Time flies in the real world

It's been more than a year now since I got my thesis signed. It's been a little more than a year since I signed the lease on my apartment. (Which, incidentally, means it's time to sign another one.) It's coming up on a year since I moved to NY and started work. I've had a cell phone for a year!

My (first) graduation was nearly two years ago. I last visited my family in Virginia six months ago. Mystery hunt was four and a half months ago, which was the last time I saw a lot of people. (Which, incidentally, means they should come visit me.)

Every day this month when I've flipped the page on my calendar, I've had a little moment of panic when I realize that 2006 is almost half over already. What happened to time? I'm sure it didn't use to go this fast.

Part of it must have to do with the sudden lack of landmarks--there's no midterms, finals, major projects anymore. There's annual and mid-year reviews, but six months apart is too much, and anyway I've only been through one so far. Other than that the weeks more or less fade into each other. The slow sense of accomplishment isn't enough to tell me that months are passing.

On top of that, I've spent most of the past several months on a two-week cycle, where I spend every other weekend up in Boston. As much as I enjoy doing that, it means I only get the option of lie-at-home-do-nothing days every two weeks. Whatever sense of time I get out of that is a factor of two off from where it should be.

At least I can tell it's summer now. I can almost believe it's March as I walk up the street some mornings, but that still gets me within two months of the actual time. And then it thunderstorms and I feel like it's July, but still--just a couple months off. As long as there's regular seasons, I can't completely lose track of time. Good thing I'm not living in California, I guess.