catch up.

I can't believe it has been four months since I last posted. Especially when I think about the multitude of things that have happened in that time. The refreshing and cool spring was short lived, rapidly replaced with the wet, sticky blanket that New Yorkers call "summer." Some classes ended, others began, and somehow, this girl found a way to manage homework and still throw herself in the midst of some summer adventures. Nick and I traveled from Burlington to Oxford to Albany to Philadelphia in search of some inkling that the lives we left behind in Vermont were still accessible.

Granted, they're not. The crew in Burlington is getting smaller and smaller and it has been over a year since I left there myself. It's so weird to me that my home is now New York City rather than Corte Madera or Burlington. What's more - "home" is no longer the hardwood-floor, two-bedroom, Morningside Heights apartment I so eagerly moved into with Raina eight months ago. That apartment, though cute, was too close to campus, in too bland of a neighborhood, too far from any sense of excitement or the feeling of learning to call a place home. In June, Raina and I discussed and decided that it was time to move on. She wanted Brooklyn - artists and musicians, trees, and cheaper rent. Nick and I wanted Astoria - ethnic food, beer gardens, and... also cheaper rent.

Nick and I have been in the new apartment for about three weeks now. And I'm in love. It's our first apartment together, just the two of us. We are having fun cooking, watching tv, reading in bed at night, and just channeling the inner domestics that we have secretly wanted to be for awhile. Though we are happy, we've never quite mastered the art of living in the present and sometimes we slip and fantasize about life after my graduation, because New York has never felt as right as Burlington did, and we're anxious to get back to a place of trees and water and a slower pace of life where ideally, there are less than a million people! But for now, we made a change that gives us the best opportunity to be comfortable and happy for the remainder of our time here and for the first time since January, I feel like I am breathing, enjoying my surroundings, and actually embracing the fact that I did it - I came to New York City.

Summer is slowly coming to an end. We head to Squam Lake this weekend for the fourth annual Labor Day tradition at Adam's cabin. I am so thrilled to swim in fresh water, lay out on a raft in the sun, and frolic by the campfire by night, completely in my element. When it ends, school begins again. I spent some time being disappointed that school is starting again after only a two week vacation - I mean, when does it end?! - but one thing, a big thing, keeps my sanity in check as summer slowly comes to a close...

AUTUMN!