Whoa there!

Somehow, between all the thunder storms and tick checks, I nearly missed summer. Where oh where did it go?

Yet the past two months have not been wasted. If I think long and hard, I can come up with some reasons why I am now better, smarter, and more accomplished than I was before BELL. Please note:

1) I am older. I am 22, which officially qualifies as a "cute little twenty-something." I have no more exciting birthdays left besides 25, 50, and 100, but that takes the pressure off of birthday parties.

2) I earned a 4% raise in my paycheck simply because I graduated from college. Given that most people my age can't find jobs, I consider myself extraordinarily lucky.

3) When confronted by threats of Lyme disease, poison ivy, H1N1, and giant mosquitoes, I refused to be infected by any of them.

4) I have taken part in Pokanoket (Native Americans) ritual cleansings, twice.

5) I have built solar water heaters, also twice.

6) I battled a Nor'easter in the middle of the night, only to be bested by a piece of rotting twine and a totally ineffective rainfly. After "securing" the student tents as best as we could, Kevin and I gave up, sacrificed our tent to the rain gods, and put a bucket under the hole in our roof. (It didn't help.)

7) I discovered that running is much easier when you know a beach is at the end of the road.

8) I witnessed Kenji eat a live Japanese Shore Crab in exchange for $1. That was a terrible moment in my life and one I will never forget.

8) I drank coffee. It's still gross.

9) I watched the International Space Station pass by in orbit.

10) I can do fifteen pushups with a giant cooking pot on my back; I can sneakily and stealthily capture the flag; and I am actually a pretty intimidating wiffle ball pitcher.

So that is it. That is my summer in a nutshell, and that is me, for better or for worse.