Peace Corps, David Gray, Storms & What Not

Well, here's a weekly post for those of you who check in from time to time. Things are going well. I've spent some time tonight writing a letter to my friend Sarah who will be leaving for Ghana to serve with the Peace Corps in the next couple of weeks. Letters take weeks to get there, so I want to get one on it's way soon so she will have something familiar while she adjusts to her new journey. I'm having trouble focusing on writing though. Distracted by my music and the thoughts it brings back up. David Gray again. I go through stages with him. When I listen to him, I can't get enough. His voice and lyrics are like air to me for weeks, and often months on end. I seem to have somehow ended up with his Lost Songs album flowing over the speakers once again tonight. It's been a couple of months since we've spent much time together. I guess it's just the beginning of another cycle.

The weather tonight is awesome! My windows have been open all night to let in the smell of fresh rain & the sound of thunder that comes & goes. Work has left me exhausted so far this week! I'm using more calories than normal and even hungrier than usual. I would love to spend the rest of the evening reading my new book, but am afraid that I'll get a couple pages into it & sleep will take over. Maybe I'll try anyways & do my best to fight heavy eyelids. Hmmm...oh - no real news yet on the job in CA. Just that they received my applications & will be back in touch soon. Patience is difficult for me right now, but I'm trying to distract myself with work, reading, some letter writing, & whatever else I can. Off to read for a few hours before bed time. Later!

Sunday Quote Blogging

"So, uh, what do you wanna do tonight?

"I dunno. Get a pizza, watch "Degrassi Jr. High".

"You got a weird thing for Canadian melodrama.

"I got a weird thing for girls who say, "Aboot."

~ Chasing Amy

Hurrah for Cheap Books!!!

This morning I set my alarm & got up much earlier than was necessary seeing as though I didn't need to be to work until 11am. But the promise of good deals on used books got me out of bed at 8:30 on a Saturday morning. Last night I spent the late afternoon of an exciting Friday at the Laundromat, and happened to pick up a City Paper to see what fun I would miss out of by being a home body over the weekend. Turns out that the Friends of the Library were having a Book Sale this weekend...the only catch was that I'd have to go before work today if I wanted to take advantage of it. So I got up & out by 9am. And boy am I thankful I did!!! My idea of cheap books is paying between $1.50 & $5.00 for a book. But no - the Friends of the Library had a much different idea of cheap books!!! I came away with 11 books for a grand total of $4.50!!! Does life get much better than that? Happy reading!!!!

Moms, Jobs, Letters & John Denver

A week & a half since my last post! For someone who once blogged almost every other day, that's a pretty long silence. Much has happened in the last week & a half. I won't go into too much detail here. If I did, this would be a really long post & I'm not really in the mood for an epic blogging session at the moment.

I guess I'll start with my day today. It's Mother's Day & there was a "Meeting of the Mom's" today. Rather than Randy & I spending our day driving to multiple destinations to be with family, Randy's mom & step dad were kind enough to invite my parents over for dinner/lunch. It was nice. Food was great, conversation was good. No awkward silences. Parents got along well & seemed to hit it off fairly easily. Henry (the dog) made quick friends with both of my parents. Afterwards, my folks & I drove to my Grandmother's where we sat and talked for an hour or so. All in all, a good Mother's Day.

I had a great relaxing night last night followed by a relaxing morning today. I finally made time to write my friend Tory in Tucson (ended up being 8 pages...but it was on smallish stationary, so it really isn't as long as it seems). Wrote a quick letter to my friend T-Bot too. I worked with both Tory & T-Bot (Theresia) in California. And yet another letter to Sarah in Washington is started. I must finish it & get it to her this week before she starts her Peace Corps journey to Ghana!!! I once spent so much more time writing letters & keeping in closer touch with far off friends. I wish I would turn the TV off more often & sit down to write.

John Denver over the stereo right now. What can I say - I'm just in a John Denver mood I guess. I reminds me of my mountains in California that I've traded for the flatland of Ohio. Makes me long for my hikes to Little Bear Peak or my afternoons of sipping coffee on the banks of Big Bear Lake writing my thoughts in my journal for safe keeping.

In job related news, we had a bit of bad luck this week at work. I won't go into it here, but we're lucky A still had all of her fingers. That same day I randomly clicked onto my old camps website in California only to find that they have some camp administration positions open. I've sent out application materials for 2 of the 3 positions, and should here something this week either way about an interview. Sure I like my current job, but I don't want to make a career of it. I'd love to make a career of camp! And camp admin is the only way to do that and still be able to support myself.

And so, I'll leave you with a return of Sunday Quote Blogging:

"Black bears rarely attach. But here's the thing - sometimes they do."
~ Bill Bryson from A Walk in the Woods

Piggybacking

So this entry is a piggyback entry off of Pat's blog post. Some of you have heard this story more times that you'd like, but for those of you who haven't...read on my friends! Ya might just have a laugh.

This is part of a journal entry from when I was working at camp in California. Keep in mind, I worked with 6th graders from the city...& we were in the mountains. Ok, here it goes:

"Never a dull moment! First of all, it's Snakes & Line Dancing night, so it's been a high energy night - that much is a given. So we get back to the cabins and the fun really begins. "There I was, knee deep in the jungles of Owl Cabin, 6th graders all around!" (*Boz, that one's for you buddy!*)

First, 2 of my girl come to me claiming to have felt a "baby raccoon" on a bed inside a sleeping bag. I dismiss this absurd notion and tell them that off to bed they go, lights out - sleepy time. Of course there couldn't be any wildlife inside our cabin! What a silly thought!

Not 10 minutes later I have a girl crying frantically from a bad dream. The cabin leader from our other half of the duplex cabin (Genevieve/GV) & I talk her down from it, give her a group hug and send her off to the land of happy dreams in the hopes that bad dreams won't return.

Another 10 minutes go by and a few of my girls come running frantically into the lobby with excited talk of a chipmunk in someone's bed! In Genevieve & I go to do a little investigating - and sure enough - a chipmunk had indeed made a valiant effort in setting up camp in a campers sleeping bag.

We attempt to chase it out of my cabin, which surprisingly only took about 5 minutes or so. The poor thing was clinging to my kitten slippers for dear life at one point! Once in the lobby, we must finish our mission & get the creature out back out into it's real home outside. Sure enough the little thing makes a mad dash to the couch & underneath the cushions it goes! GV & I open up both the doors leading to the outside, close all doors leading inside, & are now ready to confront this beast!

We tip toe to the couch, the poor creature praying he's found a safe refuge & cowering in fear just beneath the pillows of the lobby couch. GV & I stealthy pull the cushions off the couch, careful not to hurt the little guy. He looks me straight in the eye. He looks GV straight in the eye. He looks across the room to GV's open duffel bag filled with the weeks clothes. He sees his opportunity for freedom - for greatness - and he takes it!

One last ditch effort to avoid spending another night in the cold mountain winter air! Off of the couch he flys, across the floor he speeds and is hiding somewhere inside GV's clean clothes the very next instant. Little does this poor little guy know that he has just sealed his fate, for GV's bag is lightweight & portable.

We close both of the outside doors, gingerly lift the duffel bag and carry it outside to the porch. Once outside, making certain that the door closed behind us, we begin to carefully take GV's clothing out of the bag. Soon we uncover the intruder. Foiled again! He reluctantly jumps out of the duffel bag and runs to the nearest tree, where he spent a much colder night than he would have had his plan would have prevailed!

What lesson can we learn from this escapade? That my friends is the easy part: Always take "baby raccoon" sightings seriously, no matter how absurd it may sound or how unreliable the source."

Well it's sort of a day off for me. I have to go in for a 2 hour meeting later on this afternoon, but other than that, the day is mine. It kinda sucks that the meeting is right in the middle of the day though...doesn't really allow for doing anything big before hand...& means I'll have to deal with rush hour traffic afterwards. But I guess I'd rather have that then have to spend an entire day at work considering I'm working 6 days this week. *Ick*

Randy & I are having dinner in BG tonight with a friend of his (& a bunch of people I don't know) who is celebrating graduating with her Masters. I'm looking forward to getting out & having some semblance of a social life. I seem to be a little too content these days with being a home body. A time & a place I guess, but with the weather being nice on a somewhat regular basis now I'm in the mood to get out & have a life again.

My favoritest family members are going to be in town this weekend! My Aunt & Uncle who live just outside of Baltimore will be here to visit (& give me hard time I'm sure). I spent a summer living with them when I was in High School. There the fun ones in my family...and they'd never pressure me to sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus on Christmas - that in itself makes them cooler then the vast majority of my family! Anyways, we're headed to dinner on Friday - Randy in tow. This will be the first meeting of Randy & part of my family who I feel most comfortable around. I'm sure I'll get lots of ribbing for not making introductions sooner, but what can ya do when ya live apart & don't have an income to travel or take time off work?