thawing out

D.C. isn't much for spring. It goes from 50 degrees to 80 degrees -- too cold to too hot -- in about four days, just like it did this year. That has always irritated me, and suddenly this afternoon, I realized I won't be around to be irritated this time next year. I'll be living in Ithaca, which prompts every person I tell to make some joke about snow and freezing and ha ha you're crazy. Next year I'll be commuting in that snow, too, almost an hour each way, to graduate school, on my way literally and figuratively to becoming a librarian. And when I get home, J will sometimes be there, because we will be living together in one apartment -- even better than the same zip code, which was all I was asking for a while. I am... well, psyched is putting it mildly.

I will have a garden! A huge plot in a community garden, which is already firmly in the "biting off more than she can chew" category. I'm going to work on the current novel-in-progress every day and pretend like I'm a real writer, the prospect of which both freaks me out and makes me buzz with possibility. I'm going to ride my bike a lot and try to start a home yoga practice. I'm taking two one-credit classes on two weekends in July. I will also have a volunteer job in the public library, I hope, but probably not much income-generating employment for a few months. I'll still be looking for library-related work and the assistantships from my school (wow, I have a school?), but if I have to get a job just to pay the bills, I'm not going to do it until the fall. This decision feels totally irresponsible and utterly, fabulously, thrilling.

This isn't news to most of you, but I realized there were a few blog friends who didn't know. And I also think it deserves some kind of formal announcement in this space, because it's made me want to make a bit more of a commitment here.

You heard it here first: You, me, this summer, this blog. At least a little post on most days, a few thoughts or a link or a picture (I am sure nearly all of these will be of the garden) (if I actually manage to grow anything) (and if I don't, I will probably post pictures of the barren soil and whine). I don't often feel a need to document things, but I am just so excited and I want to put it into words -- if is is wonderful, if it is scary, if it is both.