June, and few months back

How is it June already? And yet, it's only June 2nd and I feel like it should be June 23rd. Kyle says my date confusion is due to the heat. These are July or August temperatures, not June. How does that bode for the rest of the summer? Maybe I'll take a new interest in the campus lake (I'm so not a fan of swimming in lakes).

I don't think you're supposed to say stuff like this but I love my class. It's been really challenging to get all of the requirements done over the last three weeks, but class last night made it all worth it. It's as if I'm attending a book club and writing papers, but there aren't any tests, and we sit around discussing books and movie adaptations...wow. It is fantastic.

Ironically enough, the final three weeks or so will show a significant drop in the amount of work we have to do, just as I'm out from under the strain of working full-time (it's summer break, you know, for those of us who operate on school calendars). Oh well. I'll have more time to enjoy the sunshine and maybe come up with a few new summery dishes for eating.

I'm enjoying my first few days off work. My summer will consist of meeting with a personal trainer twice a week, meeting for class twice a week, doing homework, reading books (which is actually part of doing homework), working out on my own three times a week, and then standard household stuff -- cooking (which I've been so negligent about since the beginning of May), cleaning, de-hairing, and, of course, playing with Quincy. He's quite the charmer when he wants to be, but he is also a giant pest when he wants to be (and that's usually when I'm making dinner or trying to type up some sort of paper for class).

I don't know where May went. I was nervously awaiting the start of classes all winter and POW! now it's gone. It went out with a BANG on Monday, celebrating my grandpa's 90th birthday with most of our ginormous family. He had 5 kids, they each had between 3 - 7 children. And now there are children and babies everywhere. It's insane. We meet in a park because the outdoors is the only thing that will hold us all.

At any rate. We have a big summer ahead of us. No plans to migrate south (sadly), but many plans to head home to see our various siblings and parents -- birthdays, holidays, family pictures, visiting relatives, etc. We also have several friends getting married this year, but those weddings don't start until the end of July and go through the final day of October.

Mostly, this summer, we're hoping for a financial reprieve from the multitude of crises that have hit us since January. A majority of the issues have been vehicle related, but it's not just the cars. My eye issues continue to be a financial drain, and that's frustrating, as I had hoped the surgery in February would decrease the amount of money I was spending on my eyes. Apparently, I'm still one surgery away from being glasses-less until my 40s. And that isn't entirely true, is it. I will wear reading glasses for the rest of my life. Oh joy! As long as I can get rid of these that I wear all day, every day, I think I can manage reading glasses for computer / book use.

Hello, Summer! Welcome. I've been looking forward to you for over a year. Thanks for being mostly sunny thus far.