Outside-y-ness, summer plans, and new fun stuff

This is a longish post. I guess I'm compensating for all the time I haven't gotten to spend blogging lately...

Why am I a nerd? I mean, I really like all the cool stuff I can do with mathematics and computers and so on, but at the same time, there's a big part of me that's just not cut out for this "nerd" job. In particular, I have a serious addiction to being outdoors.

It doesn't need to be the Great Outdoors or the Middle of Nowhere or anything. I'm quite happy with the approximation to nature right outside the door to my apartment. It's an old enough neighborhood to have mature trees (they're beautiful outside my windows, especially in the mornings and evenings when they turn all golden in the sunlight), and there are mourning doves and other birds that nest and sing here, and it's a beautiful neighborhood with all sorts of flowers and interesting plants. In a lot of ways, it reminds me of home, particularly the neighborhood I grew up in. My apartment building even has architectural similarities to my old house (around here, the buildings are fairly small, with six apartments each).

My university campus and my summer-job campus are quite nice, too. This summer, I am lucky enough to have a window again, and since I'm on the second floor it's almost like working in a treehouse. It's really pleasant to be almost up in the treetops like that; almost relaxing, except when it makes me sad that I can't really be out there. I do get a walk in during my lunch hour practically every day, though, and that helps.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am having quite a busy summer. I hadn't realized just how much I'm doing until I wrote it up for a friend's discussion board. I'm working veeeeeery long hours at my summer job to make up for some of the days I'll be missing for stuff like this:

I'm taking a day trip to Antietam with Boyfriend and Boyfriend's office-friend and his girlfriend. Apparently Antietam is only an hour and a half away from here. I didn't even know it was in Maryland. Oops. (Is being from the faraway Midwest an excuse for this?)

One weekend I'm going to western Massachusetts with Boyfriend to visit his family -- they live in a beautiful house up in the mountains there.

Another weekend I'm going home for four or five days (depending on how much I can count of the days I spend mostly on the plane). Boyfriend is coming along too. (Boyfriend and I have never yet flown anywhere together, even though we've been dating for nearly two years, but that's going to change very fast...)

Later in the summer, I have a Career Development Activity for several weeks. Yet again, Boyfriend is coming, and so is practically everyone I know who's working on anything remotely like the stuff I'm working on (my advisor, a couple of friends from work, my boss for the summer...)

Finally, at the end of the summer, I'm hoping to take a week or so off before classes start -- that'll be my "summer break," since I started work the day after my last final.

I'm really glad that the days are long, and that I get up early -- it means I usually get to drive home in the daylight and even spend time walking or reading or eating outside in my beautiful neighborhood. Happy summer!