Merrily a-Maying

Today was really wonderful, in that simple kind of way. I woke up to Russian Vinnie Puh on Youtube, then meandered about the morning by turning in my Comparative Race Relations paper and discussing train scheduling between London and Stratford-Upon-Avon with my mom. Both things felt productive and exciting-- one for being complete, the other for taking firm shape in my future. Then I bought small sweet tomatoes and perfectly ripe strawberries at the grocery store, packed up olive oil, pasta, and parmesan, and headed to visit Kristi for the first time since her wedding. She's pregnant and beautiful and excited and scared. We feasted on a lovely pasta lunch complete with lemonade she made from scratch, devouring food and conversation as if we'd been starved for it. The drive to and from her home felt like summer, with the sky so blue, not a cloud overhead, and a bridge-crossing with ocean water on either side. It was like crossing the causeway onto Captiva, with the salt breeze blowing in my hair and I thought I was catching the trade winds in my sails, as that Mark Twain quote says to do.

Then once home, I got an e-mail from Amy saying she had a gift for me for being a graduate assistant at Reves, and I got a lovely little glass embossed with the W&M symbol, filled with candies, and Josh called right then and we talked about the closing of his freshman year and closing of my masters year. Then Zan came over and we were silly and I told him I disliked Greg James of BBC Radio 1 in an odd way, as if I knew the guy and he was alright in small doses, and we went to the bank and listened to "Drops of Jupiter" which gives me another scene to add to my imaginary music video I make in my head of that song (me and Erin by the pool in 7th grade, me in gym freshman year of HS, me dancing in Alexandria with my friends at senior homecoming, me driving late at night to Virginia Beach sophomore year of college, etc. Flashes of my life, soundtrack provided by Train).

Then for a perfect evening I met up with Jessica, Jeff, and Amanda Scott for pizza at Stephanos and convinced them to try pepperoni and pineapple and we sat and talked for an hour, rejoicing in the end of Race Relations, then looked at the sun melting like butter in the sky so decided to walk through CW. Jessica decided to walk around the Williamsburg Inn so we did, and the landscaping was lovely with purple and white flowers everywhere, little ponds filled with turtles, and the calming quacking of ducks, and nothing to worry about anymore, no guilt because I'm not home reading on a Wednesday night. And the sun continued to set, and little lambs frolicked in fields (legit!), and we breathed in the May as the sky turned pink and purple and yellow, looking for all the world like that Centaur/Pegasus piece in Fantasia, and I felt completely happy. Walking home we all made promises to hang out again soon, and my legs grew tired and I collapsed in a happy heap on my bed and dozed for a bit in a way I would never feel comfortable doing during the year and even though I have one paper left, I'm pretty sure summer has arrived.