lil update

Mid-May is here and with it more snow and frigid air. I've yet to go out and play in the garden. Will my little herbs survive such fickle weather?

Despite the cold, we had a fun little weekend. Yes we did. Impromptu BBQ with friends. An afternoon with Sapphie. First farmer's market of the summer (HELLO fresh asparagus, spinach, rhubarb and more! Hello spring quiche and rhubarb compote).

Colin found a beautiful chandelier at a local consignment store and bought it on a whim. Installed and wired the thing as soon as we got home. It worked on the first try and looks so beautiful and perfect in our bedroom.

Saturday night met up with the girls—quelle soiree indeedy!

Yours truly had a fun (little) bathroom demo on Sunday morning. And I successfully caulked a bathtub! Why oh why it was never done in the first place is beyond me. But there you have it.

And then my parents surprised me on Mother's Day (shouldn't it be the other way around?). They "popped in" for tea right around tea time. We went to the little place by the daily planet and had some of the best coffee I have ever had in my life. Note to self: I MUST go there again.

Already in to another crazy week at work. They seem to melt all together these days... And trying to keep up with friends/family/reading books/cleaning house/making dinner. Oh yeah and relaxing too!

pics from my iphone

Oh yeah, did I mention I have a cell phone now? Colin got me an iPhone for my 30th birthday. Pretty nifty huh? I told him that going to the AT&T store gave me more anxiety than the actual big 3-0 itself. But once all was said and done, it felt pretty good to be all growed up. So... I'm addicted now. Here are some pics from the last couple of weeks. It's been a weird weather kind of week. We had a snow storm a few days ago. Burlington only picked up an inch or two and it melted in less than a day, but they got a foot at my parents' house in Derby and even more than that at Jay Peak. (Jay even opened back up again for the weekend—Col went there today with Kev and Isaac.) So here are some pics from my iPhone:

Sapphie eating a grilled cheese at Al's French Frys:


Au Lait enjoying the sun:


Sapphie pushing her stroller down Church Street:


Col waiting for lunch before we went hiking at Mt. Philo last Sunday:


Freak snowstorm this week:


Snow in the garden:


Pretty sunset:

Retrospect: Newport 1990-1998

Welcome to the fourth installment of the first-three-decades-of-my-life-in-chapters: Newport, Vermont. I was 10 years old when we arrived and 18 years old when I graduated high school and left home to go to college. Papa got a job preaching at the Newport Church of God (that's why we moved there in the first place). Twenty years later, he's still the preacher, only the church is in Derby now—the next town over. I've been putting off writing this chapter, because not only did I live there longer than any other town, but also because these years include some of my most important and formative moments. So you can probably imagine all of the memories I have. Here are just a few:

• The first house we lived in was on Pleasant Avenue. We all had our own rooms. My room had a door up to the attic, which we used as a playroom.
  
• There was a garden shed outside that we called the turret, because it was shaped like a castle turret. We used that as a playhouse too. There was a stone chimney in the turret. One day, my friend Courtney and I wrote a fake love letter and hid it behind a loose stone in the chimney. I wonder if it's still there?
• Mummy and Papa had their biggest garden yet at the house on Pleasant Avenue. Mummy let me have my own plot. I was really into fairies then, so I called it my fairy garden and grew mini roses for the fairies.
• The elementary school was about a 20-minute walk away. I was too shy to take the bus, so I walked home every day. One time I really had to go to the bathroom, but I still had about 5 minutes left to go. I didn't make it. :-(
• The Junior High School was in Derby, so I eventually had to start taking the bus. Then I started making more friends. Maybe sometimes my friends and I weren't the best influence on each other. One day Monique and I were making fun of our teacher and she yelled at us and said that we were mean and would never have any friends.
• Another time, Monique and I got in trouble for prank calling the sheriff. We didn't know it was the sheriff at the time. And the prank that we did hit below the belt... The next day, the sheriff came to our house (they had call waiting!) and Monique and I hid in the attic. But Mummy and Papa made us come down and apologize.
  
• But for the most part, I was an angel. My sister Emi hated me and called me a "little princess" because I was perfect all the time. (She was always getting in trouble.) And indeed, I always got straight As. But getting good grades and being a dork does not a perfect princess make.
• High school was back in Newport and I got to ride with Emi from then on. (Hannah had moved to Florida by then.) Emi and I started bonding little by little. We eventually became very close.
• Freshman year, I was going to try out for the soccer team, but had major anxiety about the try outs and decided not to. So when I found out my friend Mandy was joining cross country skiing, I decided to do that instead. (Who knew that Mandrake was such a skiing machine?!) No matter, it was the best thing I could've done.
• I also joined chorus and make the select choir sophomore year (or was I a junior)? I went to Allstate 3 times as a Soprano I and senior year I made it to New Englands. I can't even remember where it was that year. Maybe Providence? But I was very proud. My try-out song was O Shendoah. I had to record it and mail the cassette in to the judges. I still think of New Englands and Ms. Douglas coaching me whenever I hear it.
• I was a much better singer than I was a skier.
  
• But I did meet my boyfriend Kyle on the ski team. We dated for two and a half years. We went to 2 proms together.
• Sophomore year, we moved to the house on Shattuck Hill Road overlooking Lake Memphremagog. It was a great little house.
• I also got my first car that I shared with Emi: a red 1993 jetta. Great car that one. Except that every time it rained, the engine would squeal.
  
• I graduated as the valedictorian of a class of about 250 kids. Not bad!
• I only applied to 2 colleges—Dartmouth and Middlebury—because Kyle and I were still dating and I wanted to stay near home. I got waitlisted at Dartmouth but got into Middlebury. So I decided to go there. It had a much nicer vibe I thought. Kyle and I broke up pretty soon after I left, but I never regretted going there.
  
• Fall of 1998 I moved to Middlebury for my first year of college and never moved back home after that.
  

blowing out the candles for my big 3-0

Guess this means I'm all growed up now...



More Retrospect installments to come!

Retrospect: Pittsfield 1987-1990

Welcome to the third installment of the first-three-decades-of-my-life-in-chapters: Pittsfield, Maine. Maine's a pretty big state and Pittsfield is a small town kind of right in the middle. Read: land-locked. Read: not close to the beach at all. Read: what's a kid to do there? But at this point, we were used to living just about anywhere. And it turned out, Pittsfield was kind of rad in its own way. I was 7 years old when we arrived and 10 years old when we left. Here are some key points that I remember:

• We lived in the parsonage right by the big old church on Mason Street. I really liked the church in Pittsfield. It was old and beautiful and had wooden pews. Most of the parishioners were older and they liked to sing the good oldie hymns. We sang a lot in church. That's when we girls got better at singing. And I still love hymns.
  
• We had a huge garden out back. As soon as the cucumbers were big enough, I remember plucking them off the vine and eating them dipped in salt and vinegar. They were so good, still warm from the sun.
• Papa taught me to fish on the Sebasticook river. I caught a pickerel there once. There were lots of pickerel in that river. Bony and teethy, but tasty too! Eventually I got my own fishing pole. It was smoky blue and shiny. Papa’s was black I think.
• There was never a lot of money in those days, but I never felt lacking for things to do. On special occasions Papa would get us Hawaiian pizza for dinner with cream horns for dessert. And Moxie to drink. Moxie was the soda of choice in our house (if we ever did have soda in the house). It was Papa’s favorite, but we would sneak sips too. I always thought it tasted like a sweet rusty penny.
• My best friend was Kristi. We did everything together. I had another friend, Yuri, who lived next door. We both collected stickers and we would do sticker trades. I had a tan album with a baby dear on the front. It had sticky plastic sheets to protect the stickers.
• There was a department store downtown called Reny's. They sold Whatchamacallits for 25 cents each. I used to save up my paper route money and use it to buy toys at Reny's. My biggest and best purchases: a barbie Hawaiian beach hut and a purple Fashion Star Filly.