Back to School.

It is good to be back!  I am all settled into my apartment and ready to start another year of school!  It's been nice to see my friends again and to have my apartment back...oh how I missed it.

I got my stitches out, not the most fun, but it's over and soon my hair will be long enough that I don't have to plan my outfits around my headband selection.  

School starts tomorrow morning.  I am ready.  Once it gets going now, there are no more big breaks until I'm finally finished in May 2010, so I'm anxious to get started on that.  My lunch and school bag are mostly packed, so that should make it a little bit easier of an adjustment to get up rather early (if I want to squeeze in a work out, at least).  Sorry I've been a bad blogger, there just hasn't been much to blog about - but tomorrow night is a crafty night, so if we succeed in making some reusable shopping bags out of t-shirts, I'll let you know.

Ode to Becca.

One of the really great things about being home this summer is how much time I've been able to spend with my friend Becca.  She and I have been friends since middle school, we transferred high schools together (twice) and ended up going to the same college, although we were never roommates (an agreed upon decision).  Becca has spent the last year teaching English at a university in China, and she is going back for another year in a couple of weeks.  So, this summer has been a great catch-up session, and with both of us living with our families (after living alone for a year), hanging out together has been a great way to get out of the house!

Our time together is coming to a close as I leave Wednesday and Bec flies to Shanghai in two weeks, but I wanted to share some of the fun we've had this summer.

Bec's little sister Margaret got married on August 2nd, so we had some festivities to attend:

She also spent surgery day with me, watching TV, even though I fell asleep.  I look thrilled to have this picture taken, no?

This past weekend we took a day trip to Wilmington, NC (one of my favorite places ever) with one of our college friends, Amy.   The day dissolved into a photo shoot once my new camera was pulled out.  (Tara, if only you were there to see the Rivercourt, and Karen's Cafe).

I have so enjoyed this time spent together.  Video skype with a 12 hour time difference just isn't the same.

Update.

Thanks for the comments, guys!  Just so you know, everything went well and the doctor got all the cancer out, so that's good news!

Laughter isn't the most fun feeling right now, as it pulls at the stitches, but the doctor was really great about only taking the hair that absolutely had to go, so I won't feel like a social pariah...

I only have 5 more days until I leave for Oklahoma!  Being the geek that I am, Dad and I are stopping at the presidential library in Little Rock on the way back...I'm pretty jazzed!   The museum has a replica Oval Office and Cabinet room.  I'm going to be in full-on geek mode.

Cancer Shmancer

So, I think we all know I'm as fair as a person can be without being an albino. Seriously. That said, my chances of getting skin cancer at some point in my life are pretty high. Really high.

I've had a suspicious spot on my head for about a year, and haven't gone to get it checked out because I didn't want them to have to cut my hair at all...well, my hairdresser told my mom a couple of weeks ago that I really needed to go to the dermatologist. I'm so mature, right? She had to tell on me to my mom. After a biopsy last week, low and behold, it's skin cancer. So props to her for being on my case about it.

Anyway, Wednesday I will have surgery to hopefully remove all of it, and I will be left with a beautiful rather large (in my opinion) spot lacking any hair for a while. And a scar where hair will never grow again. Just a warning, I don't even have it yet, and I'm already self-conscious about it. If anyone has any really good ideas for covering it up for a while, please, please let me know. It's right on top of my head. A major side part might be in order, I don't know.

The moral of the story is this: wear sunscreen (which I do religiously), and hats (which I don't, but will now!), and if something looks suspicious, go to the dermatologist, even if you're super vain like me and don't want a scar.

Where'd the issues go?

Oh wait, they're still there. But the candidates seem to be too busy attacking each other to talk about them.

This part of the election season is always incredibly frustrating to me. My normal obsession with political commentary has quieted down, because I keep reading the same insults over and over (on both sides) and see so little substance. One ray of light in this whole process, for me at least, has been a wonderful book called See How They Run: Campaign Dreams, Election Schemes, and the Race to the White House. It's a long-ish (90 pg) picture book written for late elementary/early middle schoolers, and it's fantastic. 

It's not the sugar-coated stuff that most political children's books are (yes, I've read a few - my kids are going to think democracy is pretty rad)...the authors are very clear that every president has had his (and hopefully one day her) flaws.  It then describes the process of running for president in impressive detail for a book of this genre.  

As I was reading it the other day, I read a little nugget that made me reflect on the current race:

"At their best, campaigns alert us to what's important.  They tell is what a candidate believes.  They also make us think about where we stand.  And, they help us understand why others hold a different point of view."

This is certainly what a campaign should be, at it's best.  Perhaps that's too much to hope for in a climate as polarized as the one we currently live in.   However, as the book reminds me, "Democracy is a messy business and it's our job to sort it out."  What an incredible privilege and responsibility we have.