Summer

Colorado is an incredibly beautiful place, especially when you get into the moutains. I spent my summer at 8000 ft, and let me tell you, not only does it mess with your blood oxygen level, but it also messes with your sense normalcy. It's sunny every day. Every day. My first day back in Michigan, I woke up very confused because the sun was not spearing through the gap in my blinds directly into my corneas as is has nearly every morning all summer.

The view from Aspen Mountain

Not to mention, you kind of get used to the scenery, which is a shame since there is so much to see! Hunter Creek

I worked so hard this summer. I really can't explain to people the experience of Aspen. "I learned a ton." "It was very intense." "A great experience." These are my standard answers when people ask about it, but none of them is really at all adequate. It's like there's not enought to say and too much to say all at once. A big part of being a performer is being able to do it perfectly every time whenever someone asks and often to do it with every little lead time, and that's a skill that I have been honing all summer. I met lots of awesome people who I am going to miss, but I have to tell you. I'm almost looking forward to school starting up on Monday because I need a vacation. Local beer - Summer Wheat and Brown Bear Ale

It was a tough summer for a few reasons: the sheer amount of work I needed to do on a daily basis, having to do that work in a place where my usual methods of stress reduction were not available (TV, knitting, friends, cooking, cleaning), and lastly I lost someone very important to me this summer. Someone whose loss has left a huge empty spot in my heart and a perpetual tightness in my chest. I'm in desperate need of a vacation, but I almost don't want one. The more free time I have, the more I think about her, and the more I think about her the more depressed I get. I don't want to think about her, because if I don't think about her, maybe she's still here.

But now that I'm back in my little apartment, with my friends and my knitting and my kitchen, maybe I'll be able to handle it better than I have been.

Welcome home, self.