everything keeps moving (an open letter to july)

dear july,
i'll be honest: i didn't expect much from you. june, while having fun moments and adventures of its own, was kind of a letdown in the ways of "figuring out what do with my life." see, i found myself out of a job in may. when school ends, so does the need for an assistant administrative staff member at clapham. i told myself that i needed to find a sustaining job here this summer or i'd go home to arkansas. june gave me only one really promising interview as a receptionist/admin assistant/marketing and event guru for a chiropractic office, while that one interview turned into a second interview that both went great, i didn't get the job. so, july, when you came around i almost gave up entirely.
i visited home twice between late june and early july, celebrating the our country's independence day in a part of the country that has firework tents every few miles and many yards outside city limits where a big BOOM is success (home in arkansas). i saw mom and dad and matt and victoria, went to an old friend's wedding, an old friend's organ recital, congratulated good friends on recent engagements, lit off a few bottlerockets, and decided that coming home to arkansas might not be the worst thing for me. it still wasn't my first choice, but i have a home and friends and family there.
but, july, you surprised me. there were a few job interviews in there, one of which has lead to a possible freelance marketing work. my assertiveness got me a coffeeshop job in wheaton. it'll pay rent if i can persuade my boss to give me enough hours and not change the schedule at the last minute. even though the search for consistent employment is still the hunt for red october or ahab's search for the white whale for both me and alyssa, but what we learned toward the end of july has given us both enough steam to keep paying rent and living.

so, thanks july. you came and went quickly, but i'll bet the activity you provided helped that quite a bit. could you tell august to keep it coming?
love,
meredith

speaking of rent, alyssa and i are moving out into a real apartment. real? you ask? yes. real. where we've been living is a small apartment over the garage of a main house. it's a nice-sized place, but compound two other roommates moving in and lack of proper kitchen, it was time for us to find something a little more stable. air conditioning and full kitchen don't hurt. we signed our lease this week and wrote very grown-up checks saying goodbye to big chunks of our savings, but here's hoping we earn it back. of course, we signed our lease in our new kitchen while i'm wearing a hand-me-down trogdor sweatshirt thinking:


pretty much.

the short version here is: i work in a coffeeshop. my manager is a little crazy, but you deal. i'm working on a freelancing gig, which is great because, well, you know, i'd like to do that for a portion of my life. if now's the time, it's the time. alyssa and i live well together, and we're moving out into a place with a KITCHEN. i turn 22 on wednesday, and there's gonna be a weird cake involved. i'm not going to promise to write here, because the idea of writing here is exhausting. but i'll do my best: the site is due for its yearly facelift and i'll be taking a web design class in the fall. yippee!

much love.