Really Deep Belated Thoughts

I'm back. I'm sorry. I'm here.

I'm not going to pressure myself to update you on everything. Here's the big things.

On School
I just finished my fourth semester. I had a creative writing class and a sociology class. I loved them both. This was, by far, my favorite semester--favorite professors, favorite course material, favorite classmates, favorite homework. I wrote my first set of short stories. I laughed through every sociology class with Hannah, my favorite classmate of them all. I'm excited for next semester. I'm excited for a much-needed summer break from school.

On Writing
I still love it. I still do it. I write for around three hours a day. Sometimes I work on specific projects, sometimes I just doodle with words. I'm humbled by the men and women in my life who are also writers who happen to be succinct, brilliant, and inspiring (Dad, Jess, Bree...). I think I'll be perfectly happy if my stories are only read by my little sister and my deranged best friends. My blog has been severely neglected, but I hope to change that. My blog has been a good way to communicate in the past. I hope to keep that up in 2012.

On Running
I'm training for a sprint triathlon. I try to run between three and five miles a day. I get a runner's high that probably outranks any substance abuse high I could search for. I'm in the pants size I wore before I had Finley, even though my body looks different. I love my body in a new way. I'm officially a runner.

On Christopher Hitchens
A man who was a writer, essayist, and philosopher died last week of esophagal cancer, and I'm mourning his death. He was fascinating, the type of person who spoke brutal truth regardless of the situation, and the world is now without one of the best minds of the twenty-first century. He was one of my people of the year in 2010. It broke my heart to hear that he's gone.

On Music
My childhood piano, the one my grandparents gave my parents when they got married as a wedding gift, is back in my life. This sounds over-dramatic and sentimental, but it's like being reunited with an old teddy bear. The piano is sitting in my room. I play it daily. The B-flat two octaves below middle C still sticks.

On My Family and Friends
My friends, my family--they continue to be the buoys that are keeping me afloat.

On Finley
Finley turned two. Finley talks in sentences. Finley knows The Nutcracker. Finley got a haircut. Finley imitates animals. Finley dances like a spaz. Finley can count to ten. Finley didn't cry when she saw Santa, and when he asked if she was a good girl, she answered, "Yep!"

On Life
Things are good. Really, really good.