listening after dark

Glorious October

Plus the sad, very slowly ripening tomatoes and peppers:

Last weekend

At Glendo State Park

Summer...so far

Although I have been taking classes this summer, I'm still finding time for fun: camping (top right = our awesome pop-up camper), hiking, fishing, visiting an alpaca farm, observing the massive overflow at nearby dams, buzzing Wes's head, riding on the library float in the parade...

Even with my in-between time spent working, being in class and doing homework, it's been a pretty great summer so far. In August I'll have two weeks off from school, and one of those weeks I'll be spending with family in Montreal. Vacation anticipation always helps me get through the day-to-day monotony.

A decidedly lovely wedding

I finally got my photos posted from Julie and Brad's wedding last month. It was beautiful, as I knew it would be. Julie is just that kind of person. We were college roommates for my last semester, and we had the classiest RA apartment...except for Goiter the orangutan, who sat in the corner and wore women's underwear. Anyway, Julie handmade so many things for her wedding (like the cake toppers), and probably overworked and underslept for weeks beforehand, and then went and looked all calm and lovely on that day.

Since I have family in San Diego, the weekend was also a bit of a reunion for me. I spent time with cousins, an aunt and uncle, plus some adorable babies.

Best birthday card ever

Many, many, many thanks to Wes for understanding (and putting up with) my ongoing self-torture.

In bloom

My $2 Kmart amaryllis is doing quite well. The real experiment will be whether I can get it to bloom again next spring, after creating an artificial winter for it in the fridge.

On this day in 2005...

...I found some junk.

A few beautiful things

Several weeks ago, I visited Ayers Natural Bridge (not pictured), where I photographed the red cliffs and the inside of a defunct power plant. On the way home (in Douglas?), I saw the classic car and the blue chairs.

Last week, after my dad and brother returned from a trip to Germany and Hungary, my family sent me a pile of Milka chocolate. I should have included something to show the sheer size of the chocolate bars. The large ones are each 4 inches by 12 inches. That's a lot of chocolate! Not as good as a trip to Europe, but...

Taking (another) break from my day off (i.e., homework day)

I am easily distracted. Add several reading assignments and a writing assignment, and my distractibility level increases exponentially. For example: This morning I was trying to figure out when I began my road trip in 2005 (at least I think that's what I was doing), and I of course got distracted reading my wanderlust blog. In just four years I've forgotten so many small, delightful details.

I forgot about the raccoon I sort of ran over in Wisconsin.

I forgot that Lisa and I didn't have enough cash for train tickets on the way back to Wheaton from Chicago, because we didn't know we were supposed to buy tickets at the station. Several people on the train gave us money to buy tickets. And then Lisa found $5 in her pocket.

I also forgot about the extremely hirsute male Lisa and I saw jogging near Lake Michigan. (Isn't it great that "hirsute" kind of looks like "hair suit"?)

I forgot that I felt the need to describe in detail why I hate elevators, including the lovely phrase "my stomach was leapfrogging my spleen." I still feel that way, though daily use of the library elevator is helping a little.

I forgot, just a little, how lovely it was to spend time with equally distractible friends.

As one friend commented on a post, "This is going to be great when you reread it in a few years." Yes, quite. When I have less homework (or more, probably), I'll read some more.

Happiness...

I've been reading The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner. He travels to assorted countries to see how happy their inhabitants are. Today I read, in the chapter on Qatar:

"So the greatest source of happiness is other people—and what does money do? It isolates us from other people. It enables us to build walls, literal and figurative, around ourselves. We move from a teeming college dorm to an apartment to a house and, if we're really wealthy, to an estate. We think we're moving up, but really we're walling off ourselves."

I find this interesting, considering I live alone and love my space, my separation. But I do enjoy people. Also, I wonder, is happiness the greatest achievement? Maybe I'll find out by the end of the book.

Anyway, I do find that connections with others improve my mood. Feeling useful at the library, helping people do simple things like find a book or use the computer, makes my day better. Making a co-worker laugh, sometimes at my expense, helps too.

Other people-connecting: I've recently had good phone conversations with a couple of close, faraway friends. This afternoon I went to a surprise baby shower for a friend, complete with scones, finger sandwiches and PG Tips. And non-annoying games. On the way home, I stopped at a liquor store where they were having a wine tasting. They had a fantastic syrah...it had been too long since I had one of those.

Late this afternoon, I carried my $15 Wal-Mart float tube (complete with handles, cupholders and a headrest) along the river for about a mile, then drifted back toward the man-made rapids. Altogether: perfect weather, cool water, very lazy thoughts. The toenail I smashed on Tuesday got clean enough so I could see what was going on—and sterilize it, then glue it back together.

This evening, I baked a cake and listened to some favorite music:

• "Rave On" by M. Ward
• "Ordinary" by Late Tuesday
• Louis Armstrong, Bon Iver, Jimi Hendrix and Deb Talan

I've been looking through photos from the last couple of weeks: Seattle with the family, then Kai and Branden's wedding in Hawaii. I love candid shots. I think they show more about the situation and the personality than posed portraits. I'll be posting a lot of photos in the coming days, in these two albums:
Seattle Weekend 2009
Kai and Branden: Hawaii Wedding