You see, Iowa City kind of has its way of shutting down in the summer. All of the campus ministries slow down (when they aren't stopped completely), lots of people leave to spend summer at home, on mission trips, studying abroad, etc.; some people leave for good because they've graduated or it's just time to transfer. And besides, I've only been here for a year (almost). That's not quite long enough to make friends you can call up in the middle of the night and say, "Hey, let's go wander around WalMart! It'll be AWESOME!!!"
Parents pull their kids out of daycare for the summer in Iowa City because half of them work for the University, so during the summer they can stay home with their kiddos. Which means there are less hours needed from the employees. Which means I only work 30 hours a week. And then clock out and hang out with the babies and all my kids who turned 2 and moved out of my room, because they're all cute and I have nothing better to do.
So I hang out at work after I get off. I donate plasma to make some extra bank (I'm gonna need it!). I read all the YA stuff that's fun to get sucked into for days at a time. I read poetry that I didn't really have time to sit down and bask in during the year. I read Shakespeare because I want something that will take up a LOT of this empty time that I have.
And I write my painfully rough draft of my WIP. I love the story, I love the world, and I love the characters; the problem is that I've been working on it for several years, and over the course of various life events, I have been several completely different people over the course of the past several years. My main characters always have a tendency to take after all of my issues, so poor Princess Inirae has run the gamut of all of my emotional distress and faced all of my problems with me and has thus sufficiently destroyed the arc of my story. Needless to say, Nostras is in a state of chaos that must be cleaned up. My goal is to pound through a rough draft by the time I go home for Labor Day so I can go to Kinkos and print it out so I can start my editing process.
When I need to get off my butt and do something, I've been cleaning. Because this chicka is going to be starting school a week from Monday! So let's set off on the right foot and have an organized office and a clean apartment to come home to! After all, I am incredibly blessed to be able to stay here another year, bats and cockroaches and all!
I have every intention of my last week of summer being productive, and I'm looking forward to putting this summer behind me!
~ * ~
Quick Update: As most of you know, I applied to the University for resident status. They sent me a letter that said something to the effect of: "We got your application. Now go on another scavenger hunt and spend more hours of your life on this process, send us an even thicker envelope than you did last time, and we'll look it over and let you know what we think." Moral of the story: One step closer, but it kinda feels like two steps back. At least they didn't just say "No,"... I think...
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