two more weeks

It's Friday, and another week flew by (despite extra Math homework, a philosophy paper, cold gray weather and Cormac McCarthy's The Road). Things are finally turning green on campus - the tulip tree magnolias are beginning to bust open blossoms, daffodils are bright, and someday soon trees might start looking leafy. Spring here is happening much slower than it did in my memory the past few years. Oh, well, it's only my impatience for the real draw . . . Summer! I am currently struggling to maintain the balance between appreciating the things which I love about Wheaton that I won't have anymore -- saga meals with all my friends, the janky Terrace kitchens, chapel on winter mornings -- and looking forward to the future.

For those readers who would like to be updated, I will graduate with a degree in English Literature on May 12th. This summer and next fall I will be here in Wheaton, living in a lovely little white and brown house with a big back porch and some sweet, good friends. I am working full time as a baker-barista-line cook at a sweet bakery and cafe in Glen Ellyn, Blackberry Market, and am looking forward to working with my hands and interacting with people all day. I get to bike to work on the beautiful Prairie Path every day, and come home to my own kitchen at night. I won't have internet at the house this summer . . . oooooh! . . . but want to be more intentional with The Blog Project anyway. I want to audit some art classes next fall, having realized this semester that I wish I was an art major. And I have a little list of goals for the summer too:

1) Keep growing out my hair
2) Get a tan
3) Finish writing the children's novel I have just started
4) Write three poems per week
6) Practice my french (weekly coffee sessions with Madame Abel)
7) Embroider some things
8) Get good at making Korean food
9) Actually gather together all my recipe inventions from the past year and write them down
10) Read some BOOKS! Look to the right for the new-and-improved-summer booklist
11) Bake the perfect summer pie

So keep checking back, I will write about all these things. It is funny thinking that I started this blog way back when I was a nanny in Hoboken for the summer -- how much of a project it has become, what a good way to post poems and pictures and experiment with design, to get a little writing in when I can. And to you the faithful - thank you for reading!

“Don’t run away from things that are unpleasant in order to embrace things that are pleasant. Put your hands in the earth. Face the difficulties, and grow new happiness.”

—	Thich Nhat Hanh