absentee ballot, a haircut, and squirrels

i received my absentee ballot this week, and can i just say my heart started beating fast when i opened it today? weirdest thing. it did. my first election, guys! this is a big deal for me. my state has been republican for the last thirty years (except when clinton ran), so who knows what my vote will actually amount to. BUT. look at this cute little pencil they sent in the envelope (just as i started thinking "what do i fill this out with?"--are they READING MY MIND?!)!

(a dime is presented for perspective.)

for those keeping track at home: if my hair seems shorter, it's because it actually is. i, after days of hemming and hawing about my awkward growing layers of hair, took a scissor to it myself in the bathroom. it is all part of the master plan of growing it out, i promise! all to say, i feel very proud that it turned out so well.

although the weather seems to be suffering an identity crisis, the trees and squirrels are not. in our backyard at home, we have two shrubs i know by the name of "firebushes" because of the way the leaves turn from green to red in top-down sequence during the cooling days. the whole campus has been hit by this changing. what a glorious way for summer to end, no? the squirrels have to be among my favorite things to watch: they are out in force burying things, digging up things, misleading each other, daring to do things that needn't be dared in the summer months. they are hilarious in their resolve.