Give me a break

Yesterday I drove in to Richmond. As I drove, the sky got dark and gathering clouds loomed ominously overhead. It seemed that as I got closer and as the weather became increasingly more threatening, that my summer really came to an end. As the rain started coming down, my last few moments of summer melted away, disappearing into thin air.

It was too short. Breaks always seem too short to me. I usually have very ambitious plans for vacations and don’t accomplish half the things I intend to get done on my time off. For instance, I had several books that I wanted to read on my two week break; although I started two, I didn’t finish either of them. Still there are a lot of things I did get to do, and for that I’m grateful. I got to spend time with my family, time that becomes more precious the longer I live away from home. I got to spend a wonderful two days in Maine, on the lake. And I got to visit two very dear friends. All in all, I can’t complain about getting only two weeks off this summer, because the two weeks I had were filled with such cherished memories, laughter, and fun moments.

After helping my brother move into his college dorm at Liberty, I spent a couple days visiting Tristan in Harrisonburg. We spent some relaxing time by the pool, reading and swimming and chatting. One night we decided to have appetizers for dinner, so we made quesadillas, pigs in a blanket, and spinach dip. To top it all off, we had chocolate trifle for dessert. Tristan’s six year old sister Riley was visiting her at the same time I was there and we made the trifle together, layering the devil’s food cake, cool whip, chocolate pudding, caramel sauce, and toffee bits in what was probably a calorific- but absolutely delicious!- dessert.

I spent the next few days with my friend Julia, who is going to Georgetown this fall, and therefore is only a couple of hours away from me now. Julia and I are opposites in so many ways. My major involved lots of math and science, while Julia was first a music major, then English, and is now going on to grad school to study linguistics. I’m more of a rational thinker, while Julia is creative and artistic. We have many similarities too- our values, our faith, and our analytical approach to things, but the differences are what make our friendship fun and interesting. Julia and I did so much together. We went to the National Art Gallery and the Museum of American History, and even took a detour through the Sculpture Garden, which has indecipherable works of what I’m not sure can be called art. We toured Georgetown’s big, beautiful, imposing campus and walked along the quaint downtown area. One night we went to the Kennedy Center for a free performance and got to listen to jazz music by Michael Feinberg- I highly recommend him!

We also went thrift store shopping, but that deserves its own post later on. As for now, I’m tired and need to get to bed because my first day of school is tomorrow. I know the coming semester will be stressful and hard sometimes, but right now I just feel so incredibly blessed.