They say that a rolling stone gathers no moss - well it also gathers little sleep, minimal connection with loved ones and eats a lot of unhealthy food/coffee. This is all in order to say that my new job keeps me movin a bit more than I'd like to be movin . So, in all this craziness the last thing I want to write about it is my past two months of ridiculous therapy. Instead, I will share some pics and stories from a recent weekend in New York with Best-Friend-Holly, South-Africa-Melissa and Fuller-Seminary-Crystal. There were a few celebrity cameos including the actor with dwarfism: Peter Dinklage, in the village as we waited for Magnolia Cupcakes (yum, btw)...
He looked just like this - black leather jacket, intense eyes and all. He had a completely unremarkable dog on a leash as he stood outside a local bookstore probably waiting for a tall buxom blonde to meet him. And as we stood there mouths watering for butter-cream frosting every other person stopped him on the street using his leashed friend as an inroad to an awkward conversation where both people pretend that one of them is not famous. I always enjoy spotting celeb spotters.
However, the most notable cameo of the weekend came by way of the New Jersey Turnpike and over a 13 hour period ate his weight in gummy candies... drumroll please... welcome, the Chicken!!!! In case you, the reader, have not heard of the Chicken - here are the basics: he's a 5 year old who, at a harvest festival 2 years ago, Holly and I spotted running into a bounce house dressed in a chicken costume and flip-flops... we were in love. Since that sighting we have befriended both Liam (Christian name of the Chicken) and his parents Bill and Val. The whole Chicken family met us in the city for a day of good eats and lots of walking. Here is my favorite picture of the Chicken taken at the Apple store.
Very Serious.
Liam picks favorites. FYI: Children who pick favorites are awesome. I cannot stand children who indiscriminately love or despise people at large - no time for them at all! I hope many things for my future children - but an ability to pick favorites is a non-negotiable. Well, Liam picked his favorite - and it was South-Africa-Melissa. See Exhibit A, B and C:
Obviously, South-Africa-Melissa fell in love too.
-- Okay. So, I want to blog more tonight, but it's past 10 o'clock and I need to go to bed since I have two consecutive 12 hour days before flying towards the western skies for Thanksgiving with the fam.
Hopefully this little taste of my New York trip is enough to keep you checking back at Avoiding the Inevitable every couple days for the rest of this post.
Brett, me, new law friend's Mike & Lauren, and next-door-neighbors Josh, Melissa & Vincent. We picked 20 lbs of Central Mass apples for $20 (plus a hay ride!!!) at Honey-Hill Orchards. I made apple crisp this week... you should know it was seriously kick ass.
Me and B
Josh and Melissa's one year old Vinny - he's wicked fun and loves helicopters.
Hope you enjoyed a quick (like really super brief) bite of our past weekend - we might go back to the Cranberry Bog this weekend... who knows what the future holds.
These are two videos from my recent trip to California.
Above is my cousins Kristi & Matt's baby girl Taylor with me & my cousin Megan at my Aunt Wendy's (Mimi) house. Taytay is just beyond.
Below is my 'baby' brother Mikey on our way to the city showing me how the kids are dancing in the Bay these days - his coolness factor is astounding, or as a client referred to me this week: he is 'mos def wit the coolness'.
sorry about the long hiatus... didn't feel much in the creative zone this summer. with the combination of a rough summer gig, adjusting and readjusting and adjusting once more to east coast towns, and starting the official professional career... I was left blank for my internet masses (i.e. holly, JR, and other friends who might read but don't comment - - yes that was a sad ploy for more feedback). So, here's a highlight reel of my summer.
1. Shimmering visions by the light of the dancing flame...
This summer was marked by Wednesday and Thursday nights in long succession. Fox captured me for a few hours each week with its summer hit "So You Think You Can Dance". Little to say, it was a great way to mark time over this most eventful summer. Knowing that my baby Tivo was recording fine dancers & innovative choreography made my heart soar during the midweek long Metro ride home through the oppressive DC heat (p.s. seriously, whoever decided to put our nation's capitol in the middle of a swamp needs to be flogged by the side of the Potomac!).
Talking about SYTYCD is also the perfect segue into sharing my favorite thing/person/old-new acquisition of the summer... a female housemate. For those out of the know - B and I lived in a big ol' townhouse on Capitol Hill for the summer with a boat load (read: 3) of HLS students. One of them was a girl named Vanessa. Let me tell you, she is the queen of fabulous land. We had so much fun cooking and talking and camping and watching many hours of dancing & "What Not to Wear" together. Here is a picture of V looking so very chicly Zen during our hike in the Shenandoah Valley.
I have missed daily female companionship since college. It was nice to have such a high quality girly around. Thanks to Vanessa for being a great sport and friend this summer.
2. I think I'll try defying gravity...
Throughout my childhood musicals played a very influential part - I can honestly say that the heroes of my youth were Barbara Streisand and Annette Funicello. In my post-marriage years I have had a noticeable lack of mus-i-cals in my day-to-day... perhaps a function of my increasing patronage to live music performances or as a perfunctory courtesy to my dwindling pocketbook. Either way, I have been reborn, and Kristen Chenoweth has breathed into my deflated lungs the song of witch friends and Oz-ian goodness. Though I have yet to see the Wicked stage-play, I have listened and listened and listened to the soundtrack - making it the anthem of my summer. I even got into a car accident along the GW parkway during my first listen of 'Popular'... this did not dissuade me from exchanging information, observing the damage, getting back into the car and click-wheeling myself back for a second listen. Wicked - it's worth everyone's time. Thank you to Holly "Elphaba" Snyder and Eric "Dillamond" Nguyen (even though he's sworn to never read my blog again) for teaching me that celebrated heads of state and especially great communicators don't have brains or knowledge... they're pop-u-lar!
Speaking of heads of state - DC! I loved living on the Hill... running in the morning by the Capitol & Supreme Court, going to Eastern Market on the weekends & buying muchos hand-made goods, and catching the very contagious feeling of self-importance that runs up and down Pennsylvania Ave. I could go on & on about the many things I learned about myself and all things politic - but I will not bore you with the details. Here's the basic run-down: I'm much more to the left than I once thought (Hillary for prez!!), there is far less glamor in working for the Senate or DOJ than the West Wing would have me believe, and very significant things go down in the district all the time - things wholly unnoticed by people like yours truly (I will listen to NPR more).
[ Oh, Abraham - we love you... you're so noble and just and marble ]
But, of all the things I learned this summer and things I saw nothing touched me more deeply or will have a more lasting impression than my time (vicariously & otherwise) amongst the interns & staff of International Justice Mission. B was a law intern in their HQ office, he did lots of law research & wrote law memos and was the world over a fantastic lawyeresc person all summer. The organization continues to impress me with it's professionalism and commitment to tangibly working for the poor & oppressed.
Brett's IJM intern class at a very special dinner. So much hospitality, wit and wisdom seeped into my person during the course of this evening that I was full to overflowing. Sigh.
Like many prepubescent girls the world over, I too have Zefron fever. Between the blockbuster musical Hairspray and made-for-disney-and-my-heart HSM2 I can't get enough of this tanorexic teeny-bopper. Enjoy two of my favorite moments in my 2 favorite films of the summer:
((hear this: if you have not had a chance to see Hairspray stop whatever you are doing and get your sweet bottom to your nearest theater, disappoint - it will not))
4. Well, it's been a long, been a long, been a long, Been a long day...
My summer job was rough - really rough. I was working as a play therapist with children with developmental delay at a Maryland childhood development center. It was long days and strenuous/exhaustive personnel experiences. But, it's over so... onward and upward.
I have a new job as a child and family therapist in a community mental health center in South Boston. It's ridiculous to have the job I got a degree to perform. I am excited and a bit nervous to be working as a pre-licensed MFT. My job affords me supervision and a very wide client base. I am sure that many therapist inside jokes about HIPPA compliance and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy will be in the works for future blogs. For now, I am feeling a bit like the picture below of Eric, Brett and Doug (friends at the law school) re-enacting a scene from "How to Succeed at Business Without Really Trying" ...
Rip, Rip, Rip... the Chipmunks off the field...
5. Green eyes, yeah the spotlight, shines upon you. And how could, anybody, deny you...
At the end of this summer I finished the 7th and final Harry Potter book. It is an important work of fiction - that's all I'm going to say in critique, even sharing my feelings about any part of the story may taint the reading experience of those unread.
I will say this, along with watching Hairspray (moreso actually) I have no stronger recommendation from this summer than to let the little boy wizard into your heart - let his story sit with you and simmer. If you do, you too will find yourself weepy in the small hours of the morning and laughing aloud alone in your car without warning.
And, that is all I have for you tonight. I am quite blogged out, though intend to post more often. With very little time who knows what this site will reveal.
