Well, it’s official. I finished everything I needed to for this semester! I finished part one of my project and my essay, registered for my class next semester, and turned it all in. So, you may ask, “Why then, Emily, does your subject line say that the stress still lingers?”. Well, if you did ask that I would tell you this: On Thursday I turned my project in by my school email (as asked). Friday I wrote my essay (an account of what I did this semester, how I did it all, my over-all thoughts on it and what subjects I felt I could get credit in, you know) and when I went to send it through my school email I found that I had an email that informed me of a delivery failure because either a) my professor’s inbox was full or b) my attachment was too big! So then I went to send him an email telling him this so that when he got an email from a different email he knew it was me, and guess what? I CAN’T SEND EMAILS FROM MY SCHOOL EMAIL.
So, I just sent him three emails from my personal email: one explaining why he was getting it, one with an attachment of my project (again), and one with my essay. Well. I checked again last night, of course, after I had sent it and found that I had another delivery failure email. Because outside emails cannot be sent to our school’s email. Huh. So, I went to our program’s “moodle” (like a blog-ish forum that allows messaging between members) and sent him a message explaining all of this- both email failures and that I have everything, I’m just not sure how to send them to him at this point. I also told him that I had uploaded the attachments to my “private files” folder on the moodle and if there was any way for me to send those through the site I would. But, see, the real stress is that I was supposed to have it all to him yesterday. And I did… sort of! I actually would have had it in Thursday and then the essay would have been in yesterday, but. Ugh. I have done everything I can do to contact him, I’ve saved the inbox emails informing me of the failures and I do have all of the work so. I guess now I just wait until he replies and try not to be too anxious about it. Yowza.
So, that’s what I’m doing now. Updating my very neglected blog and after that I’ll deep clean my room. (Something I haven’t been able to do in a long long time. I’m giddy about this.) But, first, neglected blog.
Currently, I am wrapped in my fuzzy zebra blanket, listening to a playlist I made called, “Cold Air, Soft Skies; fall 2011” with my blinds drawn and my pretty twinkle lights on.
I’m going to be back in Arizona next Wednesday until the 9th. I’m excited to see my family, to snuggle with my dogs and sing as loud as I want in my car. I’m excited to see my friends, especially Caleb and Sarah (who’ve remained to be my number one kittens no matter how far we are from each other), and I’m excited to see Taylor for the first time since the summer and see all the ways living out of state changed him, the way it changed me. (fun. came on as soon as I typed Taylor’s name. Coincidence or voodoo magic? My bets are on the latter.) And, of course, I’m excited for Christmas!
However, I didn’t realize how much I would miss Olympia until I went back over Thanksgiving. Visiting for a week was awesome, but it was also sort of… difficult. I had changed so much in the forest that the connections that were once so every day and normal seemed really hard to make. The first night I had a hard time falling asleep in my bed- which I had slept in since I was six…?-, I found myself unable to really explain how life in Washington was, and when I went out in public I felt really awkward around strangers. Not in a social anxiety kind of way, but in the sense that I forgot how people don’t really smile if you make eye contact out there. There isn’t any casual conversation about how your day is going with the old man walking his dog downtown. It was the city vs. the forest, and it was an energy I could actually feel a difference with.
When I got back to campus, after a week, I talked to a lot of my friends about their trips and vacations. The general answer? Same as me. Most people who went home said that they noticed how they had changed, but home had not. How a place they belonged to was suddenly sort of abstract. And I guess that’s because this school really does change a person. And yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ve heard from more than one of you folk that it’s a cliché Evergreen thing to say. But, cliché or not, it’s true. Example? You got it.
Before I flew out to Arizona my group of friends and I had a Thanksgiving pot-luck dinner where we had to dress fancy. We called it Danks-giving, because we so swaaaaaaaag. Jut kidding (Sort of. Not really. Errbody know we got mad swag.) Anyway. It started with “the group”, but that night we ended up with other friends being invited and at least 24 people. And one dog. We had nine dishes of food, two pies (one of which was TOTALLY home-made and TOTALLY delicious) and! At least five bottles of wine, of course, because we were fancy and it was a celebration before we all parted ways. There was music played, where we all sat around and sang in a big, beautiful-sounding group while someone played acoustic guitar. We went around in a circle and each said, sincerely, what we were thankful for; some of us being close friends and some of us being strangers to on another. It was a really fantastic night and I think it allows for a glimpse of what this place is. Not every night includes acoustic sing-alongs where we end in a circle saying what we’re thankful for, which I appreciate because that would ruin how awesome it was when it happened. But, I’m always thankful to be here.
I’m thankful that every weekend there is live music, whether it be someone mixing out jams to dance to at Midnight Sun or a house show with local bands making sweet, sweet tunes. I’m thankful for the beautiful people I am lucky enough to have as friends. And when I say beautiful, I really mean it, because every one of my friend is both attractive inside and out, and they’re all smart and make me laugh. (Basically I just am in love with a collective group of people…? hahahaha).
But, I’m also thankful for the fact that I have a life I love in Olympia, Washington and I have loves that live all over Arizona. I’m thankful that I got to actually see and spend Thanksgiving with my family. I’m thankful that I’m lucky enough to have had both my parents pick me up from the airport, that my dogs were happy to see me when I got home, that I had a little baby nephew waiting in my room for me to snuggle with as a surprise, and just thankful for my whole family and friends, in general. I am thankful that I get to spend so much time with them, come Wednesday, and then when I get back here I will begin my next college adventure, part: Winter.
Okay, this blog is long enough. I’m not going to say that I will blog soon or will be better at blogging in the future, because I’ve come to believe it as a jinx. So. Later, desert. Talk to you soon.
xox, e.
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