June

I don't really want to talk about June, because June was pretty manic. What I'm telling you about my bustling spring season is what most people saw and heard: a busy Mary, probably with a funny story about some recent date or weekend outing, working irregular hours due to after work commitments and frequent offsite meetings. I'm not telling you about the spaces in between, about the alcohol I regularly consumed at the end of a long day, or at the start of a rare obligation-free weekend. In June, with all the outdoor festivals and their focus on drinking in the streets, those private spaces started seeping into public view--enough to scare and shame me but not enough to make me slow down.

Other people achieved some notable things this month. My best friend Heather had a baby. On sadness, Lana's advice was: "more mango: fruit and color" and also to take an exercise class with a murderous ballerina. I did the mango part.

Coming off a couple months with no real romantic interest I developed an all-consuming, idealistic crush on someone I had met through work. Combining the shared interests and resources of our respective organizations was not enough for me (although I remain proud of that budding partnership to this day) -- ALSO we were going to fall head over heels for each other via a shared passion for social justice and I was going to tell all the internet dating sites to shove off. It Was Thus Destined. At work I started referring to this poor boy as My Future Boyfriend and when my colleagues tried to warn me about putting the horse before the carriage (or is it the carriage before the horse?) I brushed off all perfectly rationale arguments and dove into hawk-like pursuit, determined to turn this work relationship personal.

And it worked, because I get what I want.

We were right at that stage where I'd integrated him into the work/social happy hour hybrid (having exchanged cell phone numbers and texts in the process--do you see how this works, this is all very calculated) and I had learned enough to want to know more.

And then I went to Portland.