[Belated] DPP 03: Ice, Ice Skating

Back in 2006, my best friend flew across the country to spend Thanksgiving with my family. I drove around the DC beltway to pick him up, and (because you never know with DC traffic) arrived at Dulles airport more than two hours ahead of his flight. Having figured out the airport to my satisfaction, I drove back down the road and got off at a random exit, whereupon I situated myself in a cozy little Panera a block or two away from the main road. From the window of the Panera, I could watch ice skaters glide merrily around a pedestrian-based town center. I graded papers and wrote a (really awful) parody of "The Night Before Christmas" that described travelling during the holidays. I enjoyed a leisurely afternoon of beauty and restful anticipation. My friend eventually landed (bearing two loaves of fresh-baked herb break in his knapsack), and I retrieved him from the airport. 

As far as I know, that was my first encounter with Reston, although I did not yet know it was Reston.

Eleven years later, I live with the same best friend just about a mile away from that same town center. For all of December, Reston Town Centre is transformed with beautiful white lights, and the square itself is full of ice skaters (on real ice!) until well into the night. Yesterday my parents visited (also the reason that this post is a day late), so I took them for tea and then we strolled around the town centre as dusk fell.

It is beautiful here.


Non-traditional Christmas song of the day:
Ariana Grande, "Winter Things."

DPP 02: Bread for All, and to All a Good Night!

I spent most of today proctoring a rather substantial exam in a very heavily regulated environment, so I wasn't able to photograph my daytime activities. Then I joined some new friends and extended family members for a wonderful meal and time of catching up. I now have two cousins within a half-hour drive, and I am very much appreciating having family members in closer quarters.

Breaking bread with people--figuratively but also literally--is something that has been special to me for a long time (and I did take bread to dinner, but 'twas not the loaf pictured above). Long before I. and I were even dating, I tasted slices of his herb bread and told him that it was obviously worth marrying for! After we were married, the bread-baking dwindled for a while as he became busier, but it has picked up again since our latest move--I think I. makes a fresh loaf every week or two, and they are generally full of herbs and flavor. The loaf pictured above was a triumphant, delicious success, and the slices I cut (and subsequently ate) were a wonderful finale to a rich and happy evening.

Non-traditional Christmas song of the day:
Emmylou Harris, "Light of the Stable."

DPP 01: Walking with Sunshine

I'm back for the December Photo Project again! This year, I'll be focusing (literally) on some of the things I love the most about our new adventure in the greater Washington, D.C. metropolis. 

One thing I love about our new home is that it is so easy to go for walks. There is a path from our complex that leads into literally miles of beautiful walking paths that wind around the entire neighborhood. I. and I have probably explored ten miles of these, in total. I am pretty sure that we have more than ten times that many miles remaining.

This is from the walk to our nearest grocery store, and the beginning (or end, depending on one's direction) of a five-mile loop that I love to walk when I have the two hours to spare:

Today was a beautiful, sunny, brisk fall day, and the sunlight on the trees and paths and leaves was just stunning. I am so grateful to have this near me, and to have the time (and the willpower) to take walks again.

Non-traditional Christmas song of the day:
Bon Jovi, "I Wish Everyday Could Be Like Christmas."

Resting in Reston

I barely noticed this summer that June turned to July, and July to August (and, now, August to September). My former colleagues (and some former students) shared back-to-school photos on Facebook, and I scrolled past them in a blur. That is no longer my life. I am happy for them, but I do not miss it.

The past eighty days have been a wonderful time of rest. I have had only two jobs this summer, both part-time, and I have done all sorts of selfish, luxurious things with my wealth of remaining time. I have slept past 4.00 in the morning (sometimes even as late as 8). I have cooked meals I have always wanted to learn to cook. I have read books for pleasure just because they looked interesting in the library! I have, most importantly, sat and had coffee dates in which I. and I just talked.

I haven't taken many photos this summer, but I did grab my camera one day before I. and I went on a walk around the neighborhood, so I'll share this little snap:

One of the things I love about our new life is that we have easy access to walking and biking paths.  This bench by a pond is not more than a mile from our home. Sometimes turtles crawl out to sun themselves on one of the dead logs that juts out into the pond. Even in the city, we are surrounded by nature, but, especially in the city, we finally have time to enjoy nature together again.

Moving Boxes

We have left Tennessee.

I wanted to write a reflective post about the time we spent there, but I haven't managed to find the distance that would allow me to do that fairly yet. Suffice to say that the 1400 days in which we resided in Tennessee were an experience, and that we gained some wonderful friends in the process.

A quick update:

I. graduated from nursing school in December. They hooded him and he shook hands with lots of people. Then he was allowed to sign up for the national nursing exam, which he (of course) passed with ease.

In late December, I. was offered employment at a very good hospital in Northern Virginia. He accepted and started work in mid-February.

I finished my contract in Tennessee in May, and then we (and my mom and some friends) fit most of the contents of our house into a moving van and took everything to our new home.

We now live in Northern Virginia, reasonably close to Washington, DC (hello, Library of Congress and Folger Shakespeare Library!) and very close to Dulles Airport (its much cheaper in the suburbs). After four months apart, I. and I are thrilled to be able to see one another every day, and we are also enjoying the return to city life.

So far, we've taken nearly a dozen walks together, attended two street festivals, eaten at least five kinds of international food, and shopped at three separate international grocery stores. Most of all, I am enjoying the time off; though I will be job-hunting in the very near future, one of the biggest blessings of this move has been the time I now have to cook, clean, and slowly catch up on the emails I've been ignoring during four years of crazy work. (If you live in Oklahoma and are reading this, you are at the top of my list).

Stay posted! I may also, finally, have time to blog again!

It's been a while, Internet.

I miss blogging. For the past two years, it feels as if my head has been locked inside a cloud of busyness, and I've not had time to collect my thoughts or to stay in contact with friends and family members whom I love. Human interactions have been fleeting, but the ones we have managed to squeeze into our overstuffed lives have been worthwhile.

More than a year after our last post, I. and I have seemingly done very little, but my catalogue (and the sparse photographs I've eked out) are fuller than I remembered. Here's a brief recap:

Probably the most exciting event in our lives is I.'s schooling. He has successfully completed his fourth semester of nursing school (a week ago), and has two classes and two practicums to complete before his anticipated graduation in December. For the first time in what seems like years, we are starting to think about the future rather than the present. I. is hoping to complete a one-year nursing residency program somewhere after he graduates. At the moment, we're looking at hospitals both in our current town, hundreds of miles away, and even thousands of miles away. Nursing is in demand at the moment, but our eventual destination will probably depend on the location that hires him.

 I'm still teaching at the same school, but have negotiated more administrative duties in exchange for fewer preps this year. We've just completed construction on one new wing, will be finishing a second wing as soon as the humidity in the floor drops below a certain percentage, and are apparently about halfway through the construction of our gymnasium, cafeteria, theatre, and library.

I've temporarily paused one of my jobs (early-morning tutoring) because I am dabbling in other teaching arenas at the moment. I've spent the summer teaching Latin online (which has been great fun) and (on Tuesday) will begin work as a composition teacher for one of the local community colleges. I'm scheduled to teach an evening class at the campus that is geographically closest to us (though it's still about an hour commute home afterwards). Being offered this position was one of the greatest moments of my summer, and I still am struggling to believe that I'll be back in a college classroom in only a few more days! I'm also scheduled to co-teach an online Shakespeare class with a colleague from graduate school in the spring. I think my colleague and I are both looking forward to it immensely.

 I've almost entirely avoided cameras for the past year, but here are a few moments I did manage to capture digitally:

I. on a short walk around the lake in Cookeville, TN (July 2015)

Life-size chess pieces (Atlanta, Georgia; late 2015).

First view of Olympic Park (still Atlanta).

Turner Field (still Atlanta) from the top of a super-ritzy hotel.

SNOW DAY!!! We took a walk to our local library, but they weren't open.

Helen, GA. We spent a long weekend there for our anniversary this March.

Stream below one of the waterfalls near Helen.

Snake in Helen!

Another waterfall . . . another hike (still near Helen).

Maybe I'll manage another post before next summer.

Growing Green

It's summer, so life is slowing down a very little. I. has started what began as a small backyard garden and quickly expanded into a butternut jungle. These photos are a few weeks old and don't reflect the impressive rain-induced growth spurt the squash have demonstrated in the last week.

Rosebushes (these came with the house):

Our first squash plants:

My handsome gardener:

I.'s peppers:

And aloe from my little window garden: