2 inches

Some snow in Maryland and people get a bit nutty.  Schools shut down early, people are wrestling over the last jugs of milk at the supermarket, drivers play bumper cars on the highway... woah!

I hear that the smallest sign of any real snow will cause a delayed start to the school day tomorrow. Crossing my fingers! No one even mentioned snow like this in the motherland... and in four years of teaching in Utah, we NEVER took a snow day. In fact, we went to the zoo in a snowstorm! I'm feeling pretty Bruce Willis out here. Or, perhaps, Clint Eastwood.

C'mon SKY, I dare you to snow...

G is for...

ME! 

This is a public apology to anyone that's had to deal with me over the past week.

Whatever my particular problems are, I have no excuse to take residence in a garbage can. 

At least Oscar is a lovable curmudgeon.  YIKES!

Summer Whites

My new friend, Topaz, turned 35 and she threw an end-of summer soiree complete with croquet, bocce ball, and mandatory sporting whites for the competition.  Of course, if there's cause to dress up I can't help but go overboard, so I pulled the sewing machine out of the basement and went to work.  The dress was a hideous 70's polyester appliqued gem from a thrift store before I got my hands on it. It did have good bones for a Gatsby-esque look, no? 

Side note: the main beverage at the event was a dark blueberry cocktail.  I still can't believe that with all that white around, no one spilled!

New Job Title

It's official.  I am a wrangler, a tamer, and a rodeo clown to the wildest bunch of kids ever put into one classroom!  I always dreamed of being a zookeeper when I grew up.  I just thought it would be with something easy like tigers or man-eating bears.

New Pair of Jeans

Well... I've been in Maryland for two months now and it still feels like a new pair of jeans: slightly uncomfortable and unforgiving.  This life looked great on the hanger: sophisticated, glossy, completely different than anything I've ever tried before.  At this point, I'm not sure that the fit is entirely "me."  Although, I'm not sure that it isn't either...

Life has been turned upside down for almost everyone I love in the past year and not of their own choosing.  With how unstable the world is right now, why would I choose to do this to myself? 

Growing is supposed to be uncomfortable, and sometimes even painful.  Being lonely and feeling uncertain are supposed to push me through the surface like a seedling or puncture the egg shell like a chick, leaving me stronger on the other side of things.  I was becoming stagnant, so I moved, and right now I'm feeling a bit lost.  I'm sure a baby chicken must feel this way too, after leaving the confines of egg life and stepping into the cold air.  Now it is up to me to find my way out of the soil and into the sunlight.  I need to keep the jeans on and live this new life until they mold around me.  Until they feel so great that I never want to take them off.

There's no place like home...

I've been looking for a place to live in my new city and my search has made me homesick for my townhouse already.  I really love Utah, my house in particular.  I'm trusting the promptings that are pulling me there... but not without some anxiety!

DC really is beautiful.  There are so many trees and the architecture is insanely adorable.  But, I'll miss the mountains surrounding me on all sides.  I'll also miss not worrying if I lost my wallet or accidentally leaving the front door unlocked! (I've lost my wallet and had it returned 4 times since I moved here.  Seriously.)

I know that when your heart beats a little faster as you make a choice, the consequences on the other side will be potent.  I also know that this change holds the key to my ultimate happiness... I am so excited to see what is on the other side.

Fly Like A Butterfy, Sting Like A Bee!

Soooo... After jet setting all over the country trying to find my new life, I've decided on Monarch Academy!  They're an Expeditionary Learning School, which is just my speed when it comes to out-of-the-boxness.  I think I can do a lot of great things there and learn quite a bit while I'm at it! 

The next thing to figure out is where to live...

Monarch is closer to Baltimore than DC, but I drove around Baltimore... and I saw people doing drugs in the street.  Seriously.  And the last thing I want to do is end up in single's wasteland suburbia. (That's where I'm at now, and it's lovely... but dating is hilariously rough.)  The great ward that I visited was in Alexandria, which is over an hour from Monarch.  If only I had access to a flying car or a teleporter...