Chimera Song Mosaic

Friday, July 02, 2004

It's too hot to do anything! Definitely too hot to sit at this computer. And also there is the urgency, the strain of using my downtime (between semesters) doing something meaningful. But it has been. For one thing, there is St. Petersburg, two weeks of it I have yet to blog about (satisfactorily), and for the other thing, there is reading, which I don't do nearly enough of during the regular year (at least not the right kind of reading).

Fresh off the plane, more or less, I am filled with places to go from here (mentally, not physically), things to read, to write about. Already the summer seems to slip away. Why must I be so dramatic about this? Wasn't I just thinking how lucky I am to have a job that frees the summer up for me (not for free, of course)? But then, what to do with it.

I'm having a hard time leaving my house. I come back to it and realize it is a palace (not in guilty terms, but in correct perspective). It smells so clean, even though it really isn't. There are still some boxes to be unpacked from the move in November. But St. Petersburg was such an intense social interaction, demanding of adept and adaptation, that I can't see or talk to anyone. And there's such an expectation of regaining contact after a homecoming (everyone wants to know, "How long have you been back?" and the response is always a shameful one).

Not the least of all this blog. Some things are easier to avoid than others.

But I have to say, the heat has been welcome. The weather in St. Petersburg (when it wasn't raining, which I have to argue is also perfect weather) is what many people would regard as perfect: nights, bright and balmy; days, sunny and slightly cooler than skin temperature. But I could certainly use a good roast. Something inhumanly humid. Maybe I'll go to the beach on the 4th and watch fireworks.
- posted by Deborah Wardlaw Pattillo @ 2:02 PM