Wednesday, Jun. 02, 2004 - 2:14 p.m.
Good things, good things:
I got a mix CD and photo of her adorable daughter in the mail from Devon yesterday. I haven't had a chance to listen to all of it, but so far I love it and I'll say more about the individual songs when I have. But, I always love mail. It made my whole day.
And today I got an email from my friend Maria (in Spain) to tell me that she was accepted to a program that will bring her to America for 9 months to teach in October. Now, sure, she'll be in Florida and that's not really right next door, but it's a whole lot closer than Spain. And I'll definately be making some road trips. And this news made this whole day. It's not even half over yet, but I know that it has.
I realized something (that maybe everyone feels, maybe not) when I said it to a new friend here. I said "I am lucky because I've had so many great friends and still know so many great people. My only wish is that because they're all so great, that they could meet each other." And. It's true. I am truly lucky because when it comes to friends and loved ones, I have (or had in the case of lost touch) the kind of people in my life that everyone should be lucky enough to know.
--------------------------------
Last night as I was walking into my house in the evening, it was late enough that most people are in their homes and early enough that I felt the desire to go for a walk.
There's something about the night. Something about summer nights especially. It calms me like mediatation, brings my thoughts together and makes me content.
The rustling of the breeze through the trees and the smell of water on the air from the nearby lake made me want to walk or even to sit and enjoy the night, but there is nowhere to sit and I don't know this area well enough to walk alone at night. And I realized this love of the night has been with me for a long time.
My last two semesters of college when I would walk home from the comic shop down the brightly lit main road to the fairly dark residential road to the very cheap apartment I shared with Matt and Heather.
The year before that, my two semesters in Germersheim and the two different experiences there.
The second one, winter. When I would leave my apartment to the crisp winter air, avoiding my roommates making me uncomfortable, walking the cobbled streets to remind myself of why I was there.
The first semester, summer. Walking the evenings from my dear friends home, marveling every moment at everything around me, breathing in the smell of the Rhine and the grass on my way to the Wohnheim.
Before that years of sitting on dorm porches and walking the campus at night feeling that I was finally in a place that made sense to me. The night air drifting through endless conversations.
In high school and junior high, walking up and down the road we lived on, lacking else to do in the tiny southern town. Sitting down in the middle of the street to talk and joke....or lying in the slightly cooler than day summer air to watch shooting stars.
And long before that, as a child sitting on the front porch of the apartment with my dad (and sometimes my mom) watching the occasional cars drive by, talking or just sitting.
