migratory friends

hey kids. coming to you from good old lock haven. my summer's been good. it's been great to hang out with old friends, catching up after a year a limited contact. i kind of miss princeton though. i miss all the great restaurants and the public library with it's many opera videos and recordings. the only opera recording at the library here is Kiri Te Kanawa Sings Gershwin and i've already checked it out. twice. i miss the ppl too, of course. it's weird not seeing any of them at all after a year of living practically on top of them. it's a strange sort of oscillation. all my home friends scatter across the country for school, then all my school friends scatter across the country for home, and it just keeps on switching.

now that i'm home, i've been thinking a lot about the ppl i met at school and have been examining the goings-on of the past year. when you eat, sleep, and breath something 24/7 it's hard to separate from it and look at more objectively. i've realized a lot about how i feel about ppl from school. i think after a year of trying new things and ppl out, i know what i want to get out of the college experience. i'm enjoying my time at home, but i also look forward to going back.

my parents seemed to think i might hate college and not want to stick-out even just the whole first year, but looking back, i wasn't exactly debilitated by homesickness or anything like that. the only thing that was weird was trying to get used to all new ppl all the time. so many of my friends from home i've known so long, some of them literally since kindergarten. i wasn't good friends with most of the people at home i'm close to now all through elementary to high school, but our friendships developed slowly over a long period of time. i've gone from hating ppl or hardly knowing them or not feeling much about them one way or the other to considering them my best friends. in a lot of ways i feel like some of those ppl are soulmates to me. i know them so well and they know me even better. at college, i kind of attached to a few ppl right away, got to know them, and then widened and weeded-out the circle. (that's kind of a mean way of putting it. but why should i pretend that some people you get to know and realize that maybe their friendship is not for you. hmm, i wonder if anyone weeded me out?) living with ppl, you get to know them well in a different way. everybody comes there not knowing anyone and are instant friends with everyone. i'm thinking next year...not so much. i've realized that some of my relationships with ppl at school were not exactly healthy. that's one great thing about home friends, they don't let me delude myself into being okay with stuff like that. we like all our shit out in the open.

i've read the new harry potter book, and i'm very upset with jk rowling. and that's all i have to say about that. i'm kind of sad there's only one more book in the series. i wonder what rowling will do next? i've been doing a lot of reading this summer. it's nice, after pretty much reading only text books during the school year to actually read for pleasure. i've gotten through around ten books a week here. ahh, the joys of fiction. i've joined a history book club at school for this fall, so i should really get on that reading. i'm almost finished with renee fleming's autobiography and it's amazing. she basically picks apart the coming about of her career, dissecting what went right or what went wrong for her. it makes me feel better about setting out on this outlandish career knowing that at one time, even renee fleming almost called it quits. it's inspired me to read all the singer's bios i can get my hands on this summer. i wonder if the library here has many? i've also been listening to music for pleasure much more than i had been during school. it's kind of strange, i went to music school and stopped listening to music. well, i didn't stop altogether, but i did stop listening for pleasure as much as a had been at home. at home during senior year and the summer after, i listened to music, classical and other constantly. on the bus, in the car, at home, anytime i was in my room, during class, as i walked. at school i didn't listen nearly as much as i used to. going through my cd case, a lot of the cds i have i hadn't listened to once at school. granted, i have around 200, but last year i probably cycled through all of them every 2 months, either listening to the whole thing while doing other tasks, scanning through a few tracks, or just listen to one piece over and over and over again. i've also been listening to a lot more non-classical music - jazz, classic rock and oldies. i'm falling in love with classic rock - the beatles, areosmith, queen, and so many more. and i'm on a mission to find pop music that i like. so far i've found the killers, micheal buble, and dan berns. not exactly pop, but at least it's currant, a big step for me.

well kids, time for me to turn in.