What Will Be And What Has Been

The past week has gone by incredibly fast. Some night this previous week, friends of Melinda's came to town. I met Jenn, Brandon and Matt. Jenn was born forty years too late. Her old soul would have lived in Golden Gate Park with flowers in her hair, covered in filth and loving every minute of it. Brandon was a fellow skirt-wearer, compared the J-man to the B-man, and struck up very meaningful conversation. He was biking from Melinda's house to Minneapolis when I last saw him. Matt, whom I had met earlier, is a quiet kid with a lot of heart. Cool people. We spent the evening playing guitar and joking around. The next day I met up with Jenn, Matt and Brandon (Melinda had to work). We were going to go strawberry picking but they were closed. Instead, we went to the wildlife refuge. We found a trail in a far corner of the refuge that went along a dyke towards the river. We found a beach-esque patch on the trail and went for a swim. It was amazingly refreshing as it was already muggy by noon. We dried off and went to the Coffee Attic for lunch. I worked that evening. I got to Melinda's afterward just in time to say goodbye to Matt and Jenn. Brandon, Melinda and I went for a bike ride through Galesville and drank tea. On Thursday, I went to Madison with Melinda and Haley. We dropped Haley off at Lauren's house and hung out in the city for a few hours. We smoked cigs and walked around State St. and the campus. We also stopped at the coffee shop, with Soren and Amanda, where Lauren works for beverages. We ate excellent spaghetti cooked by Jeff at the Pheonix. After supper, Melinda and I hit the road for Devil's Lake. Melinda's friend, Jenn, works there. When Melinda and I pulled into the parking lot, we found Jenn on her back with her ankle elevated. We went over to her and found that she had sprained her ankle trying to chase down a train. We drove her up to Julie's cabin and comforted her for the rest of the night (it was all much more dramatic than how I've described but on the off chance Jenn reads this, I don't want her to have to relive it). I played my guitar and Julie taught Casey and I how to make bracelets. Since, I've purchased 21 different colors of string and have made a number of my own. After a few hours of this, we moved to the campsite and sat around the fire until people went to bad one by one. Melinda and I camped in a tent with Casey and Arnè. It was cramped but we made do. The next day, Melinda and I met up with Jenn after she got off work. We went swimming in the lake by her house. After our dip, we drove to Baraboo for lunch. We parted ways and Melinda and I hauled ass back to Trempealeau so I could make my 4p shift at Pizza Corral. I was late by forty-five minutes. 

Since my return, I've tried to settle back into my "real life" routine in Trempealeau. It's been an uncomfortable few days here after seeing the sights of the city and meeting a handful of new people, all of whom I would have loved to know hang out with for another week. Seeing a glimpse of what will be and then returning to what has been has proved to be a hard, rapid, drastic transition. My upcoming move will be another equal drastic transition. I welcome it blindly.