Where O Where Is My Summer Going?

I just thought I'd post a post since I haven't posted any posts in a while and I'm wondering if people are wondering where have my posts gone... so here i am.

I'm back to training, and really I'm feeling better and better about my test the further away from it that I get. And I don't mean that I'm feeling better about my performance at the test, but that I've been able to absorb some of the many lessons from the test and I feel it was so important in my growth as a martial artist. I do feel I'm reaching a deeper level in my training and I can see how much of this path still remains for me. I had great fun this evening (despite temperatures at the school reaching into the 90s) as we practiced forms and sparring as a monkey or a crane. I was having great success as a monkey!

Organic Chemistry is fun too, but a bit scary. I'm quite nervous about the upcoming midterm. I know I always say blah blah blah about my tests, but I know the exams are going to be hard. We get these monster homeworks each week with a combination of book problems and the prof's own personal problems. His creations are long, detailed, complex and almost always unsolvable (by me). This does not bode well for me. Hopefully the curve will be steep.

We got a camper van. One of those cute little eurovan VW camper dealies. It's something I've always wanted and then when we could finally afford it, Todd was going to get it and i talked him out of it. We don't need more stuff! I'm going a little crazy with the accumulation of late, and frankly, i'm a little grossed out by it, but that's another story. Anyway, we began to drive by one several times and so finally i said, ok go look at it... so we got it and IT'S THE BEST THING WE'VE EVER GOTTEN.

Seriously. I don't drive it around town, in fact, so far I've never driven it about town, but we took it camping this weekend. We just went to shake it out, work out the bugs before our first big camping trip. We went someplace close by and set up shop. For those of you who don't know Lucy, she is a very sensitive person and also quite a city girl. I was a bit worried about how she would respond in the great outdoors. She is freaked out by bugs and noises and suchlike lately, so...

Well, she did great! I mean I worked pretty hard to make it as fun as possibly to get a positive review from her, but seemingly it worked. She loved sleeping in the van in her sleeping bag. She LOVED s'mores. And she loved learning how to pee outside. When we got home, she began to insist on sleeping in her sleeping bag every night. The only thing that bothered her was the popping sound that the fire makes. But I think with experience...

I wish my Summer were not filled with school so that I could take her camping every week! I think we may camp in the van on the street soon, we love it that much.

The three of us will be going again in a couple weeks for a longer jaunt - probably 3 nights a little further from home. I can't wait. Then in September, I'm going to an annual women's martial arts camp that will be held in Northern California this year. I'm going to drive the camper down and sleep in it (so I don't have to contend with a crowded dorm-like setting... i'm kinda over that...) and then Todd and Lu are going to fly down and meet me and we'll drive down to Monterey to see my brother and family - even my mom is flying out from Florida - and then the three of us will drive back, camping all the way! I can't wait.

So that is the update. I'm off now to study for next week's midterm.