Wow. Graduation happened on May 29th. I have been so busy since then, it’s not even funny. From shopping sprees, field trips, job applications, musical adventures, and road trips, it’s been a busy while. And I have college staring me down at the end of the summer, which I hope will be a fun experience. Here goes a brief run-down of what’s been happening!

Graduation

As a follow-up to my last article, it is important to note that our valedictorian was not present at our commencement ceremonies. Helen’s speech was incredible—meaningful on several levels, and I thought it was a very funny speech, because it subtly jabbed at our valedictorian. Kudos to Helen for putting it together.

After graduation, I went to the reception at Enloe and then back home, where we partied until about 1AM. Needless to say, I was exhausted the next day. The party subsided and I spent the next day shopping on-line, which is an entirely different story. Being thoroughly partied out, I didn’t go to Liz’s party on Sunday either. Monday, however, I went to Christine’s party, as it was the last time I’ll see her for quite a while, if… forever. Though it seems like such a strong word. Only time will tell.

Road trip

Prefix: I farked this one up big-time. I waited too long to ask my parents, so I didn’t get a straight answer about “yes” or “no” until Marj had left town earlier on Sunday. So it just turned into a Paul-screwed-up contest, which I lost bitterly. Luckily I got to go down by bumming a ride off my Dad, because it made no sense to take two cars. Marj and her mom met me in Kinston, to try and spread the work around. Thanks Dad!

So my trip to New Bern lasted about three days, I think. I spent time fixing their computer—more than I had planned at the very least. But aside from that we did some shopping, I think, and went out for a boat ride that was interesting to say the least. I needed a break from being home, and I got it.

Back home

So I came home and did job applications. They all bombed, which pissed me off a bit, especially since I heard no end of “get a job” from my mom, in particular. I basically idled around the house for a while and finished my thank-you letters for graduation presents. The stress just doesn’t let up.

My tech toys came, so I finally got a nice CD burner (that doesn’t suck), an LCD monitor, and a digital camera. My Lite-On CD burner works great, and so does my Canon PowerShot G5. But my NEC 1760-NX had too many color-shifting and response time issues for me to keep it, so I returned it and cleaned up my old monitor, and now I’m on that for the time being.

Road trip, part two

Yet again, I found another opportunity to wander down to New Bern. This time things went a little better, but I still procrastinated and it nearly bit me in the butt again. Anyhow, I finished fixing up their computer so it should be OK, and we went rowing the first night. The rest of the time we spent running various errands and such, including picking blueberries, which was quite an experience. They’d blow up in your hand if you didn’t do it just right (well, just the soggy ones, but still).

It was fun. But then we had to come home.

Maybe a job?

So without anything to do over the summer and still without a job, I decided to go volunteer at Carter Worthy’s campaign. She was running for NC Senate in District 16, vying for the position among a stampede of three other democrats (four total).

So only a couple days in, they offered to pay us, at nothing less than seven dollars an hour ($7.00/hr). I was shocked, and so was she. Hell, you’d be hard-pressed to make that much at most jobs for people our age. But you didn’t hear us complaining!

We cleaned up several things, and spent our time printing, mail-merging, stuffing envelopes, sealing envelopes, running errands, and visiting the post office. It was a good time. Then we ran a fourteen-and-a-half hour day and a twelve-and-a-half hour day, back to back, on July 19 and 20—the day before and the day of the primaries, respectively. We waited eagerly to hear the outcome that night.

Much to everyone’s disappointment, Janet Cowell won; we suspect it was mostly on name recognition, as she was already on City Council. We’ve spent the past few days gathering information on people to leave Carter with a database to start with when she runs for office next time. We’ll hold these jobs until the end of the month, or until Carter cuts us loose… not sure which one will happen first. I’ll have made in excess of $1,200 by the time this is over. Hot diggity. It’s been great for the summer—I’ve been very productive.

Home repairs

So amidst having a job, I voluntarily rearranged my room to put in a larger bed that my parents wanted in here for guests for when I’m gone. Anyhow, not only did I do that in one day with Marj, I took my ugly yellow desk out the following day to re-finish it. I stripped the ugly yellow paint off, and after two weeks of hard work, it now sits in here with a nice stained finish. I’m proud of my work. It’s a shame that I’ll only be here for another month to appreciate it, however self-indulgent and arrogant that sounds.

Orientation

I went to Virginia Tech on July 12–13 and got oriented. I forgot to pick up my ID, so it’s still there. We still don’t know who our roommates are, so lots of decisions can’t be made yet. Lots of things will be cool, and I hope I don’t overload myself with schoolwork. I met some people, got my laptop, et cetera. It was a good time, minus the somewhat tense fighting with my parents, but I gather that it’s a bit on the normal side of things, but not completely.

Where does that leave me now?

Well, that leaves me sitting here in front of my computer at 11:50 PM on July 24. I’m finally going to get an LCD monitor that doesn’t suck—I’ve seen this one in person, unlike the other one. It’s in black so I’m going to get a keyboard to match. My iPod will stick out, but it’s not much of an eye sore anyhow. It doesn’t match beige perfectly as-is, so it won’t be so bad. It might even look better.

I have to get lots of things done to get ready for college at VT, like my four-year course schedule and all the roommate and furnishing-related arrangements. Anyhow, that’s a (very delayed) wrap-up of my summer so far. Only a few weeks left until school starts, so I’m going to try and make the most of it!

Have a good rest of the summer for all you college-bound folks, and good luck for all of the Enloe marchers starting again on Monday. Bye!