“freedom has a scent like the top of a newborn baby’s head”

Wait, wtf, Bono??  Does anyone else remember that awful song by U2?  Never mind.

Yesterday it felt like a flock of birds flew by me and lifted the lead mantle of school off of my shoulders.  My grad school headache receded.  I smiled naturally.  M. noticed right away.  I’m almost done — just one more assignment, and it’s not a majorly stressful one, and then I’m really free for the summer.

And I can’t tell you how good that feels!

I have lots of plans.  I want to get outside more, and eat ice cream (more than I already do), and work on some of my crafty projects…it’s definitely been too long.  I was reduced to coloring in one of my childhood coloring books to relieve stress a few days ago.  [Shut up, doesn't everyone still have their childhood coloring books?  Some of mine are very high quality!!  I went to design school as an undergrad, what do you want from me?]

And I can’t believe I’m almost halfway done with this grad school thing, it blows my mind.  I mostly think it’s worth it, though it often doesn’t feel like it.  

I’ve been bitten by the travel bug too, the impulse to go exploring and see new things and wander a place completely anonymously.  Moving to a new neighborhood will help, but this is a bigger desire.  A desire for the thrill of discovery as I experience something for the first time.  I know that looking at things for a hundredth or a thousandth time it is still possible to see new angles, new lines and shadows, but there is something brain-expanding about having to take something in and process it in its total strangeness without the anchor of something familiar.  I don’t know when we will have the money to travel again, but I’m looking forward to it.

Well it’s nice to be back.  I’m going to have to try to get my brain out of the research paper rut and back to more entertaining business!  Happy May!