Elections and Being Home

Today was Election Day in Norwood! Our schools are facing severe budget cuts so we held a special election to vote on a tax override for the school and town. The vote's pretty controversial because a lot of people feel like the school committee has been doing a kind of Boy Who Cried Wolf routine for the past couple decades (i.e. a lot of people think the proposed budget cuts are empty threats). But most people who are in school or have kids in school are for raising taxes - myself included. It's been pretty hard to watch the programs that meant so much to me and my friends in high school (not just arts/music, but athletics and other clubs too) get threatened almost every year I was in school, and the kind of stress it puts on Norwood teachers.

And voting also meant going back to my elementary school for the first time since...elementary school graduation? So about 9 years? Since most other town/national elections happen during the schoolyear, this was also my first time voting in person. Voting was in the gym. There's classrooms in the gym, so I could kind of see where my 3rd grade classroom was. It was a regular school day and classes were going on, so it wasn't like you could see in any of the classrooms really. Voting's always been there, and I remember voting day feeling very normal as an elementary schooler, even though the gym was full of random people from the district voting, but now as an adult going in there, it felt very weird to think that children were just having a regular day of school. Mostly I just noticed how small the gym seemed. It didn't seem that small when I was in fourth grade, playing basketball in the afterschool sports program. I was smaller then too, of course, as my mom reminded me, but in my memories I don't feel any smaller. Everything else just felt bigger, you know?

Anyway, going home for the summer is like that. Yesterday was Norwood High graduation, one of the last class years where I actually still know anyone. I ran into a friend who was graduating the other day on a walk, and talked to her a little about her senior year. The first thing she said was how scary the AP English teacher was - a fact that all seniors at my high school are well aware of. It felt funny to hear her say that, because I don't really keep in touch with a lot of people who still go my high school anymore so it starts to feel all very far removed, but then I come back home and all those experiences just come flooding back, maybe a little fuzzily (my memory has never been stellar, if I'm being honest), but still.

We moved Caitlin into BU on Friday. Her apartment is really nice, and it felt so good to be walking around the city for a bit. I have it on authority from her that her first day of her internship went pretty well too. And Madison is in the Boston area now too! The review of her first day working with Michael at the T is currently pending however, will post an update when I know more :0

For the most part, though, I'm just home. Both my siblings are working, and I've been playing badminton with Caitlin or going for runs or walks or - last night - my first bike ride of the season! We only have two working bikes now and "working" might be a generous word - I have to sit so hunched over on the one I rode yesterday because the handlebars are too low but everything is so rusted shut on the bike that me and my dad couldn't get any of the screws to budge. But i felt good, to be out on a bike again (though I was cruelly reminded after going up a hill yesterday of this time last summer when I asked my mom if it was possible I had asthma since I was so out of breath and she said "No - you're just really out of shape.")

The weather's been nice, still pretty cool for this time of year, and the flowers and bushes around my neighborhood all are really pretty and colorful - look at this bush in front of my house!

They removed this van on the side of the road near my house. I don't know who "they" are, nor do I know what the van really was. It was just this old white moving-ish van that had been parked in the trees and shrubbery next to this house for as long as anyone in my family can remember. It was all dirty and rusting and covered in overgrown plants and stuff - clearly abandoned, but no one knew why. And then one day a few months ago, it just vanished. My mom told me about it right away. Everyone in my family was surprised. I don't know why it really felt important, though, other than how strange it is that something can be the same for so long and then suddenly, one day, it just isn't anymore. Going home is like that I guess!

You can't see the imprint of the van really well in this picture but this is where it was:

Kinda like the elementary school gym, I was surprised at how small the area looks now that the van isn't there - the truck seemed so big when I used to walk by it.

And speaking of old things or things from childhood (I guess the van is, in a way?) my sister and I started learning how to play Pokemon the card game :0 We've always collected cards but it seemed too complicated as kids so we never really bothered learning (or at least we would always modify the rules when we played to spare us some trouble) There's a lot of strategy involved, I guess unsurprisingly, and my sister has destroyed me twice in a row so far, but it's really fun!! I may be losing because I get too sentimentally attached to certain Pokemon in my bench (also, I obviously chose the cute cards not the strong ones) but it's really fun to learn and also Bulbasaur is so cute (even though I know from me, Naoni, and Dahlia's stats project that grass are weaker, I love the grass ones too much...and my deck is half grass types ...)

That's pretty much it from me though! I rented a bunch of books from the library and am reading, which feels awesome (my mom said "aren't you being ambitious about how much you're going to read this summer?" When she saw my stack of books, so now I have to read all of them...out of pride). Also my brother bought a car, which is wild, he's like a whole adult with a job! Meanwhile I'm stressed about how to make my Pokemon deck stronger...

ALSO I downloaded the TikTok app against my better judgement please enjoy this brief sampling of some of my recent faves:

http://vm.tiktok.com/dsavDj/

http://vm.tiktok.com/dsyXEW/

http://vm.tiktok.com/dsXB9t/

http://vm.tiktok.com/dsxQw9/

Kids these days are so funny.