August was water, I let it pour past. There was some middle I remember when nothing could be done. I thought of the "dog days." I missed the group that I'd been performing with in late July, and I felt caught between a year of relative freedom and ease and an upcoming entrance into another long bout of school and work. A good friend's father died, a great man who lived a long life and helped a small town in New Jersey maintain its life and commerce. I went back to that town for the memorial service with another good friend who just happened to be in town on vacation. We ate ice cream and took a familiar walk.
The rest seemed like paperwork, lots of signing up for payrolls and health insurance and courses and what else I'm not so sure. At times it felt like they'd maximized the printing out of forms while minimizing the sharing of information. This is my first experience at a public university; that familiar feeling of government bureaucracy, with all the severely guarded turfs, bothers me.
I will be busy in the autumn, and sure enough it is here. Hollywood has turned the movies toward the serious. People bustle in a different way. These past few days there has been the palpable sense of realization, of goodbye, on the streets. Summer was fast. There was a hurricane, a crazy few days of everyone huddling inside, prepared for the worst. We here in the city were spared, though the suburbs were hit hard.
I went to the beach, I saw a lot of movies--indoor and out--with AK. We drove upstate just in time for me to come down with a bad cold: while everyone went swimming, I laid in the sun with a white cat, watching tiny bugs in the grass that I'd forgotten to pay attention to since childhood. I should have written more to you, August. As it is, I'm not quite ready for the busyness of September and the wicked sharp turn of another winter. Maybe soon the birds will collect as they do from their disparate summers, telling manic loud tales for a day or two before deserting us for warmer climes. All that easy time of summer seems somehow too easily gone now. A tricky month, September steals in like a Virgo.
three little songs:
