check

Spent some time tonight emailing several contacts in the child life field. Though many of them would ultimately lead to relocating, i feel like the act of establishing contact is good practice in and of itself. Maybe i'll find something in boston, but maybe not. In any case, if i move somewhere for the perfect job, that's the way it was supposed to happen. Maybe that's where i'll meet my future husband (since evil's apparently given up on this job)!

i'm sick,

and i'm never sick. I woke up with a sore throat thursday morning, but chalked it up to sleeping with my mouth opened. By thursday night, my voice was wacky, and friday morning i was up at 6am with pretty severe throat pain. Neck pain, ear pain, and congestion followed. Salt water gargle and tea did little, but the doctor said it was probably just a virus that i had to wait out. Boy, let me tell you- i have new found pity for people who get these things regularly. For the past three days i've gotten little to no real sleep, eaten several boxes of popsicles, and felt like razor blades were ripping my throat apart every time i swallowed. And i tend to think of myself as having a high pain tolerance. Ouch.

rainy

Today was perfect. Perfect, perfect, perfect. Which was so needed since recently i've been somewhat anxious about my plans for the future. I didn't have anything in particular, but was hoping to get a last minute appointment for a haircut (since i had to reschedule the one i'd originally scheduled for weds night). As luck would have it, they were able to sneak me in at 1pm. Since the weather was crappy (decent blowing rain all day), i wasn't interested in driving and looking for parking. Instead, i threw on my rain boots, grabbed an umbrella, and hopped on the bus. I even got to finish my book on the way in. As i mentioned, i hadn't had my hair cut in 8 months since david left his old salon. It was looking rough. It was so good to see him today- he was so happy i'd found him (he'd looked for me on facebook with no luck!) and took his time giving me a perfect cut. 
Since i was on newbury already, sara met me down there and we went to restaurant week lunch at bouchee. We had a fantastic three course meal (though split everything, so technically it was six half courses) and took our time because we're ladies who lunch. I've decided that my favorite type of restaurant is french brasserie. You have no clue how long it's taken me to come to that decision. 

Upon venturing back out into the rainy day, we said goodbye and headed towards our own bus stops, picking up some flowers at the farmers market on my way. As i walked away after my pleasant exchange with the flower man, i realized how content i felt. Not exuberantly happy- just quite relaxed and at peace. I can't remember ever noticing this before, but realized it was so much better than being happy or excited about something. It was just what i needed today.

mystery fragrance

The other day, i got the mail. As i was walking back through the house, i caught a whiff of perfume. Obviously, i assumed one of the catalogues had a sample included, though i did wonder when catalogues (and not magazines) started including fragrance samples. Upon arriving in the kitchen, i tossed the pile on the counter and began separating the junk from the treasure. I soon found that the smell was coming not from the lands end catalogue, but from the pink letter of the woman running for political office. Interesting approach.

typeracer

After reading about this site in real simple, i've been practicing my typing abilities non-stop. It's addicting.

zip

This past weekend i went up to the vermont house with my parents, aunt and brother for our dad's early birthday weekend. We had perfect weather so were able to get in lots of golf (for those who golf), swimming, and lounging around outside. My brother had been excited about taking the zip wire over the pond for ages, so after watching me once, he climbed up. Halfway down, we heard a crack, and the wire dropped a foot or so. He was over the water and just dropped in, so the rest of us went to investigate. At first everything looked normal, but then we noticed that the entire trunk of the tree was split. My dad grabbed the wire and pulled, and the entire tree came with it. Frankly, i'm not sure how it stayed up with Kevin on it in the first place. Since we're handy, we managed to reattach it to a stronger tree with new (not rusty) bolts, and it's even a bit tighter now. Kevin might work on his tree climbing abilities to keep them up to snuff.

the zip line in action before it's initial demise.

ironic

Every april, i clean up my gardens and plant some new vegetable seeds. I get a bit overexcited and have far too many seeds for the designated area, so this year, i decided to rip up an overgrown mess of a (flower) garden along the side of the house and plant vegetables there. This more than doubled the previous allotment which consisted of a raised 12' x 3' bed. Though i'd considered doing this years ago, i was concerned with lead levels in the soil (thus the raised bed), so this time, i got an at-home lead level kit and confirmed that the soil was a-okay. Tomatoes, green beans, carrots, beets, peppers and herbs (rosemary, basil, thyme, sage and mint) remained in the old garden while pumpkins, cucumbers, zucchini and watermelons occupied the new one. Despite a slow start, everything kicked in by june. In the smaller garden, i had a contant supply of tomatoes, herbs and green beans, and the vines in the larger garden were growing out of control. I spied a few baby watermelons just starting out- something i've been trying to grow for years without any luck.
A while ago, the guys we use for annual pest control found some termites near the front corner of the house. After getting a second opinion, the treatment of choice was the liquid defense system which consists of applying poison underground around the foundation. They did this last week. What does this mean for all those nice juicy watermelons now growing on their vines? Yes. That no one will be eating them. What a crime.

good news!

I may have located my long-time haircutter, david. After finding out he was no longer at his old salon when i tried to make an appointment in april, i swore i wouldn't get my hair cut until i found him. The impression i got when speaking to the old salon was that it was an unexpected (and not very friendly) parting, and they were not willing to pass on any forwarding info. My hopes of him having my number in his own "little black book" were not met and i resigned myself to looking like rapunzel in a few years time. I buckled down and prepared for a future of ponytails and hair ties. Until, that is, i found my first ever split end after just eight months without a hair cut. That was enough to get me moving and i repeated my initial google search hoping to find something, anything, that would lead me to david. This time luck was with me and i managed to come across his last name (which i hadn't been able to remember). From there i found a few random mentions of a new salon which appear to be legitimate. I will call on tuesday. Keep your fingers crossed!

south carolina

After the weekend festivities for my grandmother's birthday, the six of us took off to wild dunes on isle of palms for the rest of the week. Kevin and Brian had to leave tuesday evening, but we managed to get in some beach time and a dinner out first. Though the weather was perfect for beach trips, it was so hot and humid (heat index around 110), that i was in the water for 3.5 out of our 4 hours on the beach the first day. Despite reapplication of sunscreen, i managed to get a burn on my face, back, and shoulders. Luckily, i had an under armour running shirt with me that i wore over my bathing suit for all subsequent beach trips. Phew.

Each day i thought about how much i wanted a boogie board. The waves were perfect for it, and i was in the water for so long it would have been nice to have something else to do besides handstands and wave diving. My dad told some poor kid to "watch out with that boogie board. She's been wanting one and might steal it." I finally picked one up for $15.04 at the piggly wiggly, and tried it out this morning. Apparently there were huge thunder/lightning storms at 6:30am, but the weather was perfect- though a bit windy- by the time we got to the beach at 11. I decided riding waves is a lot like sledding- so fun going in/down, and so much work getting back. I'm exhausted. The wind made for extra waves which made getting back into deeper water with a floating board a bit tricky. A few times i almost got the wind knocked out of me when a wave broke slamming hard into my chest. After a few hours and julie getting stung by a jellyfish, i came out for a break. Ten minutes and one huge thunder crack later, the entire beach population headed for cover. The sky was bright blue and sunny over the water, and ridiculously dark over the resort. Luckily we made it back just before the rain and lightning came. Though it was our last beach day and i would have liked a few more hours in the water, it's probably for the best. I'm already sore!

Uh oh.

over resort.............................over beach

happy birthday grandma!

My grandmother's 90th birthday was August 1st. This gave us all an excuse to get together with family we don't see often. Friday night was dinner for 20 at woodlands, a fantastic restaurant on an old plantation near her in south carolina. I wish i lived on a plantation like this.

We took the opportunity to get a picture of the six of us with our grandmother. She looks so cute and happy!

Saturday we poked around charleston and had a cookout at my uncle's house. I found plenty of houses i wanted down near the battery. We ate lunch at poogan's porch which was tasty. We got fried alligator and fried green tomatoes. Very healthy. I happened to be standing on the edge of the wall for this picture, which makes me the tallest of the four of us in the photo. Strange.

On sunday, we had a big party at my grandmother's place with all her little friends. I talked to lots of older folk, and loved them all!! Cheers for new friends!!

Monday morning we played some cards before heading to the beach for the rest of the trip. Happy birthday Grandma!!!