happy

my hair puffed up the other day. more than usual, i mean; i washed it and went to my Spanish class and all of a sudden it was enormous and everywhere. ACB used to have a theory that the volume of my hair corresponded directly to my emotional state---so that if i was extremely excited or extremely upset (frequent-enough occurences), the curls would amass to wild and usually comic proportions.
but i haven't been particularly excited or upset recently. i've spent the last few weeks in a placid good mood that matches the sleepy, warm weather in Oxford right now. we had a bit of a false summer about a month ago, and the entire town was heavy with blossoms, wisteria sweetening the Worcester air and inky tulips dotting the lawn. then it stormed for a week, and what was left of the flowers outside my dorm was mostly a handful of decapitated stems and purple petals smushed into the creases of the cobblestone.
but now, now it's properly summer. the college spends most of every day reading/sunning on the Nuffield lawn. it would probably be smarter to stay inside in the afternoons, but that seems wrong somehow. and then at night, when you do have to be inside, it's gotten to that point where the heat makes you feel sticky and disgruntled and you can't sleep. this is not fun. so the heat, or rather, the humidity, was responsible for the hair puff-up. i'm going with braids for now.

everyone said that summer term at Oxford would be lovely--the town really did start to glow in the good weather; besides, there are just so many fun things one *has* to do in Trinity. we got up at 5am for May Morning and heard the choir off Magdalen Tower (and then ate a fry-up breakfast). we've drunk Pimms on the lawn, repeatedly. i was in a summer term play (the website is mediocre, but now that i've started linking, i really can't stop). we checked out the big rowing event, Summer Eights. we make nightly visits to the G&D's vermont-style ice cream parlour. yesterday was designated Ben's birthday (he was out of town on the real thing), so we walked the couple of miles to the outskirts of town, through Port Meadow, and had lunch at the Trout; then came home and watched the brilliant Everyone Says I Love You. we saw a friend in a very interesting production of Macbeth staged on the grounds (that is, in front of the mound, around the inner courtyard, and in the actual chapel) of New College. we had the Provost's dinner that i already told you about; today i went to a garden party at the Maison Francaise; tomorrow is the Worcester garden party; Monday is the JYA "strawberries and fizz" for all of our tutors. i'm feeling festive and wearing lots of pretty dresses.
(we might want to take a moment here to just consider Wikipedia...kind of amazing and really very funny, i have to admit.)
most importantly though, we've been punting on the river Isis. that was just plain blissful. i started out pretty shitty at the pole-handling at first, but after a while i settled into a steady and very happy mediocre. when you're not actually doing the work, you're reclining in the boat drinking and feeding apple to the baby ducks, so it's altogether a win-win situation. right now, my priority is booking another punting expedition as soon as possible. first: pictures.

so yes, summer is pretty lovely right now. the only thing is, a major portion of my good mood was due to the fact that i had a little bit more time than usual to work on two very interesting essays and i was leisurely stretching my reading out over several days and thinking that work should always be calm like that. but now, well, they're actually due, one Wednesday, one Friday, and i might have conceived of them on a larger scale than is really reasonable. if i close this entry right now and read a play before bed, that might help.