And fire's a beautiful sound

I’ve been sick. I had some sort of nasty strep throat/sinus infection thing at the beginning of this previous week. The nurse practitioner gave me amoxicillin, so that quickly broke my fever. I still have some lingering congestion, but am feeling much better on the whole.

I have approximately four days (two days of class) until spring break. I need this break. I need to relax on the beach and not think about what defines Faulkner’s style, or trace the way causal reasoning develops in infants, or worry about whether the action in my story is blatant, or try and read more than my brain can hold, or whether everyone has emailed me submissions for the undergrad journal, or reading through proofs and looking for typos and spacing errors. I can read novels that I get to choose. I can eat without thinking about calories. I can be on vacation!

Next Saturday through Thursday, I will be journeying with my best friend and her family to Vero Beach, Florida. I’m excited about everything, even the twelve hour car ride. Then I come home to relax for a bit, spend some time with the Boy, help a little with drum corps camp, and enjoy life. Then it’s back to the daily grind of my last semester, but I’m not thinking about that

And jumping a head a bit, I have purchased my cap and gown for graduation. I went through "graduation central" to purchase it, talk with career services, pay to extend my university email, and fill out info for a door prize. So barring any unforeseen failures of classes, I'll be receiving my degree on May 8th. In a way, it feels so surreal - that graduation is actually here; these past four years have flown by. At the same time, I have put so much effort into these four years that I feel ready to move on to the next stage of my life. Grad school is not happening anytime soon, and I am perfectly okay with the thought of no more school for awhile.

One of my friends asked me a while back if I planned on living my whole life in Nashville. I answered that I didn't know, but the question made me think. What if I do spend my whole life in Nashville? It's always been home. Don't get me wrong - I love traveling and experiencing new places and events. However, there's such a feeling of homecoming whenever I make it back to the gentle, rolling hills of middle Tennessee. So is it bad if I end up calling Nashville and its surroundings "home" for my life?

As usual, those are the thoughts that have been clouding my mind recently. Now my brain is ready to receive some more thoughts. So until next time.