3, 2, 1...

Well good, the world didn't end. The government shutting down is a very weird concept and also a terrible idea. I'm glad it didn't happen (for now), but there is obviously a lot wrong if it came down to this. I have a post planned for the future about money being thrown down the drain when it comes to health education programs, as well as prevention/treatment. I'm not "into" politics, but some things, it is very clear to see, just don't make sense.

Right about this time three years ago was my first visit to Kyle in Pittsburgh. It was kind of an eye opening experience to see what college life was like on and around a campus where you couldn't get absolutely Everywhere in seven minutes tops, as is the case with AU. Two years ago I was once again visiting, this time to show my parents and brother around after having decided to transfer to Pitt. One year ago Kyle was visiting for our anniversary, but had withdrawn from school and returned to State College for a few weeks already. This April is an anticlimactic end to the school year, and my undergraduate career. Pittsburgh has failed to have more than one nice, seasonally appropriate day at a time, and instead resorts to its go-to forecast of choice: grey, rainy, and generally unpleasant.
I do not plan to go to any graduation events or festivities, or to celebrate much at all. I look forward to moving and to getting back to visit Kyle one last time before he deploys in May. His deployment is really just now starting to hit me, as everything is about to change, and nothing will be as it was, deployment aside. We're married but we can't start our lives together. I'm graduating and free from my ties to this school but we still can't be together. Such is life as I've accepted it. Turns out acceptance doesn't make it much easier at the end of the day.

What does make it a little easier is my plan to get a cat after I return to State College! If I'm honest, this plan is more of a latest obsession, and I really can't wait to have some company and a creature to care for. I love our family cat back at home. I was there when she was born back at a friend's house in California in '98. She is sassy and getting older and a bit grumpy; she's the best. She does not, however, care much for any other living creature as she makes evident by either killing and eating the head of said creature if it is smaller than she is, or hissing and screaming at it wildly in cat language if it is roughly her size. She pretends that she is only using us for treats and letting her in and out of the house, but I suspect she has a soft spot for us as well.

That transportation review will be coming, I promise.

- From the desk of Mrs. Sarah McPherson