cottage time, summer time, school time.
Last weekend I went up to Jane's cottage which is on the shore of Lake Huron.
It didn't look as nice as this picture of Lake Huron, but still nice.
I've been there twice, once in the summer after 1st year (which was a big cottage party), and once in the summer after 2nd year (which was a more intimate affair). She didn't have a cottage party the summer after 3rd year (the same year where it was very tense in our house), and now that she's moving to Quebec City to study a french program at Laval, then probably doing her masters at Laval after that, this may have been the last summer party at Jane's cottage.
It was okay/nice. Okay because there was more than one moment when I asked myself whether these people were my friends, whether I liked them enough to be hanging out with them, whether I actually enjoyed being with them. Other times I was having a lot of fun, but most of the time I was just enjoying the moment, the setting, and relaxing. With a little less shit-talking, and a lot less of Andrea's boyfriend, who I pretty much detest, it would have been "good".
But I even feel selfish talking about it like this, because underlying it all was the fact that Jane was moving away.
There were a lot of couples there (3). I'm debating whether or not to tell Andrea how much I dislike her boyfriend. Or just that I do. I'm glad that I got the chance to tell him 2x what I thought about him, and didn't do it through her, since it doesn't really involve her, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE Andrea and really don't see what she likes about him. I suppose that's not so much the point either.. but also I think he talks to her meanly!
In the past few years I've built up and started crossing off from a list in my head of things I've always wanted to try. There was mechanical bull-riding (accomplished during Carolyn's last night in Hamilton, at Dirty Dog's, the same night Sam chipped my front tooth when feeding me beer.. you see how it seemed an appropriate night for that?) there was "no saying no to roller coasters" (recent trips to Wonderland), and this weekend there was skinny-dipping. For a few years I've forgotten how fun it can be to just play in water. Literally, I could not imagine what I would do if I was given free time to play in water; I guess I couldn't think of anything but swimming laps. Obviously, the answer to all this was to just get naked. The moonlight skinny dipping was fun, and refreshing, and also made me proud that I could cross off another thing on my list.
Remember when I told Steve that all I wanted to do was make out with a whooole bunch of people? Who would have thought that making out for the sake of making out wasn't all it's cracked up to be. At least, it wasn't as fun as it seems when you're not really attracted to the person at all. Jane's child-hood friend (that's: friend from child-hood. not child-hood aged friend), James kept biting me and saying "this is so hot. isn't this hot?" and I was just trying to think of the least awkward way to get out of there before he tried to have sex. If you need to know (and you really don't.. you've been warned!) this happened during my 3rd skinny-dip, which was the first time I wasn't in a group skinny-dipping, but just James and I. Looking back, it was pretty naive to not realize what could happen when now it seems so obvious (2 people skinny dipping alone?). Luckily, people came to look for us, I ran away (tripped over a fence and flew a few feet - left knee is bruised but it was worth it! another thing off my list.. naked fence jumping) and problem solved! Everyone may or may not assume things happened but I'm just happy I didn't give in to doing anything I didn't want to do. I just felt bad for him every time he asked me if I thought it was "hot".
Richard Branson is no "virgin" to skinny dipping, either!
alternate caption: Is this hot, James?
I'm of the opinion that making-out isn't a big deal unless it's between coworkers, or behind the back of a sig.other, or with a family member, or... I guess there are a lot of caveats to consider, but in this case, I don't think it's a big deal (although I do think it's pretty funny, but kind of embarrassing) even though I was hoping James wouldn't show up the next day - which he didn't.. but then I wondered if he didn't want to see me and was embarrassed and I though I was relieved, I was also a bit offended.
Later, when telling Alyssa (the only other person I've told, after the internet) about this she realized that James is the best friend of the boyfriend of her friend Nicole! I thought she was thinking of a different Nicole (someone I know) and was really embarrassed, but it wasn't, and I'm not. I'm not sure if I am embarrassed, really. I guess the naked part is embarrassing, the falling is funny, but really I think Alyssa was just having a ball laughing because for once it was a ridiculous story I was telling her about myself, instead of the other way around.
Here's something school related:
I've decided to study mitochondria. I'm excited! Sheila (my other housemate) thinks it's really specific, which I guess to some it sounds like it is, but to me it sounds so general. They're really interesting and weird! I'm looking forward to it. Today Brian (my supervisor / prof) gave me a bunch of papers to read, which got me more excited. He said I'm going to have to learn everything there is to know about mitochondria - can't wait! Seriously! Maybe it's because I've become really bored with this project I've been doing this summer (Lateral gene transfer vs. duplicated genes in Bacilli) and want to get this grad school gravy train moving.
a glowy mitochondria
It didn't look as nice as this picture of Lake Huron, but still nice.
I've been there twice, once in the summer after 1st year (which was a big cottage party), and once in the summer after 2nd year (which was a more intimate affair). She didn't have a cottage party the summer after 3rd year (the same year where it was very tense in our house), and now that she's moving to Quebec City to study a french program at Laval, then probably doing her masters at Laval after that, this may have been the last summer party at Jane's cottage.
It was okay/nice. Okay because there was more than one moment when I asked myself whether these people were my friends, whether I liked them enough to be hanging out with them, whether I actually enjoyed being with them. Other times I was having a lot of fun, but most of the time I was just enjoying the moment, the setting, and relaxing. With a little less shit-talking, and a lot less of Andrea's boyfriend, who I pretty much detest, it would have been "good".
But I even feel selfish talking about it like this, because underlying it all was the fact that Jane was moving away.
There were a lot of couples there (3). I'm debating whether or not to tell Andrea how much I dislike her boyfriend. Or just that I do. I'm glad that I got the chance to tell him 2x what I thought about him, and didn't do it through her, since it doesn't really involve her, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE Andrea and really don't see what she likes about him. I suppose that's not so much the point either.. but also I think he talks to her meanly!
In the past few years I've built up and started crossing off from a list in my head of things I've always wanted to try. There was mechanical bull-riding (accomplished during Carolyn's last night in Hamilton, at Dirty Dog's, the same night Sam chipped my front tooth when feeding me beer.. you see how it seemed an appropriate night for that?) there was "no saying no to roller coasters" (recent trips to Wonderland), and this weekend there was skinny-dipping. For a few years I've forgotten how fun it can be to just play in water. Literally, I could not imagine what I would do if I was given free time to play in water; I guess I couldn't think of anything but swimming laps. Obviously, the answer to all this was to just get naked. The moonlight skinny dipping was fun, and refreshing, and also made me proud that I could cross off another thing on my list.
Remember when I told Steve that all I wanted to do was make out with a whooole bunch of people? Who would have thought that making out for the sake of making out wasn't all it's cracked up to be. At least, it wasn't as fun as it seems when you're not really attracted to the person at all. Jane's child-hood friend (that's: friend from child-hood. not child-hood aged friend), James kept biting me and saying "this is so hot. isn't this hot?" and I was just trying to think of the least awkward way to get out of there before he tried to have sex. If you need to know (and you really don't.. you've been warned!) this happened during my 3rd skinny-dip, which was the first time I wasn't in a group skinny-dipping, but just James and I. Looking back, it was pretty naive to not realize what could happen when now it seems so obvious (2 people skinny dipping alone?). Luckily, people came to look for us, I ran away (tripped over a fence and flew a few feet - left knee is bruised but it was worth it! another thing off my list.. naked fence jumping) and problem solved! Everyone may or may not assume things happened but I'm just happy I didn't give in to doing anything I didn't want to do. I just felt bad for him every time he asked me if I thought it was "hot".
Richard Branson is no "virgin" to skinny dipping, either!
alternate caption: Is this hot, James?
I'm of the opinion that making-out isn't a big deal unless it's between coworkers, or behind the back of a sig.other, or with a family member, or... I guess there are a lot of caveats to consider, but in this case, I don't think it's a big deal (although I do think it's pretty funny, but kind of embarrassing) even though I was hoping James wouldn't show up the next day - which he didn't.. but then I wondered if he didn't want to see me and was embarrassed and I though I was relieved, I was also a bit offended.
Later, when telling Alyssa (the only other person I've told, after the internet) about this she realized that James is the best friend of the boyfriend of her friend Nicole! I thought she was thinking of a different Nicole (someone I know) and was really embarrassed, but it wasn't, and I'm not. I'm not sure if I am embarrassed, really. I guess the naked part is embarrassing, the falling is funny, but really I think Alyssa was just having a ball laughing because for once it was a ridiculous story I was telling her about myself, instead of the other way around.
Here's something school related:
I've decided to study mitochondria. I'm excited! Sheila (my other housemate) thinks it's really specific, which I guess to some it sounds like it is, but to me it sounds so general. They're really interesting and weird! I'm looking forward to it. Today Brian (my supervisor / prof) gave me a bunch of papers to read, which got me more excited. He said I'm going to have to learn everything there is to know about mitochondria - can't wait! Seriously! Maybe it's because I've become really bored with this project I've been doing this summer (Lateral gene transfer vs. duplicated genes in Bacilli) and want to get this grad school gravy train moving.
a glowy mitochondria