Right here, right now

Is anyone else feeling like it's crazy that summer is almost over?  I had all these plans for Paris fun in mind, yet so little of them have come to fruition. I guess the weather hasn't helped - first too cold, then too hot.  But after five years in Bretagne, French météo no longer really has an effect on me, so I guess I "weathered" the extremes better than others it seems.  Plus we are lucky enough to have an air-conditioner to help on those oh-so-hot days.

But time is just going by so fast. I often think of how when I was little, sometimes days just seemed to drag on and it took forever to get to summer vacation or Christmas break.  But now they're here in the blink of an eye.

I'm starting another big traveling spree - between next Monday and September 13, I will be home for a grand total of two days. I have a quick trip to the US squeezed in there too. And then it will be mid-September all of the sudden and only two weeks until my masters starts. 

I received my first few books for the course and they are LARGE and SERIOUS looking.  They cause these moments of minor freak-outs - like "What on Earth were you thinking going back to school? And in French? While working full-time? And with whole bunch of grown-up, businessy-type people?"  And then I remember that I too am technically a grown-up and that everyone else will be working full-time, and we will all likely get through it together.

In the mean time, I am just trying to make a conscious effort to be appreciative of what I have right now.  There have been several deaths of people around my age in my hometown these past few weeks, and I can't get their spouses and their families out of my mind.  Like one minute these people were here and the next they're not, and it's so crazy.  So I am trying to take a few minutes every day to focus on the good things in my life - my wonderful husband who notices the bottle of water on my nightstand is almost empty, and gets up to fill it even though he was already in bed, just in case I get thirsty during the night. My new job title, while sometimes intimidating, that is pushing me to grow & get outside of my comfort zone. My friends, who despite my crazy travel schedule, still make an effort to keep in touch. 

Life is good now, and I need to remember that, instead of constantly looking forward and imagining what it will be like once I'm done with my masters, once we finally buy our own place, once we have the fancy car I want, etc.  Once, once, once.  But what about today?