What I Did on My Summer Vacation

Classes finally begin on Wednesday, and I'm trying to gear myself up. I had planned on going to bed early tonight so I could practice getting up at the ungodly hour of 6:00am for my ridiculous 8:30am Arts in Education class. In case you hadn't already picked up on my enthusiasm, or lack thereof, I am not particularly excited about this. Every Tuesday and Thursday morning I have this wonderful Arts in Ed class. Not to point out the obvious, but as someone who has been in arts classes for almost the last 20 years, you'd think I'd already know a thing or two about integrating arts into education. That's not to say I don't realize the value of this class. What I'm getting at is I'd value and appreciate it a hell of a lot more if it was a normal time. Hello, this is the arts. We don't start functioning until 10:00am.

I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt, as I'm sure you've noticed that it is 1:30am in EST. This means I have less than five hours until I'm supposed to wake up for my practice run at Tuesdays and Thursdays. I really did try to go to bed early. I had turned off my computer and brushed my teeth and was in bed by 11:00pm. However, after tossing and turning for about an hour, I decided to be constructive. Hence, the blog post.

Because school starts on Wednesday for me, I've decided to dedicate this post to the time old class "What I Did on My Summer Vacation" essay. Although, I have to admit I don't think I've ever actually written one of these essays. It's probably because I grew up in a small Iowa town where everybody did the same things in the summer. You're either on the swim team or in little league. You go to "the lake," whichever one your parents chose. (There are a lot of lakes in Iowa - not nearly as many as Minnesota, but more than enough.) You ate s'mores, played some sort of imagination game with the neighborhood kids, caught lightning bugs, went to the pool, rode your bikes. And if you're not my family, you went on a vacation. My family wasn't and still isn't big into vacations. It's a little difficult to haul six people across the country, especially when the four of us children didn't really get along. However, that is neither here nor there at this point.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

I spent almost a month away from Cinci. Most of the time I was spent in Iowa. It was really nice to see my family. I got to see my nieces and nephews. With that, I got to experience the world's best form of birth control: babysitting a 7 month old and 2 1/2 year old. My current lifestyle does not support 5:00 am feedings and multiple diaper changes and being covered in baby vomit. I reconfirmed the idea that I do not want children any time in the near or distant future. They really aren't for me.

Anyway, after Norah and Maggie went home with their parents, I helped my friend Dani drive down to Baton Rouge where she is currently in her second year as a Vocal Performance major at LSU. We started our journey at what is only appropriately know as "The Butt-crack of Dawn" or "Just too damned early." Nineteen hours later, we arrived in Baton Rouge only to discover Dani's apartment was covered in mold. Seeing as how this was completely unlivable, we stayed with another friend Lauren. After some sleep, the three of us combined our Midwestern sensibilities and got shit done. In less than 48 hours after arriving in Baton Rouge and discovering the apartment's mold problem, we had Dani in a new, mold-free apartment. Because we were dealing with this, I did not have much time to explore the great state of Louisiana. However, since Dani's possessions were covered in mold, I now know where the local Wal-mart is.

Once I returned to Iowa, I started working at my uncle's law firm schlepping boxes. It's a dirty job, literally, but someone had to do it and someone had to make money. Since I fell into the later category, I was assigned the task of expanding the incredibly inefficient filing system my uncle and his firm have been using since before I was born.

That same week happened to be the final days before my youngest sister, Biz, moved to college. A stressful time, to say the least.

Finally after Biz moved into college, and my mom went to Chicago for an art workshop, I was able to hop on a bus back to the 'Nati, and thus started my actual summer vacation.

My friend Patricia was staying with me before she moved to Boston, so we did some pretty touristy things such as going to King's Island, an amusement park about 30 miles north of the city. Because Patricia was granted an in person interview for a job in Boston just after the first of September, her time here was cut short. I got to experience the drive from Cinci to Cleveland. I also got to experience Greyhound. I can't say I'm a huge fan of this busing system. I much prefer Megabus.

Once I arrived back in Cincinnati and walked into my empty apartment I was finally able to relax from the stressful past five weeks. I did a lot of baking and cooking, started yoga, picked up knitting again, did some free reading, caught up on my hulu queue. It was pretty amazing however lame some people may find it.

And that is how I spent my summer vacation.


Tomorrow I actually have to write a paper like this, except it's "What I Did during My Summer Internship." Huzzah.