can it really already be halfway through july? the days so far have been marked by exams and papers and work. there have been several occasions of gnashing of teeth, but there have been even more occasions of celebratory whooping and crazy dance moves. our hearts have been made merry by several 21st birthdays and by our own latenight concoctions (any drink is made three hundred times better when the glass is chilled and rimmed with hot pink sugar!)… and our bodies have been kept strong by running through frick park in the dusk (i can run! i can run!)…and our minds have been sharpened by literature (updike for chrissy, tchaikovsky’s diary for nick). even our souls have not been ignored. in fact, being in class with the same 40 people for four hours a day is an excellent (sometimes, i even feel, excessive) lesson in patience.

i must confess (although i’m not at all ashamed to say it) that i’ve been re-reading those belovedest of books, the anne of green gables series. amy made the mistake of ushering me into her bedroom at home when we were there for the 4th of July, and telling me i could borrow anything i wanted to read. and, with the sudden quickening of heart and exuberant smile that comes of unexpectedly meeting old friends, i spied the familiar spines of anne of windy poplars and anne’s house of dreams, and i haven’t really been able to tear myself away from them since. i showed nick a bit of house of dreams yesterday so he could understand that it is reading material just as worthy as his most recent literary acquisition (a biography of Ludwig the II). ” ‘The garret was a shadowy, suggestive, delightful place,
as all garrets should be’,” he read aloud–then cocked a  eyebrow and said, “that’s a kate geiger phrase!” well, kate geiger got those phrases from somewhere…

hard to believe we only have two weeks of school left. at least our teachers are interesting. during a lively discussion of healthcare policy, we were talking about how drug and medication ads on TV often mislead the public. “that ad for genital herpes makes it seem like it’s no big deal!” said one student. “i worry about teens not taking the risk seriously, because it seems like, ‘oh, i can just go get valprex…’ ” and the prof finished her sentence, ” ‘ …and i’ll be fine and i can get a hot date and, look at me, i can even canoe!’ ” (you have to see the commercial.) and last week our clinical lab methods prof uttered the fantastic sentence, “and then my husband came into the room naked, and that scared me even more!” nor shall i ever forget the sight of our diminutive blond pathophysiology professor playing beer pong before a pirates game. oh, my.

for those of you on the eastside, i’ll be hoooooome from august 9th to the 15th! and we should hang out.

finis!