It's Better in Wyoming.

Unofficially, 4pm on Friday marked the beginning of "summer." That was when my last class for the semester ended. (I still have 400 pages of grading ahead, so perhaps I should wait to call "summer!" until I've gotten all the final grades in....) Officially, it doesn't feel "summery" in Laramie. It doesn't even feel all that " springery " in Laramie, to be honest. Melissa and I headed out for a hike at Vedauwoo yesterday, and we ended up just walking down the gravel road because there were still pretty good-sized patches of snow all around. The high for Friday was 38 degrees. But it also doesn't feel summery in the sense of a great lifting weight, a great sense of freedom and the open road ahead. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing--I'm still definitely looking forward to the variety of this summer's work, and the possibility of some trips and house projects. But there doesn't seem like there...

This month I'm participating in another program to lower my 2011 health insurance premium. The program is about prepping for emergencies and disasters, and overall it's been a pretty crappy program, I think. I did get a little first-aid kit out of the deal, though, which came in handy when I sliced my finger chopping potatoes at the beginning of the month. Additionally, today's word of wisdom seems pretty relevant to where I'm at these days: "Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." - James Baldwin. It's funny--or maybe not funny at all--to discover that so much of what has felt like forward progress has just been a big circle--a different circle than before, but still one that has brought me back, in a lot of ways, to where I've already been. But still, some signs of hope. On the bright side, I started learning the chords to "Tear Down the House" this weekend.