Jodi was here!

On Friday, Sumanth and I went to pick Jodi up from the airport for a quick weekend during which we mainly ate, laughed, watched Extreme Home Makeover, drank coffee with chocolate raspberry creamer, and took advantage of talking for longer than we can on the phone. One of my favorite parts of the weekend was when we were listening to this shoal diver at the aquarium give a presentation about the ins and outs of salt water and Jodi started talking to me about something completely unrelated. It made me remember high school and how much more fun my life has been because of her.

DREAMS classes start Monday, at which point I will probably be mildly overwhelmed. Currently, I am hovering around almost overwhelmed. One day last week we received a 1400lb donation of supplies from Jerry's Art-O-Rama which, although Wonderful, is yet to be sorted out and is comprised of about 200 boxes blocking every path except for the small one that leads to the only bathroom. DREAMS is the kind of place where when you open a drawer labeled 'Tools,' you usually find some butterscotch chips, packing tape, a comb and some gluesticks, so organizing our new donation might prove a bit difficult;)

Today I had to go to the Dr's for a little swimmer's ear and while I was waiting, I was thinking about work (the only reading materials they have there are issues of The Pause and Men's Digest)and the classes/teachers I still need to schedule and I started to get a little stressed. In my efforts to calm down when the nurse started to take my blood pressure and pulse, the first thing that I thought of was from one of the Blue Planet movies that Sumanth was watching last week, from the episode about the frozen seas. The image was of a large seal swimming in his own pool in the middle of so much ice. The water was very dark and very blue and the only thing moving was the seal. The way it moved seems to combine floating and twirling and reminded me of the way a baby rolls before it crawls. My pulse was lower than it has ever been.

First Anniversary

Here we are at the Seven Sisters Inn in Ocala on our first anniversary. The robes in the pictures are not ours, but I did really wish they were. When I first slipped mine on I truly thought I would buy one, that is how transformed I felt in the combination of silk and thin towel. Soon after I had this thought, I saw the polite notecard on the hanger explaining that we could indeed have them, but it would cost about three times the cost of our luxurious room, or in clearer terms, about two months of groceries. . . as I type I am in my blue cotton Target version.

Although these pictures were taken in the Egypt Room of the inn, Sumanth had chosen the adorable and quite perfect Paris room for us to stay in. Before we had even gotten settled, the owner of the Seven Sisters came by and asked how we liked the room. "Oh," I swooned, "I spent a summer in France and this is just the most charming, lovely room, I absolutely love it." She then explained that the room had been hit by lightening last week and so some of the electronic things didn't work, and since no one else was staying that night, we could either stay in Paris or upgrade to our room of choice. I quickly grabbed my suitcase and said "OK!" and left our perfect french room for the deluxe amenities of Egypt across the hall. I hope this doesn't say bad things about my character. . .

In Case You Have Some Reading Time. . .

An editor of the online magazine Busted Halo invited me to contribute an essay for this week, and here is the link:

http://www.bustedhalo.com/features/TheLight.htm