Still Puzzled...

It's definitely a different kind of summer. Friends come and friends go, but not like this before. I have a few friends in Ocean City, NJ, this summer, one also in Virginia Beach. Another is waitressing at a lodge in the Virginia mountains, while her roommate from last year is also in the mountains -- of Colorado. A good friend is on internship in Orlando. Others are working at camps around the state and nation. A couple cronies are in Spain and Paraguay, respectfully, for two or three months. And from I can tell, based on two or three excursions back down to Muncie this summer, those who have opted to shack up in Middletown really become a community all their own in the summer months. Their ties to the town are summer class and work and, on an underrated note, friends. To borrow a line from Blink-182 -- I know what you're thinking, I can't believe it either -- I guess this is growing up. There, now that wasn't so bad.

Being at home in Warsaw really holds next to nothing for me. Yes, yes, family, but the fam is so largely set in its ways. The fact that I have been home five-plus weeks hasn't seemed to change much of anything, the dynamic and such. People around here still have fuses short as Verne Troyer. For that matter, not much seems to change in nine months time during the school year, short of people nestling deeper into their ways. Their ways consist either of the precocious-yet-misguided high school daze [NadaSurf's song "Popular" comes to mind for my younger bro's current stance] or the "same ol'" rut that middle-aged life can be for some [Rod Stewart's "Forever Young" does not come to mind for my 'rents]. I hope to be vibrant and refreshed and looking for new things when I'm 45-50, not what I see here. What I have here just shows me how powerless I really am to change the way someone else thinks, what he believes, how she sees the world. This is true of the stranger and of the family member under my own roof, and I think it's good perspective to have going into my Traverse City experience.

I guess the uniqueness of this summer officially hit me this morning. I woke up at 8:15 a.m. -- sick enough in itself -- to watch the French Open women's final [if you don't know what sport I'm talking about, you schtink]. Dull match, but then the time turned 11 a.m. and it was time for my brother to leave... for Mexico for 10 days. He won't be back before I leave for Traverse City, and then I won't return 'til Aug. 9. The goodbye was heartening but brief. He has a job to do, and so do I [that is largely to take a break from all things known, normal and cozy, thanks to the change of environment].

So friends and family are fanning out this summer, and in a week's time I will get to fannin' too. It's really just seven or eight hours north of here, but, I mean... it is Michigan. I can't wait. As I just said to a friend, this summer has been too long. Yes, it's five weeks old, and it's seemed long. But it's going to pick up soon tempo-wise, as I leave for Traverse City in Northwest Michigan in "seeven daysss..." [repeat that phrase in a whisper, a la The Ring... it's fun]. So I'll keep reading, writing, mowing, washing dishes, and playing some tenacious tennis for this one week. One week is no time at all.