Maybe When I Get Out of Here I'll Be Creative Again

Tomorrow morning I leave for Dad's, which precedes immediately DUKEDUKEMOTHERIthinkyouknowwhereI'mgoingwiththis.

Things I Am Looking Forward To:

1. Dad's cooking. I have a feeling he's going to whip out pastitsio at some point, after which I will die happily engorged.
2. WORK. The making-money kind as well as the intellectual and extracurricular kind. I want that adrenaline rush, the kind that comes right after you start thinking "ohmygod I can never finish all this in time ohmygod I am a failure ohmygod I will be working at McDonald's for the rest of my life". Having an income again will also be nice. (income, I love you.)
3. JEANNIEDEIRDREJONYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY! Ahem. Also other Dukies, whom I love love love and miss miss miss. (so badly, in fact, that I need to repeat repeat repeat myself.)
4. My fishies! Oh, you all just WAIT until I am back with my boys. You will drown in pictures.
5. Hopefully spending a lot more time with the Lewis fambly now that Jess goes to UNC. Hell, hopefully spending a lot more time with JESS now that Jess goes to UNC. Best friends since birth! Hurrah!

Things I Am NOT Looking Forward To:

1. RA training. 8 hours of being locked into Von Canon with...uhh...slightly dubious company. Do not worry, Jeannie dear, I don't mean you.
2. I didn't get to see Cam tonight because his boiler exploded. I will not see him, or any of my other EAers, for who knows how long. I don't know when/if I'm coming back this summer, and...I wuv you guys.
3. North Carolina doesn't have lottery tickets.
4. So...I was in Tops today, buying aforementioned lottery tickets (I won $1!), and I started to realize how inextricably the building is tied in with my life. I mean, for starters, it's the whole reason we moved to East Aurora in the first place - had they not tried to build it we wouldn't ever have gotten involved, and probably would have bought a house in OP or something. I can't count how many girl's nights, birthday parties, sleepovers, movies, and dates have started, ended, or middled with a trip to get more Pepsi and popcorn. I worked there for two mind-numbing, suicide-inducing years (I never quite got around to it, but be assured that I wanted to). I know that store like I know myself - its layout, its people, its little inconsistencies (why do you put the Cheez Whiz with the frozen food? why?) And there's something so - so soothing, so normal, so homey - about going there at night, when the lights are dimmed and it feels like the building is smaller and less impersonal. I won't be able to do that anymore. I won't be able to go anywhere alone after dark anymore without my whistle clenched between my lips. Ah, Durham.
5. Byebye, cooking for self. :(
6. Driving from New York City to Durham with a live fish between my legs.
7. Waking up at 6am tomorrow.

I will see you all on the other side of this week. Grandma, if you're reading this, I love you and hope you're feeling better.