baby's first blog

hi. i'm jessica and this is my first blog.

it's called "if this isn't nice, what is?" which is taken from a story kurt vonnegut told in most of his commencement addresses (the following is from his speech at rice university in 1998):

One thing which Uncle Alex found objectionable about human beings was that they seldom took time out to notice when they were happy. He himself did his best to acknowledge it when times were sweet. We would be drinking lemonade in the shade of an apple tree in the summer time, and he would interrupt the conversation to say, "If this isn't nice, what is?"

my summer has been overflowing with sweet times to acknowledge, and i can only hope that the coming months of intense life changes and growing up will be the same. what a hopeful blog title!

unfortunately, i'm not feeling as excited this morning as i would like to be. i'm packing up all my professional clothes and having realizations: i don't have any appropriate shoes and i really don't want to leave. i know i'll be fine once i'm all settled in my new life, but this transitioning stuff is hard. i've never really been one to cry a lot, but i guess if there's a time for it, it's the end of something wonderful.

you know what's great, though? while i'm writing this, i can see two deer in the church parking lot across the street:


well, if this isn't nice, what is?