Synopsis of a Year: 2003

[wwl710]

January ("You start the year off fine.")

• 2003 commences.
• Finish the first semester of college. Yipes. The fact that that was a year ago already makes me feel really old.
• Intersession at Dan's house in Vermont. Cross-country skiing, sledding, candle-pin bowling, sleeping and good food ensue. The Camry goes into a snowbank on his driveway.
• Luke's surgery. The one time I will ever see him on drugs.

February ("You'll be my Valentine.")

• Second semester begins, including two of the coolest classes I've ever taken: Environmental Creative Writing and the Research in Harvard Forest Seminar.
• Second semester begins, including one of the worst classes I've ever taken: Environmental Engineering.
• Valentine's Day. Loneliness, drama.
• To North Carolina for Prom with afiakate. (I think that was in February. Maybe March, though.
• Skiing in Vermont. I run into a tree. No major injuries.

March ("I'm gonna march you down the aisle.")

• Blocking! Drama ensues. Somehow, I am not killed. I sincerely thank all those who refrained from strangling me.
• Spring Break at Kiawah Island, South Carolina with afiakate! Biking on the beach, playing tennis, talking in French to "les allie-gahtores!"
• The Jetta starts to insist that there's something wrong with it. No one can figure out what's wrong.
• I return to Boston after spring break to a snow storm.

April ("You're the Easter bunny when you smile.")

• We find out house assignments. Huzzah for Winthrop!
• I meet my great-aunt for the first time. She is a blast. She used to perform on Broadway and now is about the coolest old woman I know.
• Schoolwork continues. Luke's extremely sketchy attempt at drawing a ghost on the ceiling continues to be there, and continues to look like three breasts.

May ("Maybe if I ask your dad and mom...")

• End of the second semester of college! I swear to never again have a schedule that has only two days of class a week.
• Scrubbing off the glow-in-the-dark paint leftover from the Halloween study break with Luke and Dan.
• Driving back home with Dan. The Camry does fine, except the radio dies in the middle of Ohio. Ohio is a really flat, boring state when there's no music playing, and the only source of sound is Will singing.
• Dan and Luke visit my dear home. Luke strips for Jenn's 18th birthday party.
• Lis and Radcliffe crew win the NCAA Championship!

June ("...I can take you to the junior prom."

• Home! Much slacking off ensues.
• Visits with ellenneithernor before she heads off to the great unknown that is Cambridge.
• To camp. Lifeguarding classes are a lot of fun, but the pool has far too much chlorine. Then precamp-- sailing all day, everyday.
• First term starts. My cabin is awesome. Then things start to fall apart: homesick kids, boating accidents, no good chance to get a day off.
• Last week of June, mom and dad call to say that Jupiter's going downhill.

July ("Like a firecracker, all aglow.")

• Jupiter continues to get worse. The decision is made to put him down; I ask mom and dad to wait until I can be home for intersession.
• Sailing trip. Good times are had by all. I start to think that maybe Seniors aren't so bad. The last day of the trip is my birthday; they remember about 1 in the afternoon (but they remembered!).
• Last half-week of camp: Jupiter failing fast, kids stressed, I'm exhausted, parents visiting, general chaos.
• Home for less than 24 hours. Get home at 5 pm. Jupiter manages to wag his tail when he sees me. All he can do is lie down. He sleeps with me on my bed his last night. In the morning, we offer him blueberry pancakes, and he somehow finds his appetite again and eats them. We figure, "why not?" and so he gets a chocolate bar-- the first chocolate bar he's been allowed to have in his life. He appears to enjoy it. Grampa comes up, too, and Jupiter gives him a tail wag. We take Jupiter into the backyard, where he lies on the grass. The vet comes-- she's very nice, calm. He goes quietly, lying in the sun in the backyard. He's so weak that he doesn't even flinch when the needle goes in and I can't tell precisely when he stops breathing. I go get ready to go back to camp while mom and dad bury him in the backyard. By 3 pm that day, I'm back in camp, welcoming new campers, appeasing parents' worries, etc.
• Second term begins, with almost a better group of campers, if that's possible.

August ("When you're on the beach, you steal the show.")

• Camp ends relatively uneventfully. The Camry makes it home from camp (barely).
• The Camry is retired with 196,004 miles on it. We get the new Accord. Lis goes out to Boston, and I drive out a week later. Perhaps the most boring three days of my life, but much thanks to my hosts in Pittsburgh and Greenwich.
• Back in Cambridge for the third semester. Somehow, I end up with the single in our suite.

September ("Light the candles for your sweet sixteen.")

• Classes start, including one of the best courses I've ever taken (Ec10) and one of the worst (Atmosphere and Oceans).
• Trips to Walden Pond, New Hampshire, Plymouth.
• Luke goes to Provo for training.

October ("Romeo and Juliet for Halloween.")

• Somehow I keep myself occupied. I'm not sure how.
• Trip to Salem before Halloween. It stinks. We pledge never to go again.

November ("I'll give thanks that you belong to me.")

• Ted from camp visits the weekend before Thanksgiving. Much merriment ensues. We also meet up with Mike from camp for breakfast.
• Mom's 50th birthday.
• Thanksgiving: food, and lots of it. Hurray for Ocean coming, too!
• New computer arrives.

December ("You're the present 'neath my Christmas tree.")

• 10th biggest snowstorm in Boston's history. I find an SUV stuck in the snow-- in the middle of a Cambridge street.
• Classes wrap up for the third semester. Only exams to go...
• Home on Dec 16. Holiday party at Carrie's. Movie night at Jenn's. A whole lot of lounging around.
• They catch Osama and treat it like it's everything they wanted. Immediately after his capture, they manage to raise the nation's terror alert level without much notice, since everyone's treating Saddam's capture as The Big Breakthrough. Yeah, good, we caught him. It ain't over yet, folks.
• Christmas: quiet and peaceful. Very enjoyable.
• Mike, a singer in the church choir, dies suddenly on Boxing Day. He was 50 years old.
• New Year's Eve: tennis with the family, then beef fondue. A quick visit to Kurt's house, then back home for midnight. We were in bed by 12:30, but that's 2004, so it doesn't really matter.

Yeah, yeah, my heart's in a whirl... It was quite the year. Generally a good year, I think, but it definitely had its ups and downs. And there are the more general things, too: the Catholic church scandals, the gay rights issues (marriage in Massachusetts, bishop in Episcopal church), SARS, Mad Cow in the USA, the continuing conflict in Iraq, the mess that is the Democratic party.

What a crazy world we live in. But, on that note...

HAPPY 2004!