summer daze

once moving into my own place and no longer going to the cafeteria, I’ve discovered that I’m a good cook. And that I love doing it. This excites me, because if I start off as a pretty good cook, as the summer keeps going and I keep cooking, I’m only gonna get better.

And the summer has started off pretty well. An example of how good it’s started, here was my day yesterday:
woke up early at 8, went to work at 9, which consisted of sitting at a desk and answering some questions but mostly reading and knitting for two hours. After that, I did a whole bunch of running around getting canoe trailers hitched to vans, and catering to alumni whom, once I had run around like crazy, I took on a canoe trip down the river.
When we got to the river, I got into my kayak and saw a big fat turtle swimming around me. I went ahead so I could be the first one out of the river and make sure everyone got out at the right spot, but also just so I could bust ahead and kayak on my own for two hours. It was great. Saw lots of fish, and despite a lot of drunk floating tourists on the river, it was really peaceful.
Got back to campus, ran around getting trailers off vans, showered, and had just enough time to run to the local grocery store to get stuff to make an appetizer for a house-warming party.
Went to the party last night, which was a smash, as was my appetizer (again, re-enforcing that I’m a great cook!). I feel like I’ve made new friends with the people whose house we were warming, and the house it-self was inspiring. It is an old farm house, with barns and even an old gas-pump in the yard. The couple who lived there, the husband - his dad was born in the house. They kept the original cabinets in the house, which were built by his grandfather. But they re-did so much in the house too, it’s very modernized - new slate counters over the cabinets, walls knocked down to make a move live-able living room, fresh paint and new windows and fire-place. So the house was pretty amazing, and the party was really fun too.

Today was pretty good too- slept in pretty late, cleaned, went to town to get groceries, talked to my mom on the phone, made myself dinner - which was really spicy, but still delicious. I watched my favorite cry-fest show, “Extreme Home Makeover” - and yeah,I cried. There was still an hour of light out, and after my dinner & cry-inducing show, I decided to get off the couch and go for a bike ride. I went about 6 miles to the next “town” (not really so much a town, as a cluster of preserved old buildings from a now abandoned but historic Coast Guard post) having a little race with a fox along the way. As I got the old Coast Guard post, I saw a deer cross my path, and then got to the beach and saw the sun-set. On my way out, the deer was still there.
Just on my way back into town, getting a little lonely despite all my animal encounters, I looked at my phone and had text messages to find some from my friends at the local bar. I stopped by, had a beer. I couldn't put my finger on it, but something about a friend with my friend - he creeped me out a little bit. So I just had one beer, and when said I was leaving, creepy kid asked why, I made up some reason, and my girl friend who was there said “oh, he thinks your pretty, he said so in the car on the way here.” (we'd met earlier on my way out to town). So, even though it’s from a somewhat creepy kid, being called pretty at the end of the day, is still a nice thing. And I could have gone oun to the next bar, and on to the bonfire for the rest of the night, but I’m content with the one beer and coming back to my place and typing up this blog.
How lucky for you!