25 September 2008

my first skywatch

I saw my first skywatch photo a few weeks ago on my best friend's blog. It was completely understandable to me why she would be drawn to such an idea; she absolutely loves the sky. So much so, that I used to call her skylark when we were still roommates. She instilled in me a love of sky-watching, and I still I love looking at the sky - it is such a large canvas which tells new and interesting stories every day.
After browsing through the many beautiful pictures on the Skywatch website I felt inspired and sat down and drew for the first time in a really long time. This is exactly what I need in my live - inspiration. Therefore, I am joining the ranks at Skywatch.

This photo was taken at sunset in Edfu, Egypt.


24 September 2008

itinerant

It has been a rough journey these last few months. I completed my thesis and received my Master's Degree from the University of Chicago. A week later Joseph flew out to Boston to attend Harvard for the summer and Emily flew in to help me finish packing up (and I packed her up as well), drive with me to Cleveland, and fly out to Maryland where I stayed with her and her family for a week. We also took a couple of trips down to D.C.

Then it was off to San Francisco to visit my Aunts Susan (yes, plural, and yes they are both named Susan). After an amazing 5 days with them, and, believe me, my visits there are always amazing, I flew to Utah to attend my Grandpa's 90th birthday party.

After that family event, I flew to Arizona to spend some time at home with my parent and brother, but because I am ever restless, I was only there 10 days before I flew with my mother to Cleveland, rented a car, and drove up to Toronto. In the 4-5 days we were in Toronto, my mother and I drove around every neighborhood of Toronto, checked out numerous apartments and, after the most horribly stressful day of trying to get money from the U.S., managed to put a deposit on a very nice apartment.


(note: this is not our furniture, I took these pictures before the previous tenant moved out)

After that eventful trip, my mother and I drove back to Cleveland, met up with the rest of the family and then headed back to Canada to spend a day and a half in Niagara Falls. After our brief time there and the most horrible tour I have ever been on, my whole family (sans Joseph) squeezed into two cars and drove to Vermont, where we met up with Joseph and stayed in a cabin near Stratton for a week. Then we all drove down to Boston for a few days to check out the sights. After that short history lesson, I once again said goodbye to my husband, and drove back to Cleveland from Boston with Ben, Debbie, and Parker. I then lived in Ben and Debbie's living room for the next three weeks with Joseph joining me after a week of finals (thanks again, Ben and Deb). After wearing out our welcome several times over, we finally departed Cleveland, drove back to Chicago, rented a mini-van, picked up my dad from the airport, loaded up all our stuff, and drove to Toronto. After a small fender-bender between our car and the rental car, we finally made it across the border at 1 am and the next day (August 31) moved into our lovely apartment.

That is the summary of the last few months. No wonder I am still exhausted.