oh my god girls watch out for that shark

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Only two more weeks of school, my friends. There are many things to hate about school, but summer vacation is not one of them. This is what academia is all about, summer break. If anyone tells you otherwise they are lying. The weather has finally become spring-like and lovely here, my spirits soar like a young eagle. My mental well-being is so closely tied to the weather that it concerns me, but only briefly as I am on a sunshine high. A mere week ago there was a blizzard here, a nor'easter, and I harvested all of the flowers in my yard so they would die in a vase in my house rather than out in the snow. I was not cheered. Being without sunlight for so long makes me giddy to have it. I can't imagine living in Barrow, Alaska. School has been a marvelous joke, a wonderful joke. I sit in critiques and laugh in my head at the joke, trying to keep my brow from furrowing with anger and frustration as it should. Can I get into specifics? No. I am a paranoid ninja. My birthday. I promised tales of my birthday. I lied when I said I enjoyed it as much as a baby panda enjoys his first. Do you see how happy he is with that cake? I have never been that happy with cake. My birthday was far less descript. I received calls and cards and gifts from my loved ones, all so sweet. I love getting mail, I am always excited to check it even though it is usually just coupons or bills. So getting packages and colorful envelopes was lovely. The cards are all sitting next to my vase of flowers that I saved from the snow. I spent my birthday in the studio, getting lots of good work done. Some friends had me over for pizza and apple pie and a nerdy board game that night. It was a very wholesome nice time. School was too overwhelming to have a party as I did last year, however I might have a small gathering this week to celebrate the belated birthday and the majority of my critiques and second year reviews being over as of this Wednesday. Get thee behind me, Reviews. This should be a stressful week, and in many ways it is. In other ways I am just laughing at that joke in my head and this all seems just fine. Summer break arrives in two weeks regardless of how this week goes. So this birthday was unnoteworthy but somewhat arbitrarily it seemed like a significant one the more I thought about it, simply because there were big changes in my life 10 years ago. Namely, leaving my parents' house and going off to college, and all of the things that came along with that. Then there is that thing where it feels like a lifetime ago... so much about who I am was determined in those years, but at the same time it is odd to conceive of that chunk of time passing. Here I come, next chunk! You better be good!
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