real life is pretty grand

So, the latin midterm was much better than expected. I know this is not news or even that interesting to anyone else, but since it has dominated my life for the past, well, 4 days, it is mighty relieving to be done with it, and to have it feel so...good!

I hadn't been that nervous for a test since... I don't know, a Bio final in high school? Maybe? Or maybe another kind of test, some sort of relationship talk with an ex-boyfriend? I mean tests that you're able to prepare for. I was thinking about that last night as I walked in Odell Park, trying to bring my stress level down (it was dusk and grey squirrels the size of small dogs were skittering in the trees; no-one was around), and I said to myself, well, at least you're able to prepare for this kind of test. Thinking, of course, of all the tests in our lives we had no idea were coming. The death of a loved one, the death of a relationship, anything sudden. In that light, it ain't so bad.

This city has some wonderful bike trails, and I rode on 12 k of them this afternoon. The morning's sunlight had faded as clouds moved in, and I set out on my trusty velo, through Odell Park and down to the trail that runs Westerly along the river. In a kilometer you feel you're out of the city, and in another one or two you really are: there are farms with horses, homes snug along the water's edge, and across the river a view of fields and homes in the trees. There are some long low islands in the gun-grey water, a dusty yellow color, shaded like a horse's flank.

The trail was covered thickly with brown leaves and more were falling all the time from the deciduous trees that lined it. I met a few people coming and going, runners and other cyclists and an endearing trio of a grandmother and two small boys. I passed homes with pretty gardens, and all sorts of plants and vines and husked growths in varying states of decay. It is late October, after all. The predominant color is brown, with complementary reds and oranges.

I am in love, folks--that is, with Fredericton. Every day it shows me a new side of itself, and every day I learn something about myself by being here. New Brunswick was always just the province you drove through on the way to somewhere else; now, it is home, and the farmer's market, and lots and lots of books, and leaves, and hills, and wonderful people. My little apartment is fitting around me (that's what it feels like; in reality I am fitting to it)... I can walk through it in the dark and not bump into things.

There will be no ranting about GM food and food issues tonight. I'm simply going to go to bed. It's been a good day.