* Americorps(e) is done. I don't have to get these things done "for America!" anymore. Just because I want to.

*I spent many hours on an island and the ferry back and forth with the mother of a good friend, talking about youth and age, poverty and privilege, energy, balance, death, loss, beauty, grace, struggle.

*I spent my night post Americorps(e) drinking wine and gin (in retrospect, a poor combination), talking fast about burning up and Nederland, lust and everything else with Drew and Mark and Ryne, after it had been my intention to go to sleep. This resulted in bruised knees (careless dancing at Havana), lost keys (maybe, hopefully, they are somewhere in my trash heap of a room, but more likely they are gone forever - I am sentimental, I have to remind myself that keys are just objects like any others), and a hangover that lasted until 9 pm the next day.

*Tonight, I start working graves. I have not had enough sleep to prepare me for such an endeavor. There will be coffee, books, adrenaline, willpower. Tomorrow will be easier. I have spent today preparing by reading Dear Sugar advice columns on Rumpus, watching Law and Order SVU, and sitting on the porch with Mark while he practices bending notes on the harmonica.

*I miss Orion a world, an ocean, already.