a promise I can't keep

It's really starting to feel like vacation -- Friday morning I was so incredibly, indescribably, painfully bored. TV doesn't interest me as much as of late, sadly enough, our DVD collection is getting too stagnant (it's in dire need of an update!), and though I tried reading one of the books that has been taking up space on my bookshelf for a couple years, it just wouldn't do. Not that day. Not that morning. I can't remember the last time I was bored. This is why I need things to do over summer. Boredom and I do NOT get along, at all.

Although, having said that, I really should start working on my summer research project again, things I should finish before my supervisor gets back in a few weeks...

Despite all my complaints, being bored in theory does make me feel good. I know my life is on a path which, the more I progress, the more there is no looking back and that being bored is something I'll miss in a few years. So it's a love-hate relationship.

Exciting news! Every year I go though a period where I vacillate between should I or should I not go back to the States to see all my old friends from Junior High. While planning my trip to the UK I spent some time seriously considering just that, but in the end, opted not to - not this year. And you know what? I'm glad I did! Because less than a couple weeks ago one of my closest friends from Seattle got ENGAGED. It's wild because we're only twenty years old, but then again if you've met that person, then why not, huh? It's so sweet. And incredibly exciting. I'm so happy for her. And I've decided to go! Her timing couldn't be more perfect because it coincides with the first day of my mid-semester break this coming April.

It's funny because on our trip home from the UK, we found out while checking in at Dublin Airport that Kirsty's valid but non-machine readable passport meant she couldn't enter the US, not even in transit. It was a horrible end to our trip, me having to leave her behind in Heathrow not knowing what would happen to her: Would she have to find a place to stay? Call the US/NZ Embassy? Buy completely new one-way tickets home avoiding the US? On the flight from Dublin to Heathrow, I was literally balling my eyes out cos I hated the idea of leaving her behind like that, SWEARING never to enter the States EVER AGAIN. Oh, how one should never swear because here I am, not two weeks later and planning a trip to the good old United States of America. Why, oh why, are they so strict?? But I guess their sovereignty is theirs to do with it what they wish.

I digress. So there it is. I'm going to Seattle. FINALLY. I've waited almost six years for this! It's been a long six years since I've seen most my friends there, with the exception for a few who came to visit me at Harvard. But even that was three years ago! Man, time goes by fast... retrospectively, it really does feel like a blink of the eye.