In realtime it's been almost a month...

Well. Tempted as I am to say that I haven't been up to too much this summer (wow!), that would be dishonest. Almost as soon as I arrived home, my middle sister turned 18. Legally, she's now an adult. She doesn't seem phased, but the milestone makes me feel like the past two years ran away before I could realize they had fully arrived. My own 18th was the week of--though a few days after--Obama's election. Sometimes I stop to take stock of my life and each time I am inevitably struck by how much seems to happen so quickly.

I've started working full time hours since coming back. I can't express how grateful I am that I have a job to come back to! That said, I'm still technically a part-time employee. This has been helpful when I've needed off for excursions.

The first of these was May 11-12th. My friend Rhoen had given Cass tickets to the Intelligence Squared debate scheduled for the 11th. Even being so out of the loop on all things political, I still was excited to go. I had never seen an official sponsored debate before. Intelligence Squared (really Intelligence^2, but I can't figure out how to type symbols) is run monthly by Newsweek, and the motion on the table at the event we went to was "Obama's foreign policy spells America's downfall." A fairly gutsy accusation for anyone to make because it deals with extremes and proclaiming an intelligent guess to be truth. It was fascinating. My notes from the debate are here.

All in all we had a great trip. We stopped at the Chelsea Market to pick up Blood Orange Anarchy in a Jar jam for my mother from Lucy's Whey. We spent time in the Mulberry Street branch of the New York City library. We visited the Gallatin building and attempted to see one of my professors. We strolled through NYU's graduation events (and I considered skipping graduation because I'm really not one for so much fuss). We strolled through the Lil Packard exhibit at the Grey Gallery on Washington Square. We enjoyed the debate. And finally we met up with my father at Matsuri for delicious sushi and good conversation. And even a glass of plum wine.

We spent the night in Morristown, New Jersey before heading off the next day to the Garden State Discovery Museum. Cass' mom had met the owner--a remarkable woman named Rory-- on a plane and arranged for us to all meet. The drive there was a bit stressful, but the museum was delightful. Rory showed us around and thoughtfully answered all of our questions. She pointed out color-changing clouds made for her by a local artist and the weather board donated by Action News. She explained why a vet's office is more child friendly than a doctor's office and why parents appreciate her diner exhibit (they get to sit!).

After the tour she introduced us to Rosie Hymerling who runs teacher development workshops at the museum. That night's workshop was on nursery rhymes and fairy tales...right up my ally! Rosie has more energy than anyone I've met before in my life. She was jumping and juggling and singing and handing out papers... She runs these workshops monthly, for free, and gave out recipes, project guides, book recommendations and personal stories all without ever actually going off topic. I don't know how she juggles so much at once, but she's inspiring.

Once the workshop ended, Cass and I had a chance to sit down with Rory and her mom Milly. Cass wanted to share the work he's been doing through OLEG with them. I'm not sure if there were any topics we ended up not touching on. We talked about Morristown, Russia, Georgia, the museum world, the art world, sculptures, Grounds for Sculpture, the messy business of cleaning a children's museum, narrative in education, interdisciplinary education, liberal education, Herb Iris and pennies. We talked about the changes happening in the journalism world, the business of running a non-profit, autism, and the achievements of Rory's son Jeremy (which include learning to ride a unicycle and designing notecards which he sold to benefit children in Russian orphanages). We left around 10pm after waving good-bye to Herbie the Love Bug: a sculpture made from the frame of an old VW Beetle, things found in the museum, and belongings of Rory's father Herb who continues to encourage the family in their endeavors even though he is now deceased.

At the very end of the night, I dropped Cass off at his apartment and returned to my sleepy house, grateful for another fine adventure and ready for the next day's work.

The 19th through the 21st, Hillary came to visit. We walked around Philly, which I haven't done in quite some time. We found an Anarchist bookshop, an LGBT bookshop, a consignment shop, beautiful mosaics, Capogiro gelato, and eventually Osteria where we had dinner with our lovely friend Jenny. We spent a good portion of the next day grocery shopping, but we also went to Longwood Gardens with Vincent, Sonia, and Cass. After picnic-ing there, we explored the grounds for a bit. Everyone seemed to especially enjoy the herb garden. Unfortunately, the room inside the conservatory that used to have fruit trees and melons had been converted into a special exhibit on genetically modifying food-plants (which didn't go over so well with the group I was with) and a section on perfume making. I was disappointed; the melon vines growing up the walls of that room had always fascinated me and I had wanted to share them with my friends. Regardless, we soon headed home to begin cooking dinner. The dinner party had a curious cast. We included a handful of my high school friends, two Tavanis, Hillary, Cass, my parents, and me. And Hillary cooked a delicious dinner big enough to feed an army. Soooo good!

The next day Hillary and I headed back into the city. We spent time at the art museum, stopped for coffee at La Colombe, indulged in a second Capogiro trip, and then headed over to 30th street to wait for Hillary's bus. We ended up waiting quite some time, but it was so refreshing to be spending time with her again that I didn't mind beyond being worried about her getting to D.C. in time.

Funny thing is that I was back at that bus stop the next day to catch a bus to New York. I met up with my grandmother, my aunt, my great aunt, and my cousin when I got there. We had lunch, took a bus tour, enjoyed conversing during our down time at the hotel, and ended the night with dinner at the View restaurant. The restaurant actually rotates so you get to see up and down Broadway/7th ave and the Hudson. It threw me a bit to be in Times Square, but getting to catch up with them was great. The reason they were there was actually to see Jersey Boys, the musical about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and they had invited me to come. We spent the night at the Marquis before breakfasting the next morning at Bar American and heading off to enjoy the show. And we really did enjoy it. I'd be lying if I were to deny humming "I Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" on the subway to the bus stop after.

Since then I've been working quite a bit. I've also read in Hibernia park, visited a hex sign shop with Cass (hooray for the Pennsylvania Dutch!), taken my sister out to breakfast, helped Cass move into his new apartment, explored the nature preserve across the street, been to the Philadelphia orchestra, enjoyed several really good meals with really good friends, toured Temple's campus, been enlightened at multiple wonderful pasta nights, put air in my bike tires, and read multiple books. Guess it's a busy summer after all...

Where did the time go?

I wish I could remember more details about the last week at school. Unfortunately, I was so caught up in writing papers, crafting finals, cleaning, packing, and trying to cram in time with friends that I didn't stop to really reflect. Something I regret, I assure you.

Oh goodness. Where did all the time go? May 1st brought a celebration of Miss Alex the Baker and her 19 years of life. What a day! Hillary and I had gone a few days before to lunch at Dogmatic which was delicious even though I don't typically eat things that resemble hotdogs. On the way we passed Alex's favorite store and had a wonderful time picking out her birthday gifts. We even trecked to Barnes and Nobles to find a good cookbook for her. Which, I must say, is one of the delightful things about my friends. Before this year, I would never have flipped through food blogs for fun--though I did look at cookbooks occasionally. Now I look through the blogs AND I have cookbooks on my "books to buy next" list even though I technically don't have a kitchen yet. But I digress... For her birthday morning we went to brunch in Brooklyn (I'll post the name as soon as I figure out where I put the business card).

After that, the two of us strolled around Dumbo for a bit. We wandered into a florist's showroom (again, I'll post the name sometime soon...). So in case I haven't mentioned this before, I love plants. Really. So we walked into this showroom/workspace/shop and started speaking with the woman who's space it was. She told us about the Greek mythology themed pieces she did for the Manhattan Horticultural Society's gala, the Miltonian orchids on her window, the glass art her friend makes, the day she carried the entire animal section of the Brooklyn Library's image archive home with her, the illustration she did for the front of her wedding invitation, her fiance's intentions of teaching at NYU, her vintage engagement ring... We just had a great time chatting with this woman! Then she gave us directions to a craft/food market further east, and we went off to enjoy that as well.

I don't quite remember what I did when I arrived back in Manhattan, but soon enough I was heading back to Brooklyn for her birthday dinner. It's strange to think about this night in retrospect. We ate at an Italian place. We came home. Hillary and I wandered the East Village looking for nourishment. We ate giant carrots. We tried a very gross "milkshake." And the next day I watched the news while at the gym and realized that there was a bomb evacuation in Time Square happening at the same time as our wanderings. Surreal.

Monday was my last day of classes. I'm the first to admit that I was working on some of those final projects up to the last minute. My next few posts will probably be me boring you to tears with my papers. Anyway. I finished classes and felt very strange about the fact as I walked home. I left the Gallatin building at 9 and realized that I won't be returning there for a class again until Fall 2011. Even stranger was realizing that I'll be a junior at that point. How did it get so late so soon!?!?

I cleaned, packed, and spent time with friends Monday night. And then Tuesday arrived. Tuesday saw me spend three hours at the Czech consulate. I was waiting to apply for my visa. While there, I ran into Brianna and decided that I'm looking forward to cooking with her (she's a vegan) in between eating heavy Czech meals. When it was finally my turn, I immediately decided that the woman working behind the counter must be one of the most patient people alive. To apply for a long-term visa, each student has to turn in a bunch of paperwork: a bundle of original forms and a bundle of copies. One of the forms in both is the application itself, and NYU supplied the 100-ish students studying in Prague next term with a sample of the application to guide them in filling it out. This would have been a brilliant idea if they had double-checked the answers they gave us. And so, this one woman spent her entire day coaching NYU students through the process of correcting both their original application and their copy of it. I was in awe.

By the time I left, I was running late. All semester Hillary and I met for lunch on Tuesdays. Since this was the final Tuesday, she had arranged for Emma and Maggie to meet us for lunch at a delicious place downtown. I took a cab since I was so late, but everything worked out. The food was great, getting to spend my final day with friends was great, and the post-lunch hunt for strawberry galette will stand out among my memories for a long time to come. While out at our ladies' lunch, Emma had the idea to start a blog where we could each post a picture each day of the summer of pleasant things we encountered. I still love the idea, but Wordpress accused me of cheating when I tried to co-contribute. I'll let you know how that turns out...

Finally, I raced home with plenty of time to finish cleaning/packing. Or so I thought. Then I encountered mystery mold in the kitchen. Knowing that my roomies wouldn't clean it and that we would then be fined for excessive disgusting-ness when everyone had moved out, I scrubbed the mold. I got it cleaned up, but then my dad arrived and I ran around the room attempting to finish packing. My poor father. There's another patient person for you. We loaded up the van, went to Caracas for lunch, and then headed home. And suddenly, it's over.