monday morning musings

This weekend has gone by quite quickly and the college campus has changed just as rapidly. Saturday morning I drove up to South Bend to pick up Katie, and it was so wonderful to see her. We hung out for most of the day, doing random errands and touring the apartment that she, Miriam, Becca and eventually Jess will live in. It was so gorgeous, a spiral staircase, loft, hardwood floors, just lovely. But really the best part was reconnecting with Katie, who I hadn't spent serious time with since spring break of my sophomore year! Other best parts of the day were seeing Meryl again and all the other returnees. It feels so weird to be helping everyone move in and seeing the campus prepare itself to return to normal, yet I am going to miss everything on campus this fall. Speaking of China SST, I have been having a rather up and down last few days. Although I remain excited, I think I am finally getting all those nerves and anxiety that others had been having earlier. Up until just this past week, I was excited as the next person, other than the gradual lessening that comes with long times of waiting, I was roaring to go. But now I am getting all these random fears and such, which I think are directly related to how I haven't been able to sleep as well these last few nights. I have trouble getting to sleep, just lying there thinking. Then I have weird stress dreams and can't sleep past 8am. Now I think there are some other explanations for that, but it has been disconcerting. Yet at the core I remain very much excited to leave and head out on the big SST adventure. Oh and rather unusual highlight from Sunday occurred with Meryl and I were messing around with my iTunes. We heard a large thunk, almost as if someone had knocked quite hard on the glass door in the kitchen. I went out to investigate and there sitting right next to the glass, just about 10 feet from me was a beautiful Cooper's Hawk. It just sat there staring into the glass, it didn't seem able to see through the glass, but just its own reflection. Meryl snuck off and got my camera, and so I crept closer and closer taking picture, both Meryl and I were within about a yard from the door, when finally it moved away, perched briefly on the deck posts, before sailing off. Such an amazing bird, and it was great to see one of the predators that had helped us actually harvest from our garden this summer.