trailing of the sheep

have you ever seen 1,500 sheep parade down a town's main street?  if this something that you want to check off of your life's "to do" list, i would suggest going to ketchum, idaho's trailing of the sheep.

the back story: every fall the ranchers of idaho move their sheep from the summer grazing areas in northern idaho down south to...graze in the winter?  get slaughtered?  this was a little vague, so we didn't dwell on it.  for the past 14 years, ketchum and hailey, idaho, have had a little festival to celebrate this event, as well as celebrate the three main ethnic groups that are involved heavily in sheep ranching in idaho: peruvians, basques, and scots.  so there was a parade with lots of playing music and dancing and traditional costumes by these three groups:

(note that the bagpipes look like sheep!!!)

and then: the main event - the sheep!

the sheep were very well behaved and did what they were supposed to...thanks mostly to the sheepdogs that were hanging out with them.  i liked this guy because he looked a lot like the sheep.

and then they were gone!

fun note: before the sheep made their way down main street, willis proclaimed that sheep "cannot run" and that he can "move faster than a sheep."  i told him he was ridiculous, lily looked up facts on sheep speeds on her phone (apparently they have been clocked at 30 miles per hour), and after the sheep walked/ran/jumped [the crosswalks freaked them out]/made their way down main street, willis was forced to admit that (a) sheep CAN run, and (b) a sheep could beat him in a race.

this was an excellent way to spend an afternoon.

can we discuss my love affair with pretty tomatoes?  i bought these at a farmer's market in boise after we'd flown in - then we had a really yummy lunch and drove to ketchum, where jenny lives.  we ate the tomatoes them later in the weekend with boursin cheese and they were DELISH.

idaho is beautiful

it is immediately apparent when you get to idaho that it is gorgeous.  gorgeous in a way that's really different from what i'm used to - rugged mountains with evergreens and scrub brush everywhere, punctuated by aspen trees whose leaves have turned a perfect fall yellow.

this is the view from the parking lot outside jenny's apartment.  so basically this is what she sees every day when she leaves her house.  i couldn't believe it.

this is just behind the building where jenny teaches at her new school, so this is what she sees out of her classroom window.

this is redfish lake, probably 30 miles north of where jenny lives in ketchum.  we embarked on a little drive northward on monday to see some of the more remote parts of the state.  note that i said "more" remote parts, since she lives in a relatively remote place, from my perspective:

and it is really fall there...in atlanta it is pretending to be fall, but hasn't quite gotten there yet.  fall is pretty, and it was nice to experience it for a weekend.

[photo credit: lily!]

the weather this weekend was perfect - blue skies, crisp but not too cold.  idaho did not disappoint, and for that i am very grateful.

update: logic puzzle

i have been missing in action!  apologies.  it turns out that when you're in idaho with four good friends you don't have a lot of time for blogging.  also, am i allowed to get headaches and be out of breath after climbing a set of stairs when the elevation here is 5,900 feet?  i mean, that's high enough to be a weenie, right?  right?

anyway, an update on our logic puzzle.  turns out the bed in the guest room is literally four and a half feet off the ground and two feet from the ceiling.  that adds a wrinkle.  lily and i ended up sleeping there (catapulting ourselves up and then trying not to hit our heads.  i hit mine twice, of course), the 60 year old slept with jenny, and willis got the couch.  it worked out perfectly.

we fly out this afternoon - lots more updates and pictures tomorrow!

logic puzzle

i am going to idaho (!!) this weekend to visit a friend who moved out there in july.  i am unspeakably excited about this.  one thing i've been thinking about, though...and i would love to hear your ideas on because i know it will be FINE any way you slice it...but it makes me giggle to think about it:

five people will be spending a long weekend together.  they are:
three 27-31 year old women (myself included).
one 28 year old man also known as willis.
one 60 year old woman.

we all work together and we are really good friends.  we are giddy about spending the weekend together.

the house where we are staying has the following places to sleep:
--queen-sized bed in the hostess's room
--queen-sized bed in the guest room
--couch
--air mattress

what should the sleeping arrangements be?  i think that willis has to sleep on the air mattress, but he assures me that he has to sleep in the guest bed alone.  um, excuse me willis?  you don't get the best sleeping arrangement just because you are the only boy.  or maybe you do?

[this is like the logic problem where a wolf, a sheep, and some grain (am i getting it right?) have to cross a stream, but only two can fit in the boat the same time and the wolf will eat the sheep and the sheep will eat the grain and ohmygod how can we get them all across in the fewest number of trips.]

happy friday, all!

you know you are a grown up when...

it is 80s day.  as in, the kids can dress up in 80s attire today.
they are really excited and thus are making lots of noise.
i am too tired to care and thus am really annoyed.

t minus 8 hours until my four day weekend starts.  can't come soon enough.

truths

my mom (also a teacher) sent this to me a couple months ago...i thought i'd pick out the best bits for you:

According to Jeff Foxworthy:


You know you are a teacher if...
--You get a secret thrill out of laminating something.
--You believe the teachers' lounge should be equipped with a margarita machine. [note: our school received an "anonymous donation" of a margarita machine four years ago.  it gets pulled out by the head of school at the beginning and end of the year faculty parties.  i'm not even joking.]
--You want to slap the next person who says "Must be nice to work 7:15 to 3:15 and have summers off."
--You feel the urge to talk to strange children and correct their behavior when you are out in public.
--You understand instantaneously why a child behaves a certain way after meeting his or her parents.


oh, teaching.  how i love this job...90% of the time...

in the mail today

whoever lived at our address before us - granted, this would have been three and a half years ago, since that's how long my roommate and i have been at this address - was a carolina fan.  [cue scary music.]  how do i know?  we are still receiving this magazine monthly.

[image from here.]

now, a good duke fan would have realized by now that he hadn't forwarded his duke basketball magazine to his new address...but i guess you can't give carolina fans as much credit.  so it arrives every month and promptly goes in the trash.  and i feel a little sick-o joy every time this happens.

don't judge me.

“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”
--Henry David Thoreau

online shopping is dangerous

i don't know what happened this weekend, but all of a sudden i was in DUKE BASKETBALL MODE (even though we're still college football season...but as i care not-at-all about football, it's easy to move past it) and needed new duke t-shirts.  my favorite one will always be a blue one that just says "duke" on it and that i bought while i was still a student...but when there are multiple games a week a girl needs a little variety.  so i bought these:

(both from amazon.com)

they are old school and (hopefully) adorable.  i'll report back once they arrive.  i may or may not be really really excited about them.

and about basketball season.

to remember

“Great opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones come daily.”
--Ivy Baker Priest

grumpy day, part 2

i have this exact interaction approximately 100 times a day:

me: hi!
coworker who i'm passing in the hall: hello! how are you?
me: fine. you?
coworker: fine!

(sometimes i play the role of the second person.  i am equally at fault.)

this has become a huge pet peeve of mine.  can't we just say hello and not pretend to care how the other person is?  because that's what it is: pretending.  we don't answer this question honestly, and if we did the other person would secretly roll their eyes and think, "i was just being polite - i don't really want to hear all this."  OR: can we ask this question only with purpose and really listen to the answer?  "how are you?" has the potential to be a really important question, but it has been totally devalued.

[sidenote: in england they don't say, "how are you?" - they say "you alright?" but it comes out as "y'lright?" and it took me forever to figure out that they actually DO CARE how you are doing and i was being rude by giving my standard "fine" response.  i once had a ten minute conversation with a person i'd never met before because he "y'lright?"-ed me and i took it seriously.  i appreciate this.  DO IT, ENGLAND.]

end rant.

grump-a-saurus

i'm having one of those days where i woke up grumpy and i don't think anything is going to change that.  everything that everyone does annoys me.  i can't brush things off as easily as a normal day.  i have one of these days every once in a while for no good reason (there is, legitimately, NO GOOD REASON for my grumpiness today), and it's a good thing i don't teach today because i might bite a child's head off (all classes meet on either wednesday or thursday for a 90 minute period, and my schedule works out so that all of my classes are on wednesday).  i have discovered one place in my office where i can sit and (a) no one can see me through the window that looks out on the entryway of the building, and (b) no one can see me through the window in the door to my office (the door that is OBVIOUSLY closed right now to keep out the riff raff).  i will hide and be productive and nobody better bother me because i might not be able to be polite.

in other news, i think you should watch this video.  this is reason #221 to marry a science nerd: so your kids can DO SHIT instead of playing video games.  this video might even cure me of my grumpiness.

november 7th

i have just realized that my birthday this year is on the day that daylight savings time ends...which means that this year my birthday will be 25 hours long instead of 24 hours long.  BOOYAH.  get ready to celebrate for that extra hour.  my birthday is better than your birthday.

(note: since i am one of the majillions of people who don't ever remember how daylight savings time works, even though we go through this every year, i had a brief moment of panic that in fact my birthday would be SHORTER than every other day of the year, and i got momentarily grumpy.  online research now shows that it is the opposite.  thank you, internet.)

one of the best parts of my job: reading funny things that kids write.  i bet this is even funnier if you teach elementary school, but i have to work with what i've got and 12th graders still say funny things on occasion.  last week a kid wrote this on his test for my class: "it was nigh-impossible to pass laws or change the articles [of confederation]."  NIGH-impossible!  we are in ye olde times!  (now, the statement is true - it was almost impossible to do these things, but oh how this kid has entertained me by phrasing it like this...)

counting down the days

these are the states in the US that i've visited:

(customizable map from here)

i'm counting only the states i've spent time in...driving through a state or having a plane layover there doesn't count in my book.

(you feel like you've done a lot of traveling and then you fill in this map and all of a sudden you realize there's a whole time zone, basically, that you've never been to.  i'd like to remedy that - i'd like to go to montana/wyoming/the dakotas.  in the summer, obviously.  kansas, on the other hand...i feel no need at the moment to visit kansas...)

in less than two weeks i'll get to color in idaho, a state that one could have presumed would be the LAST one colored in by me until one of my really good friends moved there in july.  four of us are flying out to visit her for a three day weekend and i can just predict right now that hilarity will ensue.  and i pretty much can't wait.

september 25th: last 90 degree day of the year. (fingers crossed.)

it is finally not 90 degrees today.

yes: today would be the first day in a long time that this is the case.  apparently atlanta had 93 straight days this summer where it got above 90 degrees every day.  that is more than 25% of the year.  THAT IS NOT OKAY.  (this is why i escape to england.  well, it's one reason.)  i am tired of the heat, tired of the air conditioning, tired of it being too hot to sit outside during the day without sweating profusely.

today?  today it is raining.  high of 75, low of 62.  i am so happy - there is nothing better than rain on a sunday when you can spend the day on the couch.  if the weather gods could throw in some thunder i'd be even more appreciative.  and the 10 day forecast?  no days above 85 degrees.

it might really be fall in atlanta, people.  YAY HOORAY!

one year

today is the one year anniversary of my first post on this blog, and in honor of that anniversary, i've changed the whole look of this-here-blog-thingy.  i liked the old template, but had been thinking for a while that i wanted a bit of a change.  do you like the new look?  what should i do differently?  is it readable even though there's a picture in the background?  this is definitely a work in progress and i'd love any suggestions you guys have!  so: suggest away.

i am still loving the things i told you i loved one year ago: cooking, eating, tv, movies, music, podcasts, books, the new york times online, history, politics, photography, trivia.

as we say goodbye to summer and get closer to fall, i'm reminded that i love driving with the windows down, beers on patios with friends, night swimming, braves baseball, duke basketball, my macbook pro, starry nights.  writing.  life.

it means a lot to me that you guys are following me on this little blog.  thanks for sticking around.

legroom

the fact that this is not a joke has just made me laugh out loud A LOT.  look at the picture on the left hand side, halfway down and try not to giggle.  and by "giggle," i mean "be horrified."

oh, i am so entertained...

people on my enemies list include:

john mccain.

don't say publicly that when the military leadership supports a repeal of "don't ask, don't tell," that you will vote for the repeal AND THEN when military leadership does exactly that, speak out and vote against the repeal.  i know that you say that you are waiting for the official report from the pentagon, due at the end of the year.  but i think you've changed what you stand for because you're trying to get reelected and that stinks.  YOU MAKE ME GRUMPY, JOHN MCCAIN, and as the new york times said earlier today: i hope history shames those who support this (in)action by the senate.

(end rant.)

sniffle.

i have a cold developing.  eek.

every fall*, once all our students come back to school with all their germs, i get sick.  stuffy nose, sore throat, grossness.  yesterday began my annual slog through a cold.  it is not fun.  i am doing a lot of mouth breathing, which is actually relatively tiring.  don't worry, mom: i am staying hydrated.

i am also doing a lot of braves-baseball-watching.  and finger-crossing.  and yelling-at-the-tv.  all at the same time.


*and no, IT IS NOT FALL, but thanks for asking.  today it got up to 93 degrees.  willis says that he is wearing sweaters next week no matter how hot it is, in protest because it's supposed to be fall.  willis's number one reason for doing this: "i look better in sweaters than i do in summer clothing."  of course your reason has to do with fashion.

just call me mrs. edmund randolph

one of my students forwarded this quiz to me.  life is so good:

who wants to marry a founding father?

reminded

“My riches consist not in the extent of my possessions, but in the fewness of my wants.”
—Joseph Brotherton
(1783-1837); pastor, writer

if traveling for the past two summers has taught me anything, it is this: i can live very comfortably with the possessions that fit into a carry-on suitcase and a backpack.

(on my way out the door to fly to london, june 2010)

i had forgotten this...and most people are shocked when i tell them that i lived for seven or eight weeks out of this suitcase.  but i've done it twice and i wouldn't do it any differently in the future.  when you travel light you realize that you don't need much to be happy.  good food, good people, an ipod, a book, a laptop, and something to cover your body.  a closet full of clothes, a hairdryer, a tv, a big comfy bed, a car - these aren't necessary.  do i want these things?  yes.  but i don't need them.  to be reminded of that has been an important lesson for me as i discover what is meaningful in life.

lazy saturday

a couple weeks ago i joined a CSA (community supported agriculture, not confederate states of america) - the farm is in alabama, just across the georgia-alabama border, and every week they deliver vegetables to 20 or so locations in atlanta.  you pick which location you want to pick up from, order online by tuesday morning, and the food magically appears at that location on wednesday afternoon.  you can pick exactly what you want from what they have available, and this makes me SO HAPPY.  this week i ordered peaches, sweet potatoes, lots of cherry tomatoes, basil, and lettuce.  it's all gorgeous in that imperfectly, straight from a real farm, way, and tastes so good.  lunch today?  basil and tomatoes from my CSA box, fresh mozzarella from kroger (classy, i know), with lots of salt and pepper and a little olive oil.  heaven.

(i am a huge tomato snob, created from eating fresh-from-the-vine tomatoes that my parents grew when i was growing up.  i need a non-mealy texture plus actual taste, and these pretty little cherry tomatoes have both.  YAY HOORAY.)

harumph.

if i didn't see another 90 degree day until 2011, you wouldn't hear me complaining.

what is this world coming to?

at the gym this evening i saw two women lifting weights while wearing shorts and bikini tops.

i'm not talking about skimpy tank tops (acceptable).  i'm talking about string bikini tops with ties in the back.  THIS IS NOT THE POOL DECK, LADIES.  get a clue and put some clothes on.  if you are attempting to pick up men at the gym you can be a little smoother than this.

the end.

snow

THIS IS SO BEAUTIFUL I CAN'T STAND IT.

okay, i can stand it.

some landmasses are beautiful (the shape of the continent of africa is more pleasing to my eye than the shape of north america, for example.  i have known this since i was in preschool and i made a map of the world), and great britain is a pretty shape.  and this makes me miss england.  hi oxford!


(thanks to miss nora for posting this originally!)

hooray!

there comes a certain point in a girl's life in which her friends start to get engaged.  you find out about these engagements in different ways.  i offer an analysis:

if it is a person you are related to, typically a cousin: you find out via an email from her parents, often only to your parents, so then your parent forwards you the email.

if it is a person you are friends with, but not a close enough friend to be invited to the wedding: you find out about her engagement via facebook, send a little "yay!" message, and move on.

if it is a person you were once very good friends with and see every once in a while, but would never just pick up the phone and call: you find out about her engagement via an email sent to the friend group and you get your save-the-date card in the mail a couple months thereafter.  seeing her at her wedding reminds you of how sad you are that you don't communicate more frequently, and you resolve to do so because, damn it, she's awesome.

if it is a person you are good friends with and see/talk to regularly: you get a phone call.  i don't have to tell you that this is the best of all scenarios, because one of your close friends just got engaged.  last night i got one of these calls (!!).  if it goes to voicemail you get a very cryptic message.  i have received two such cryptic messages in my life, and both went exactly like this (actual transcription from the message last night):

"hey - it's colin.  ummm...it's about 8 o'clock your time on sunday.  give me a call!  [giggle.]  um, okay.  bye!"

you think to yourself, "huh...wonder what colin wants to talk about.  why didn't she say more in the message?  hmm."  5 minutes later you sit bolt upright and think, "ohmygod!"  you call your friend back, hear her exciting news, do some screaming, and then she has to hang up to call more people.  you already can't wait to celebrate her special day with her.  because, hoo boy, can miss colin celebrate.

and your life is just a little bit sunnier, knowing that hers has just changed dramatically.

(colin plus me.  we are very good at singing on dance floors with our eyes shut.)


(note: if you are friends with boys, this whole scenario is altered.  with a close friend who got married this summer, i knew about this whole engagement plan in advance, so the phone call from him telling me he was engaged was one i had been waiting for and knew was coming soon.  perhaps the above analysis is only fair for your friends who are girls and who will be marrying a boy.)

roomie

reasons i love my roomie:

1. he doesn't talk to me in the morning.  he used to, and i had to be like "ohmygodstoptalkingtomeitistooearlyforthis" (if you have ever lived with me, you know that i am a bit of a grump-a-saurus in the mornings.  just a bit.) and now he just says "good morning!" and "have a good day at work!" (with those exclamation marks, but i will excuse him for that.)  he is pretty awesome.
2. he makes a MEAN eggplant parmesan and lets me help him eat it.
3. he introduced me to hand and foot, the best card game ever.
4. if i want to go to bed early on a friday night, he does not call me lame.  that is because he is probably already asleep.  it is awesome.
5. he loves me.  i love him.  he's the best roommate i've ever had.  that's all you really need, right?

happy birthday (observed), joey!

like a flask filled with hope

you know that you need a little break in your workday!  i'm here to help: brett dennen, "darling do not fear"

hope you enjoy - i love his voice and the happy happy beat of this song.

12th grade

ohmygoodness everyone: you are in for a surprise.  today's post was written by a guest blogger - becky!  last year, i wrote about visiting her school, so i asked her if she would write about visiting mine.  here you go!  note all the capitalization and, like, actually well constructed sentences.  do it, beck.


There are many differences between a 12th grader at a private Atlanta high school and a 4th grader at a public school in East Harlem. The former do not walk in lines to or from class, do not need permission to use the restroom, and take notes on their laptops instead of their Hannah Montana composition notebooks. But beyond those obvious differences, I’ve found a few more worth sharing (and some similarities, too).

1. If you are in 12th grade and class has just barely started, it is acceptable (or perhaps just accepted) to prance across the classroom to take a cookie from your friend. If you are in 4th grade, you are subject to a strict “no getting up without permission” policy. Should you choose to disobey this policy, your Velcro name tag will move down the behavior stoplight from green (I’m doing great!) to yellow (warning!).

2. If you teach 12th grade government, a random sampling of your office bookshelf yields the following: The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement; Government in America; Simple Justice: A History of Brown v. Board of Education; The Studs Terkel Reader. If you teach 4th grade, favorite texts include: Good-Bye Round Robin: 25 Effective Oral Reading Strategies; Gooney Bird Greene; Strategies that Work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement; and Because of Winn-Dixie.

3. Both 12th graders and 4th graders love to tell stories. The problem is, those stories are often not very interesting to the listener. Furthermore, both groups often begin stories they have no intention (or perhaps ability) to finish.
12th grade example: “Oh, I want to say something about that [the Florida church that plans to burn the Quran]! Um, I forget. Well, it was something about a mosque on September 11. Does anyone know about that?” Well, since you gave us so much to go on…
Or this recent 4th grade example: “My partner Brian said he likes different colors. Either colors that are dark or ones that are light.” Thank you for sharing that. It was certainly enlightening.

kindergarten

today i went up to the preschool division of our school with becky and other claire to visit other claire's mom's kindergarten class.  other claire talks all the time about how energizing it is to go visit them when you're having a bad day, because kindergarten will cure you of a bad day.  we weren't having a bad day, but our little field trip was the cutest thing EVER and i giggled a lot and wasn't very smooth about containing it.  best moment:

other claire's mom: okay, boys and girls, we're going to go around and introduce ourselves to our guests.  tell them your name and one thing you like to do.

[time elapses.  a lot of kids introduce themselves.]

other claire's mom: alright, charlie, it's your turn.

[charlie stands up.]

charlie: my name is charlie and i'm a train biff.

other claire's mom: a train biff?  what's a train biff?

charlie: it's when you like trains a LOT [holding his hands out wide to indicate a lot] and you like to learn about them.

other claire's mom: oh - a train buff!

charlie: yes.

[charlie then spouted out so many facts about trains that i couldn't contain my giggles and i hope he didn't think i was laughing at him.  i mean, i WAS, but not in a mean way.  this kid has clearly read some train books.]

becky: charlie, you and my dad would get along really well.

convocation

our school's convocation was yesterday, and if asked to sum it up in three words, those would be CUTE, GODISAWESOME, and AMERICAISAWESOME.

our convocation is for the kindergarteners through the 12th graders, and there is no shortage of cuteness.  kindergarteners lead us in the pledge of allegiance.  the lower school chorus sings this adorable version of the national anthem.  and right there we are getting our daily dose of americaisawesome, too, but we're not done yet.  america continues to be awesome with our closing hymn, "america the beautiful."  i really like patriotic songs and as an adult the only time you hear them are at sporting events.  and if you are a teacher.

there was no absence of religion in our convocation.  opening hymn, opening prayer, middle-of-the-ceremony hymn ("draw the circle wide," which is a popular chapel song in our lower school, so a lot of the high school kids have fond memories of it - here's the chorus: draw the circle wide.  draw it wider still.  let this be our song, no one stands alone, standing side by side.  draw the circle wide.  i am pretty much in love with this song because ISN'T THIS WHAT ALL KIDS SHOULD BE TAUGHT?), closing prayer, blessing, closing hymn.  whoa.  god is everywhere in this ceremony.

and in the middle of it all, brian baumgartner, an alum of our school, spoke.  and he had an actual message that was perfect for our audience, he was funny, the school had clearly made an impression on him (he had surgery when he was in 5th grade, which left him in a wheelchair and then on crutches for several years, which is when he starting acting in school plays - so his first acting experiences were at our school), and he did the kevin from the office voice at the end.  victory on all counts!

he shook my hand and everything

i just met brian baumgartner.  and he did his kevin from the office voice and it was amazing.

(this photo of him is from the internet, not real life.  i'm not trying to be a stalker, so i didn't ask for a real life picture.)

labor day

today i got up before noon (but not much before), had lunch, watched a little tv, and then put on my workout clothes and intended to go out for a walk.  and then decided i'd rather hang out by the pool with mike and kelly, so i took off my yoga pants, put on a sarong and some flip flops, and went over to their house.  i realized while i was there how rarely we do this - just do NOTHING together.  when i plan events with friends, it's usually "let's get together and have dinner" or "let's get together and watch a duke game."  rarely do we say, "let's hang out," unless the hanging out involves drinking beer.  and even then we usually go hear live music or play a board game.  it was so wonderful today to just BE with mike and kelly, in the shade by their pool, talking about our weekends.  i forget that we don't need activities to do together all the time.  that's the perk of having such good friends, and i tend to overplan our time together.  this is me telling myself to cut it out.

"the best thing about having a sister was that i always had a friend" --cali rae turner

26 years ago today, i got a sister.

this is us with our grandma in what has to be 1985.  by my estimates, i'm 2 and a half.  becky is some (small) number of months old.  grandma is 66.  every farm kid needs overalls, and mine are purple.  life is good.

time has passed.  who knows how old we are here.  i mean, really - i have no clue.  i do know that i started to grow out my bangs in second grade, so this is before that.  i like that my turtleneck is tucked into my skirt - an excellent fashion statement.  and we have somehow convinced dad to include the cat in the photo.  now, we were farm girls, but boy did we like to wear dresses.  here is photographic evidence of that.

i know i've posted this photo before, but this is my blog, damn it, and i'll post it again if i want to.  here we are in 2010, ages 25 and 27.  loch ness, scotland.

now, there aren't a lot of things in life that i know for certain, but here is one of them: if and when i have children, i'll have more than one.  for every childhood adventure, becky was alongside me.  every less-than-pleasant time, she was there, too.  if i need to talk to her, she always answers the phone.  she tells me when i'm being ridiculous and when i'm not.  what do people without siblings DO?

26 years ago today, i got a sister.  i have no memory of that day, but i have a lot of memories of the days spent with her since then.  happy birthday, beck - i love you more than i can put into words.

september

beers with erin on the patio of taco mac - 75 degrees, breezy, watching the braves win their game?  best way to spend a saturday night EVER.

life

“For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin - real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life. ”
—Alfred D. Souza

they'll call me freedom

when the lovely nora was visiting last weekend, she introduced me to k'naan's song "wavin' flag" and i am now hopelessly obsessed.  apparently three months later than the rest of the world (this was the official world cup 2010 song), but obsessed nonetheless.

it is thanks to this song + lady gaga's "telephone" (featuring beyonce, of course) that i ran for seven whole minutes in a row on monday.  i ran!  seven minutes!  in a row!  this is not a big deal for most of the world, but i hate running (i'd rather walk for an hour than run for five minutes), so this is a big deal for me.

ben does life

so...i am a blog reader.  i have always been really interested in how other people live - what makes them tick, how they see the world.  once you start reading blogs you link to other ones and start following some of those.  i'm at the point now where i check about 10 blogs regularly (every other day), and have i ever met these people?  no.  but that doesn't stop me from following their lives.  this isn't called stalking.  i promise.

i found zoe stagg's blog, which linked recently to "ben does life," a blog that i have only been reading for three days, but already made me cry at my desk this morning.  it was embarrassing.  i had to blow my nose and then pull myself together and explain to my friend whose office is next door to mine that i'm okay.  here's the story on "ben does life," according to zoe.  once you've read some of that (assuming you care to), you can read the post that made me cry.  do i know these people?  no.  but this, THIS is what good writing can do.

"we have far more critical issues to face"

one of the blogs i read linked to this speech from 1960, and i found it really interesting.  it really felt dated in a lot of ways - the religious groups that kennedy mentions as "suspicious" aren't as suspicious today - but a lot of the themes are so relevant to 2010.  if you're interested, this is your history dork moment of the day.

is my cousin's daughter my second cousin? that's what i'm going with.

okay, tell me this is not the most smushably cute baby you have ever seen:

and the cutest little family:

congrats to my cousin aimee and josh...and welcome to the world, baby lyla!

from the man who was the graduation speaker at NCSSM in 1999...

“Changing the world is good for those who want their names in books. But being happy, that is for those who write their names in the lives of others, and hold the hearts of others as the treasure most dear.”
—Orson Scott Card
(1951-); Author, Critic, Public Speaker

wins

the braves won last night, 12-3, and erin and i had such a good time watching them play well.  hooray!  and can we talk about how perfect the weather was?  low 80s, looked like it was going to rain THE WHOLE TIME (only about 75 raindrops actually fell, though), breezy.  perfect baseball-watching weather.

after having brunch this morning with nora and joey, i laid on the couch all afternoon and watched the braves win a NAILBITER - down 2-6 at the top of the 8th inning, and they won 7-6 on a walk off home run.  yes, i did a lot of yelling at the tv and then jumping up and down in excitement, much like i do while watching duke basketball.  in you were wondering, this makes me charming, not weird.

beautiful

some incredible photos from the middle east and asia - what i would give to be able to take photos like this.  photography is my favorite kind of art, by far, and this stuff is gorgeous.

changes

in the past 8 hours i have received two emails from my mom:
one of my cousins got engaged...
and another cousin gave birth to a baby girl!

it's exciting to have a day full of such good news. :)

baseball

"It is designed to break your heart.  The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone.  You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops."
     --Bart Giamatti


the braves are still at the top of the NL east.  and i'm going to the game on saturday - hooooooray!  it was originally scheduled to be a day game: 4pm start.  i have learned from experience that I DON'T DO DAY GAMES.  in atlanta you will sweat through your clothes by the end of the second inning.  but now it's a 7pm start and it will be less than 90 degrees, and i can watch the sunset over the city as i watch the game.  DONE.

things i missed while i was in england: baking

i needed an excuse to bake a cake (because one can't just bake a cake for no reason...unless you have people to bake for...because otherwise one will have an entire cake to eat all by oneself, and that is not good for the waistline).  this weekend we had a little back to school party at other claire's house and i needed to bring a snack - voila!  excuse to bake a cake!

so i baked this one (i love this blog) AND OHMYGOD IT WAS INCREDIBLE.  reasons why:

1. i got to use my new bundt cake pan that i bought with a gift card one of my students gave me at the end of the school year.  the cake pan is from william-sonoma and it is fancy.
2. it was easy to make - lots of ingredients (though, what the hell is "dutch process cocoa powder"? i did not use that), but no fancy techniques required.
3. the recipe said to cook it for an hour, and after an hour it was PERFECTLY COOKED.  not overcooked.  didn't need to keep it in the oven for extra time.  an hour was perfect.
4. after cooling it slightly, IT SLID OUT OF THE CAKE PAN PERFECTLY, no bits left behind on the pan.  i don't know if this is (a) a good recipe, (b) a good cake pan, (c) a good chef (thankyouverymuch), (d) luck, or (e) all of the above.
5. upon eating it, it was moist and chocolatey, but not TOO sweet, with a thick chocolatey glaze that i could eat by itself (and i am NOT a frosting person).  honestly, i thought to myself: i am amazing and no one can tell me otherwise and i will be baking this cake for every birthday party i go to from now on and if this teaching thing doesn't work out i will open a bakery and this will be the only thing i sell.

in short: make this cake.

NCSSM

a new chancellor has just been named at NCSSM, where i went to high school.  NCSSM is on the site (and includes many of the old buildings) of watts hospital, which was in operation until 1976; NCSSM opened in 1980.  my math classroom was in a room used for surgeries back when it was a hospital; the computer lab was in a former baby nursery, with the tiny windows at eye level through which new parents looked at their babies; my dorm room was in a former nurses' station.  and this new chancellor was born at watts hospital, back when it was a hospital and not a high school.

O. M. G.

i love things like this - coincidences (or not) that give me chills.  welcome to science and math, todd roberts.  i love that school - of all the schools at which i've been a student, this one is the most special to me.  be good to it.

there was sheep poop everywhere

on the isle of skye, walking up to the ruins of dunhulm castle.

there are ruins of castles and churches all around scotland.  one of the amazing things about the isle of skye, though, was that these ruins were just casually marked on the (amazing) map (that dad bought).  you pull off to the side of the single-track road, walk through a gate into a sheep pasture, and out to a falling down castle with a small sign identifying it as such.  at dunhulm, we were the only people there; an older couple was leaving as we arrived.  you poke around, look at the gorgeous view, and then walk back to your car and continue on your drive.  

the isle of skye was rural in a way that i've never experienced before.  it wasn't empty of residents - you were almost always in sight of a house and a pasture full of sheep or cows, but that's all there was: an occasional house or two.  five or ten houses plus a store?  that would be marked as a town on your map. i don't know how to explain it.  being in skye felt like being at the edge of the earth.

rain

my new favorite song (on repeat right now) - patty griffin's "rain" - for your listening/procrastination pleasure.

in the running for our christmas card picture

at neist point on the isle of skye:

looking out at the ocean after eating lunch and walking around for a while, mom saw a whale surface and then dive back under.  we all looked where she pointed and saw it happen again.  really cool.  this is one more whale than we saw on our two hour boatride the next day that was supposed to show us cool animals, but that's another story.

the day we drove out to neist point was probably the warmest day while we were in skye, and mom and becky took their sweaters off to take this picture.  so, yeah: it was sunny and clear and beautiful on this day, but in no way were we hot.  the sweaters went right back on after the picture had been taken.

the day after this it was chilly and rainy and in the 50s and i was cold with jeans, a long sleeved shirt, a sweater, and my rain jacket on.  in august.  we were driving and stopped to try to get a view of the old man of storr, but he was covered in clouds, and as we were walking back to the car we passed an older man with his dog.  we smiled* and said hi, and he said, upon hearing our american accents, "you come here for the summer?" after a two second pause, he continued: "that was yesterday."

oh, scottish humor.  old man with the dog: i enjoy you.  you and your isle of skye quasi summer.


*it was probably more of a grimace.  we were cold.

sailboats in the bay

portree, isle of skye:

hikers in iran

inconceivably scary: being held in a prison in iran for more than a year with no trial date scheduled and no access to a lawyer.  i can't even fathom this.  I LOVE AMERICA.  I LOVE THE BILL OF RIGHTS.  i am scared for these three americans in iran - for them now and for what the rest of their lives will be like, post-release (if and when that happens).

sheep were EVERYWHERE

at the edge of the culloden battlefield, outside inverness:

actual question on the customs form when reentering the US: "are you bringing with you soil or have you visited a farm/ranch/pasture outside the united states?"

i checked "no" because i knew that's what i was supposed to check to ease my reentry.

day two: check!

i went back to work!

cons:
meetings
work emails
waking up early (only sort of a "con" because it's still happening kind of naturally anyway)
not knowing where anything is in my new office, probably because i haven't really unpacked yet

pros:
seeing all my work friends and wasting lots of time talking to them
free (delicious) lunches
a new office, with a window that is literally four times the size of the window in my last office.  this window isn't large - the last one was just teeny tiny.

artsy

calton hill and the firth of forth (best name for a waterway EVER) through a cannon window (i'm sure these have a real name, but i don't know what it is...) at edinburgh castle.

"hiding in plain sight"

really enjoyed this blog post on the recent prop 8 decision in california - it's from the new york times - "hiding in plain sight" - kind of a long read, but worth it.  i particularly liked the stuff about gender roles in marriage...and the link to the recent CNN poll about gay marriage.  that stuff gave me chills.  we talk in my government class about whether the supreme court needs to make decisions that reflect public opinion or whether that isn't something they should consider...i'll definitely be bringing up this poll in, oh, february when we talk about the judicial branch.

merit badges

mom and becky and i at holyroodhouse abbey, edinburgh.  photographer: dad.  as per usual on this trip.  he bought a new camera before we left and took some really gorgeous shots throughout our vacation.  this allowed me to be free to not take a single photo, since i knew he'd cover our trip well.  and he definitely did.  we gave out imaginary merit badges at the end of the trip - becky got the napping merit badge for her daily (she didn't skip a single one) naps, i got the map-reading merit badge, and dad got the driving-on-the-left-side-of-the-one-lane-road merit badge.  and the photography one, definitely.

in oriel college's third quad, after much human-pyramid-making

one of my last days in oxford, with almost all of my favorite people from this summer:

sniff.

goodbye, summer.

i just want to sleep in...

the only (ONLY!) benefit of this jet lag is that when i have to wake up tomorrow morning at 6:30 for work it will only be an hour earlier than i'm waking up currently.  as opposed to every other year of my life, when it's a good five hours earlier than i'd been waking up normally.  maybe my body does have a plan, after all.

so i'm up, and reading in bed: the hour i first believed, by wally lamb.  i've been reading this book for a couple days now, and it just hit me where the title comes from.  in fact, i found myself singing this song and then it came to that line and i was like EUREKA!  like my brain figured it out but didn't clue me in - made me sing for a while before i figured it out myself.  the title is a lyric from a song you ALL know, i guarantee.  can anyone place it?

home

i'm home!  i got in to atlanta 45 minutes early (how is that possible?) last night, lilly picked me up from the airport and i managed to stay awake until 11:30pm atlanta time.  go me.  woke up at 7:30 this morning full of energy when i really just wanted to sleep in, but it means i've been productive already - laundry, unpacking, grocery list made.  it's good to be home.

it's a little overwhelming thinking about all the things i DIDN'T blog about that happened this summer...it's like i needed an extra hour in every day this summer just to tell you about all the cool stuff i did and saw, particularly in the last two weeks when i was in scotland with my family.  so, for the next couple days i'll bring you a few more photos, hopefully not being repetitive or getting boring...

peaceful church and graveyard* in iffley, near oxford, that i stumbled upon during a long walk one day.  i love this picture - it feels right out of a haunted story...

*i have learned that there is a difference between a graveyard and a cemetery: a graveyard is connected to a church, whereas a cemetery is not.  this is your fun fact for the day.

departures, again

internet access has been spotty this week (in portree the bed and breakfast's idea of "wifi access" was "if you sit outside on a bench - assuming it's not raining and your laptop would get wet if you did this - you might be able to pick up the slowest internet access ever"), and continues to be so...but mom and dad and becky and i are back in edinburgh for the night before flying home to the us tomorrow.  if all goes according to plan, i'll be back in atlanta by bedtime on friday night.  i'm NOT looking forward to the flights, especially after an hour by bus and six hours by train to get back to edinburgh today, but it will be GREAT to be back home.

goodbye england. goodbye scotland. goodbye summer.

lambs on the lam

this is the pretty little town we're staying in on the isle of skye: portree. it's right on the coast, and for a tiny town (2,100 residents) it has a lot of restaurants and cafes and things - because a lot of tourists stop here. according to my guidebook, edinburgh is the most visited place in scotland, followed by inverness and then the isle of skye. so basically our whole trip. but there's a reason for that! these are great places to visit! skye is gorgeous…we've done a bit of hiking around the area around portree, with a big walk planned tomorrow.

today we drove from portree to dunvegan castle (not nearly as cool as edinburgh castle) and then to neist lighthouse, in the northwest corner of the isle of skye. more photos of that soon, but the point of today's post is this: to get to neist lighthouse you drive 20 miles on a two lane road, and then turn down a one lane road (one lane! for both directions! there are "passing points" where you pull over to let other cars by) for 9 miles. neist lighthouse - and the view of the outer hebrides from there - was gorgeous, and totally worth the 9 miles on a one lane road, even though i had four mini heart attacks when cars would come flying at us from around a corner and we had to hope that a passing point would emerge in the next 3 seconds (and it always did). my life expectancy has been diminished by a considerable amount because of this drive. good thing dad is a BEAST at driving on tiny winding roads or we would be dead at this point. along this one lane road there were no fences and lots of sheep. LOTS OF SHEEP, i say. they were spraypainted different colors to indicate which farm they belonged to, we think. at several points the sheep were hanging out RIGHT NEXT TO the road, and at one or two points the sheep were in the road. here are some lambs on the lam. we had to stop and wait for them to finish their jaunt and get off the road before we could continue. this is also a good indication of how wide the road was, with a passing point on the righthand side here. you'll also see that all the road signs here are in both gaelic and english, just to confuse me a little more while i'm being the navigator.  (i think you can click on all pictures to enlarge them.)

at another point a farmer lady and her two kids stopped traffic to have their herd of 30 or so cows cross the road.

so basically: if you think you live in a rural area in the united states, you haven't been hanging out on the isle of skye. additionally: if you think you live in a pretty place in the united states, you probably do. but the isle of skye is very pretty, as well. (neist lighthouse, with the outer hebrides islands in the distance.)

(i took the photos of animals in the road...dad took the actual high-quality pictures of portree and neist point.)

bus ride of death

we've made it to portree on the isle of skye.  a 2.5 hour train ride from inverness (gorgeous - we saw highland cows and calves, lots of sheep, lakes, mountains, rain) that cost 11 pounds per person (about 17 dollars)...and then a one hour bus ride that cost 13 pounds per person.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  most expensive bus ride EVER.  i also thought i was going to die on this bus ride.  it was from kyle of lochalsh, right outside the isle of skye (the farthest place the trains go), up the coastline to portree, where we're staying until thursday.  (this map might help you visualize it...)  the bus driver PASSED CARS on this tiny two lane winding road.  oh yeah: and he passed a dumptruck.  A DUMPTRUCK.  winding roads, crazy driver, hot bus...i thought this was going to be the last day of my life, as i would either (a) die when the bus hit something or went off the side of the mountain, or (b) throw up and not want to go on living.

happily, we made it to portree (mostly) unscathed.  it's gorgeous, but CHILLY - 15 degrees celsuis (59 degrees fahrenheit) at 4:30pm.  glad i've got some sweaters...

driving and hiking

inverness:

we rented a car so we could explore the highlands a little bit.  dad drove.  it was a manual transmission.  it was slightly scary at times, but dad really was a rock star driver (as expected).  i was the copilot.  "claire to the curb" was our motto (in terms of remembering which side of the road to drive on).  even on a one lane road (!) in the highlands, all went well.

today we drove from inverness along loch ness (no nessie sightings, unfortunately - just a beautiful lake with several pull outs so you could take photos like this one)...

...and ended up 30 miles later at glen affric.  we did an 11 mile (!!) circular hike around loch affric, through some gorgeous country.  we saw a snake, a caterpillar, a couple bees and birds, and 1,382,092,374 bugs.  i have 3,421 little bites from these bugs.  they annoyed me.  and my feet hurt by the end.  (quote of the day - becky: "that hike went on for an hour past fun.")  overall, it was a beautiful way to spend our day - and really nice to get out of the cities/towns and into the wilderness.  that's where we belong.  i mean, seriously - are we on a movie set??

and we clearly have our christmas card photo already.  family: pretend to be surprised when you receive this in the mail in early january, since that's definitely when our christmas cards go out every year.

(all photo credits to the rest of my family.  i have decided three cameras is enough and i just order other people to take photos of things i'd like to remember.  so far that's working out well.)

today is the national holiday better known as one-week-until-claire's-summer-is-over-and-she-has-to-go-back-to-work.  sniff.  but let's not think about that now...we're on to the isle of skye tomorrow!

fighting over the arm rest

fun (and totally accurate) visual diary of a red eye flight across the atlantic.  oh, how true this depiction is...

and as i look through this blog, i'm falling in love with this guy.  so poke around a bit, if you like this entry...and perhaps you can waste 30 minutes like i just did.

i want a kid with a scottish accent

cute kid in a park as we walked by today...he was bending over to pull up weeds: "dad! i'm getting grass for me bunny!"

kids with scottish accents?  cutest. thing. ever.

inverness

after three days in edinburgh we've taken a 3.5 hour train ride north to inverness, where we'll be until monday.  gorgeous views from the train as we drove - desolate hills with wildflowers and sheep galore and maybe a highland cow or two (becky has her eyes peeled) and an occasional small town with little stone houses.  we found our way to our bed and breakfast here in inverness, and i am already in love - adorable little rooms and homemade ginger shortbread cookies on the bedside table for us to snack on.  (i've already eaten three.  if becky doesn't hurry up i will eat the fourth and final cookie and she will lose out BIG TIME.)  it's great to unpack a bit and be in a comfy bed after an afternoon of toting my belongings everywhere.

becky's favorite parts of edinburgh:
"the dog cemetery [at edinburgh castle - those who have been there before will agree that it is awesome...soldiers who worked there made a cemetery to bury their dogs - complete with headstones.  the dogs had awesome names like gyp and winkle and scamp and tinker and the gravestones call them "a loyal companion" or something similar]."
"i liked the scottish parliament except when i get chastised by you for asking too many questions. [okay, she asked like a hundred questions during our hour long tour.  well, maybe five.  and they were good ones.  but the tour needed to go on!  at least she didn't ask how the cleaning staff cleaned the intricate windows on the building like one ridiculous woman on our tour did.  this ridiculous woman's husband later asked if one of the walls was a load-bearing wall.  WHO THE HELL CARES, BUDDY??  there was a lot of becky-claire eye-rolling at those two.]"

i would ask the other members of my family the same question, but mama is in bed and dad is out at a pub listening to folk music.  so they'll have to chime in later...

thoughts

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”
—J.R.R. Tolkien

arrivals

we've arrived in scotland!  i woke up very early (4:15am) on tuesday to get on the first flight of the day from london heathrow to edinburgh, and met mom/dad/becky very easily in baggage claim in the edinburgh airport.  they were much more tired than i was, seeing as they'd taken an overnight flight from new york and apparently didn't sleep very much at all.  a little nap was had in the afternoon, which improved things greatly.  since we've arrived the following things have occurred:

a bird pooped on becky's face.  she freaked out.  my antibacterial wipes came to the rescue.  i am the best sister ever.

i got to share the glory of marks & spencer's food hall with the rest of my family.  i think they were duly impressed.  i had my favorite sandwich - a falafel and hummus wrap - and was very happy.

we went on a tour of holyroodhouse abbey and palace - the abbey dates back to the 1100s and the woman who gave us a little tour was full of cool information.  the palace is the official residence of the queen of england when she visits scotland.  it was pretty cool, too.  this is the palace with the abbey attached on the right hand side (photo credit: someone in my family who isn't me).  the photo was taken from the top of arthur's seat...

we hiked from holyroodhouse to the top of arthur's seat (my lonely planet guidebook said it was a 45 minute hike.  45 minutes my ass.) - beautiful, with great views of the surrounding area.  this is arthur's seat from calton hill, another high point in the city.  holyroodhouse is the furthest building on the left that you can see.

we went to sandy bell's, a pub that has traditional scottish music every night, for some pints of beer and some GREAT music.  the musicians (a harmonica player, guitar player, fiddle player, and mandolin player) sat around a table right next to us and played for several hours.  no photos of that, as we were trying hard not to look like tourists, and taking photos in a pub is a surefire way to look like a tourist.  we were perhaps not succeeding in our efforts, but definitely trying.

so far, scotland is not disappointing us.

text message conversation:

mike (a friend from the program i worked at this summer): hey hey you still got your mobile?
me: yep!  in edinburgh with the family - it's gorgeous.  and oh my god an oxtrad kid stopped me in the street!  no clue what her name is...oops...
mike: i saw your mates romeo and mercutio at mccoy's again yesterday.  plus today saw benvolio at the train station!
me: aww yay!  romeo and mercutio have good taste in kebab vans, obviously.

back story: we took about 150 of our students to see romeo and juliet at a theater in oxford this summer - it was an outdoor amphitheater, gorgeous outside on the night i went, and a really well done performance.  four or five of my friends and i went along to chaperone/see a performance for free.  in the weeks that followed we kept seeing romeo and juliet and mercutio around town - they were spotted walking down broad street or at mccoy's, the kebab van that parks outside pembroke college every night from about 9pm-3am.  i was really excited that they were friends in real life - i wanted romeo and mercutio to be friends in real life - but i was grumpy that everyone but me kept seeing them.  and then one night i get a phone call from mike.  he's whispering.

mike: romeo, juliet, and mercutio are at mccoy's right now.
me: ohmygod!
mike: if you run you might be able to see them - they're sitting on the curb and eating their food.
me: ohmygod!  i'm on my way.

and then i ran through the streets of oxford from oriel college back towards pembroke and i pretended to just notice them as i was walking by and i chatted with romeo and it was fabulous.  romeo made some comment to me that they don't always eat at mccoy's and if they did they'd be fat and the performance would be no good anymore.  and now mike has seen them at mccoy's again.  tsk tsk.

getting this text from mike kind of made my night, but i'm also sad that this story means nothing to anyone but me and about 6 of my coworkers from this summer...sad that this inside joke has to be explained to others.  we had a lot of fun working together this summer, and i'll miss being around people that i shared this experience with.  the inside jokes that come from shared experiences...the nicknames...the six, ten, and fifteen (oops, fourteen) man pyramids...the subsequent facebook banter.  i'll miss the people and i'll miss the place.  i'm hopeful that next summer will allow another trip back to oxford, and that my friends will return, as well.  but i know, too, that it might not happen - that i have to be content with those moments and these memories and not look forward too much.  (i'm a planner, though.  this is hard for me...)

hooray for summers.

happy birthday...

...to mike voelker and barack obama!  mike, i'm sad that i will miss celebrating your birthday with you, but know that i'm thinking of you.  i owe you a drink when i get home!  and barack, i'd love to buy you a drink, too.  just let me know when you're free.

pixar

on my day off two weeks ago i saw toy story 3.  and it was incredible.  i laughed a lot.  i was on the edge of my seat during some scary moments.  (the two kids in front of me got so nervous they had to stand up on their seats for part of it.  they were little, though, so i could still see over them.)  i got really teary at the end.  love and devotion and friendship and loyalty and growing up.  it's the best movie i've seen in a really long time.  i left smiling ear to ear, like an idiot.

the pixar short at the beginning, day & night, was just as good.  i love that pixar does this - puts a short before each feature length film.  the short doesn't have to be commercially marketable, so i think it's able to be really artistically good.  this one contains this line - one of the few spoken in the whole short:

"You know, to me, the most beautiful things in all the universe, are the most mysterious."


(you can read more about it here...it's a paraphrase of something albert einstein said.)

moral of the story: if you haven't seen toy story 3, you NEED to.  you can watch it as if you are a kid for an hour and a half, and then as an adult for the last ten minutes.

departures

in 5 minutes i'm out the door of my room in pembroke college - the program is over, the kids have all left, the staff have dismantled the office, taken everything to storage, had the computers and copiers picked up, had our final dinner, done a bit of drinking, packed our own lives up, said our goodbyes, and are walking out the door.

this summer went so quickly, so smoothly.  and it was so much fun.  IS so much fun - tomorrow mom, dad, and becky fly in and we're spending 12 days in scotland.  i'm SO looking forward to this.  but this summer on the program was a lot of fun, too. i went into this summer thinking it was probably my last - not because i don't like the program, because i do, but because i don't know what my life will be like in 12 months and it might not include the program.  i am realizing that i would miss it so much if i wasn't able to come back here next summer, though, so i'm hopeful that i can make that happen again.

i'm sad to leave these friends - some of whom have become very good friends.  that's the trouble with adventures, right?  you can't have both your life in atlanta and your life in oxford at the same time.  sigh.

goodbyes are NO FUN.

day off, week 4: walk to iffley

a bit of a belated update, since the kids left yesterday, but here goes:

on my day off this week i slept in late, had lunch at a cafe near pembroke, and then walked along the thames river and into the town of iffley.  it was a BEAUTIFUL walk - 45 minutes each way on a paved path that runs right next to the river.  i passed a lot of people walking and biking, and every 5 minutes or so there was a park bench next to the path, looking out on the river.  at the same time, though, the absence of any vehicle traffic made it feel really isolated.  (note the ominous sky.  i decided it was just pretending to threaten rain and i didn't bring my rain jacket.  and it didn't rain - hooray!)

loved this break in the fence that ran next to the path - "step over me HERE," the fence is saying.  (i didn't.)

i stopped for a while to watch mama swan and three swan babies swim around (well, the babies seemed to be napping while their mama stood/swam guard).  swan triplets!  so cute!

on the walk back to oxford i passed the same spot and the whole family was grooming themselves on shore.  hi swans!  don't attack me while i crouch down and take pictures of you!

to complete my day off i went to a bookstore and bought three books (it was a 3 for 2 special), which felt so luxurious.  i had indian food take away for dinner and watched a movie with my friends.  it was exactly what i needed in this crazy last week of the program - lots of claire time (if you know me, you know that claire time is crucial to my happiness) plus exactly the right amount of time with friends before we all go our separate ways on monday.  sigh.  saying goodbye is hard, and i'm about to do a lot of that...