Hey family, surprise! For the sake of time and Kate's schedule, we have traded our respective times for posting, so now you're reading about me.
I don't really know how much the parents kept you updated on my last semester, but I enjoyed Westminster and am looking forward to returning. The teachers were, overall, good, my adviser an excellent one, and my classes, mostly, interesting. I survived--physically I mean, which was at several points a more pressing question than academically--and will resume classes on the 25th of August; I'm registered for several interesting classes including Intro to Creative Writing (for fun) and Philosophy and Literature. Still majoring in Philosophy with the addition of Women and Gender Studies as a minor. I have no concrete reason for the minor, but I prefer taking more hours to less to stay busy and challenge myself. One night I was browsing the list and an Education minor is something like 30 extra hours, Women and Gender Studies is 17. I also think it will be interesting to graduate with my B.A. in Philosophy, my Women and Gender Studies minor, and be able to hold a conversation in French (a personal goal to justify six semesters of the language).
School moved quickly however, from January to May 4th and I have spent my requisite time job hunting with little success, or at least what I did find was a little success. In my downtime I read constantly and tried to develop several habits I decided were good. I turned my obsession of order on my room and stripped nearly everything out of it that I did not need on a regular basis; I restricted my time on the computer (this went out the window with the purchase of a new, internet capable phone); I began waking up early and making my mornings a productive time; I repaired an old bike in the garage and began substituting it for the ever-trusty and oh-so-luxurious Zippy. Most of these were shortlived unfortunately, thanks to the intrusion, the club thinks it a blessing, of being hired by Praire Dunes.
I work at a country club. I work at a country club as a pool-side server. This means I walk around the pool where rich members laze while their often spoiled kids are babysat by the lifeguards. Mostly I fetch them their alcohol and try and avoid being seen by the shift manager who is always convinced we are not walking around the pool enough. I clearly dislike the whole setup. The Gazebo area is outside--no surprise right?--and we are responsible for everyone around and in the pool and the veranda. My respect for wait-staff is now immense. Nearly every day is hot and tiring, although this last part I blame on my hatred of the Dunes and not the actual labor (relatively easy for a summer job). I hate the Dunes for many reasons: because they think I should find it a privilege to be employed by them, because I am a drudge for people who want to be honored merely for their position and wealth, because the club is devoted to keeping and maintaining tradition. Whether it is this loathing or the work, my final reason for hating the Dunes is it leaves me drained, physically and mentally exhausted and empty. My bike-riding has ceased, I sleep in longer than I want, and while on the job I can focus on nothing else (except maybe why the gazebo does not have air conditioning).
With all that said, I would like to emphasize that I'm not counting down the days until I quit or even until my next day off (incidentally that would be today...the club is closed on Mondays). This is a minor annoyance I have with much of normal life and attach some philosophical importance to. The first time I really noticed the attitude of 'only X more days until the weekend' was after a three day weekend and the radio was announcing how the work-week was already almost over. The seeds of my reaction actually came from having just finished the excellent Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche with its many exultations of life and its celebration by enjoying what you did have at the present. That is to put it shortly and without any real justice to Nietzsche's genius, but if you would like to read the work I own it. Now annotated! To bring this back to my most recent complaint, I have found I dislike this anxiety, the impatience, everyone seems to suffer from: living first for when we can get off work and then for the weekend and then for a vacation and then for quitting or retirement. I understand the practical source of this waiting-for and have often felt the same, but the encouragement of this attitude I think is the encouragement of never living and a disparagement of the present. Yes, you've just read a paragraph reemphasizing that horrid cliche to 'live like you're dying'...but with more philosophical depth I like to tell myself!
I suppose I should mention then that I am, unfortunately, waiting for tomorrow and beyond that already considering the week after. Tomorrow because my friend Grace returns from an almost two week trip to Arkansas and without her my friends and I are less motivated to organize gatherings, and also because the Assassins game I am participating in finally ends. Assassins is a game of tag organized around the idea that everyone has a target (who they are trying to tag) and are simultaneously someone else's target (so they must avoid being tagged). It has been relatively slow in the past week but does have moments of excitement. My assassin, whom I refuse to lose to, tried to kill me the first night and I ended up sprinting around the Hutchinson Wal-Mart, in front of Home Depot to lie under some garden plants for a while and then when I heard the alarms go off I moved to some railroad tracks. Fortunately she has a midnight curfew. The rest of my week has consisted of bribing other assassins to reveal the location of my targets and making shady deals with people, by nature of the game, I cannot trust at all. It has been interesting. And finally, next week I am planning a trip to Tulsa to visit both Kate and a friend from school. I think then I will turn around and almost immediately go to Kansas City to see Toy Story 3 with a friend there. Poor Zippy, she puts the miles on with these day trips.
Not much else has been going on that comes to mind as newsworthy. I write (philosophy) often, read even more, go to work and see my friends. Also, I write angry letters to politicians as they contact me--Mr Mann received one in the donation envelope he sent me and Mr Huelskamp's was rejected for length by the Hutchinson News. "Letters supporting candidates may only be 150 words in length"...it was certainly not supporting him! They are interesting to write, because I don't bother to respond to their ridiculous positions but rather to their nature as politicians. I attack their short-sighted ideas that what voters want is necessarily correct and their tired, all-too-common rhetoric. So far I have only written these two Republicans but a Democrat would receive the same treatment, the same zealous joy.
Life in Hutchinson is slow, a fact commonly, and annoyingly, lamented by my friends, but has a rhythm to it that you can appreciate. I enjoy the summer heat, that swelter and shimmer on the street in the early afternoon sun and then the relief as the sun sinks later in the evening. Finding the enjoyment of all aspects of this life is a satisfying challenge, much like finding the beauty in the scenery that races by as you drive through the state. I feel like I should have some pithy saying or witty closing but nothing really comes to mind so I'll just let you down abruptly .
.JPG)
