DAY THREE

A more productive post for the rest of us. I drove out to my sister's school this morning to pick her up. Seeing her again makes me both excited and bored at the same time. I'm excited that there's another presence in the house that i can relate to (I mean, we grew up together). Bored because it's just gonna be the same this all over again. For her own reasons, she likes to lock herself in her room all day, doing/eating/ seeing nothing, but her laptop screen and cell phone. She emerges only to see her boyfriend and do whatever, which is great, but there's a certain tone of sadness and resignation in this. I compare this to my perpetual attempts to seize the summer, a process which normally contains bursts of enthusiasm and inspiration, culminating in unrealistic schedules and overly ambitious (yet inspirational) journal entries. And I try. Whether it be to get my sister out of her room for a friendly outing, or motivating myself to get my butt on the elliptical downstairs, there's always a drop of desire to get something done in life. At least until going to China. 

But I digress. Going to St. Mary's is always a tranquil drive. Southern Maryland reminds me that there is still a south in our state. The country station even sounds better as I drive through endless farms and tacky, useless stops for drivers. The fact that the one watering hole by the college is on a cornfield is enough to give you a taste of what this school is. I can't help but come from the 2nd oldest college in the country and consider this tiny dot on the map a "hippie school". And I don't mean this in the bad way at all. Driving through the campus I get a feel for chaos, youth, and independence, the type that W&M can't even dream about, thanks to all the tourism and old people. There's so much tie dye and dumpster diving going on, I can barely see past the birkenstocks, frisbees, pixie cut girls, and feather haired boys to find my sister, almost an anomaly of a hispanic girl amongst all the other grunge-y move-outs. Yet she loves it there for some reason, and I am happy to accept that. Minus all the crazies, I definitely wouldn't mind living by a graveyard on the water. It ends up being quite peaceful.