May

My Austin May has proven more eventful, more joyful, and even more emotional that I'd imagined it could be.  It's as if the city itself knew that my final weeks as one of its official daughters needed to be...amazing.

I ended April on a bittersweet note to be sure.  On the second to last day of that month, I craned my neck under a starry sky at Stubbs to watch the Decemberists croon to me once again.  And then within moments fell off my own metaphorical pedestal and got...well, just shaken back down to earth.  

That's always good, ultimately.

A phone call on May 2nd shocked my system in a completely different way.  After two weeks of thinking that the funding had fallen through for a grant I desperately needed, my advisor stunned me with the news of a 180.  I was back in business.  The UGA grad school said so, and I said so.  That validation from an institution shouldn't be what I needed, but I'm not ashamed to admit that I did indeed.  This news means that I will walk in graduation one calendar year from now.  That revelation knocked my flip-flops off.

What followed has been a month well-divided between writing lectures, writing prose, and sharing moments with people I love, love, love.  Combine all of that with the encroaching summer sun, the days by the pool, the hope of things to come...and I am just bursting.

Here's the last few weeks in pictures:

This was a sushi feast of epic proportions @ Kona Grill, sponsored by the fine ladies of The Steeping Room (my place of part-time employment for the past nine months).  

 Finally some shots exist of Meredith and LA.  This lovely creature has been my rock as well as my sometimes-girlie partner in crime for all things cheesy and all things beer.  She's coming to visit Athens this summer, thank goodness.  I will miss her smile and our conversations.  Text lines will explode along the piney woods South corridor as we exchange updates.

Derek and Chelsea Bentley, two of my dearest friends from Athens, came in town for a stretch.  Chelsea's sister Jenna graduated this past weekend with a masters from UT (!), so the whole family descended upon Austin.  This is last Thursday during a Bloody-Mary-ed lunch at Juan in a Million.  Spending time with them has made me realize what a family of friends (oxymoronic on purpose, that turn of phrase) I have back in Georgia and how excited I am to exist alongside them again.  Cheers! 

My last day of food service...I hope ever.  Enough said.  My boss stuck this piece of masking tape on my shirt as I left.  She didn't realize quite how symbolic it was.  I loved the concept so much I put it on my steering wheel.

Clive Bar at about 1am.  Mini Athens reunion. 

 The munchkin outside in the sun.  She is growing and growing.  I suspect she senses that I'm leaving, because she's been lovingly clingy as of late.  Skype will be our friend this summer.  

I call these "coffee afternoons with the pops."  I know my dad is sad to see me headed back four states away.  We've been spending a lot of time together, mostly at coffee shops just chatting.  It's relaxing and comforting.  I'm going to miss seeing him all the time.