The Long Update

It's been far too long since my last post. Nicole called me out, so here goes. I'm going to limit myself to her trip to Austin for spring break and my current state of mind. I promise to have lots more to say in the build-up to Uganda.

Nicole's trip to Austin was nothing less than awesome--minus the weather--and a seriously needed break from everything LBJ. I drove to get her in San Antonio, where we had dinner and margaritas on the riverwalk. It is next to impossible to describe the times we have together in words, so I'm not even going to attempt to do a run-down of our first face-to-face in 7 months. The next three days are a blur of tequila, rain, shopping, singing, snuggling, and us being exactly the same as if we had seen each other the previous week. That's when you know you have yourself a bffl. We ate barbeque, drank too much beer, ate too many breakfast tacos, and had a tearful goodbye. It's criminal that we don't live closer together. I keep promising I'm going to be the crazy Aunt Sarah to her kids that lives next door or in the basement. Seriously. It could happen.

Since then, I've gone through periodic ups and downs in my moods. This semester has been only moderately appealing school-wise, and I feel like I've been waiting forever to go to Uganda. I finally bought my ticket. So it's real. I also got the shots I needed last week, and my arm hurt for days. So it's really real. In the last week or so, I've been motivated to start thinking big picture. What to do after Africa, next year, and post-grad. My PRP next year might take me to Africa a second time, and I'm seriously considering applying for a Fulbright for 2010-2011. At the very least I'm compiling a list of organizations and agencies with which I'd like to work after graduation. I'm trying to be serious--even though I can't bring myself to care about my classes...

I'm currently sitting at Mozart's on the porch looking out at the lake on one of the most gorgeous days we've had in a while. There are people on boats, and I'm writing about local governance in Thailand and yellow fever. I'm usually content with being one of the people that cares about things that are going on outside my own small universe, but on days like this part of me wishes I'd been built like a beach bum. On that note... it's back to yellow fever...