ala-kazaam!

That's what I always think when I hear the word "Kalamazoo." It's one of the smaller Midwest culture shocks, having to repress a giggle every time I hear someone mentioning this Michigan city. (Oh, yes, and Michigan City is the name of a town in Indiana. This place has identity issues.)

But yet here I am in Kalamazoo for the Fourth of July weekend, having entertained a fabulous Friday night and Saturday in South Bend. Karen Sommerville came down from Pontiac to do a Mary Kay party with me, Colette, and a few girls from church whom I am trying to persuade to be my friends. Yesterday I went to my boss Meg's wedding reception at Fernwood Botanical Gardens in Niles, Michigan -- a stunningly gorgeous place with a little tiny cedar-sided "Winter House" with whose floor plan I have fallen completely in love. I have a new life goal: build my own house. That house.

After the reception I backtracked to Indiana for a send-off party for manager-and-friend Ashleigh, whose Marines unit is being shipped to Iraq on Tuesday. Then I drove north again to Colette's family home in Kalamazoo. Because although, for the first time since moving in, my apartment is fabulously clean (nothing like the deadline of immanent company to get a girl motivated), I'm sick of sitting in it alone. And there's a freedom about waking up in the guest bed in a strange house, whenever I want, throwing on clothes, and cooking breakfast -- I made pancakes for the first time in my life -- yay! It's like a teeny-weeny vacation, particularly with Monday off.

I am once again at a place of loving my singleness, of being absolutely content with myself, and of getting out and being sociable as a result. It's truly perfect.

And I LOVE having a weekday job. It's so weird to be able to do things on a weeknight, or go away for the weekend, with a clear conscience. My brain keeps wanting to say, but you have homework you should be doing. But HA! that's not true anymore.

Happy Fourth!