The Good Things in Life

Wow, it's been a crazy couple of weeks. I'm happy to say that the semester is officially over, and I have no more teaching or class obligations for the next 3 months. One of the things that I always loved about college was that summer break starts so early, and now that I'm in New Mexico, I have hot weather to accompany that break so it actually feels like vacation.

Of course, I'm going to be working quite a bit between now and Aug 22, I just don't have to be up early to get to school to do anything on a hard and fast schedule. This week I'm also giving myself some lazy time, I was so stressed out for the past month or so that I'm taking it easy, at least for a couple days, to decompress. I had an absolutely fabulous weekend. On Friday afternoon I met up with some of my lady friends for happy hour at Opa!, then continued the fun times at Meghan's apartment late into the night. There's nothing like kicking back, having some drinks, playing games, and getting a little silly.

Saturday was absolutely beautiful, Matt and I went for a late morning walk in the bosque down by the nature center to enjoy the good weather. In the afternoon I did some serious shopping with Meghan and Clare. Clare has three weddings to go to this summer, so she needed to look at shoes and dresses. I picked up a few nice things for myself, enjoyed a delicious blended Boba Tea, and perused Sephora. In total, I think we spent about 5 hours shopping, which for me is highly unusual. I typically hate malls, and Saturday the place was completely packed. But, I had a great time, good company makes all the difference.

Saturday evening the cohort got together at Marble Brewery. That place is just too loud. They have good beer, but I can't even hear myself think when I'm there. They had their outdoor area open, but that still didn't alleviate any of the loudness. I think next time I'll suggest somewhere a little quieter.

On Sunday evening Clare's room mate had a cookout, because he recently got his master's degree and is now working on applying to medical school. Matt and I made a very large pitcher of lavender lemonade, which I will DEFINITELY make again. It was so refreshing and delicious. The food at the cookout was your standard hamburgers and hot dogs, but someone made some killer cupcakes that were way better than anything I've bought in recent history. There also seemed to be endless amounts of watermelon, and some deliciously hot salsa that gave me hiccups.

The weekend overflowed a bit into Monday, and I spent yesterday with Matt in the Sandia Mountains looking for birds and butterflies. We are having a horrible drought at the moment, I heard it's the worst since 1953. The state is starting to close off wilderness areas because of the fire danger. On the one hand, this is very bad because I have plans for camping and hiking, and outdoor activities are a major thing around here. On the other hand, it is getting pretty dangerous, to the point where one careless cigarette could probably result in a huge wildfire. All it would take is one stupid person to create a huge problem, so closing areas off is probably the only solution until we finally get some rain.

I am going to go in to work for a few hours this afternoon. I need to establish my summer work routine, and once again I'm going to initiate my writing schedule. I'll be traveling a lot over the next few months, so I need to get things done when I have the opportunity.