[the first day of summer]

Turns out today is the first day of summer. One of my clients informed me. It's unnerving how often they correct me on things. Should I be concerned? 

I'm not moving to Wisconsin at the end of the summer, so I've been reworking my "plans," trying to come up with something ambitious. I'm going to keep working both jobs until the end of the summer, just save, save, save. I've already got a good amount saved up, and maybe by the end of September I'll have several thousand saved up. 

Based on John's recommendation, I did take some of the money I had saved up for Wisconsin and spent it solely on myself: I got a brand new Playstation 3 with some good games (Birds of Steel!!!), a nice HDTV from Traci, some home decor, and (best of all!) an air conditioner. I rearranged the apartment, too, so I can enter summer as if it were in a "new phase" (a phase I didn't exactly want, but one which could be promising nonetheless), and also so I can hide the fact that 65% of my belongings are seven states away. There's nothing quite stepping into your own place, your Sanctuary, your every-man's-castle, to be reminded of something you're trying to forget. I think this will help, and it looks pretty cozy:

Yes, that's a 1599 Geneva Bible (LIKE THEY READ IN THE COLONIES!!!)

Since I'm going to have absolutely no life for several more months with work, I'm trying to fill in the gaps by being productive. Here are some goals I have for the summer and fall:

(1) Explore a different brewery each week.

(2) Finish my "Colonial Crisis" essay (it'll be about 100 pages...)

(3) Find an internship or part-time gig with some type of ministry

(4) Write a novel (and that's the easiest one!)

And I can add "Apply for Grad School" as Number 5. Mandy and I decided it would be best for me to wait until I moved up to Wisconsin to start looking into Grad School, but since that's out of the picture and I'm an unmarried 27-year-old working 80 hours a week and living below the poverty line, Grad School might be one of the best ideas I've had in a while.