packing

I'm packing.
or
I ought to be packing.

Today and yesterday I collected items found on craigslist: a bed frame with a mattress and spring box (free), a small wooden table and chair (30$), a garment rack because I won't have a closet (5$).

I have packed

• all the kitchen things
• some of my cloths
• bathroom things

I have yet to pack

• the rest of my cloths (I sorted through some of my stuff my parents stuck in the basement. Most of it was useful, but I also found a toy I started making a few years ago, half stitched and half held with pins. It has been like that for years. headless.)
• shoes, belts, jewelry
• art supplies
• writing/reading (paper, pens, stamps, books. I tried meeting up with Leonid by MIT but our plans fell through twice. It occurred to me that we haven't had a real conversation face to face since two thanksgivings ago, but have kept up purely through letters. Freshman year he wrote with a typewriter, but now he uses a fountain pen.) 
• miscellaneous (sewing kit, flashlight, alarm clock ect.)

Tomorrow I will have moved to Redhook.

dyed dress

I started looking for housing at the start of the year, but bad luck seemed to want to be my friend. He followed me around, staying loyal as one person after another turned out to be unreliable. I finally shook him off Saturday - with just a week to move-in day. Hopefully he got the hint and won't be dropping by any time soon.
From what I've observed from afar (Bard is small, I've seen them before) - they are a very touchy-feely couple. They have a fondue pot and a waffle maker. Zoe wrote to me "There is also a small room off of the living room, which we are designating studio/creative space. You are free to utilize it for artsy things."Jono graduated last year with a chemistry degree and wants to become a nurse, but is currently working in one of the Bard offices.

I've been going to Walden Pond a lot, and finished reading Everything is Illuminated.
Yesterday, Yulka and I went to Watch City Brewery in Waltham. A year ago we went to the microbrewery and got food. The fare was good, but it demanded beer, so we decided we would go there again once we were legal. (check) 

I had a white dress (from my high school graduation. we all had to wear white, the boys all had identical white tuxedos).
Sasha said something about pastel for the wedding so...
blue fading into a teal tint at the bottom.

CC 2013

1. It occurred to me that I have spent a week of the summer with these people for 8 of the 9 past years. An imperfect track record of change.
2. We watched the meteor shower the first night. There were too many of us for tranquility but the Milky Way stretched out above and I haven’t seen that many stars in ages. (5 years ago I made a wish on a shooting star and it came true. I haven’t made one since).
3. Only four people in my age group were there the full week. Yulka and Valya had internships, Myron joined the army, Sasha was preparing for his wedding, Liza and Kirill had work. (Who will be here next year?)
4. The last night we were presented with three plays: Alice Through the Looking Glass, The Little Prince, Деревья Умирают Стоя (trees die standing).
5. We sang around the campfire late into the night (пять лет назад когда мы пели «выйду я на поле с конем» Даша сказала Илюши «нет, не любишь»).(five years ago we sang a song which contains the words “I love you Russia” to which Dasha said to Eloosha “no, you don’t”).
6. I watched Shimon for most of the week. He was tense from all the people and ran to me at 2am one night, in his underwear and barefoot. Five minutes after we were in our sleeping bags he was dreaming. 
   
7. 
   I feel no real connection to many people there but this is not surprising; the number hovers around 100. I had an interesting conversation with one adult one night when he drank more than usual. Noma and I named another caterpillar this year. Some conversations did not happen. 
8. Yosef had plans to swim everyday so that he could pass the swim test and join the crew team, but it was too cold to stay in the water for long. He passed the test anyway.
9. Made decorations for the plays, swam and attended the poetry club. Did yoga, worked the dinner-shift, and listened in on conversations. Collected firewood in the middle of the night, drank tea & not tea, celebrated birthdays.

delusions of hope

Picked up Osya and Papa at the airport a couple days ago, and am continuing my Fitzgerald binge*. Mama and I went to see The Great Gatsby last night.
before leaving the theater, I accidentally went to the men’s bathroom. I had to wait for someone to stop using the urinal before escaping from the stall; he didn’t wash his hands.

* 'The Jelly-Bean, ' 'The Camel's Back, ' 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, ' 'Tarquin of Cheapside, ' 'O Russet Witch!, ' 'The Less of Happiness, ' 'The Adjuster, ' 'Hot and Cold Blood, ' and 'Gretchen's Forty Winks.'

leaving tomorrow to go camping. 

last hurrah

Luisa and I went to Central Park for a last picnic and my last night was on Tuesday. The people at the lab threw a going-away party (which left me immensely flattered and satisfied).
I have left the drizzle of air-conditioner rain, whistling men and little red dots* behind me.  

*the experiment I set up and processed data for, was, simply put, a little red dot moving to and fro on a computer screen.

I am glad to be home in a way I wasn't after Berlin and Moscow. Perhaps because I have always had a (somewhat dreaded) feeling that I will eventually end up living - suffering, struggling - in NYC. It is a good place to be young with money.