Paris

I loved Paris. This may seem obvious enough, but I had no expectations to like it. I even suggested we skip it altogether. But I got there and the weather was perfect. There were creperies on every other street corner. The streets were narrow and cobble-stoned. There were about a million scooters and little motorcycles, or tiny cars. Once you park there I don't know how you would get your car out. I think most people use public transit anyway.

So we flew to Paris, over the English channel. We took the train and subway to our hotel: no expensive taxis. Our hotel was in a cute neighborhood with little shops and cafes. The cafes were generally busy except in the evening when they were packed, at least until we went into our hotel at 11. We went to the Louvre and waited in line to see the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. We ate some delightful crepes and an amazing raspberry pastry that had about fifteen layers. We went to the Eiffel Tower and walked up about 700 steps to the second tier. We wandered the streets and shopped and I loved every minute of it. Lots of people had their dogs, and took them shopping with them. Some of them weren't on leashes, they just followed their person. None of them jumped on people or barked. It was quite charming. We found this to be true throughout Europe. It was one whirlwind day in Paris, but it was wonderful. Oh, and I've used larger showers in third world countries than the one in our hotel in Paris.

Flying over the English channel

The Metro Station near our hotel, cute, no? It was about 6 flights of stairs under the ground to get to the train.

Us at the Louvre

The crowd to see the Mona Lisa

My first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower

On the first tier

On the second tier

The Paris skyline from the Eiffel Tower

He's making that crepe for me. =)

A little fruit stand

A Paris street

A cute little store near our hotel

Goin' to the Sistine Chapel and we're gonna go through a million rooms to get there...

This is just a clip of part of the Vatican museum leading up to the Sistine Chapel. It was quite a hike to get there.

Europe Rocks!

We had a wonderful time in Europe. There are too many details to ever be able to put into words. Maybe I'll do it be area. OK, good enough - first London. We had our first taxi ride. Taxis are expensive. Especially after you double the price because the pound is worth twice as much as the dollar. We were wiped out when we arrived after flying all night. So we slept for awhile and then got up and went into downtown London, saw Piccadily Circus. Ate and got cheap tickets to see Spamalot in London - it's basically the musical version of The Search for the Holy Grail by Monty Python. It was fun. Second day we had a hop on, hop ff bus tour of London, and a boat ride on the Thames. Saw St. Paul's, Tower Bridge, Tower of London, Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, and about a million things in between. The next day we got up early and took our second really expensive taxi to a different airport to fly to Paris. So those were the highlights of London, here are some pictures for illustration:

Michael at Spamalot

Waiting for the bus

On the bus tour

First view of St. Paul's

Tower Bridge

Tower of London

Shakespeare's Globe Theater - rebuilt, of course

In front of Westminster Abbey

Buckingham Palace

Trafalgar Square

Take it

We've been married for three years today. I won't say that every moment has been blissful, but I count it as success when the good moments far outweigh the bad. And they most definitely do. In a year that has been especially rough for me, Michael is my rock. And he's patient with me when I would be infuriated with him. So I'm happy to be married and to see where the adventure leads.

To celebrate our anniversary we went to the dentist. It's been a shamefully long time since I've been. I'll just say this: I was in high school. And I have no cavities. Woohoo! I hit the genetic jackpot on strong teeth I guess. And just so you don't think we're totally unromantic, we also went to Barnes & Noble, Panera and Cold Stone.

And I think our next adventure begins on Sunday when we fly to London. We'll be mostly out of contact until at least July 8. We'll see how long it takes to recover from Europe. Wish us luck!

Things done

I've been feeling amazingly uninspired to post on my blog. You might have noticed. Or maybe no one checks this anymore. In any case, maybe in many years I'll look back at this and remember what my life was like at this point in my life... So here goes.

Nothing all that exciting, actually, we:

Michael turned 25. I love him more all the time. (Especially when school is out and we can spend time together.) He's such a blessing to me in so many ways. If you don't love him already you should get to know him better. It's worth it, I promise.

Graduated a class of seniors. Some really great kids that I will definitely miss having around.

I donated plasma twice. The second time, after I was done, I blacked out and vomited everywhere. It'll probably be awhile before I donate again.

I bought almost $400 worth of books. For the library. But still, it was quite a thrill. Now to get all those books cataloged...

Got my office quite cleaned out. As much as possible for a pack rat like me, anyway. Next step: painting it something other than this awful plummy mauve color. I'm thinking green.

In the last three weeks three people have asked me if I'm pregnant. Unless they know something that I don't, I'm not. What compels people to ask this? I've been trying not to feel fat about it. Haven't they ever listened to Brian Regan?

We made a quick trip to our parents' homes. While in Nashville we went house shopping. Found three houses that we like. Then pretty much decided that we'll wait until next year to buy. But at least we discovered that there are houses out there in our price range that we like. Fabulous. I also got to sing with the praise team at church while I was in Nashville, and that was a lot of fun. It's been a long time since I've done that. We helped decorate for Leslie's brother to propose to his longtime girlfriend. That was fun.

Now we're back home and I'm trying to get some work done before we leave for Europe in a week and a half. (!!!!) I'm really excited, but also nervous, partly because I've been sick for almost a month and I want it to go away before I leave, but I don't have a doctor to go see. And also, I'm hoping that the dollar will take a giant leap forward while we're gone. You know, so we can afford to eat while we're there. Crazy, I know.

We have some friends and their three big dogs staying with us while they try to figure out what to do next. So our house is a little, ummm... extra cozy. (?)

Camp meeting starts here tomorrow. I don't think I'm prepared for the invasion. Only one way to find out.

And that's all I can think of for now.

The end.

Coming to an end

Only six class periods left to teach this year. Two years down...

Adventures

Last week my parents came to visit and we spent about three days in DC. We visited the Holocaust museum, alot of the monuments, the National Zoo, the Museum of Natural History, the US Botanical Gardens, and one of the many art museums. Also, I got closer to the Capitol building than I ever had been before. On Sabbath we attended church at Sligo and then went to the Botanical Gardens, and on the way we saw hundreds of police officers outside around the Capitol. Turns out there was a demonstration by some neo-nazis and some counter-demonstrations. So there were a lot of police there to prevent violence. We saw police with riot gear, on horses, on bikes, on foot, in cars... about any way you can imagine police, they were there.

We had a wonderful time. The weather was beautiful and there were many trees and flowers blooming, although the famous cherries were definitely past their prime. These are some random pictures from our trip.

A butterfly in the butterfly gardens at the museum of Natural History

Another butterfly

One more

A little duckling that we fed in the reflecting pool. He was so cute. I really wanted to catch him, but he would have none of it.

The spot in front of the Lincoln memorial where MLK gave his I Have a Dream speech

A Panda at the National Zoo, on loan from China

An Asian elephant. I love elephants, and we got to talk to some of the volunteers there who knew a lot about elephants. =)

Beautiful tulips.

I'm incompetent and can't rotate this picture, but it's my parents near the Washington Monument.

Confession

I really enjoy angry white chick country music.

I like to think of myself as a Christian pacifist. And I'm happily married. And yet there's something about singing about that jerk of a man who treated me wrong. Singing it loud and with gusto. Does this mean there is something inherently wrong with me? Or do most women feel this way? Oh well, guilty pleasure, right?

Currently listening to: Before He Cheats by Carrie Underwood.

"You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do." -Anne Lamott in Traveling Mercies

A poem I've been meaning to write for six years

A silent white fortress.
It seems solid, impenetrable,
but is so easily
pierced by my fork.
All the gravy pours out.

In the news

Michael can be seen shaking hands with Obama in a video on abcnews.com. It's in the Clinton Campaign at a Crossroads video at around the 3:30 mark. Woot!

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4609671&affil=wpvi

101 posts

For my one-hundred and first post I will tell you about Brian Regan. Most of you readers know who he is, you know, the "take luck" guy. Perhaps you, like me, nearly peed your pants the first time you heard him. Or had to pull your car off the road so as not to have an accident from laughing so hard while driving. Perhaps you slip little comments into your daily conversations that make you laugh, but confuse others. "Many much moosen." My students think their English teacher has lost her grammatical sense. Perhaps you call other Regan fans when you see two log trucks pass each other going opposite directions. Hey, it's been known to happen. In any case, Brian Regan has brought a lot of laughs to my life, and hopefully to yours as well.

Of course, one of the things that I appreciate about Regan is that he doesn't need "dirty" words to make his comedic stylings hilarious. Many comedians use these words alot. For shock value? I'm not sure what exactly what makes curse words funny, but Regan doesn't need them.

So being the Brian Regan fans that we are, when we heard he would be in the area, we snapped up our tickets. We drove to Scranton, (double-bonus, home of The Office!) the Electric City, with our friends Mark and Candace. There were probably about 2,000 people in the theater, so thank goodness we got orchestra seats, because his humor is definitely partially physical. Not totally necessary, as you know from the cd, but it certainly adds to the experience. Anyway, we totally enjoyed the experience. There were several times when I couldn't breathe because I was laughing so hard. Also adding to my enjoyment was the guy in the row in front of me and a couple seats over who was enjoying the show perhaps more than I. He was having convulsions. After Regan left the stage we gave him a standing ovation, so he came back. People (ok, I did it) yelled random phrases from his former acts and he would then do that particular bit. He made comment that part of humor is the surprise element, but he got some of his biggest laughs from those old jokes that everyone knew. At one point he just started an old bit and from the first phrase I was laughing uncontrollably. And who knew his dad was from Scranton? So all in all, a hilarious time. I highly recommend that if you get to see this comic genius in person you do so.

Also, Leslie has been visiting this weekend. Which is fabulous. And we got her addicted to The Office. We watched pretty much all day yesterday, only taking breaks to eat and play a little Dutch Blitz. It's always great to have Leslie around. She makes me feel good about myself and at home. I know, I'm already in my home, but she makes it more comfortable. I also highly recommend a visit from Leslie. And in other news, in case you hadn't heard, James and Linsey had their baby, Micah James, on April 2, Leslie's birthday. So hurray for that.

I believe...

In the last few days I've noticed what I believe to be actual green grass. And a couple of trees are starting to look greenish around the edges. I'm starting to think that spring really might come this year.

Best Monday Ever

So I haven't talked about this on my blog yet, but Michael's been campaigning for Obama. He went out and signed up voters and then he canvassed, and basically, has been getting really involved. I don't know if any of you knew Michael 6 1/2 years ago, but he was an uninvolved Republican. Then we argued about stuff a lot. Then finally I brought him over to my side. Now he's a really involved Democrat. I've created a (good) monster. Anyway, I'm really proud of him. However, I was beginning to miss him and resent the campaign for taking away my husband.

Until today. At about 3:00 this afternoon Michael came into my office and said, "There's a 90% chance that Obama will be in Reading in 30 minutes, do you want to go?" So I unplugged my computer, we ran home, I got my camera and we drove like a bat out of hell to get there in time. It seemed like we hit every red light, and of course the schools were getting out right at that time of day... Anyway, we got there in time. We went into this little diner and got a table in the back. And waited. Everyone there was so excited, and wearing an Obama button. After 15 or 20 minutes a big bus pulled up and the crowd went wild. All the security and reporters came into this tiny restaurant, and then Obama came in. He just said a few sentences, thank you for your support, etc. Then he walked around and shook everyone's hand. So he came up to Michael and asked how he was, what was his name, where did he go to school... So Michael corrected him and said that he's not a student, he's a teacher. Obama remarked how young Michael looked. Then he moved on to me. I got to shake Obama's hand! He asked me how I was, what my name is, what I do. He remaked about how young I look. He had a nice firm handshake. Although his hand seemed small. It was quite an exciting moment.

Then I looked behind me and there was this older gentleman in a trenchcoat. He looked strangely familiar. I asked Michael, "Is that Dan Rather?" He said, "I don't know." So I convinced him to go ask. Michael, "Are you who I think you are?" Dan Rather, "That depends who you think I am, I'm Dan Rather." So Dan Rather was very nice and we got our pictures with him. He was kind of like a grandfather. Friendly, and joking a little and just kind. He told me it was an honor to meet me. What a nice guy. So here follow some photos and maybe a video-if it will work with me. Of our exciting moments in the presence of (hopefully) our future president. And Dan Rather.

Supercalifabulous

My siblings have been visiting in the last week. Kirk came and went and came again and went again. Christa came and stayed for awhile and then went. We had a good time together. It's interesting how those sibling bonds stick even when you don't see each other very often. It's so easy to be together and feels so natural and we easily slip back into our childhood roles, good or bad. Hopefully, we don't slip all the way back.

We made the journey to Hawk Mountain, which is the first sanctuary made for predatory birds. One can see many birds there in the fall because of migratory patterns, and before it was made into a sanctuary, 3,000-5,000 birds were killed in the area every year. One book called it one of the top 50 places to go bird watching before you die. And since we come from a family of birders, we went. We saw some vultures, but no other birds of prey. Apparently September to early December is the best time to come. However, we did get to see the River of Rocks, which is basically what it sounds like. In some ice age or another, a glacier moved down the valley, and left in its wake a river formation of rocks. We could see it from probably a mile above. It was quite impressive. Then we hiked down to a boulder field which was pretty cool also.

I made fruit soup and black bean soup and Christa and I made crepes. So we ate well, even without a mother to make the food for us. Kirk left on Sunday, and Christa and I went to see Mary Poppins on Broadway. It was amazing. We both loved it. Of course, we grew up on the movie, so the similar parts were enjoyable, but they also added new songs and scenes from the books that were great too. They developed the Mrs. Banks character nicely and Bert was great. There were a few parts that we wished they had included from the movie, but they were small and definitely not necessary. And they really went all out, the set and costumes were fantastic, the singing-fabulous, the dancing was beyond my words. Mary actually lost a shoe into the audience at one point. Mary flew and Bert danced on the ceiling. So I highly recommend it. Of the seven shows I've seen, it was definitely one of the biggest, most colorful and amazing. Probably this one and Wicked were the most amazing.



So now back to the grind stone. I am starting to believe that spring will come. And trying to accept that it will probably still snow again. And that I'll probably live here for at least one more year. Sometimes I don't understand why God puts me in a place where it's so cold and so far from family and friends, things that make it more difficult to maintain emotional stability. But I hope and want to believe that God has a reason for it. Maybe it's the thorn in my side. It's a fight that I may never win, my struggle, my cross to bear. I don't want to believe that I may never be well on my own, but there's a lesson in that too. Learning to depend wholly on God, leaning on others and learning to ask for the help I need. I hate that.

Pounce is getting spayed today. I hope she doesn't hate me when she comes back. I want her to still be my happy little cat.

God Loves That Guy

..

Oh, alright

We arrived in Louisville just in time for the snow storm. I got out of there like a bat out of hell in order to reach Nashville before I got snowed in. The irony was that last weekend in PA, it was in the 50s. Oh well, it was great to be with family. And as it snowed on Friday night, we sat around the fire, turned out the lights, watched the snow fall and talked about grandma. Other things too, but a lot about grandma. That sadness just lingers. I keep having dreams about her in which she is alive, which seems weird to me, but I suppose it's just my mind catching up to reality and letting itself grieve when I don't always let myself do it consciously.

So I spent a few lovely days in Nashville, then Michael and I headed to Gatlinburg where we enjoyed the great outdoors, the pancake pantry (raspberry, wildberry and peach crepes. Oh. My. Goodness. I wanted to cry, they were so good. And I don't like pancakes.), our time share (we had a kitchen, dining area, living room, bedroom with huge jacuzzi, separate bathroom, and a balcony that looked out into the woods and a little streamlet) and each other. It's really nice to spend time together after boarding school. It kind of reminds us why we got married in the first place. We actually like each other. Imagine.

While in Nashville with the family we made delicious brunches. For one of these I made fruit soup. It was my second attempt, and I have to tell you, I think I'm only getting better at it. And it was good the first time. Christa made hashbrowns in the wafflemaker with nice spices and stuff. The day before, Dino made snow ice cream, and mom and Christa made crepes. It was some good eatin'. We also went to Radnor Lake on a cold Saturday and saw some deer. Some people played with the snow. I did not.


On the trail

Little ol' me

Deer!

Fruit soup

Our early Easter Brunch

Now we're home again, and that's nice too. And only a quarter left until school is over. I'm not sure how three-fourths of the school year got by so quickly, but it seems to be true. Still, I'm preparing myself for it to snow again. Because it probably will. But I can imagine spring after seeing some things turning green and/or blooming down south. Winter might not last forever, after all.

Dreaming

Yesterday it was all sunny - the second day in a row. And almost all the snow melted. And I felt melty inside too. Happy that maybe, possibly winter would end soon. So this morning when I woke up, looked outside and saw big, fluffy snowflakes my heart broke. Seriously. I started crying. I hate Pennsylvania. I want to move south. Maybe if I were schizophrenic I could imagine that I lived somewhere else and pretend that place was warm. I would probably get frostbite. But so far it doesn't seem that I'm schizophrenic. We won't totally dismiss the possibility though.

So yesterday whilst writing an email to Ben I realized that I should keep track of all my dreams right now, because lately my dreams have been very vivid and a little crazy. So I started keeping a log. Here's a snippet from my last few nights.
~~~~~~
Feb 21, 2008 -- Last night I had a dream in which I gave a persuasive speech about why Barack Obama should be president. I received a standing ovation. Then Ben and I danced and sang to "I will go down with this ship." Then Ben did a cartwheel/round-off combo. We also stopped and saw several of our married friends, all of whom had babies. Some cuter than others. All of this was on Union's campus and Justin was there too. (But the teacher in the persuasive speech setting was Mrs. G, and she was definitely not for Obama.)

Feb 23 -- I had a dream that my grandma was in assisted living in Nashville and mom took me to see her. I helped feed her even though she could do it herself, and she was talking to me, and was all lively, much more so than the last times I saw her. The whole time I kept thinking, "this is so weird because she's dead."

Feb 24 -- I dreamed that Leslie, Sissel and I were going on a road trip, and then Athena showed up as a surprise. And she was so small that she had hidden in her luggage and had it delivered to Sissel's door. Also, for a time, my car was invisible because I had left it in drive when I got out of it.

Feb 25 – DM's dad was observing my class and my students were being really bad. Half of them weren’t there, the others wouldn’t listen to me. He told me that some of my students had been talking about plagiarizing their book reports off of myspace.
~~~~~~
So if I've told you any of my dreams in the last few weeks/months let me know so that I can write them down.

Those are milder and less stress-inducing than my dreams of a month or so ago. So I take that as a good sign.

The soundtrack for this post is The Cranberries "Dreams." In case you were wondering

Title:

I don't feel like blogging. But I feel like I should. So here's the update: I'm still feeling emotionally a lot better. Which if great. Still, I'm ready for spring. We have about six inches of snow today. Which, if you know me at all, is not a good thing to my way of thinking. Although it does heighten the chance of the daffodils I planted two weeks ago having a chance to bloom.

I'm a little sick today. Sore throat, headache, congestion... A lot of the kids at school have been sick, so I've just been waiting for it to hit me. I had hoped that I would escape, but it doesn't look that way. I slept through work this morning, but made it for the afternoon.

Our principal is leaving. This makes us sad and apprehensive about the future.

We bought our tickets to London and from Rome. We scheduled our hotel for a week in Italy. So we're officially going to Europe this summer, barring any unhappy circumstances. I think with all the deaths in my family lately I just feel like I'm constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. So I don't make any long-term plans without thinking about the possibility of having to break them for a funeral. Hence travel insurance.

And spring break begins in a week and a half... I can make it that long. I believe.

Time flies

Six and a half years ago Michael asked me to be his girlfriend. Four years ago, on a very cold snowy day in Valentine, Nebraska, he asked me to be his wife. A lot of things have happened since then, some bad, mostly good. I'm sure glad I said yes.