20 June 2009
kmgomono
Ok, it's been ages. I forget about this blog a lot. Especially now that college is over and I don't have my computer sitting at a desk hooked up to internet 24/7. I am at Mono Lake again, interning and having a good time. I live in the same house with the same girls as last year, and the job is the same so slipping back into things has been easy. It is nice to be back, there are great people at the Committee and as a returning intern I am entrusted with more responsibility, which is nice. I'm here definitely until the end of August and maybe until mid-September... I will soon be figuring out where I will be and what I will do after this job ends, which is what is what everyone (including me) wants to know. As for Kevin, we are still together. The drive to Oakland is only about 4 hours, so the most manageable thing is visiting him every other weekend. He may be visiting me later this summer, but its more convenient to go there and have a room to ourselves and a metropolitan area to enjoy. In less than two weeks my family (minus my mom) will be coming up to the cabin for 4th of July and I am totally excited to see them (although sad my mom won't be here). Near the end of their week here I secured eight days off work so I can spend time with them, and then I will drive over to the Bay Area to see an old friend from CC who will be in Santa Rosa for a few days, and then to see Kevin for more than 40 hours for once. And, after all that, it will be mid-July! June has flown by.
My cell phone gets terrible service up here because I have AT&T and not Verizon, which has a cell tower in town. I get enough service to send and receive texts in certain parts of my house (such as the living room) but not in others (such as my room), and on certain streets in town I can actually call people, but there is the omnipresent possibility that the call will drop at any time. Luckily, there is a house phone that receives calls, but we can't call out. So it's been a bit of an adjustment figuring out how to stay in touch with people. We do have ethernet in our house, which generally works, and at work of course, but the failure of modern technology in my house means that I am writing letters and reading a lot, and right now I am in the middle of Watchmen, Alan Moore's classic graphic novel. I somehow didn't see the movie when it came out recently and this has proved helpful because the book is amazing. In fact, I want to finish this so I can get back to reading. Anything else? I can't believe I admit this but I miss the dining hall sometimes. I eat the most boring food now because I am too lazy to cook elaborate meals. I eat scrambled eggs, crackers with cheese and tomato, chicken sausage (from Trader Joes when I go to Oakland) sauteed with garlicky kale, frozen meatballs simmered in jarred tomato sauce and frozen peas... it gets boring. I ate really good chili at a cafe here the other day and it made me want to make chili. When I first got here, before work really started, I made my chicken tomato soup that lasted me a few days. But our kitchen doesn't have a lot of stuff and with four people sharing a 4ft kitchen I don't want to deal with it all. When I have an apartment in the fall and have all my stuff with me I'll break back into cooking again.
This summer I am less interested in exploring this area (which I did in full last summer) and more into thinking, reflecting, sleeping, reading and preparing for the fall, which I keep alluding to in this vague way because I really don't have much of an idea. I think I want to be in the LA area, and Eva, who visited me for four days this week and just left, and I are talking about sharing an apartment somewhere, maybe in Pasadena. As for jobs, whatever I can get while looking for a more meaningful job in policy... or something else. It's hard to job-search when you aren't physically where you want to work, so I expect to do "research" this summer and then actually apply and interview once I am back down there. We will see. So as for being present here... I am not as much this summer as I was last, and that is okay. I am different, I am in a different place in my life, I am currently entertaining a long-distance relationship and I have no concrete plans after August 24th. The summer crew this year is smaller, totally mellow and mostly female, also, so the crazy social vibe of last summer isn't here which is honestly easier for me. I love my housemates and three of the four of us just graduated and are in committed, serious relationships so we end up having regular deep conversations that keep me grounded. And the fourth, Nora, will be a sophomore in college but is so awesome and mature you would assume she was 22 also. The one thing I'd love is a pool in town because I really feel like getting back into lap swimming. The closest one is at a hotel 20 minutes away and is expensive to use. Again... in the fall.
So that is the deal with my life right now. I'll probably update this once a month through August, and then.... again, who knows?