Summer Solstice

The arrival of summer solstice never fails to make me melancholy. I should be excited about the longest day of the year, the hours and hours of sunshine that make up summer. I do love the hours of sunshine, but there is also the sense that summer is slipping away. I look back at what I have been doing every summer and it is usually nothing. I work and I go to church and I catch a few movies, but nothing to write about in the "How I Spent My Summer" essay everyone, whether in school or out, has to present every fall. I haven't traveled, I haven't seen anything of interest, I have just worked and eaten and slept, which makes it no different than any other time of the year. And I have no great plans for the remainder of this summer, just working and eating and sleeping, the usual. I have no way to savor the remaining days of summer, the remaining hours of sunlight and warmth, before the autumn arrives and hints at the impending winter hibernation.

Random Thoughts

I am completely scatterbrained lately, for obvious reasons, and have not been able to put a coherent thought together, so here are a bunch of random thoughts.

-- I realized last week that I actually like my job. I know! I haven't felt that in, well, ever. I'm training to take on another position and am actually feeling like a part of a company. Such a new and wonderful feeling.

-- I forgot how beautiful this place could be in spring and early summer, before the weather hits 90+. The green of the circles, the smell of freshly-cut hay and growing mint, the contrast between the irrigated fields and the dry edges. The blue of the sky. I'll have to take pictures to share with you all.

-- Everyone should go see Ocean's 13 because it is just plain fun. Plus, it is two hours of George Clooney, whom I adore, and lots of other nice-looking men who I know lots of people enjoy looking at, but who fade into the background when compared to my beloved George. Don't mock, I know I'm obsessed and I'm fine with it.

-- People should not tell me, in all seriousness and with no HINT of humour and/or sarcasm, that my mother can now help me find my eternal companion. EVER. It is not comforting and is rather insulting. Like I need divine intervention or I am completely unmarriageble. Hello?

-- I am completely addicted to caffeinated sodas. I crave them on a daily basis. I really must do something about this, but as I'm still exhausted after sleeping from 10:30pm to 7:15am, I don't really know what.

-- Even though I like my job, I still feel I'm being punished every morning when I have to drive to work and none of the children are going to school. I think we should ALL get June through August off.

The Interview

Well, I interviewed for the director/manager position at the museum and art center today. It went well, considering, but it is still the longest long shot. I don't have any conservation or preservation experience and have never actually worked in a museum. I was totally honest about this, of course. We'll see what happens in the next week or two. I'll keep you posted.

Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.

Rabindranath Tagore

Things That Suck

Watching helplessly as your mother fades farther and farther away from you.

Watching helplessly as your father watches helplessly as your mother fades farther and farther away from him.

Remembering exactly what is happening to your family upon waking up from the blissful oblivion of a nap.

Listening to the seconds click by on the clock as you sit and watch your mother struggle to breathe.

Knowing it is going to get worse before it gets better. And that your definition of 'better' is still completely horrible.