May 2004 Archives

I find that I behave differently when I'm all by myself than I do when people are around. I wander a lot. I have no patience for it when others are around -- I hate when we have errands added to the list "since we're out anyway," but alone, I can flit from place to place until I get bored with it, then go home.

I flitted a bit today, though I didn't begin as early as I had hoped to. I tried to stop by a couple of camera stores to pick up a polarizer for the new camera, but they were both closed for Memorial Day. I stopped at Zen to eat lunch, the third time this weekend that I ate fish. (The figure is noteworthy only because I've been eating almost exclusively vegetarian since January. I've broken it for fish only in the case of sushi and when there was nothing else to eat. I'm thinking of adding fish back into my diet, though -- it's easy to find myself lacking in protein when I don't feel like cooking tofu.)

And then I braved the crowds at Zilker Park to go to the Taniguchi gardens. Thankfully, the botanical garden section of the park was pretty sparsely populated, and the crowds were centered elsewhere.

The heat was stifling, 97 degrees at about 1pm, with a haze that looked like thermal radiation rising off the pavement, obscuring my view of Austin. My pictures wound up a bit overlit, but spending time in the garden was as grounding as it always is. In the shade, surrounded by water, I hardly noticed the heat until I found myself feeling nauseous and a bit shaky. I took the hint and headed home.

Later in the afternoon, the heat amplified the sounds of thunder rolling through the sky, and with the passion of mid-summer, the skies opened up, unleashing a downpour that I hoped would cool the city down a bit. To my dismay, long after dark, it still felt hot and muggy, like a wet sauna. It'll be a long summer, I imagine.

I got this very diplomatic comment the other day that said, "Nice site--now you just need some more words." No joke -- that's the understatement of the week.

I drove C to Dallas on Friday to catch her plane back to Romania. She'll be gone for fifteen months, which feels vaguely like forever. On one hand, it's nice that the house is quiet lately -- my inner introvert digs that. On the other hand... the house is really quiet.

My plan is to keep myself busy this summer. I'm having a hard time imagining all fifteen months, so I'm just taking it one season at a time. Part of keeping myself busy involves indulging myself in a little spending spree. I invested in the camera of my dreams last week and am learning all its little quirks and features. I've been planning to buy it for quite a while, though I sped up the timeline a bit. Tomorrow (today, actually) is Memorial Day, and the end of my four-day weekend. It'll be hot and sunny, and I'm thinking of taking the camera to Taniguchi to put it through its paces.

It's a bit as though April and much of May never happened, which is more or less how it feels on my side of the keyboard, too. Much of the time I've been MIA, I've been mired in work and nursing a hell of a crush.

The calendar says the first day of summer is June 21st, but temperatures are rising and students are moving out of the dorms, so in my world, summer is here.

C leaves soon, leaving me without a roommate for over a year. I know myself well enough to realize that I don't live alone particularly well. As my workload diminishes a bit, I'm looking for summer activities to occupy myself with in her absence. I've renewed my membership to the gym and have been investigating sports and hobbies to spend my time on.

I redesigned my splash page into an appropriately summer-like scheme that belies my relatively poor mood of late. I haven't been writing, though I've been doing a bit more photography than I had been for a while. There are pictures to come, and redesigns to do, and things to write about, and so much to say.

I just have to find the words.