I’m so glad it’s Friday. This has been a very busy week at work, and I need some time away from the office. I’m not sure what, if anything, I’ll do this weekend besides get some much-needed rest. The only two things I know for sure are that I’ll watch some college football tomorrow and try out a few new recipes over the weekend.

TGIF! Have a great weekend, everyone!

Today was one of those rare mornings when I actually wanted to get out of bed. Well, not the first time I woke up, when Isabella decided she needed to be fed, but the second time. I had been having a wonderful dream.

The dream unfolded as a series of brief scenes showing the progression of a new relationship. He was handsome and about my age, and it began with a hookup arranged through one of the apps. Later, we saw each other online again and decided to meet up a second time. Eventually, we exchanged numbers and became regular fuck buddies. There was no longer any need to search the apps; all it took was a horny text.

Each time we got together, though, we talked a little more and began genuinely getting to know one another. One evening, I was cooking when he texted. After we finished with the usual reason for his visit, I invited him to stay for dinner. Then he invited me to his place for dinner. That led to a few “Netflix and chill” evenings that involved more Netflix—and more conversation—than our earlier encounters had.

Eventually, I had an event to attend and was allowed to bring a plus-one, so I asked whether he wanted to come with me. After that, we began seeing each other outside our apartments. We went on actual dates. We even took a trip together.

The dream was made up of all these small moments in the building of a relationship. It was almost as though I were watching everything from above. Each scene lasted only briefly, yet somehow I understood the larger story connecting them.

After watching us go on a few dates, I woke up before the dream could progress any further. Sadly, it was only a dream.

Of course, there are couples who met on Grindr and eventually built lasting relationships. Still, if you’ve ever used Grindr, you know that it tends to be more of a “come and go” situation—although “come” might be spelled a little differently. That was fine when I was younger, but these days, it would be nice to find something more: someone to talk to, cook with, travel with, and share all those little moments that gradually turn a hookup into a relationship.

But, as I said, it was only a dream.

Earworms are strange things. Sometimes, something you hear sets one off. Other times, you wake up with a song already playing in your head, and it simply refuses to go away. Sometimes, though, it takes me a little while to recognize the song.

That happened this morning. Almost as soon as Isabella woke me, the words “Wake me up when…” began running through my mind. At first, I couldn’t remember what came next. When exactly did the singer want to be awakened?

Then it finally hit me: “Wake me up when September ends.”

I paused and wondered, Are those really the lyrics? A quick Google search confirmed that they are not only the lyrics but also the title of Green Day’s 2005 song “Wake Me Up When September Ends.” The song begins:

Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
Wake me up when September ends

The song itself is quite sad, but its appearance in my head this morning struck me as funny. I think my earworm was simply trying to tell me that I wasn’t ready to get out of bed. Unfortunately, Isabella is not a patient critter, and she had no intention of letting me sleep until the end of September.

So, I got up and fed her. She woke me long before September ended—we aren’t even halfway through the month.

Note: An earworm is a song or tune that becomes stuck in your head and repeats itself involuntarily.

It’s Labor Day, which means a holiday from work—and you really shouldn’t have to work on a holiday that celebrates workers.

Isabella got me up at an ungodly hour to feed her, but afterward, I went back to bed. I could sleep in today, so that’s exactly what I did. As I write this, I’m obviously awake, but I still haven’t gotten out of bed. I haven’t decided whether to take care of the hard dilemma at hand, go back to sleep, or get up and make coffee. Whatever I choose, it’s nice knowing the choice is entirely mine.

Have a great Labor Day, everyone!

It’s Thursday, and honestly, I don’t have much to say this morning. It’s been a pretty low-key week, even with classes starting back and the campus coming to life again. Nothing particularly exciting has happened, which I suppose isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

I am definitely ready for the upcoming three-day weekend, though I have absolutely nothing exciting planned. For that matter, I’m not even sure I’ll manage anything moderately entertaining. I’ll probably spend most of it at home with Isabella, reading, relaxing, and enjoying not having to go anywhere. There are certainly worse ways to spend a long weekend.

For now, though, I just have to get through Thursday and Friday. My coffee is helping with Thursday. We’ll worry about Friday when it gets here.

Have a great Thursday, everyone. The long weekend is almost here!

It’s Wednesday. Hump Day. The week is almost half over, and so far, this week has been pretty boring. Not that I’m complaining too much. Sometimes boring is better than the alternative.

The students are back, though, and that means one thing that makes the beginning of the fall semester a little more enjoyable: eye candy.

I still appreciate the fact that the new gym is now on the edge of campus closest to the museum. That means there is a fairly steady stream of guys passing by on their way to and from working out. Earlier this week, however, I saw something that I have probably only seen four or five times since I moved to Vermont nearly eleven years ago: shirtless guys on campus.

That probably sounds strange to anyone who has spent much time around a university in the South. On a warm, sunny day, shirtless college guys are practically part of the scenery. Walk across almost any Southern university quad and you’re likely to see guys tossing a Frisbee, playing an impromptu shirts-and-skins game of football, lounging around in the sun, or going for a run without a shirt. When I lived in the South, I never thought twice about it because it was such a common sight.

It happens at universities up here, too, although certainly not with the same frequency. There’s a decent chance that if you drive by the University of Vermont campus in Burlington on a warm afternoon, you’ll spot a couple of frat guys jogging along without shirts. On my campus, however, a shirtless guy is practically an anomaly.

I’m not even sure cadets are allowed to run around campus shirtless. There are rules governing so many aspects of their appearance that it wouldn’t surprise me if there were one about that as well. You would think the civilian students would make up for it, but apparently they didn’t get the memo.

So, when it does happen, it’s still a welcome sight.

Of course, on a campus like mine, where physical fitness is basically a requirement for the majority of the student body, the guys have plenty of other ways to show off what all those hours in the gym have accomplished. Tight T-shirts do a pretty good job of displaying shoulders, chests, and arms, while thin athletic shorts and sweatpants have been known to highlight certain other assets. I may be getting older, but I’m certainly not blind.

Summer would seem like the obvious season for more shirtless scenery, but unfortunately, we don’t have a large summer student population. Only a handful of programs hold classes during the summer, so there simply aren’t that many students around when Vermont finally gets warm enough for shirts to become optional.

And this is Vermont, after all. During the regular academic year—from late August through May—the window for genuinely warm weather is rather small. We might get a few weeks at the beginning of the fall semester and another few toward the end of spring before everyone disappears for summer. Before long, those athletic shorts will give way to sweatpants, then jackets, then heavy coats as winter settles in for what always seems like six months.

So, I suppose I should appreciate these warm September days while they last.

Besides, there’s still plenty of eye candy around campus, with or without shirts.