A Series of Firsts

That's what this past week(week 4, for those of them that are keeping track) was: a series of firsts.

Some of them were major, while others were more minor, but they were still firsts and that makes them important, right?

Yesterday, I went to my first concert since June. It was the Atari's, at the Union, and it was awesome. The first two acts were kinda 'eh,' but the Atari's delivered a solid show. I had fun and also wanted to hit people. Hard. In the face.

Which is always a lovely combination.

It was only because I was in the mosh pit. Which I didn't know was going to be that. Or even if you would call it a mosh pit. I should've known it was going to be a mosh pit when people were yelling at the band both in front and behind me. But no. I just knew that I was close to the stage and within minutes of their performance starting, I was getting stepped on, knocked around, smashed, smushed, struggling to not fall over, struggling to keep people standing up, and, at one lovely point, nearly getting my glasses knocked off when I failed to grab a crowd surfer's legs and got a foot to the face instead.

Just writing that makes my lip curl a little at the thought of someone's foot on my face. Not even a foot! A shoe that contained a foot! A shoe that had stepped in who-knows-what and IT! TOUCHED! MY! FACE!

Anyway. The show was awesome. I can't decide if it was the excited crowd(annoyed as I was at certain points) or the band, but, either way, I left sweaty, exhausted, and grinning, just a little.

The second big first was: I took my first 'real' test. It was for my history class and thinking about it, honestly, makes me nauseated. I want to believe that I did really, really well. But the rest of me is thinking 'I'll be happy if I get a 'B.' Please, please, PLEASE let me get a 'B.' It was, in most ways, my fault for not starting to study sooner. You remember that balance I've been talking about? I'm beginning to think it is the stuff made of fairy tales and spun sugar. It doesn't exist, and when it does, it falls apart very, very easily. BUT! Now I know how to better study for the next test. Which means I can improve. And, hopefully, figure out this college thing. I just need to stop being a Pretend-A-Freshman and start being me.

The final big first was, arguably, not that big at all. Of course, when you weigh a little over 7 pounds, you aren't that big.

The couple I baby sit for have a new baby girl, a beautiful, lovely little thing that I got to hold and see for the first time this week (she is 2 weeks old this Sunday). I am so happy for them. I like babies, so the only thing that makes me nervous with the New Baby(who will get a nickname soon, just as the Dude is the Dude) is that I have not really dealt with a kid under a year old since my youngest brother was born. And that was 8 and a half years ago.

But I got to hold her for the first time. And she grabbed my finger with her little fist and held it so tight and, just like her older brother and my own brother, she totally owns me now.

I looked at her and thought exactly what I had said when I called her parents to congratulate them: 'Welcome to the family.'

It was an exciting, hectic, first oriented week. And I would not trade it for any normal boring week in the world.