"I was hoping that if I went out there and did something good..

..You would see that you could do something magnificent." HR

I am sitting on Houghton Pond, which has to be one of the prettiest places on the earth today, all of a sudden, out of the gray yuckiness that was yesterday.

I brought CS Lewis’ The Joyful Christian with me, and also The Portable Henry Rollins, which is of course what I am actually choosing to read. I am already pumped up by the day – it is finally nice and I am sitting amongst lily pads, a cool breeze, a hot sun, the shouts of small boys across a placid water body, and a sky that cannot wait to erupt into fall color. But Henry’s writing always gets me jumpy too. There’s something that never gets any less off-putting about him, something about how he’s lived in DC, and something about how I love writing like that too that gets me all excited about his work, especially on a weekend amongst jumping frogs and dragonflies courting one another.

M & K came back from their honeymoon this weekend, and I was lucky enough to hear some of the funnier stories from their time down in Florida. It seems as though they were around some pretty insane wildlife too, including crazy kids in Key West and a belligerent steel drummer. All’s well that ends well though, and I am glad they had such a memorable time and that they got treated to being the honeymoon couple that they deserved to be for those few weeks.

So all the teachers I am working with are everywhere in the world right now, or so it seems. There are people in the Middle East, Latin America, and one guy at least traveling from Africa this past week to Switzerland as we speak. I am so jealous of them, but also ironically really excited to get into the office tomorrow, set it up, figure out my training notes to see what I can start working on. I think we really do need a Where’s Waldo Map to send out, for my edification and for all the other teachers, so we can be noisy about each other and stay on our toes with communication. One of the most exciting things about tomorrow is that I just don’t know what on earth is going to happen. Should I be worried?

On the flip side of things, though I am sad not to travel internationally yet, I am also sad that I will be doing too much travel at the moment to get a puppy. Sure, maybe working 8-6 most days and living is also not a good plan for a new kid, but it would be amazing to start living, as J puts it, my old white woman life by walking my dog around the Blue Hills, teaching him to swim, jogging with him on the road like a total lame-o, finding a way to sail with him in the summer, and going for long drives. O is an indoor cat to put it lightly, is done with long rides in the car after driving up here for 9 hours straight, and is otherwise not inclined to cooperate in my fantasies. I am also above putting a leash on my cat, just to be clear. This is Sparta, not madness, people. A dog will wait, but I better be getting on a plane soon.

Which reminds me, what on earth am I going to get for A & R’s reception? I guess the good news is they’re registered at Target and there’s one a few miles from me, but ehk. I know she said that she has no idea what she really wants, and marriage gifts are always so generic, good for people you barely know, but not for my A. Of course, unskilled and harried as I am right now, what else am I going to do? Suggestions would be nice from people a little more thoughtful and experienced at this stuff than me.

So we come to the middle of September, half a month in this area, wow. It’s so beautiful, and so pleasant to be here. I can’t get over how quickly so much has changed still. I need to start doing more, procuring a little sister, for instance, even though S claims “some children might not like how structured” I am. Well, boo unstructured children, and bring on the type A tykes! Also, the church I went to has a motorcycle gang affiliated with it, the “Revelation Riders.” There are truly people to meet out there, hee hee.

Alright, I am going to read Henry a little more and head off down the way. It’s better to read him on a perfect day like this, when there is no chance of me getting angsty. I hope your day is pretty great too.