The Sun and The Rain
One of my closest friends from back home is a major hippie. Not like a Summer Roberts, Starbucks sipping, Urban Outfitters shopping hippie (not that there’s anything wrong with that), but a true to form, Dharma Freedom Montegomery, cloth tote carrying, Ralph Nader supporting flower child. As a result, not only do I have a hard time eating popcorn without garlic cloves and nutritional yeast on it (it’s good for you!) but I’ve also been able to celebrate the beginning of winter and summer by invading her parents biannual Solstice Party.
While I’ve been sitting here fretting about how quickly my summer is passing me by, the Solstice Party just happened yesterday. But instead of taking over my friends living room with a Talking Heads/Prince dance party, I spent the longest day of the year in my bed producing a solid 12 hours of REM sleep.
Quite honestly, I thought I had long missed the first official day of summer. After all, this is my 56th day of summer vacation or, as my Dad likes to remind me, my “last summer of freedom”. (It should also be noted that he’s been labeling just about every summer this way since I turned 15. “Next year, you’ll get a job,” he said. “Next year, you’ll graduate from high school,” he said the following. Etc, etc, etc.)
I mean, check out the signs.
Last week I worked with ACT OUT of Faith, a weeklong summer camp for high schoolers with an emphasis on service learning. Even though the kids (ahem, young adults) didn’t do much in the ways of canoeing, fire building or archery, they did do their fair share of bettering the community by volunteering around the F/M area. They also survived a week of living in Brown Hall without any air conditioning. Kudos!
However, since the rain (for the most part) has finally stopped (is Mother Nature a Cobblog reader?) I didn’t have much of an interest hanging out with any sort of indoor air conditioners, especially if Phil Hartman does not voice them. Not only did I get to spend an evening outside with the ACT OUT campers during a revamped version of mini golf at Thunder Road (who needs to putt when you can bowl?), I also got to spend Sunday outside at the Red River Valley Fair. Our county fair back home doesn’t happen until early August, so I was pretty pleased to get some early edition Cheese Curds. My roommates, some friends that were visiting and I were all pretty disappointed to have missed Ted Nugent on Friday night, (“Fred Bear” holds a pretty special place in the hearts of us Burchills) but it was definitely made up by a picture opportunity with Snoopy (my friend Britta is on the left), and a visit to the Bunny Barn. If there’s one thing I have to look forward to post-graduation, it’s the possibility of being able to get my life stable enough to support a cute fuzzy pet. Or a hedgehog (cute, not fuzzy). But for now, I think I’m finally ready to replace my dead fish (Rest in peace, Rock Lobster.)
We spent the rest of the day outside in the park, where I stuck my feet in the Red River. I really wouldn’t recommend it. I’m lucky I didn’t come home with any diseases, and my shoes now have a permanent home outside.
Not like that seems like such a bad thing right now, anyway.