And then these weird-looking statues in Westlake Center that looked like this:

Apparently the statues were a part of this exhibit of all of the various positions people sit and stand in. Kind of like body language, if you will. Andre stayed with us until pretty late, and then (since he had technically moved out the day before) it was time to say goodbye so he could drive home. Since he might come visit me in Eugene later this month, our goodbye wasn't too teary or anything (teary on my part I mean), but I did try to hug him, which proved to be interesting. You see, Andre isn't really the huggy type, which is fine, because I tend to be overly huggy sometimes, so it evens out. And besides, Lauren is determined to make him more huggy next year, and I fully intend on testing that when I see him next January. Ha. 

Saturday proved to be an eventful day in that it was officially my last day in Seattle. My mom had come up, and then Lauren and I checked out of our dorm room at 10:20am. My mom and I then helped her carry all of her luggage to the hotel she was staying at that night since her flight didn't leave until Sunday morning, and then we ended up hanging out there with her for about an hour. When it was time to leave her I cried, big crocodile tears. I really don't know how I'm going to go without that girl either; she has been there for me time and time again this year, putting up with my moods, listening to my rambles, and basically just being the best person in the entire world. But again, time. Time heals all wounds, right?

After saying goodbye to Lauren, it was time to get ready for SU's Baccalaureate Mass. Basically what that is is a mass held every year the day before graduation to send off all of the seniors, and every year the SU Chorale sings at it, both hymns and other songs we've worked on throughout the year (typically the ones used at our Lenten Prayer concerts). It went alright this year, but honestly I was already so emotionally fragile that I really just wanted to be done, get out of there, and go home to Eugene. I have one good friend from the choir who was graduating and I was really glad to get to see her and hug her and talk to her one last time, and then I have one other really good friend who was in the choir with me that I was glad to get to see, but other than them I was done. I had said my goodbyes to as many people as I could and I just wanted to get home and start trying to move forward and let the missing run its course. The mass lasted from about 2:30 to 4pm, and I think I teared up a couple of different times throughout, especially during Father Sundborg (SU's president)'s homily. Actually, I think I might end up writing about it on here later so I won't go into full detail about it, but I will tell you that the theme was the past, and using it in order to create a better future. It was really meaningful and I actually found myself paying attention this year, unlike at last year's Baccalaureate and basically all of the other Catholic masses I attend. I mean no offense to all the Catholics out there, because yours is a beautiful religion, it's just that sometimes mass can get a little...repetitive and boring to me. When mom and I finally made it back home to Eugene Saturday night, I'd say it was about 10 or 11pm. We drove the entire way after packing my room in the morning and then attending mass in the afternoon. And mind you, the drive from Seattle to Eugene is about 300 miles, so on a good day it takes about 5 hours, and that's barring traffic. All I wanted to do was crawl into my bed and not emerge for the next 24 hours, because my bed was safe. I could fall asleep there and dream of anything I wanted. I could dream that I was back in Seattle with Arielle and Lauren, and that it was still March, or May, or any other month that didn't involve sappy goodbyes. I could dream that it was next August and it was the day I was to move to LA and start my new life at Oxy. I could dream that I was with my best friend Bre, or Claryn, or Jana, or Margaret, or anyone here in Eugene who makes me laugh until I can't breathe. In my dreams I could stray away from the scary parts of the change that is coming in my life. I could skip the hard part, and go straight to the easy, or go back to the familiar. But that's not how life works is it? If we could just skip all of the hard parts, we would have no knowledge of the good. And then what would be the good in that? No pun intended...

Since I've been home it's been pretty relaxing. I don't start work until sometime around the 4th of July, so that's nice, getting some time to relax and not have as many responsibilities. Oh and for those of you who don't know yet, I am working on a farm this summer. Yes, a farm. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it on here before, but still you never know. I am looking forward to it, new life experiences and what not. I'll definitely be blogging about it when the time comes, so stay tuned. My best friend Bre left me cookies on my doorstep on Saturday, which I found when I got home and now CAN'T STOP EATING. Gah. But look:

They even came all wrapped up in pink paper! You could definitely say I was tickled. Get it...? Like tickled pink...? Yeah okay. 

Well I think I'm going to leave you with that folks. There is more I could say, but I think I've dragged you through this list long enough. Never fear, I will most likely have more lists to share with you throughout the summer, but me thinks this one is long enough. Oh, but you all should listen to this song, and then the entire album.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrWI-9GTHKM

Drive By - Train

Oh I swear to ya, I'll be there for ya.

This is not a drive by.

~Erin

P.S. Shout out to my cousin Kayla who graduated from Harrisburg High School last Sunday. Congrats cous, and best of luck at O.I.T next fall!! :)

I miss.

Judge me. Go ahead, I dare you. I said yesterday morning that I wouldn't go on here and blog until I got home to Eugene on the 9th, but no matter. I need to get stuff off my chest right now.

I miss. And yes I mean to say that without a noun after it, because as an action, I am a person who misses, almost constantly. I am either missing some person or some thing, and right now that feeling and realization seems to be eating st me; the feeling and realization that I miss.

What on earth was I thinking, changing schools? Changing my life? Changing everything? Yeah, it felt good at the time, but now, I can't even think about the next few days because my friends will be leaving me, and I will be leaving them. There are a couple of handfuls of people here in Seattle that I am seriously going to struggle with not constantly having them in my life, and I'm not sure if I know how to handle those emotions right now. I am currently sitting in an empty classroom listening to a Disney classics playlist and writing my final theology paper (4 pages so far...yeah!) and trying my hardest to ignore the sad feelings that keep nagging at my brain. I am going to miss people here so much, and right now I am realizing that throughout this entire transferring process, I did not fully consider how much of a toll those feelings were going to take on me. It also does not help that I am sitting in said empty classroom with my best friends Lauren and Andre (and they think I am typing away furiously at my paper...ha), and I can't even seem to look up at them right now without wanting to cry and hug them to death at the same time. And even though they're two of my best friends, I think that might be a little weird right now...Also, I mentioned in my post yesterday that there would be a lot of lasts, particularly involving seeing certain people. Well, yesterday was also the last time I'll see my favorite French professor Holly for at least six months. And while I didn't have her as a teacher this spring quarter (so I didn't see her daily anyway), I had no idea how much I'm actually going to miss her, being away from Seattle. She has not only helped me quite a bit in figuring out who I am as a writer and French student, but she has also constantly provided me with a laugh or a smile whenever I needed one, like yesterday. You wanna know what one of the things she told me during our meeting yesterday was? She told me that I "revolutionized her hair." You wanna know why? Because wayyy back during last fall quarter when we went out to dinner as a class at this New Orleans themed restaurant, I had decided to straighten my hair for the occasion. She noticed then that my hair looked different from its normal curl she saw every day in class, so she asked me what I did to make it look that way. I told her I used a straightener, and she was like "a what...?" I then proceeded to tell her exactly what a straightener did, how to use it, and where to buy one at a decent price. Well, apparently she bought one because yesterday she told me that she occasionally straightens her hair to make it look nicer (!) It was so cute. I will really miss having her around.

Anyway, I am sorry for these late-night rambles, I just needed to release some feelings. I hate that I am leaving people, but in all honesty I am not really sorry I am leaving this university, because all I really have here are the couple of handfuls of people I mentioned earlier. And while I love them all to pieces, I need something more. I don't mean that in a bad way, I just mean that in my heart of hearts I believe that the relationships I have with people here in Seattle are strong enough to handle me moving to LA next August, and not coming back. My best friends from high school have lasted until now, so why can't these others? I still love them as much as I did in high school, so why should these other relationships have to change? They don't, and that's what I have to keep telling myself. Distance is just that, distance. It does not get to define how much I value the people in my life. No, I will not allow it.

At the end of the week, I will shed some tears. That is a given, and I don't really see any way around it. But I just have to keep telling myself that everything will be okay and that my friends here will always be with me, if not in physical presence, then in my heart. I will hear their voices in every decision that I make, and in everything that I do. Andre will always be the voice in my head telling me to make good choices when I go out late at night. Lauren will always be the person I turn to with all of my petty and inconsequential problems and I will always hear her telling me what to do or telling me it'll be okay. Arielle will always be my fangirl and Tumblr buddy. Joe will always be the person I can make fun of shamelessly but still be good friends with. Shelby will always be the person I can make "your mom" jokes at and then receive glares from. And there are many many other examples I could give but I think if I do I will start to cry, so I'll let you use your imagination there. Oy. Basically I am currently dealing with a lot of feelings I did not take into consideration months ago when the only thing on my mind was getting the hell out of here. I went from this:

Admitted to Oxy!!! Have all the excitement!!!!

To this:

Admitted to Oxy? Have all the excitement?

In like a two day span. Or at least ever since this finals' week started. Puts a whole new meaning in the term "finals' week" doesn't it? Just call me bittersweet.

~Erin

Endings.

There's always that one time of the year where, no matter what you do, you can never seem to shake that feeling that everything around you is changing. And what is that time of you ask? Why, it's the time of year when school once again comes to a close for the summer. I remember in high school (except for right before graduation) it didn't really feel all that weird, because all of my friends were in the same place, and I could still go home and sleep in the same bed. Really, not all that much changed, besides me no longer going to sit in a classroom for six hours a day. The only thing I was really nervous about was how things were going to change once I entered the next grade. But when another year of college comes to an end, I just feel...weird. It's not like I'm dreading leaving or anything, but you know, once this week is over, I'll no longer live in Chardin Hall, and all of my friends will be scattered about in a handful of different states.

As you can probably imagine, as this school year comes to a close I am experiencing more than just your typical weird feeling. After this week ends, not only will I no longer live in Chardin and have friends scattered in different states, but I will no longer be a student at Seattle University. Holy shit. That pretty much gives a whole new meaning to the word "end." Now, once things end, they end for good. Yes, I'll come back and visit SU next year, probably in January for a week or so, and then a little longer in May, but it won't be the same. I'll no longer know what it feels like to have my entire life revolve around this school and this city. Oh, I haven't told you this yet either - last Thursday (May 31st) was my last day working for Jumpstart in the preschool. The kids are still in school this week but since it's finals' week at SU we're no longer required to go in. The way Jumpstart works is, since it's an AmeriCorps (government) funded program, once we reach 300 hours of service, we have essentially completed a full year's worth of hours, and we get an educational stipend of anywhere from $1,000 to $1,500. So once we're done working in the preschool, we also get the stipend. I think I finished with around 303 hours, which isn't very much over but hey, 300 hours is 300 hours. Anyway, I got to thinking a lot last weekend about my kids, where they'll be a year from now, 10 years from now, and then as adults. I wonder about this life that they're each going to have, and I'm hopeful that each of them finds happiness somehow. But then I think wow, I am never going to see those little munchkins again. Even if I go back and visit the school next year when I'm in Seattle, the kids who will go to kindergarten next fall won't be there, I have no idea where they'll be. I guess I just wish that while they grow up, they'll think about me as often as I'll think about them, but that's definitely wishful thinking. Ah well, I went through this same feeling with regard to my kids last year too, when I finished my first year working for the program. It eventually passes, it's just incredibly unpleasant for about a month or so, and this time I won't have any new munchkins to replace the old ones with next fall.

I should also mention that yesterday (June 4th) was the last day of spring quarter classes. I gotta say, this quarter went by really damn fast. I remember it being January of winter quarter and me just wishing that everything would speed the hell up, but now that it's actually over I am shocked. I didn't mean for it to speed the hell up that fast. Yesterday was the last time I'll set foot in my Lit. classroom. Yesterday was the last time I'll rush out of my room at an early hour to allow myself to buy coffee before my French class. Last Thursday was my last choir rehearsal with the SU choirs at our usual location on campus. Last Thursday was my last day of theology class (which I gotta say was actually not that fun since I had had to pull an all-nighter the night before...) and the last time I'll see Dr. Punsalan (my theology prof. and the coolest Filipino lady ever, besides Arielle of course). Just...ugh. Too many lasts thrown at me at once. Yeah yeah I know, I wanted this, I wanted to leave. I still want to leave don't worry, just all these lasts are hitting me right in the chest like a ton of bricks, and it's literally getting harder to breathe. I so much as think about the fact that in two or three days it'll be at least six months before I see my best friends at SU again and I get a lump in my throat and start to well up. Leaving them will be hard, but I knew that going into this, and I gotta face my feelings. I think in the end, part of the reason why I will be okay at Oxy next fall is because I know that my friends in Seattle will still be there for me no matter what, and I will still have them in my life, just like I still have my best high school friends in my life. I'll always miss them, but you know, that's what phones, Facebook, and Skype are for. Ha.

When I don't think about all of these lasts, or about all the people I'm going to miss, or about the ominous and painful final theology paper I still have to write by Thursday afternoon, I am actually really excited for summer. I am spending it in Oregon and get to live at home with my parents, see my best friends from high school, sleep in my own bed, and snuggle with my dog. Oh yeah and work too, but that doesn't start until early July. Minor detail. And I have to admit, the lack of homework, paper-writing, and studying for two and a half months will be SO NICE. I plan on doing a lot of derping, reading of books that I want, and sleeping. adlnsdnfbldngf so great.

Lastly, just to spice up this entry a little bit so you all don't get too depressed about my inability to deal with some impending changes (that I may or may not have forced upon myself), I am going to leave you with a little photo tutorial of the Oxy campus, for those of you who haven't seen it yet of course. Here goes. It's so prettyyyyyy!

Thorne Hall (music building)

Sky view of the Academic Quad

Academic Quad

Remsen Bird Hillside Theater (Oxy commencement)

Booth Hill courtyard

Branca Patio

Erdman Hall (residence hall)

Patterson Field (football game...MY COLLEGE ACTUALLY HAS A FOOTBALL TEAM NOW!!!!!!!!!!!)

"Water Forms II," a kinetic fountain (this picture is my personal fave) 

Johnson Hall (foreign language departments)

Johnson Hall (view from the Academic Quad)

Johnson Student Center

The Quad outside the Johnson Student Center

Mary Norton Clapp Library

The Anmanson Reading Room in the library

No, I did not take any of these pictures myself (I'm not that much of a creeper...), I got them from this website: http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/occidental-college-1249/photos , do with it what you will.

Anyway, I must bit thee adieu, as I have a meeting with my boss in about 15 minutes...closing paperwork to complete and what not. Next time you hear from me will probably be after school gets out and I'm home in Eugene (this coming Saturday the 9th), so until then people...bye!

~Erin

P.S. But if I do so happen to blog before then, don't judge me. OH MY GOD and watch this movie trailer..."The Perks of Being a Wallflower." SO DAMN EXCITED...September 14th <3

http://www.mtv.com/videos/movie-trailers/787596/the-perks-of-being-a-wallflower.jhtml