DIY extravaganza

My dad and his wife, Linda, were in town for a visit a couple weeks ago, and so (of course) many car repairs and home improvements were accomplished. Gotta love the dad. :)

Among them was the best DIY project I've ever done -- the retractable screen for my french doors in the bedroom! I've always loved these doors (pic at left is from when I bought it), but the problem was I could never leave them open due to the ridiculous number (and size) of bugs here. And, ahem, my phobia of roaches. So I never left them open for long. But NOW... so awesome! The cross-breezes and fresh air are a dream! Not a super cheap project ($220 for this door) and it was pretty involved, but it all came together perfectly and its a really well-designed screen. Love it, love it. You can't really see it in the pic below, but there's a little handle there on the right. And the best part is you can open it, and it rolls up on itself and its just like it was never there! OK, I'm a dork. Moving on.


More screens! Two windows in the kitchen... they haven't had screens in them since I bought the place, and it sucked cause the kitchen is one room you'd really like to be able to air out sometimes. But again with the bugs. I'd called a contractor to see about getting some custom-made, and he said it would be "very expensive." I didn't think that quote was very helpful, but it was enough to scare me off from having them done. Well, I'm glad I didn't, cause my dad and I made prefectly good custom screens from scratch (all materials are available at Home Depot) for a total of $40 for 2 screens! It was surprisingly easy. So, more fresh air and cross-breezes. Bring them on. (Especially when it was nearly 80 degrees this week! Holy global climate change, Batman.)


The other super-cool project was stopping the squeaks in my hardwood floors. Long ago, I saw a bit from This Old House about how to fix squeaky hardwoods, a filed it away in my brain for later use. My condo is in an old house that was built in 1930, and I'm pretty sure the floors are original. I love them, but they've got some serious squeaks. It didn't bother me too much, except for this horrible one in front of my washing machine that drove me NUTS every time I did laundry. So, the deal is, they make these long screws that snap off at a certain tension. The idea being, you screw them through the floor where the squeak is, they secure the floor panel to the sub-floor, and then the head snaps off below the surface, leaving you just a little hole to putty up. I ordered some online, kinda pricey, but then found more at Home Depot for way cheaper, same exact thing. (If you're ever looking, they're in the flooring section, randomly on a post of the shelving -- 2 employees had no idea what I was talking about, but then I stumbled upon them.) Anyway, I was psyched to find more, because they worked really well, but I didn't realize you'd need like 4-6 screws PER squeak! So my original 25 screws didn't go too far. I think I ended up using about 65. They're a great little fix, though, and you can't even see the holes after you fill them with wood putty. I was dancing all over my house afterwards, relishing the silence! I'm sure my downstairs neighbor was thrilled, as well. :)

Anyway, I love my place so much, and these little improvements make it even better. Yay for DIY and dad!

It's RAINING

...for a minute, at least. I wish I could capture the sound and the smell, but alas, all there is is the visual.

Jeff Buckley

My God, the man was truly a genius. I've been really feeling his music lately, and have been floored by the beauty in some of his lyrics:

Looking out the door i see the rain fall upon the funeral mourners
Parading in a wake of sad relations as their shoes fill up with water...

...Lonely is the room, the bed is made, the open window lets the rain in
Burning in the corner is the only one who dreams he had you with him
My body turns and yearns for a sleep that will never come

It's never over, my kingdom for a kiss upon her shoulder
It's never over, all my riches for her smiles when i slept so soft against her
It's never over, all my blood for the sweetness of her laughter
It's never over, she's the tear that hangs inside my soul forever

----------------------------------------

That brings us to who we need
A place where we can save
A heart that beats as
Both siphon and reservoir

You’re a woman, I’m a calf
You’re a window, I’m a knife
We come together
Making chance in the starlight

Meet me tomorrow night
Or any day you want
I have no right to wonder
Just how, or when

You know the meaning fits
There’s no relief in this
I miss my beautiful friend

---------------------------------------

In the half light
Where we both stand
In the half light
You saw me as I am

I am a railroad track abandoned
With the sunset
Forgetting
I ever happened
That I ever happened

---------------------------------------

I’ve loved so many times and I’ve drowned them all
From their coral graves, they rise up when darkness falls
With their bones they’ll scratch the window, I hear them call

He drowned in a freak accident in 1997 -- no drugs, not a suicide. Such a huge loss to the music world. Apparently, he likely suffered from bipolar disorder... yet another example of the fine line that often exists between psychiatric imbalance and artistic genius.

Inspiration

The chic who writes this blog is my new inspiration. Its the chronicling of her experiences in raising a wild coyote that she acquired when he was 10 days old. She's a fantastic photographer -- the pictures she posts make me wish I had a coyote-buddy of my own. Plus, she just strikes me as someone I'd like to know:

I'm 30. I live in a town of 300 people, where it's a sixty mile trip to the nearest grocery store and not uncommon to swing by the post office (or bar) on horseback.

Two years ago, I had plans to move from San Francisco back to New York City - plans that were derailed when I rode through Wyoming and fell in love with this place. I went on to New York, but a month later turned around, returned to Wyoming, and moved to the area where I had only spent one day.

The quality of her art, and her lifestyle, are things I'd like to achieve at some point. I feel Maine calling...

Science CAN be informative

Brilliant.

More of this knowledge is dropped here. (The comments are also pretty priceless.)

Thanks for the laugh, Bill!

Bah!

I just found out that I didn't get the Boston job. She picked someone else who had a lot more experience in the field, which is totally understandable. I'm disappointed, but not too surprised at this point. Back to the drawing board!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has a healthy and happy Thanksgiving! I think this picture embodies a lot of what I hope for everyone -- on this day, and always. May you all enjoy the goodness of the earth, and the goodness of each other.

Beach Turkey

If you're bored with the same-old same-old Thanksgiving fare, here's a way you can spice up your turkey this year. :) And if you do it, be sure to get a picture of Grandma's face when you unveil the bird!

Harvest time

Thanksgiving is coming up, and what with the harvest and all, I thought it would be a good time to write a little about my recent adventures in local food.

About a month ago, I joined a CSA (community shared agriculture), or co-op, or farm share, or whatever you want to call it. Its the deal where you buy into a local farm for a certain period of time, and you get a portion of whatever they are harvesting each week. I bought a half-share for 6 months at TaylOrganic Farm, and am splitting it with a friend, which comes out to $309 each, or about $12/week.

I joined the CSA for several reasons, and I'm not sure of their order of importance for me at the time. One was certainly that I wanted to eat better, have more vegetables in my diet, etc. And I figured if all this stuff was already paid for, and I had it in my fridge each week, I'd probably eat a lot of it. I gotta say, this has definitely been the case, and there's the added bonus of not eating out as much, which saves money and ends up making me eat a lot healthier. For example, right now, I'm sitting at my desk at work, eating a fantastic (and huge) salad of: mixed lettuce (farm), carrots (farm), mizuna (farm), pecans (farm), apple (store), blue cheese crumbles (store) and a pear reduction dressing (from a friend). I don't think I've ever brought salad ingredients to work before, but it wasn't very much trouble at all, and its delicious. For dessert, homemade chocolate chip pecan cookies! :) Overall, my body feels pretty happy about this development -- I think I've even lost a few pounds!

Another reason was that I wanted to learn to cook new things. Faced with piles of mustard and collard greens, turnips, radishes, kohlrabi (I'd never even heard of that), bok choy, squash, and other vegetables I'd never really cooked before, I've definitely had to become creative in the kitchen. My current favorite from the batch is bok choy, which I just sautee in olive oil with fresh garlic, soy sauce and a bit of sugar. (Thanks, Jo!) I find a lot of recipes at Food Network, and most have proven easy and quite tasty. But slowly, I'm also beginning to learn how to "wing it" and make stuff up, which is also fun.

Coincidentally (or not?), I recently read Barbara Kingsolver's new book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. I think I actually read it after I'd signed up for the co-op, but before it had started, and the book really made me excited to be a part of this process. I'd recommend this book for anyone who's interested in natural food production, local agriculture, organic cooking, etc. It covers the year that Kingsolver and her family moved to a farm and lived on food they had either produced themselves or purchased from local farmers. Its wonderfully written, and there is SO much information in there about naturally grown foods, farming, the global agriculture industry, etc. Plus, there's recipes! But basically, the book really opened my eyes and caused me to think about the importance not only of organic, but also local foods. I'd never thought about where the food at the grocery store (or even the farmer's market) comes from -- and now that I look, I see that almost NONE of it comes from within even 1000 miles of me! Anyway, with the global warming crisis looming, everyone is becoming more conscious of their "carbon footprint," and I've been looking for ways to reduce mine. I had simply never considered the effects of buying food (or anything, really) that has been shipped halfway across the globe for my convenience. I won't go into too much detail, but I found a pretty good overview of the book and its ideas here if you're interested. In short, I like the idea of supporting local farmers for many reasons: health, monetary, environmental and socio-political.

So all in all, the first month of my 6-month experiment has been a great success! However, it can sometimes be overwhelming and a little stressful to try to cook and eat all these veggies before they go bad. (Organic produce goes bad a lot faster cause there are no preservatives.) Plus, for the past two weeks, I've been getting the entire 1/2 share, cause my friend who is splitting it with me has been out of town. In short, I'm in the process of a serious veggie beat-down. When I unloaded my shipment last night in the kitchen and surveyed the mountian of vegetables, and thought about what was still in my fridge, the veggies finally won. I dropped off a big bag-o-plenty at a friend's house this morning, as I'm leaving tomorrow for the holiday! :)

Artistic interpretation: The Veggie Beat-down

Enormoscorps

Dang, and I thought the roaches down south were unnecessarily large in this day and age. Good thing I wasn't around during the palaeolithic (or whenever)... my roach-induced PTSD would have just killed me flat dead.

No Country for Old Men

Wow. I went with Cami to see the new Coen brothers' film, No Country for Old Men, last night. Wow.

Despite the fact that it was perhaps the darkest movie I've ever seen (I'm not exaggerating), I really liked it. In fact, I need to see it again, cause I think I missed the full weight of the meaning in some parts. The loss of innocence/optimism that comes with age, and the inability to do anything about evil in the world, are major themes.

I won't say much about the plot, except that its VERY violent and leaves you with no answers, and no happy ending. You can read some reviews here. Which, BTW, are overwhelmingly laudatory. The Coen brothers are as brilliant as ever with their little touches that make a movie so real -- the dialogue, the accurate small town accents, and their general conception of "characters" with a lot of personality. They are so right on. This movie has none of their trippy sequences (ie: Big Lebowski and Oh Brother, Where Art Thou), but a lot of the creepy feel of The Man Who Wasn't There and the darkness of Fargo, except these two things are taken to a whole new level. CREEPY sums it up very well. You are on the edge of your seat the whole time! The almost complete lack of a soundtrack adds to this feel... Plus, the lighting and cinematography are as inspired as ever (look at the composition in the shot below), and the acting is amazing. I was particularly impressed with Tommy Lee Jones, who has a supporting role and does very well in a more modest setting. And, the creepy guy, Javier Bardem, was, well, just go see it. Yikes.


I smell a "Best Picture" Oscar nomination. Overall, I highly recommend seeing this movie. But brace yourself, and don't expect to leave uplifted.

If you've seen it, leave a comment -- I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Search function

I just added the search function to the right, which enables you (or me) to search this contents of this blog. It was super easy, and took a total of 1.2 minutes.

Go here if you want to do the same, and happy searching!

Waiting...

So, I've been hesitant to post about this, for fear of jinxing the situation. But I'm throwing superstition out the window, cause I wanted to fill you all in.

Most of you probably know of my interest in meditation, yoga, mindfulness, etc. For the past two years, as I've been post-docing, I've been thinking a lot about "what I want to do" in science, and with my life in general. And at least at this point, I think I really want to get into this growing area of neuroscience, from a professional standpoint. (In fact, when I was at the mindfulness conference with the Dalai Lama, I had a mini-revelation that THIS is where I want to be "in five years." If not on that stage presenting my data, then at least doing research that will inform the knowledge being shared on that stage.) Overall, science is just too tough of a job for me to not be doing something I'm passionate about. And I've also decided, due to other developments, that I really want to get involved in brain imaging techniques. Conveniently, there are commonly-used techniques in the field of meditation research. So I've been keeping my eyes open.

Then, about a month or 6 weeks ago, I got this email forward from a friend of a friend about a job posting at Mass General Hospital (MGH) in Boston:

Postdoctoral Position at Massachusetts General Hospital
exploring neurobiology of mindfulness and meditation

We are recruiting a postdoctoral research fellow to conduct
NIH-funded research evaluating the neurobiological basis of meditation and mindfulness, and to assess the impact of meditation on the normal aging process. Research includes functional and structural MRI measures as well as behavioral and physiological assessments. Opportunities to conduct research with participants undergoing a meditation-based stress reduction courses (MBSR and the relaxation response) are also available.

The lab is located within the MGH Psychiatry Department and the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, both of which have strong research communities offering a wealth of potential collaborations. The lab also collaborates closely with the Center for Mindfulness at UMass Medical School, the Benson-Henry Mind/Body Medical Institute, and the Harvard Medical School Osher Institute for Complementary and Integrative Medicine.Completed graduate training with a Ph.D. or M.D. in psychology, neurobiology, physiology, psychiatry, or behavioral medicine is required. The ideal candidate will also have experience with functional or structural MRI. There is a competitive salary with excellent benefits. Send a statement of research interests, curriculum vitae and the names and addresses of 2 references to:
Dr. Sara Lazar PhD
Massachusetts General Hospital
Room 2609
Charlestown, MA 02129

I thought -- OMG, perfect! So even though I wasn't sure about the timing of the position, I contacted this woman, figuring if nothing else, she'd be a great contact in this field. I checked her out online, and she seems pretty new, but did publish a cool study that got a lot of press coverage in 2005. We had a phone interview, and she seemed cool (and, importantly, not psycho) and the work sounded right up my alley. Plus, she said she could wait till the end of the summer to hire (making my Maine plans still plausible, even if they get moved up a little). So I decided to make a trip up to Boston to meet this woman, and assess the situation first-hand. In short, I went, the interview was great, I liked her, and I'm very excited about the position! Plus, it is in Boston, where I've been wanting to move for years!

Last I heard, I was one of 3 people being considered for the job. My weak points are that I don't have a lot of imaging experience, and I think I want to start later than she'd hoped. But I DO have a strong personal and professional interest in this work, and I'm a good scientist, and we seemed to have a good rapport (she's a big yoga person, too!) so I'm hoping!! She was checking my references last week, so I'm waiting with baited breath...

I'll let you know as soon as I hear anything! Meanwhile, please send good "job vibes" my way!

How to find my blog

Its always fun to see how people come across my blog. (If you are interested, you can do this for yours at Sitemeter.) Mostly, of course, its through friends' blogs or something within Blogger. But, in the last 100 visits, these are the Google search terms that have led people here:

6: eat datura
27: todd roderick ashtanga
36: does gypsum weed show in pee test
50: datura experiences
74: peep at woman in room
80: mens locker room peep show
81: Hidden cammeras showers bathrooms etc
90: "women's locker" boys shower
92: something that everyone should know
94: peep women changing
95: asparagus- affecting urine

So pretty much drugs and sex. Two topics that I specifically try NOT to post about. :) I'll have to remember not to title any future posts as anything related to peep shows. My personal favorite, however, is #92. I mean, was this person just looking for generally important information? Well, at least now they know how to remove that pesky onion smell from their hands.

Dalai Lama (-o-Rama)

The weekend of October 21st, His Holiness the Dalai Lama was at Emory for a number of events to celebrate his installment as a professor. On Saturday, there was an all-day conference on "Mindfulness, Compassion, and the Treatment of Depression." You KNOW I was there! :) There were a lot of big names in the field in attendance, and it was so inspiring to hear all the research that is starting to be done in this field. It was a cool format, like a round-table panel discussion, but when each speaker presented their work, they presented it to the Dalai Lama, sitting next to him and looking at a laptop (the slides were projected for the rest of us to see). He would listen intently, and interrupt to comment or ask questions if he didn't understand. I just kept thinking -- how freakin cool that these scientists are teaching the Dalai Lama! And he was so quick to pick up new ideas... he's amazingly sharp for being 72. Most of all, I was thrilled to see that concepts like mindfulness and meditation are beginning to be taken seriously by the academic and medical communities in the West. And as these ideas gain acceptance, the level of research is improving, more rigor, better designs and controls, etc. Not to mention, they are being found to be successful as treatment options for psychiatric problems, as well as promoting improved immune function, and general well-being. It was all very exciting!

Sunday afternoon was Emory's first annual Summit on Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding. This was a similar format, and there were four speakers who represented Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Hinduism in addition to His Holiness (representing Buddhism). It was a cool dialogue about the role of religion in both war and peace. Obviously, most of the crowd was anti-war, so a lot of what was said was preaching to the choir, but I really liked the idea of getting representatives of major religions together to discuss their commonalities, and to reflect on their responsibilities to society. So much good stuff.

Monday morning was his official installment as professor. I didn't end up attending, but I watched a video of his inaugural lecture, entitled "Reality as Interdependence." He actually sounded like he was talking modern physics! Then he delivered a public lecture at Centennial Park Monday afternoon: "Educating the Heart and Mind: A Path to Universal Responsibility." I watched this on video as well, and if you're interested in his visit or his views in general, I would highly recommend watching this speech. It summarizes a lot of what he said in different events over the weekend, and its almost all in his wonderful broken English. You can find it, along with most of the other events (except for the mindfulness conference -- boo) here. Click on "Public Talk, Segment 3" (at the bottom) and if you want to skip to where he starts speaking, its at about 45 minutes in. He gives his speech and then answers questions.


He's just so awesome. Being in his presence, or even watching him speak in a video, you can just tell he's so in line with the truth. When people speak from that place, you know it. And he's so full of wisdom and love, and he's always cracking jokes and laughing. :) I think he truly embodies all of the best of humanity. I feel really fortunate to have been able to see him speak on a number of subjects, and I'm excited that he's now officially a part of the Emory community.

Rafting with "the gang"

I guess it was about a month ago now (man, time flies) that I went camping and rafting with some friends up in Bryson City, NC. The weather was PERFECT -- warm and sunny, but not hot... chilly at night, exactly what you want for camping. We stayed at this great campground near the river, and had a huge site by a creek to ourselves, complete with enough room for my recently-made polish golf set. :)

Except for our fear of the nazi-ish hippie woman who ran the place, it was a relaxing time in the woods. To give you a taste of her approach: on their website, rule #7 states, "Do not deface, cut, or drive nails into trees or tables. Putting an ax into a tree is the same as having an ax put through your tent." Can you hear the banjoes? So, we were a little concerned going in. And then when we met her, and were paying, etc, she warned us to make "only the smallest fire ever" since they were in such a drought. We joked about trying not to burn down the forest, and she said, with a little too much seriousness, "Well, I have your address here on the sheet, so if you burn down my woods, I know where you live." YIKES!

But it turns out she was pretty cool, and we really enjoyed our stay. Drinking, building (maybe not the smallest) fires, polish golf, eating lots of meat and mac and cheese. Then, Saturday, the river! We rafted down the Nantahala with a guide from the Nantahala Outdoor Center. He tolerated our childish humor and antics quite well, and I think by the end, he actually liked us. He even let Michael guide the raft for a while! The trip was Class II/III whitewater, and it was a good introduction for those of us who hadn't rafted before. Bill fell in (the water was FREEZING) and then later, Erin voluntarily jumped in for a swim. By the look of icy shock on her face when she re-surfaced, I think she regreted it. :) But all in all, it was a great trip! Next time, Class IV, perhaps? Or, there were these cool kayaks that we wanted to try, but we didn't feel bad-ass enough (see pic)... Maybe next time, though.

We didn't take many pictures on this trip, but we did buy this one from the outdoor center. (Note Bill flashing gang signs while the rest of us are busy trying to keep the raft from flipping.)

Fall foliage

I mentioned before that the fall foliage in Atlanta is turning out to be a lot prettier than I'd expected. The weather has been beautiful lately, crisp and breezy. I decided to take a bike ride on a different part of the Silver Comet trail yesterday, and I took a few pictures while I was out.


It was a great morning for a ride, and I did a little exploring off the trail as well, where I found this patch of perfect autumn-orange. (This is a nice one to click on and expand.)


I also ended up in a little clearing, which looked like this when I looked up.


I hope you all are enjoying your fall!

Psycho-kitty, qu'est que c'est?

I was house/pet-sitting this weekend for a friend, and in addition to his three highly-energtic dogs, he recently acquired this sweet kitty.


Meet Mashburn. She's probably about 6 months old, and from what I can tell, she's completely insane. I tried to capture some of her antics on camera yesterday, but I'm afraid it doesn't really come across. Nevertheless, I thought I'd put a few shots up here.

Where do I begin with this animal? First, she is like most cats in that she loves to attack moving appendages under the blankets of a bed. Typical play behavior, that's normal. But she also will attack your face, bite your hair, and whap you in the eye if you're not careful. And she somehow is able to bound about 5 feet striaght up into the air, and then she runs (full-tilt) head-first into walls and furniture. Can't you see the crazy in her eyes?


And she doesn't really EVER stop. She often starts intently playing with one thing, only to, for no reason, urgently turn her attention to something else. Totally ADD. I'm beginning to be convinced that she has a secret stash of cocaine or speed hidden in some nook in the house. Here's a shot of her doing some leg-flailing, whirly-bird attack. (I laughed out loud for about 5 minutes when I saw this picture.)


She also LOVES water. I've seen a couple cats who like to play in water bowls, or will disturb your water glass if you leave it around. But Mashy takes it to a new level. First, the whole time you're in the shower, she's running back and forth in between the shower curtains and peeking out at either side. Sometimes she even jumps into the shower with you! (The first time this happened, I was terrified of having to tangle with a wet, pissed-off tornado of claws.) And as soon as you turn off the water, she's definitely in the tub with you, sniffing around and generally enjoying the puddles. Sadly, I don't have any pics of the water games, as I didn't really want to bring my camera into the shower. Or, if you prefer a bath, this is how it goes. While the tub is filling, she's sticking her paws into the gushing water, then with licking them or doing the super-fast paw-shake. Once the tub is full, and you're in it, she again is back and forth on the edge, dunking paws (or whole legs!) into the water. If her tail drops in the water by accident, she doesn't really care. I mean, aren't cats supposed to hate water? Last time I took a bath, she ended up curled up and falling asleep on the corner of the tub by my head.

Oh, and this may kind of fit with the whole picture, but I've never seen this before -- she loves wine! I had a glass of white wine and she started lapping it right up like it was a bowl of cold milk! Seriously, maybe she needs kitty-rehab. Actually, she just last week was at the vet getting fixed (I guess the lack of hormones doesn't make a difference here), and she also had these claw-cap things put on. Has anyone ever heard of these? Its apparently the new, more humane alternative to "de-clawing," which is really chopping off digits. They're just these little plastic sleeves that they glue on the ends of the claws, and they're supposed to last for 6-9 months. I thought this was a great idea, and she was all capped when I started sitting on Wed night. When I left today, I think she had a couple caps left -- the rest I guess she had chewed off or something. Shocker. It made for a lot fewer scratches while playing, though, while it lasted.

Anyway, despite all the craziness, Mashy is pretty darn cute, and she does have her sweet and quiet moments, so I can't help but love her. :) Maybe next time, though, I'll slip a little valium in her catfood, or I'll just put wine in her water bowl. (Kidding, Seth.)

Bye for now!

Weddings

Ah. Finally caught up on all the blogs I've fallen behind on (that would be all of them). Its good to be back!

Back in early Ocotber, I headed up to Nashville for Kevin and Emily's wedding. Along for the drive were Leah, Dennis, and Katrin, and we met up wtih Stan and Cary when we arrived. And then we saw Liz out for dinner as well! Holy neurodork reunion! It was so great to see everyone, and I think we even managed to NOT discuss much (any?) science while we were there. We had too much to catch up on about our non-work lives... The rest of you were dearly missed.

We got to see Kevin and Emily briefly the night before the wedding, and I was introduced to the game of "cornhole." Which just sounds dirty no matter how you slice it. If you don't know it, its another great lawn/drinking game, similar to horseshoes, or the recently-discovered polish golf. Cornhole basically involves throwing bean bags onto a tilted board with a hole in it, the idea being to get the bag in the hole. See? Its just dirty! :) Anyway, I believe Katrin found yet another unknown talent, and she and Stan kicked some Erreger family butt.

There was also this really cool dragon sculpture in the park where we were having the cornhole. It was an enormous drangon (or two?) and the whole thing was covered in tiles, mosaics that looked like there were designed by kids. A fun idea, and some were super creepy.

We spent the next morning getting some solid southern breakfast food (mmm, bisuits) and then exploring the very old graveyard that was outside our hotel. Why, you might ask, was there a graveyard at your hotel? Well, we wondered the same thing. It seems that the site used to be a church, which was destroyed in a storm at some point, and the nice people of the Ramada Inn decided not to unearth the bodies when they built on the land. Actually, it was kind of cool. 1800's gravestones, and even a turtle skeleton! We tried to lift the lid off of this one grave, cause we weren't sure whether the bodies were above ground in these types of things... but it was way too heavy, so we never found out.

Sunday afternoon was the wedding -- at a great old house in Franklin that you could rent out for such occasions. Actually, it reminded me a lot of where I got married, for those of you that were there. As we arrived and took a tour of the house, I saw the wedding cake, and it looked so good that Stan had to stop me from chowing down! The ceremony was held out back in a gazebo, followed by a reception, complete with live bluegrass! Awesome! Kevin and Emily were so happy, and it was great to be a part of their celebration. Congrats, guys!


Wedding reception number two was just couple weeks ago, up in Winston-Salem, to celebrate Michael and Jill's marriage back in June. A bunch of us from ATL went up, and met up with the rest of the crew that had come in from all over the country. I won't go into too much detail here, cause this event has already been covered pretty well here. (Shhh, I'm not saying anything about the author of this blog, so as not to jinx her return, x3?, to the world of blogging... But yay!)

Michael and Jill have a great new house, as well, so there was lots to celebrate. It was definitely a great weekend, and I stayed up past 2AM, got overly drunk, and danced my butt off on both nights. That's more than I've done any of those things in a long time. It was also great to see a lot of good friends I haven't seen in a while. And DAMN we clean up well! :) Check out the GQ shoot:


Congratulations, Michael and Jill!

Deluge

del·uge [del-yooj, -yoozh, del-ooj, -oozh, di-looj, -loozh]
–noun
1. a great flood of water; inundation; flood.
2. a drenching rain; downpour.
3. anything that overwhelms like a flood: a deluge of blog posts.

I just yesterday re-submitted this hellish paper I've been working on for a couple months, so I think this morning is a well-deserved blog holiday. Blogiday? Bloliday? Blogliday.


Anyway, deluge is the word that popped into my head when I realized that I was back on blogger, and the things I have to catch up on. So pull on your galoshes...


Hmm, the last time I posted was early October. Since then (in no particular order), I've been to two weddings, a weekend of the Dalai Lama goodness, the Red Sox won the World Series, and I went to Boston (just so happened on the night of Game 1) for an interview, which was very promising and I'm still waiting to hear. Much more on that later, I hope. I've officially returned to the single life, and am finding it much simpler than dating. (We'll see how long till the loneliness makes me do something foolish!) Also, had two friends in town, went to a surprisingly disappointing concert, went camping and rafting, and planted some flowers in my garden. Oh, and I joined a CSA -- one of those things where you buy into a local farm and you get a delivery of produce every week, which I'm hoping will completely change my eating habits. Plus, the usual yoga, work, side jobs (babysitting and house-sitting), and friends. All in all, not a bad month! I'll elaborate on a number of those things in subsequent posts... I just needed to get them down so I'd remember.

Fall is finally here in Atlanta, as evidenced by the frost on the grass this morning! Actually, its shaping up to be a prettier autumn than I'd expetced. I was thinking since we've had such a crazy drought here, that the leaves would go straight from green to brown to the ground. But last weekend, as I was walking around my neighborhood, I saw quite a bit of yellow, orange and red dotting the landscape. The resilience of nature is, as always, amazing. Hopefully this weekend, I'll bust out the camera so I have some pics to show.

Anyway, with the fall, and the chill and the darkening afternoons comes a kind of a gathering-in for me. I find that I stay home more, go to bed earlier, but get up with the sun, and generally turn more inward than during the bright days of summer. Which isn't a bad thing... maybe its just like a mild form of hibernation. Its funny, but as I've gotten older, I've noticed that my demeanor and behavior seems to be linked more strongly to the weather and the seasons. Or maybe I'm just more observant now, so I notice it more. Either way, I think I like it. In fact, I'm finding that many strange things are happening with age (and by "age", I mean in the last 2-3 years - ha!). But that seems like a good subject for its own post. :)

Anyway, I think I need a coffee before I get down to it. Stay tuned...

Back

Well, if this doesn't inspire me to return to my blog, I don't know what will. Seriously, have a look/read, its worth the 5 minutes. Personally, I think we should bring back some of these pimp-ity styles... the lime-green 3-piece suit? Hotness.


Actually, this guy's whole blog is pretty good if you want to check it out.

Lovely afternoon

The weather has finally gotten crisp and wonderful here in Atlanta... so last weekend, I rescued my old bike from the depths of my musty basement. After brushing off the cobwebs and pumping up the tires (years of stagnancy), I took it out on the Silver Comet Trail last Saturday. No pics of us, but Erin, Cami and I trekked 12 miles along the path (with a little side jaunt to a place where we narrowly avoided the Mexican gang scene). The day was perfect, 70's and low humidity -- the sky was so blue you almost forgot the smog of the city. We rode through canyons and by streams... I had a brief race with a yellow butterfly. :) It felt great to be outside.


In other news, I have to recommend the movie Once -- a little indie film with some kick-ass singer-songwriter type music, and a sweet and honest plotline to go along with it. Also check out The Swell Season (this is the duo that stars in the movie, and also does the music in real life).


Glen Hansard, of the Frames, on guitar, and his girlfriend Markéta Irglová on piano... delicious melodies and harmonies. Listening to their stuff has inspired me to get back on the piano myself, and I've even managed to figure out the whole "recording in GarageBand" thing! At least a little.