Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Summer's End


Summer is over. This is how I know.

I often have vivid dreams, but last night I saw myself in the chemistry lab. Now the class schedule said that the first lab would be a refresher on making and labeling solutions, so in the dream I carefully measured out 250 ml of distilled water into a volumetric flask and checked the meniscus. I added the correct amount of glucose and was about to prepare a WHMIS label when I glanced over at my lab partner.

She was pouring liquid from a flask into a large dark container and as she did so, a great gust of smoke billowed up from it, like in a Potions class at Hogwarts. When it cleared away I saw what was in the container. Somehow my lab partner had created a perfect ice sculpture of a stalking panther.

No, I had no idea how she did it. So I just stood there, holding my sad little 0.2 M solution of glucose, which was nowhere near as cool as the ice sculpture, until I woke up.

Anyway, that's how I know summer is over, when I dream about classes (which are starting a week from now).

It was a good summer, though. I completed During the Fire, the sequel to Before the Storm, and wrote 55 blog posts, none of which are here yet since I'm saving them for when the next two semesters heat up. I sent out queries for a fantasy manuscript and started another one. It was productive.

What was your summer like?

4 comments:

Maria Zannini said...

Holy moley, you were productive. Good for you!

My summer is still ongoing though I hope to catch a break in a few weeks.

I'd say you had a pretty good year so far.

Sarah Ahiers said...

No! NO! I REFUSE to believe summer is over! It's not over until i say it is!
Also i was terrible at chemistry. Not the actual chemical part of it, but just the math. It killed me. I still don't understand how calculus was a breeze for me, but chemistry math almost ended me.

Randall said...

I accomplished nothing. Absolutely nothing.

And, when you think about it, that's quite an achievement, isn't it?

Marian Perera said...

Maria - Well, you're not in the Great White North, of course your summer will last much longer. :)

And thanks! I tried to work hard and play hard this summer. For the most part it worked.

Sarah - If not for the fact that I need an education to get a job to pay the bills, I'd be happy to live like this all the time.

Chemistry math was tough for me too. Significant figures make no sense.

Randall - Absolutely! One day I'll spend time like that too. It will be very relaxing.