tonight a circuit of the city on my bike just after dusk. The roads on my route were all recently repaved and it was a smooth, quiet ride under the spreading branches of long stands of live oaks. Got fast enough to get a little breeze going. Every time I slowed down, the sweet scent of city blocks laden with flowers.

*

tomorrow i will drop off paperwork upstairs to set my date for part I of the Defense. eek.

also tomorrow (or maybe the next day if i don't get my act together) i start my long road trip home, which will entail (athens GA - see previous parentheses on getting act together); g-boro, NC (friend for the road!); pittsburgh, PA (wedding!); niagara falls, ON (just because? + they have the best peaches); and then home sweet home for a week.

I would be way more excited about this trip if not for the aforementioned paperwork which is about to move my defense to TWO WEEKS FROM FRIDAY and here I am driving all over the world like a crazy person. [To be clear, it's not really the paperwork as much as all the writing and thinking that needs to happen between now and august 29 so i don't stand up in front of many people and make a fool of myself.]

I feel like i should be more panicked but the louisiana august heat makes it hard to get more than mildly concerned over just about anything. At this point, there's nothing a mint julep and a slowly circling fan can't solve.

11:58 p.m. - 2014-08-12