Oops - shameful. Almost a month since my last update; which is why at this moment, most of you don't have this link yet. Good news since then though on several fronts, one is that I finally came home from Seattle! Although real life called, it wasn't entirely easy to wrap up life there. On the other hand I was well rested and ready to face post-grad reality.

In other news, I will be moving to Washington DC very soon to begin a year long position with the Roosevelt Institution. The work between now and then includes cleaning my room out completely (and maybe the attic), packing, and of course moving. I also have the Hyde Park annual conference, the staff retreat and a bachelorette party right in the middle of that. Plus, I am hopefully flying to DC next week for two days to familiarize myself with the office and HP agenda/staff retreat.

Real life begins - more later.

camping

Just came back from a two day camping trip - yes I went outside. It was in Eastern Washington where the landscape is vastly different, the sun beats down, and it is about 100 degrees. I certainly got a bit of a tan - and additionally, tons of bug bites. Damn those stupid misquitoes at our tent site- damn them.

Other than that, it was great. We saw a wonderful play (Steel Magnolias) and went on a beautiful walk into Rany Lake (short) - saw some great vistas and visited some towns. Twisp (where I got a famous cinn twist(p), watched the 4th of July parade, and then went to Winthrop (pictures forthcoming) had ice cream, went wine tasting, etc. Winthrop has building codes that ensure it looks like an old frontier town - kind of awesome.

Back in Western Washington now, starting to think about going home and so on. I'm reading three books now simultaneously and it's simply awesome.

Reading

I'm reading again! Granted it is Danielle Steel, but some of her stories are simply fun to read and they have characters, and plots! There is nothing to over-analyze or prepare for class, wow. I've not had this much fun reading, or looked forward to picking up a book like this in....years? Sad.

Vacation in Seattle is still going really well. I've seen a large number of movies....see below. I've pretty much recovered from being sick, and am doing muscle toning excercises to get back in shape as well as working out twice a week at the gym. It's a relaxing pause in life - a chance to assess things, clean out my Midd inbox (5000 some emails), and get all my addresses into my gmail account so when Midd locks me out for good (don't know when), I'll have all the emails I need. Then of course there is thinking about the future, which I've started pondering a little more recently. Hopefully within the next two weeks there will be some more updates about that. It's been just over a year since I left London - and it's still so hard to believe. Right around that time, I had two nights of vivid dreams, and it was pretty intense because I recognized stuff and one of my friends was actually in it, and we had a conversation and suddenly I woke up. My friend Andy facebook"ed" me the other day marking the one year of her departure back to Italy and mine home - and included a link to post-secrets where there was a post-card that had a picture of london and the writing: "I wish I had stayed here, I wish I'd never come home. I'd go back any second I could." While I'm glad I came home overall, a small part of me completely identifies with it. The experiences of our life make us who we are....

Time to hit the books again - picked out seven random fiction books yesterday at the library, what an absolute luxery. Ahhhh....

Movies watched so far: (* = liked/recommend)

The Visitor*
The Reader*
Doubt
Frost/Nixon
Bride Wars
He's Just Not that Into You
I've Loved You So Long
Revolutionary Road
The International
Valkyrie
Rachel Getting Married*
Defiance*
Frozen River
The Day the Earth Stood Still
The Passenger
Sex in the City
Taken*
Seven Pounds
Wendy and Lucy
Secret Life of Bees
Gran Torino*
The Lucky Ones*
Flashbacks of a Fool
Crossing Over
Australia
Tyler Perry: The Family that Preys
Flash of Genius
88 Minutes
(A few of these I'd seen before)

Next up on the list:

New in Town
Milk
The Wrestler
Brick Lane
There Will Be Blood
Tropic Thunder
Then She Found Me
Religulous
I Do: How to get married & stay single
Henry Poole is Here (?)
Iron Man (?)
Happy-Go-Lucky (?)
Into the Woods
Mr.Brooks
Leatherheads
Michael Clayton
In Bruges
Music Within

Influenza

It seems that every time I finish a semester - even the final one - I am doomed to catch something, or get something. This time was a doozy - full out fever and essentially feeling like crap. Then came the awful chest cough and now I just have no energy what-so-ever. At all, it stinks. I've been attempting to learn how to read again as well, it isn't going well. Coming from a liberal arts college such as Middlebury, one might assume that I am an expert reader. You would in fact be correct, except for one little fact, I don't actually know how to read for enjoyment anymore. I find myself frantically skimming through chapters, getting the main point, but little to no plot enjoyment. I used to be such a reader, and after four years of power reading to make intelligent comments in class, clearly I need to re-learn how to actually read a book, you know word for word and to enjoy the plot. I almost don't understand how people do that - practice I must.

I'm in Seattle thankfully with only RandR on the current agenda, and no appetite which means I'm as weak as a new born filly - but hopefully by next week I'll have kicked the cold to the curb. I've been playing big boggle, scrabble, watching lots of movies and avoiding the real world. Those of you who know I have a crackberry (Blackberry) should be impressed right about now. I glance at it about twice a day. Liberty. I'm in the process of wrapping up my current Roosevelt duties, while pondering the prospect of new ones this fall. It may still happen.

I'm also trying to get up the motivation to write my motivational AmeriCorp statement - I actually have a lot I'd like to say, but it's a question of saying it in a way that sounds different and unique. These inspirational essays are nerve-wracking - but it is a program that fundamentally would give my very post-college existence some purpose and make me feel like I can actually make a real difference for some people. I crave that sentiment now that I've had my fortunate classroom education.

We'll see how things go.

Back to doing very little - playing with the kitty - watching a movie, and cleaning out my 5000 some emails before Middlebury deletes my account. Goodness knows when that will happen.