Today is the one-year anniversary of the deaths of nine firefighters in Charleston.

Last weekend was first genuinely fun weekend I’ve had in the 30+ days I have been in Charleston. I got to see Rilo Kiley last Thursday (a weekend day by Gainesville standards) and it was a much better show than I thought it would be. I always assumed they would be unenthused assholes but they weren’t and Jenny Lewis was so charming. I wrote a review for my paper’s blog that you can read here: http://music.ccpblogs.com/2008/06/13/live-review-rilo-kiley-music-farm-612/.

On Saturday night I went out with some people from work and had the best time. I went to a show (my semi-boss’ boyfriend’s friends were playing at a weird bar on James Island) and then I got my first taste of downtown nightlife. I went to a bar, practically the first bar I’ve ever been to, and I drank more than I’ve drank since the one time I was ever drunk more than two years ago. And it was only three drinks and I wasn’t drunk (though I probably could have been there with one more). I had good conversations with good people.

The Music Farm, where the Rilo Kiley played, and the crowd that was there was so different from Gainesville, by which I mean it was almost completely unpretentious. By which I mean it was hardly “scene” at all. I was not surrounded by an intimidating and immaculately styled crowd of kids that I know or sort of know or just see out all the time like I would at Common Grounds. Gainesville has this strange accumulation of cool kids, whether punks or hipsters or whatever, that don’t exist in Charleston. It’s nice, but at the same time, it’s lonely. I feel dissimilar from kids here. Now, instead of feeling underdressed wherever I go, I feel overdressed.

But just as I am beginning to enjoy myself, my job is starting and is already becoming overwhelming. I am scheduled every day for the next six days. I have a number of friends coming to visit me next week and I’m worried that I won’t be able to spend any sort of time with them. I always go into the summer wanting to be horribly busy all the time with work and I always get overwhelmed by my wish. Two years ago, there were points where I was going from seven in the morning to midnight between my internship at the Coral Gables Gazette and my part-time job at Express. Last summer, even with setting my own hours at “Copytalk,” I had so few weekday hours to myself that it made me miserable. I just don’t want to leave parts of this city untouched because I was stuck in a movie theater.

I luckily found my camera but I haven’t had a chance to go anywhere picturesque since doing so, so here instead is a picture of the bridge that I have to go over to get to work everyday: