Exams on an exotic island?

So begins the second week of the exam process.  I’m still ahead (fingers crossed).  I was able to write 7 pages today, which was really great and then I dropped Dan off at the airport, did some grocery shopping and vegged with the Bachelorette the rest of the night (don’t judge me).  I’m hoping tomorrow will be just as productive.  Keep your fingers crossed for me.

I’ve been wishing that I was on a beach lately.  The weather has been so sunny and hot and we weren’t able to go to the Outer Banks this summer.  I miss the beach, so I’ve sort of been pretending that I’m taking my exams while on vacation.  Stay with me.  In the morning, I read and eat breakfast on the porch for at least 45 minutes before I get started with my work.  The sun comes up on that side of the house, so the light is usually filtered by the tree out front and feels lovely.  I work all morning.  Then, at lunch, I put on my bathing suit, make lunch, and lay in our courtyard in the sun, eating and reading a magazine or a non-school book (right now, Loving Frank, which is so great!).  I figure, if I can’t be on vacation, I can at least enjoy the weather and end up with some sort of tan (as tan as us translucent fair-skinned folk can manage).  I just hope that no one on my committee sees me after this and says, “Where have you been?”  Just vacationing in Columbus.

Today was a particularly nice day for laying out because it was nice and hot and a little cloudy, so there were some cool breaks in the hot sun when a cloud would float slowly by.  I finished a chapter in my non-school book and didn’t quite want to go in yet.  It was cloudy at that moment, so I laid there looking up at the sky.  It’s been a long time since I’ve really looked at clouds.  The clouds were big and fluffy, but the edges were wispy shape-shifters.  I spied three mice-shaped pieces come together in an embrace, smoke rising from a chimney, and I thought how the cloud would change every so slightly all day long, being pushed by the wind, the edges transforming, until the whole cloud was gone, or separated into smaller puffs, or fell as rain.  Eventually, it would return to the rivers, only to rise again to take on a new form, beautiful and brief.  A noisy plane from the east wakes me from my daydream.  Time to get back to work.