a regresar

At the moment, there is a six-pound can of peanut butter sitting on our table. Left over from Spring Break lunch supplies. This makes me yes, very happy.

[Technically, it belongs to RUF. Not me. This does not dilute my glee.]

***

Last week, I went on my second mission trip, ever. To Miami, with RUF. We worked with Deborah's church, painting and cleaning and moving, and I could try to tell you how wonderful it was but I would fail. So you'll have to take my word for it. Just know that it included salsa dancing, lots of rice and beans, and laughter every day. Also the pure turquoise Atlantic waves, the warm and lovely Rodriguez family, and the sweetest, funniest people ever.

I loved it. I loved the sunshine, and the break from academia and thinking, the relief of physical work, and people in a completely different culture. It felt warm and healing and strangely restful.

***

And now this semester is going to fly entirely too fast. I'm trying not to think about that, that my best friend/roommate/clone is going to North Carolina for two years, and then another friend is going to Texas for probably ever. My friends are spreading, to Tennessee and Kentucky and Missouri and Florida and who-knows-where, and I can't let myself feel that right now. I'm just trying to savor every day, the work and the people, and keep my heart from splitting clean in two.

I've got some stuff to distract me from all the ache, stuff like a 12 page story due next week of which I have written not one word. And throwing a wedding shower with (Jo)anna for Deborah in a few weeks, which is thrilling and fun and very strange all at the same time. Stuff like figuring out what exactly it is I'll be doing in the summer/fall. And stuff like wasting less time on the web, which means goodbye for now, children.