After a long weekend

Sitting outside of Sweetwater’s in Kerrytown a few minutes after three on a Sunday afternoon, I took in the scene around me. Sunlight arced over the building to my right, and a breeze fluttered in from the southwest. I was in short-sleeves – others wore sweaters – but I wasn’t feeling cold. Books and papers were spread on tables around me, inside the coffee shop and out, reminding me that school was in session and that this place, Ann Arbor, was a college town after all.

I’d spent the weekend in non-stop motion which began Thursday night, continued into Friday and Saturday, and was finally beginning to slow today. A lot of people were in town for the Michigan-Michigan State game, SHB and bf NMS from SF, CA among them. Three nights of bar outings had left me tired of ordering drinks, much less drinking them, and I was now glad to have a few still moments to myself. I looked at my paper coffee cup and admired the font scrolled across it. This was, I thought, my more natural state: noticing the things around me and wondering how I fit in with them.

The leaves have started to turn color here in Ann Arbor; the trees have begun to withdraw their chlorophyll back into themselves.

On Tuesday AMM leaves town for Washington D.C. I’ve never been in Ann Arbor when she wasn’t here, and I’ve grown close to her over the years. Her departure leaves me feeling like I’m looking out over headstones more than milestones. Graduation looms. In league with my advisors I've decided to defend my PhD in February or March. Applying for jobs will soon become habit.

Fresh-faced kids cross the street in front of me, walking to the artists’ market off to the right. Girls in oversized sunglasses chatter away. The breeze picks up, and I pull my jacket around me.