I am guessing that many people will welcome a two month break without any sort of hesitation. However, if you aren't constantly occupied during those two months, it gets so incredibly boring so quickly. Thus far, I've been faring well. I've done two weeks of classes and gained six credits towards my masters. Not bad. Not bad at all.
Last Saturday, I saw three of my students at three different places. I miss them. When I'm at school, I cannot wait for the break and when I'm on vacation, unbelievably, I miss them. I do not know how I will adjust to going back to the normal workday when this summer is over. It is such a distant idea right now. See, as soon as the vacation started, I went back to my night-owl habits and quite frankly, I barely wake up to see a fraction of the morning unless if I really have to.
Today, I was listening to NPR. Ami got me hooked on this station. Throughout the entire hour that it took to take Ami to work and come back home, I listened to a very bleak and equally depressing account of the economy. The banks are in trouble and they have no one to blame but themselves for writing out mortgages to people who they knew could not afford to pay them off. I listened to an old, old lady's voice talking about the fraud they may have committed in the process. A cartoon on a popular New York magazine showed bears walking down the street. I guess we saw this coming first. When we worked at the store, we began noticing this lack of spending as far back as the fall of 2005. Right about when Wilma struck.
I've literally been watching the hummus prices in WalMart for a while now. In February, I stopped buying hummus. It used to be 2 for $5. Now, it's $3.98 plus tax for the Sabra brand (the only one that is not too salty) and frankly, I refuse to buy at that price. The whole wheat spaghetti used to be $1.15 and now it's up to $1.50. Those are just two examples. And anyone who has been grocery shopping recently knows what I am talking about. It's not just the gas prices.
Normally, I would have been on at least two road trips already but I reconsidered. For the first time ever, I think it is cheaper to buy an aeroplane ticket. This will take away the thrill of the road trip and actually seeing places along the way. I think that is what we enjoyed most about the road trips...The fact that you could stop out anywhere, in a totally remote and different place and see how people lived in that area. Maybe this is why my summer seems so incredibly long and drawn out.
In other, not so boring news, at least I've been keeping busy. There's another wedding on the horizon and it will get hectic quickly. Still coming to terms with it but Furgie is actually going to get married! I am reading Silas Marner by George Eliot. I'm almost embarrassed that I've waited this long to read this book. But then again, there are certain allegories that I would have missed if I had read it when I was younger. I was telling my optometrist today that it's been a while since I read a book that was written in really proper English. I've taken to making tiny notes along the margins and actually highlighting the literary devices in the novel. It's a treat. So yes, I will actually say that the summer is looooong but I am actually enjoying it and heaven knows, I needed the break when it started.
