Claire - Upcoming Plans

Well, I leave for London in 18 days and I can hardly believe it. 18 days! Thus, I'm trying to hurriedly get in all the things I need to do before I leave the country (which reminds me, I need to make an appointment at the dentist while I have insurance). I didn't realize just how long a list that was, but with appointments, and paper work, and trying to figure out what's important to take with me, what I can get sent over later, and then just the things I want to do for the summer, it's a bit overwhelming.

I had jury duty today! I must say I was a little nervous, but I got there early, filled out my questionnaire, and waited. And then we watched a little movie about the importance of being a juror and how a court room works. And then a judge came and said some 'inspirational' words about how important jurors are. And then we waited. Then the lady in charge came out and read the randomly selected 72 of all 120 of us that were called for the first round of inspection, and thankfully the computer missed me. So yay! They didn't even pick up my survey or anything, just dismissed me for the day right away. I must say I was thankful - I've had a very productive day instead, which is good. Being a juror wouldn't have actually been that bad, but I was slightly wary of having to make a big decision in someone's life. It was just a bit much for me. But in any case, I came home and organized a few bits of my life instead, so that was good.

Also, as part of my getting everything together before I go away, I have my flight details finally! Ceri, who will be my boss over in London, booked my tickets, so I now know what's going on in my life. I'll be leaving Denver on July 18th, and then flying back into New York City on Friday August 22. Then I have to be up at Skidmore on Monday August 25th for their orientation, so I'll be taking the train up on Sunday. Then it's back to London on the group flight, and theoretically back into the US December 6th.

Sooooo, who is going to be in New York that weekend?? My flight info getting in is :

Flight number: BA0175

From: Heathrow (London) Terminal 5

To: John F Kennedy (New York)

Depart: 22 Aug 2008 10:25

Arrive: 22 Aug 2008 12:55

Anyone going to be around that afternoon? Or over the weekend? Hopefully I'll get to see a couple of you guys while I'm on your side of the country!

I think that's about all that I've got going on at the moment. Well, that's already a rather long post, so either way, let's say that's all I've got going on right now.

Miss/love

It's Andy...remember me?

Hi, my name is Andy Bockus, if you don't remember me. I graduated with you in May. 

Since then, I've visited Emily's camp in Maine (it was an excellent time, thank you), chased 3 and 4-year-olds around for 3 weeks at the Skidmore ECC, house-sat for the Freys and polished off Steve's fabled "man-fridge", moved in and out of an apartment in a victorian house on Union Ave across the street from the aunt's old house, visited the Seattle Space Needle, climbed a frozen mountain in the Cascades, ate real Chinese food...(inhale if you're reading this outloud)... spent a night nursing Meredith off a fever in beautiful Victoria, British Columbia, got stuck in a shitty part of Atlanta overnight, purchased a Mac, saw Indiana Jones, and ultimately spent more money than I can imagine making in the next five years.

I'm currently in Carlisle, PA, about 20 miles outside of Harrisburg begining my summer job at the Center for Talented Youth (nerd camp). I'm naturally TA-ing for chemistry. The program is six weeks long. I've been here for two days and I'm already not toooooo fond of the place. Alcohol, sarcasm, and...fun, basically, are strictly prohibited. Mer and I are having a difficult time being apart (I don't need to go into this. I'm sure most of you have suffered the same ills). 

Since I probably won't use this blog for another 10 years or so, based on my past record of keeping in touch, I'll spell out the rest of my summer for you. I return to Saratoga Springs on August 10 and will stay there until the 14th. If you'd like to visit and celebrate Meredith's b-day with us, perhaps I can help with sleeping arrangements. On that weekend, Lizzie listen up, my family and I are visiting the Vineyard. Then two weeks of packing and off to China with two people who are intent on making my life a living hell.

Take care,

-Andy 

Leah - Update

So I thought I would update seeing as though I hardly ever do and it seems to be the trend nowadays. Today I'm "working" at SU...getting paid to update the blog (and shred some paper and make some booklets). So far in the minimal assignments I was given, I have killed the booklet making machine and ran out of magenta printer ink and now I have nothing to do. Good thing this doesnt happen at my other job! haha

So speaking of the vet job..things are becoming much less awkward with my coworkers (we are going to eat some pizza tonight) and I'm learning a lot. I even successfully wrangled a mini-lion the other day. We mostly get in dogs and cats but we did get in a pig about a week ago so that was interesting. My days go by quickly and I'm hardly ever bored, so I have nothing to complain about. Next week I get Thursday and Friday off so Tony and I are off to his cottage in Canada on Wednesday after work. I'm very much looking forward to that.

I am also in the process of debating with myself about moving out of my house. Ariel still doesnt have a job (but does have a few prospects!) and she feels that she wont be able to or want to move out until later in the fall (which is totally understandable just a bummer for me). And if my plans of going to grad school go through (I keep telling myself that I AM going so that I don't flake out and never go), I wont be able to start renting a house after August (because of year-long leases and my having to go to grad school potentially next August). Therefore, I either need to find my own apartment or stay home for a year or so longer. I am looking at 2 studios (one today in the SU area and one next week right across the street from my work), but I am also wondering if it is even worth it. Think of all the money I could save! (but then I also think of my boring routine of going home to my bedroom every night feeling like I'm a 10th grader...also, in an apartment, I could have a cat at least...even a dog maybe!) Thoughts anyone?

So I'm glad we have this blog...I miss you all tremendously! Those of you we haven't heard from lately, update us!

Love, Leah

Emily- sorry I forgot to put my name in the heading!

life update...

hi everyone- quick update on my life!

First of all- I'm so excited Cait has a job, and we're going to get to see each other like all the time! I have a feeling I will need someone to get a strong drink with on Friday nights....

I went to NYC last week and made my job official. I got to see my classroom and was given several tote bags full of very heavy books that I have to read this summer so I can plan my year. I sort of feel that I don't know what I'm doing, even though I spent four years preparing for this!

I also found out I have 31 students in my class. ummmm yeahhhh... My favorite name on the class list is Justice Jones.

I am going to be living with Kasey Loeffel in Brooklyn, she is in NY for the summer and is looking at places for us and I'm going down for the 4th of July weekend to look at places with her and hopefully stay at Cait's!

I'm also working at Maine Audubon after all- they convinced me to stay! I don't have as much free time as I would like to work on finding a place to live and preparing to move in August but I do love working there!

Wedding Update: My friend Halley's bachelorette party ended up being at Denny's with two other annoying friends of hers I didn't know. While at this "party" I finally found out where she met her fiance. Myspace. yeahhhh... The whole wedding has turned into a big pain in my ass and I now understand why my parents got married in their living room and were done with the whole thing. I am definitely not a wedding person!

Glad to hear you are all doing well! Keep the updates coming!

Caitlin - The Real World - Starting Monday

So I start work on Monday, and I just got a little surprise about one particular aspect of the job.

I got an email from T. Lewis saying that he wrote a reference letter for me. To which he adds, "how funny, that's my publisher. We should be seeing quite a bit of each other."

So I am, by extension, his publicist.

Graduated, miles away, working, and yet...still doing bitch work for professors.

Lizzie-Argentina #3

So, I was pretty psyched that I didn’t die while doing parapentes, although my friends and family there were trying to convince me to just stay forever and one of them volunteered to call my boss and my family here saying I died doing parapentes and would never be returning. I contemplated it.

During the other days I walked around a lot and went shopping of course. I bought some lovely leather boots, a leather bag and a purple shiny leather wallet. See pictures below. Mainly they are pictures for Claire because I feel she would appreciate them the most, hehe.

So as I told Gretchen, there was a day without water so I went to my friend Paula’s house to take a shower and I bought bottle water so we could drink mate. My last night in Mendoza I went to my friend Celeste’s house in San Martin, which is like 45 minutes outside the city. Anabel went with me so we took a bus in our “going out” clothes. We went to a bar and then went dancing at a not-so-nice, kinda sketchy dance club. It was still really fun because we didn’t have to pay to get in, AND they gave us free jello shots at the door. Although they weren’t really shots because it was in bowls and they gave us spoons, so that was exciting. They played a spice girls song that made me happy.

So, at the beginning of the night I made a goal of making out with someone by the end of the night. I spent a great deal of the night flirting with a guy name Raul, who was short but cute. But, he was a little dense and didn’t get it. So I was dancing with some other guys and another one came up to me. I introduced myself and he said he had already met me and that he was a friend of Raul, haha ooops I didn’t remember. Then I danced with him, he told me “me caso con vos, me caso con vos” (I’m gonna marry you) haha and I told him I’m not getting married for 10 years and he starts telling me that I’m the perfect kind of girl to marry, blah blah blah. So whatever I made out with him and Raul was right next to us. But then this guy kept asking me what his name was, like he was quizzing me or something and I didn’t remember/didn’t care, so I kept changing the subject or kissing him to shut him up, ahahah.

Then I went to Buenos Aires for a few days and hung out with my two friends, who actually both happen to be named Valeria. I went to the birthday party of a friend of a friend’s and met some really really fun people. We went to a really sketch dance club, they patted down the guys when we entered, but we still had a great time. I was teaching them all the classic dance moves, such as the sprinkler, the shopping cart, the lawn mower etc. I met a guy who looks like Jake Gyllenhaal. There was this bald chubby guy named Gabriel who was with us with the birthday party and we had a GREAT time making fools of ourselves and dancing ourselves silly. At one point some guy we didn’t know came up to me and started spinning me around and dancing it was so fun. And, there were many “Lizzie sandwiches” aka two boys surrounding me and dancing. Pictures will go up soon.

And now I am home. I didn’t get as upset this time when I left Argentina. I think it’s because I know I will go back someday. I told all my friends they have to plan out their weddings together and agree to each get married once a year that way I can go back every year (of course this is assuming I will have the money). Otherwise they have to all get married in one weekend.

I miss you all a lot. I think I finally sent in my last medical test results and whatnot to the Peace Corps today. So, I guess it might be a few weeks now for them to look over everything. I’m thinking the program in Africa that leaves in September must be full by now so I’d probably leave later and maybe go somewhere else. Of course I will let you all know the moment I get any news.

Gretchen - The Modern World

So I just thought that I would update since I haven't in a while. I'm not actually sure if I have even updated since I moved in to my new place. If you haven't seen the pictures of my apartment they are on facebook!

Basically, my apartment has been amazing, except for some crazy things that have happened in the last week or two. Within the span of these 14 days, Ben and I have lost electricity twice, cable and internet twice or three times, and water once. The water was gone for a day. The cable and internet was gone for a day and a half. The electricity was gone for a half of a day. AND they were all gone at separate times! It was so crazy, but it had nothing at all to do with our apartment itself, just really random things (thunderstorms, water main breaks, construction, etc.) However, the electricity outage is the most exciting because I was almost a part of it. I was walking to work last week and I walked underneath an electric pole right outside our apartment and it blew up! There were sparks and a HUGE explosion noise. A man was underneath it, but he was okay. I have no idea why this happened, but it was quite crazy. As of now, all of our utilities have been figured out (*knock on wood*); we have cable, internet, electricity, air-conditioning, and water all at once! :)

My job is also going well. My job puts the new recruits in the call center as the first stop on their rotation through the practice. Let me tell you, I get some crazy questions called in. For example, one woman called in because her neighbor's puppy has kennel cough, and she wanted to know if she could carry the kennel cough germs to her best friend's sister's newborn baby. (I asked Leah if she knew anything about this later in the day, but we just told the woman to either call a vet or a pediatrician! We are OB/GYN!) Another woman was so paranoid that she had HIV, which is understandable if you have been exposed. However, the only thing she did was borrow her friend's earrings, and the friend didn't have HIV nor was the friend ever exposed to it as far as she knew! (However, I think this woman has anxiety which causes her to fret over such things)

Next week I start rotation in the lab where I will be doing mostly paperwork at first. Then, I think I will be testing urine for UTIs eventually. How exciting! ahha.

Anyways, I miss you all! Come to DC whenever! We have one futon and negligible floor space for sleeping-bags. (and there is always the bath tub!)

Caitlin - Gainfully Employed

A quick update to let you all know that I was offered a job and well on the way to receiving paychecks. I'll be the the Publicity Assistant at Basic/Civitas/Nation Books, a subdivision of Perseus Publishing. 

I have a 401K - YAY!

Lizzie-Argentina #2

So here’s another snippet of my trip. We left off at me seeing Pablo and finally having closure. Friday the 6^th I went to my friends’ apartment to eat pizza then we went out dancing. At the disco I went up to the bar to get a drink and a guy asked me to get his drink for him because girls always get drinks before guys. So he starts talking to me and asks me where I’m from. When I say the US he says “ohhh I saw a movie about your country!” and I said “which? There are many movies about my country” and he says “the one with the fat guy with glasses” and I was still confused then he tells me “the one about September 11^th” meaning Fahrenheit 911. Then he tells me “thanks for the drink I’ll meet you over there in the corner later and we can discuss the movie” HAHAH, so of course I avoided the corner.

Saturday I went to my friend Danny’s house for an asado (Argentine barbecue) with all his family. I was going to go out with my sister and my friend Emi but Anabel (my sister) was robbed so she didn’t have money or her ID and my friend Emi’s grandma has cancer so she went to go see her. So my birthday night didn’t turn out exactly as planned, but Anabel and I did go for a drink after midnight.

Sunday (my birthday) I slept, watched Enchanted with my family, ate empanadas and then went out to dinner with my best friends. Afterwards Anabel and I went to get a drink at a bar. Ana was flirting and waving with a group of guys in the corner, so when Danny came she went and sat with them. She came back a half-hour later and the boys left. The waitress asked us if we were with those guys, we say no, and then she tells us they left without paying, hahah. Of course we didn’t have to pay, but it was kind of a funny situation.

So Argentina is kind of in crisis right now. Here’s an article that kind of explains it. But basically the poor farmers are being affected and the rich farm owners continue to profit, and Cristina, the president of Argentina refuses to negotiate be she is afraid of being seen as weak. Meanwhile, the farmers have cut off roads (lucky I traveled by air because I wouldn’t have been able to go in bus) have been throwing rocks and milk at people going by. Also there are milk and beef shortages; I passed by a McDonald’s that was out of burgers because they didn’t have any meat one day.

So, anywhoo, during the day I just kinda hung out, shopped and drank mate with friends. I bought beautiful leather boots, a leather bag, and a purple shiny leather wallet that I absolutely fell in love with for myself and some other things. So on Wednesday I did “parapentes” which I think translates as paragliding although Chris told Cait and I that it’s really parasailing even though I wasn’t attached to a boat. Basically I ran and jumped off a cliff with a guide attached to me and we flew down in a parachute-type thing. But, me being the clumsy person I am, I fell on the first attempt. As in, I tripped and fell into gravel and bushes before I got to the edge of the cliff haha. So, we tried again and there was more wind so we were already flying before we reached the edge of the cliff. Horacio, the “pilot” told me I was very brave because when that happens to most people they usually decide not to try again. It was great though! I have a few bruises on my legs to show for it and I ripped the front of the sweatpants but whatever, we’ll call them souvenirs. We flew for about 15 minutes, the cliff is 2997 ft tall. And then when we landed I lost my footing and landed on my butt, Horacio laughed at me, saying I landed in the same style I took off, haha. I took lots of pictures and a video which I’ll be putting on facebook next. here's one picture here:

OK when I get another moment, I’ll write about the second part of my trip.

PS I'm pissed because I went to visit my brother at work today and Mariska Hargitay from Law and Order SVU was there eating while I was there and he didn't tell me, grrrrr!!

Yay for videos! - Claire

Okay, so here is a link where you can download the videos. They only get 10 downloads, so don't go doing it several times, because we have to share :)
There are 2 links. The first has 4 videos, the second just one.
http://myaccount.dropsend.com/file/d064bb4d9a069354
http://myaccount.dropsend.com/file/f0a2b49041f37dfd

Also, there's a super cool bake sale project that MoveOn.org is doing to support Obama, and I'm going to help out at one in Denver this weekend. It's a national thing and people are doing it all over this weekend, so you should go to the website and see if there's one going on near you. Anywho, I figured I ought to do my part to help, so I made a facebook event, but I don't have a lot of facebook friends in Denver, so I'm inviting you all too so that way it looks like there are more people possibly coming. A lame cheating move, but hey, it's all in the name of Obama, right? So you can just ignore or pretend to join that if you want, but I just needed to bolster the support, and of course let you all in on what I've been doing lately.

Miss and love you all

Caitlin - Long Time No See

Sorry it's been so long since I've made a post. I just got back from Florida yesterday, and New Paltz and Colorado before that. I have been quite the traveler. 

In work news, I am still unemployed. I went on 6 or 7 interviews and was called back for a second round twice, but alas, I am still without work. However, I am incredibly excited that Emily is working in Brooklyn! Yay! I'll make sure that I go to the unemployment office there. I am equally excited that you're working in Williamsburg - what a sweet place. 

Lauren, Chris and I went to his uncle's wedding, and the first dance was to a Peabo song. I imagined how much better it will be when he's actually singing the song at your wedding. 

Tony, Leah, Gretchen, and Ben, I don't have any definite plans yet, but I've been tossing around the idea of making a weekend trip to D.C. If I decide I can afford it, I'll definitely pick the weekend you guys are going. 

As I've stated before,  4th of July and the week preceding will most likely be an open house here on Long Island. If you're in the neighborhood, come on by. 

Miss you all. 

More Lost Footage... (Claire)

Okay, so that didn't work quite as well as I had hoped it would (it took forever to upload!), so for the remaining videos I'm just going to put them up on facebook, but with the option that ONLY WE can see them. And not just 'only my friends' type of only us, but I've specifically named the people that can see them, and that's only the people who are in the collection of videos, so hopefully that will be okay with everyone involved. They're nothing scandalous, just a bunch of us singing and such, though one does involve Peabs with a particular item of clothing on her head, so I'll only put that one up if she says its okay.

Miss/love

Lost Footage - Claire

So while I was looking through the old pictures that I keep on my camera, I came across some videos from way back in our first and second years of Skidmore. I'm going to see if uploading them here gives you the option to download them for yourself, since neither youtube nor facebook seem to have that as a choice (at least as far as I can tell). I'll give it a try.

Here is the first one: the most upbeat version of "Leaving on a Jet Plane" that you'll probably ever hear. (Sophomore Year, Tony's Room, when Lizzie's friend came to visit)

Tony - Summer Trips

Hey all,

My Summer has been pretty good so far. Just yesterday I did both go-karts and mini-golf. I know you guys must be so jealous. I'm also getting rather skilled a bar games, especially darts.

So far its been a pretty relaxed Summer, which is exactly what I want. I chose the graduate school housing at Cornell and completed all the necessary forms for the program so now I don't have to much to worry about until I start school in late August. I make a little money working for my brother and doing chores, but only to fund my adventures and endeavors over this vacation.

Anyhoo, I wanted to let you guys know about the trips I was going on this Summer in case anyone was interested and in the remote possibility that anyone wanted to meet up. I'll just put it in list form to streamline the whole process.

1.) I'm going to New jersey this weekend, but for a funeral so its not gonna be a lot of fun.

2.) Leah and I are probably going to northern Ontario on the July 4th weekend to my dad's cottage.

3.) Leah and I are definitely going to Washington D.C. to visit Gretchen and Ben in late July. Anyone thinking about going to Washington this Summer should go with us.

4.) I'm going to be in Skidmore on August 14th, possibly with Leah. I was gonna go next week, but andy told me that nothing was happening and that there would be a big party in August. I dunno if Erin and Phred are gonna be there at the time tho.

Well now I realize that this post is unnecessarily long so I'm just gonna publish it and be done with it. I hope everyone is having a good summer.

~Tony

PS: If anyone is bored, they should watch 30 Rock. That series is hilarious.

Wonderful news!--Lauren

Hello friends,

To my delight, Peabo appeared on my television screen this afternoon.  If you ever see an infomercial for TimeLife Soul Classic Ballads, keep it on!  You will see a lovely looking Peabo Bryson.  He no longer has hair, but is looking younger than ever...which means there is great hope he will be alive and well at my future wedding!!

Just had to inform you all of the great news!  Life in Durham is still going well.  I found an amazing popsicle place called Locopops!  It is apparently modeled after popsicle stands in Mexico.  It is my new delight and I wish you were all here to enjoy it with me!  

Hope the temperatures are lower where you are than they are around here...feels like 110!  Gotta love the south!

Peabs

Lizzie-Argentina

Hola!
So, up until now i've been working a lot and even went to the beach two days and got sunburnt of course. Kylie, Sean Nash's girlfriend is working at Beadniks this summer with me so that'll be fun. I've been going out a lot with Katie and our 33 year-old cute friend, Jason. Last Saturday my family and my friend Anya's family had a big graduation celebration with all our friends with lots of beer, wine, champagne barbecue and yummy cake. Then we all went out to the bars and Stuart and I drunkenly sang "Build me up Buttercup" at Karaoke. It was so fun!

I'm in Argentina!! I woke up on Tuesday at 4:45AM and after a boat, two buses, the Long Island Railroad, the train to JFK, and three plane rides I arrived in Mendoza on Wednesday at 7:30PM. The two longest days of my life. And I get to do it in reverse on the way back, but at least i'll get a break in there by staying at Caitlin's house.

I'm just so happy to be here, I seriously almost "squueeeed" with joy when the plane landed in Mendoza. And AND ANDDDDDD I met up with Pablo last night and I sooooo do not like him anymore. He wasn't very interesting to me, didn't have much to say, awkwardly greeted me. When we were looking through my pictures he saw one of me kissing Jason on the cheek and Pablo asked me who he was. So I kinda lied and told him I was going out with Jason. It's not a complete lie because I do "go out" with Jason, just not in a romantic way, hahah. And Anabel, my host sister met him for the first time last night and she was really cold towards him. Pablo drove me home and asked me why Anabel was like that and I said "because she's my sister, she loves me and knows EVERYTHING that happened with us" and he goes to start saying something about what happened and I said "NO, I don't wanna talk about this" and he said "ok" but I heard "por qué" ("why" in spanish) and I went off and started saying "because I'm only here for a week and I don't want drama..." and then he said "ok ok" hahah. i was so ready to start a verbal smackdown but luckily I didn't have to. I have no urge whatsoever to ever see him again, I swear to god.

Sorry I just had to get that out. So I'm really excited for the rest of the week and don't wanna think about going back. And I'm so anxious about this Peace Corps thing, they are currently "reviewing" my file. so i just have to sit and wait.

Ok, now thatI've written that, I'm off to buy some wine to bring to a dinner I have tonight and a barbecue tomorrow. Then of course I'll be celebrating my birthday argentine-style (lots of wine and dancing). I miss you all!! Come visit if you can!! (my island, not Argentina).

Emily- some exciting news!

So I've been having a really great time at home lately. Last night I went to this tiny little bar in portland with some friends and listened to a group play Irish music all night and the night before I went to "trivia night" at a local pub with about half of my graduating class. We all formed a team and ended up coming in second place! I am proud to say I contributed to this victory because I was the only person there who knew the name of the actress who played Sabrina the Teenage Witch on TV. Melissa Joan Hart, like, obviously.

I also have some exciting job news! I found out I'm going to be offered a position teaching 4th grade in Brooklyn! Now that I know this I've decided not to do my summer job because I need to get prepared for the next year, and find a place to live in NYC. I'm planning to move out there in early August and I will probably be living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn! Yaaaay!

Next week I'm going up to my camp to have a "bachelorette party" for my friend Halley. However, it is going to be the lamest party ever because it's only going to be the two of us there! Nobody else can make it! haha. We are planning to bring up some wine and make up some new disney movie drinking games.

The rest of my summer goals are now to enjoy what could be my last real Maine summer for a long time by hiking, lying on the beach, shopping at LLBean, and going to as many clam fests and lobster bakes as possible!

I love hearing updates from everyone and I'm glad you are all doing well! Good luck with your move tomorrow Gretchen! I hope I can visit you soon!

Claire - Another random update

First of all, let me just say, that oh my goodness, I miss you guys so much.

Okay, now that that´s out of the way, I´ll jump on the bandwagon and give a little update of what´s going on.

Not much happened in the first week of being home. There was a lot of sitting around, going out to dinner with Grams, and then trying to unpack everything before Dave got in. Dave arrived last Tuesday evening, and it´s been fabulous having him around. He´s getting on with the family really well, which is rather impressive. It´s been nice out, and we got a new gazebo-type covering for the porch, so we've all been eating together outside a lot lately, so that's been really nice. With that and the late evening TV times here has been a lot of hanging our together time, and it's gone well. I think my dad likes having another boy in the house for a change :-) Even Kate has opened up and will talk to him. Last night we played Scrabble with 'stupid Kate rules' and she played with us, so that's pretty awesome. She's also applying to cruise ships this week, so that's super exciting. Hopefully she'll have a job soon!! We'll see how the hunt goes, but I'm just glad she's making progress towards her goal.

Although family time has gone well, planning other things to do has been quite the challenge. Lets just say it, Denver is boring. Okay, so it's not THAT boring, but when you have 3 weeks to fill, it tends to get that way because I'm attempting to spread out the things that we DO have to do. Yesterday my dad went on a bike ride up Lookout Mountain, so we drove him to Golden, dropped him off, and then spent the day there and took a ride up the mountain to see the prettiness, and then met my dad for lunch and came back home. So that was a fun day. And we went down to Cherry Creek with the nice farmers market (which was really just prepared food more than produce, which was a bit of a shame) and had a walk around. Next up on the agenda is properly going downtown for and outing, and also perhaps out for some pho in the next day or two. We'll see what we end up doing, but hopefully the boy doesn't get too bored of the suburbs before his holiday is over. I don't think he realized just how little there is to do on my side of town. But we're planning to take a proper trip up into the mountains for a couple days, so that will be splendid.

Anyway, right now we're at Caribou Coffee, the Montana or Minnesota based coffee competition of Starbucks which Dave has rather fallen in love with based on their red tea-raspberry blended drink. The boy is reading while I catch up on emails and other randomness that needs to be done, but I fear I ought to get back to him before he gets too bored and decides to walk home just for the entertainment value.

I miss you all terribly, but am so glad we have the blog to catch up and check in every so often.

All my love,

Claire

Hello from Durham...

After reading Gretchen’s post, I figured I would give you all an update on my life. I arrived in North Carolina after a long 12 hour journey on Friday. It was a horrible drive—lots of traffic and much longer than expected. But it’s done and we arrived safely. Life in Durham has been tiring, but fun so far. Mark and I basically spent the whole weekend unpacking, rearranging the apartment, and food shopping. We have adjusted well to living together for the most part…minus the fact that he infected the whole kitchen with raw chicken yesterday. It is still hard for me to actually believe I will be living here for the next three months. I just feel like I am on vacation right now, but I assume that will change once I get adjusted to everything.

I started my new job today. I am watching a nice little boy and there are no mini-lions in his house which is excellent, but the hours are very long and it gets somewhat boring. I will soon be allowed to take him places which will hopefully help the time pass.

That is all that is new here. If you turn on the news anytime this week, you will get to see the area I am living in…right next to Duke University Hospital, where Senator Kennedy is right now. Perhaps you might even see the green jeep drive by since I pass the tv cameras on my way to work.

My life for the next few months will likely be filled with lots of dirty diapers, temper tantrums, and long stroller rides in the 100 degree heat! I miss you all and so wish to go back to the comforts of college life!

Peabs

Gretchen - My address

My new address will be:

7501 Blair Road
Apartment 201
Takoma Park, MD 20912

If it changes, I will let everyone know!

Gretchen - Update(?)

Hello everyone!

So, nothing much is new with me. I have just been sitting around at home while everyone else is at work. I have no car because the three we do have are used by my dad, Debbie, and Leah. It's been relaxing though. Ariel and Tara have picked me up a few times, so it has been fun. I can't believe I am moving to DC on Friday. Freaking crazy!

I saw the Sex and the City movie, which was a really awesome TV show based movie. It was basically just an entire extra season made into a movie, which was a good thing. They didn't take the movie thing too far.

So...update us fellow friends and reply in the comments section:

For example....

Lauren: Are you in North Carolina yet? How is it?

Caitlin: How's the job search? How was Colorado?

Emily: How was New Jersey?

and everyone else: What's UP?


Miss you ALL!

I will post again when I get to DC. Hopefully I can find a wireless signal somewhere.