T-minus one day left

Ok, I'm packed. Baggage fees be damned, I have three 49 pound suitcases plus a carry-on that's on the large end of the allowable carry-on limit. I have clothes laid out for tomorrow. Now all I have to do is get myself to Pittsburgh in plenty of time for my 6:15 flight. And hope the Air Canada flight attendants won't go on strike half-way through my flight...

Fall Forward

Coming home has been just what I need it to be, very relaxing. It's the end of the summer, so both my parents are back to teaching class and I end up being home alone quite a bit, giving me plenty of time to make my preparations for next year and tie up loose ends from the summer. 

Besides, I'm not really home alone. There is manic depressive dog, two grown cats who are sneaky troublemakers, and a kitten who had a broken leg until a few weeks ago. This makes for plenty of entertaining antics and all the nap time buddies I could ever need. 

Fall is definitely here, or at least so say the stores that have started to stock Halloween candy. Folks living on the island usually shop at only a limited number of stores, so we knew that fall was starting when the first Pumpkin beer became available. Trees in Ohio are still green, while New England trees have already started to change colors, but fall is still making itself known.

It's harvest time and there are new ripe veggies in the garden every day, plus about once a week we get a big basket from a friend's farm, CSA-style. In the past week I've made two big batches of tomato sauce, two of salsa, plus we've blanched and frozen lots of fresh vegetables to use late. Today we made stock and some of the less-lovely tomatos, last week's haul that hadn't been used yet, and a few new things as well. Now the whole house smells like onions and fennel! Delicious!

Yesterday was one of my other favorite Ohio early fall activities, Mount Union home football. Dad and I used to go to the games together almost every week when I was younger, but that was interrupted a bit by high school marching band. After being required to spend Friday evening watching football in all weathers, I usually didn't want to do the same Saturday afternoon. But now I get to watch the Raiders less often, so it's always a treat when I do. 

I understand football well enough to enjoy watching it. I still don't get a lot of the nuance; I rarely notice fouls and still spend an awful lot of the game watching the cheerleaders like I did when I was eight. But there's something about just the whole experience of going to a college football game - the crowds, the noise, the colors, the band - it's a rite of sorts. A moment where a whole group of people come together and focus their attention on one simple game. 

I know that this is true to a certain extent about many sporting events, but none come with the trappings of a good football game, especially in a region like the midwest where people really care about the sport. Plus it's something my dad and I have always done together. My mom and sister have never been interested. 

We won 41-17 against University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, but it was a hard-fought game all around. Soon I'm going to have to start focusing on a completely different type of football!

Recap: "July Never Seemed So Strange" through "Goodnight Irene"

Well, predictably I did a terrible job of keeping this blog over the summer. To be honest, I did a pretty terrible job of keeping in touch with everyone, including my family. But since my summer is over, a little recap.

 When we last left our heros it was early July and we were doing what we always do: playing guitars and singing, rowing boats at sunset, and working too much. Open-Up work gradually turned into regular season and I transitioned from managing large groups of volunteers on the weekends to supervising a crew of seven and two to twenty volunteers every day. It was an exciting year! Lots of old friends came to visit, lots of exciting new friends were made. We had parties with themes that ranged from "Fred Loves Boats," to the "Stone Age Rage," with "Robots and Zombies," "Ke$ha and Condiments," a couple great bands, and a particularly epic Pirate Party. The softball team went 11-1. Two friends and I were invited to brunch at Appledore island across the harbor. And I dressed up as Michael Jackson (sort of) and sang "Billy Jean" in front of a whole conference. Twice.

 Maybe because I wasn't directly involved with the day to day workings of the conference this year, but the summer seemed to fly by. All my free time was spent making arrangements for next year or running away from the island to go swimming on the other side of the harbor. My job had me working a little bit of everywhere, from the Bakery to the Front Desk, from serving meals as a waiter to covering for the head waiter (my friend Luke, for those who have been following this story for a while) on his days off. Being so involved allowed me to make some great new friends

Here's Owen, Morgan, and Allie falling asleep on the kitchen counter. I think this was after the Ke$ha party. This is probably after we were all attacked with tons of glitter.

And Matt and me being really good pirates. Allie took this picture. She was a pink pirate and I was an orange pirate. It's kind of like Power Rangers. Right? This was before we were all attacked with squirt guns and powdered sugar.

 Morgan left early, and Owen was next to go. Allie's still out there now, and Matt and I stayed just long enough to be evacuated for Hurricane Irene. The Irene evac wasn't quite the adventure that Earl was last year, but the hurricane was a lot worse. Fortunately the island didn't sustain much damage at all. This time the storm mostly went west of us. Allie and Matt and I weathered the storm in Boston.

Mid August Annaliese and I took a very quick trip to NYC. We were in the city for something like 30 hours but I got to see a lot of friends and enjoy the complete turnaround from life on a 40 acre island with a population of 400 on a good day, back to one of the largest and busiest cities in the world. Plus I got to see a bunch of you guys one last time before I make the trip across the pond, even if it was only for a couple minutes (Theresa!).

I was very happy with this summer. It's such a special place - out of time, in a way. But it can be very isolating. My best years there have been years when I had definite life plans for after the summer was over, and that was certainly true for this year. Grad school is coming together, and I'll talk about that more later. But this was a really lovely summer, and I'm glad for such a good centering experience before I head off into the great unknown.