The weekend saw the first of two goodbyes I’m finding quite wrenching: my friend Carolyn leaves today for a year in Bulgaria. Bulgaria? She’s a Fulbrighter, and she’ll be based in Sofia for the next year. She’s been renamed Karolinka —as she puts it, Carolyn translated, just as her whole life is about to be translated to Bulgaria. I’m going to miss her: it’s funny, I’ve known Carolyn less than a year, and I’ve probably only seen her about ten times this year (we’ve both been busy and never shared a class) but now that she’s leaving I know just how much I’m going to miss her. The one this I’m looking forward to is some corresponding. I’ve gotten a little behind on my letter-writing of late, but I’m hoping to sit down and catch up on letters in the next few days.

We celebrated Carolyn with a stooping party: sitting on the stoop to her fabulous group house in the U Street area, drinking wine and—as this was the deluxe party—grilling burgers on the stoop, transforming the whole experience in to a “Stoop-a-Q.” It was the perfect Saturday night, really. I’ve been enjoying spending time with some different people in the summer, from the Baked and Wired pool party, to stooping with Carolyn’s crowd, to the poetry group last week.

Oh, and hanging at Fort Reno last night. I’ve only just found out that summer sees a bunch of free concerts at Fort Reno park up in the Tenley Town area of DC. While I found out at the tail end, at least I did find out. And there are still concerts this week and next week. I had such a good time at the concert last night, and I ran into Taylor and Chris (from the poetry group—Taylor’s my link, through Baked and Wired, to the poetry thing). There was dancing, there was chatting, there was lying on the grass on a beautiful evening. In other words, the perfect Monday evening in DC. I’m looking forward to the next concert: Thursday.

I’ve been looking at lists of gigs coming up, too—there are some good musicians coming through in September, including Juliana Hatfield. I know, I know, I’m probably showing my age or something. (At 28, I don’t care: it’s a great age to show.) I love Juliana Hatfield, unapologetically, and I’m excited that she’ll be playing in the area in a month. When I had to select about 20 CDs to bring with me when I moved over last year, I had to bring one of hers. Sometimes her music is the equivalent of Linus’s blanket.

Speaking of September, for some reason I’ve started to think about my birthday party. In part because it’s now settled that I’m staying in my current apartment. Also, I suspect, because I’ve been having a real return to my music-is-everything mode, and dancing around my apartment I keep thinking about when I’ll have my next party. Answer? Ushering in 29.

Oh, and yes there are a few days left of class. I wonder if I’m guilty of leaving things too implicit sometimes? I had designed this week as something quite loose—time for revising, but also “looking forward/looking back.” Looking back? To the zeitgeist moment of 1990, with the launch of Beverly Hills, 90210. We watched the pilot, and, thinking through why 1990 was suddenly the time to launch what I still think of as the defining teen drama (yes, My So-Called Life is infinitely superior, but it was a cult show, while 90210 somehow was everywhere at the time) I found myself linking it to No Logo, and the sudden moment when youth was not only commodified, but also became such an important consumer-based. Especially thinking through the fact that 90210 was full of actors in their 20s playing 16. I think only two of them were teenagers when it started. Even just thinking through the fact that it was pretty much all adults showing “youth.” But when I make these kinds of connections, I find I can’t necessarily express them.

Today—workshopping towards the final portfolio. I seem to only have two students left standing. (One has vanished.) If the weather stays nice I think I’ll shift us outside. I do like the outside world…