This is what senior year should be like

Today was a truly Southern California type of day. The sun was shining, palm trees were waving in the gentle breeze, flowers were blooming and giving off a fragrant odor, the grass was...ok, you get the point. But if you need some help picturing this just listen to Here Comes the Sun. It's been running through my head all day.

Today was also what a truly senior-graduating-in-37-days kind of day should be. It started out normally enough. Work at the library, two meetings with professors, then back to work. I had noticed the sun and heat outside, but hadn't thought much of it beyond deciding to wear a sun dress (good choice, considering I ended up walking all over campus). Sitting in the coolness of the air conditioned building, I had accepted that this beautiful day would be mostly wasted on me.

And then, I went to work at public affairs. Or, more accurately, I should say, I walked into the public affairs building and was back outside three minutes later. The project they were going to give me wasn't ready, so I was released for the afternoon. I had told my other job I wouldn't be back until 3, which gave me three whole hours to do whatever I wanted.

Thus, my average day as a second semester senior suddenly became much more exciting. What to do? Well, I pondered that for all of 20 seconds, considering the 80 degree weather, the upcoming 20 degree drop over the weekend, and the close proximity of my current location to edge of Santa Barbara, and settled on the only real option for a day like today: the beach.

So, I raced home and within half an hour was sitting on my blue and white striped towel, reclining against a rock, absorbing the warmth of the sun into my skin, looking out over the cool waters of the pacific, and reading a book (ok, so it was a book from 1946 written by an Italian historian/politician, but, hey, baby steps). After living this life of luxury for about an hour, I returned home and expected the rest of my day would turn out as planned - work, dinner, walk the dog, homework, laundry, sleep.

But then, Michelle and Kat came home announcing they were going to Blenders and I should join them. Twenty minutes later the three of us and Rachel were headed to get some splendidly cold, fruity beverages. Sipping our strawberry, raspberry, peach, and pineapple concoctions, we sat on Starbucks's rock wall in the sun simply enjoying being together.

We decided the party couldn't end there though. So, upon returning home, I quickly made us some bruschetta (quick Italian lesson in case you ever visit the country: this food is pronounced "broo-ske-ta" in Italian not "broo-she-ta" like it is in English) grabbed a loaf of bread and some cheese and we made our way with Zazie down to the neighborhood park for a picnic. Michelle unfortunately had to visit her elderly lady friend, so she could not come, but Sarah joined us, so we were four again, plus the dog. It was quite a lovely picnic, notwithstanding the part where Zazie hyperventilated from being in the presence of another dog (who looked like the most harmless dog I've ever seen). Rachel and Sarah also decided to make use of the jungle gym and, I'm convinced, almost broke the tire swing, but managed to walk away injury-free.


Walking home just before twilight, reflecting on friendship and how good God was to put us all together, we decided this was how senior year should be.


And, tomorrow, I'll be at work all day and then I'm locking myself in my room to write all evening...but it's all worth it...