This week will mark the two years since I left Moldova.  Lamai called this morning and she was talking about how we measure stuff as “Before PC” and “After PC.”  I have to say that these past two years have not gone precisely the way I imagined that they would but they’ve been good years all in all.  They have definitely been the fastest two years of my life.  Is the rest of my life going to go by at such a crazy pace?  Yikes.

The Side Hallway by the Sisters of Perpetual Remodeling (sounds like a rock band, yeah?) is just about done.  The walls are painted a lovely banana cream and may be the reason I’ve been wanting to make banana pudding this past week.  Mogie claims that if you want to stay in a bad mood you should run through the hallway because if you linger your spirits are bound to be lifted by such cheerful suroundings.  Yes, we do tend to wax a bit poetic about our remodeling efforts.  I will take pictures soon.

A week ago Mogie and I went to Lexington and took Grandma to a meeting at the Kentucky Refugee Ministries office.  We are going to start volunteering with them.  Mogie was looking for some sort of volunteer opportunity which would give Grandma a chance to mix with people and we are really excited about it.  We are probably going to get to work with a Bhutanese refugee family.  They are ethnically Nepali, which means that Mogie’s Nepali skills will be of great use to us.  On the way to Indiana this weekend Mogie practiced teaching me Nepali to refresh her own memory.  I’m afraid I’ve already forgotten how to say, “This is my book.”

Right-o.  There is more to be said but it will have to wait till a bit later in the week.  

Quotes of this Past Weekend:

Is he talking your leg off?-Emily

The cheesecake is in the little doodad!- Mogie

That was very planful of you!-Daddy

I have been staying in close contact with Sally and my other New York friends.  I've talked to Sally, I've talked to Trisha, I've talked to Patrick.  They've all given me dramatic and sometimes contradictory reports of life at Windy Willow Farm.  Two nannies have quit since I left and this past Thursday Sally called asking if I would think about flying up to help her out until the newest nanny arrives.  I did give it some serious consideration.  I want to stay a part of their lives, especially Caleb’s life.  But I am only now feeling acclimated to life in the real world.  Going back to the Catskills for two weeks isn’t exactly going to help me get on with everything that needs to be done like finding a job and getting into grad school.  I think I made the right decision and yet it is hard not to rush to Sally’s aid.  

Friday night I went to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat with a friend.    I really enjoy going to the theater.  I love movies, I really do, but seeing a story acted out in front of you by people who you could touch if you just got close enough makes the experience something completely different.  

Today Mogie and I went to Lexington to help Grandma celebrate her 85th birthday.  We at lunch at Applebee's with Aunt Mera, Uncle Martin, my cousin Joel, Grandma’s would-be-boyfriend Al, and a family friend named Jason.  We made a pretty lively bunch and although Grandma will forget it quickly it’s nice to know that for a little bit she was reminded of how much we love her.  Grandma’s memory is really very poor now.  She was certain Mogie was Aunt Mera.

Mogie:  Do you know who I am?

Grandma:  Of course!  You’re my baby!

Mogie:  Noooo... who do you think I am?

Grandma:  You’re Mera...  you can’t be Cathy.

Mogie:  SURPRISE!  I am Cathy!

*laughter all around*

We got there by just after 10 o’clock Friday morning and started stripping the leaves off the cane that was standing in its own little patch. When the cane had its leaves it reminded me of overgrown corn but when we stripped it the stalks began to look like a small bamboo forest.  After we got the leaves off Uncle Jeff and Granddaddy chopped the stalks down and we loaded them onto a wagon where Aunt Doris cut off the seedheads. 

It was an absolutely gorgeous day and we ate lunch outside under the trees.  After lunch everybody took a little time off and I laid down in the hammock.   When Sophie came home from school I went with her into the house.  I came back outside to find that Grandmother and Aunt Doris had usurped my place in the hammock.  I joined them and we were all sitting and talking when all of a sudden we found ourselves sprawled on our backs.  The hammock had flipped backwards and dumped us unceremoniously onto the ground.  We lay there and laughed.  I wish we had a picture.

We started running the cane through the press that afternoon.  The press squishes the cane up so that the juice runs out. It is turned by a hard-to-describe set up involving a sassafras tree with one end weighted on top of the press and the other tied to a rope which is tied to a lawn mower which travels in a circle around the press.  

We pressed most of the cane that evening and then went in to eat supper.  Sophie, Abby and I all share a love of Harry Potter so we were happy with our bedtime story which consisted of Emily telling us in detail all about her trip to the Harry Potter exhibit in Chicago.  We were also very excited to hear that a Hogsmeade theme park is being built in Orlando.   

Em-o and I are very much alike in our desire to get every bit of good out of a story.  We have been telling and retelling some of the same stories since we were less than 10 years old.  There’s the saga of the Pirate Boy with whom we fell in love at the ages of 5 and 7 respectively, the story of how we were mistaken for piano playing proteges at a hotel in Florida, and now there are more recent stories of lost luggage and strange food in Barcelona.  But, we are working on topping them all by becoming co-script writers of a romantic comedy.  We have the plot pretty well worked out.  If I can get some of the script together I may post some of it here just for kicks.

Saturday dawned bright and beautiful and after breakfast we got to work cooking the sorghum syrup.  The juice looks like thin pea soup when it starts to cook and gradually gains a brown color and syrup like consistency.

The main things to do while the juice is cooking down is to keep the fire hot and skim off the green gunk that floats to the top of the juice.  It was mid afternoon by the time the syrup was hot enough and thick enough to come off the fire.  While we were waiting some of us went and gathered buckeyes.  Did you know that buckeyes explode with a noise like a firecracker when placed in hot coals?  Well, they do.

I don’t know how much syrup we ended up with but I do know that it was yummy.  Everyone enjoyed helping clean up and sneak little tastes from the pan.  All in all it was a lovely weekend.  Thanks go to Uncle Jeff and Aunt Lisa for keeping the sorghum making tradition going and for letting us all share in it.  Hmm... just writing about this is making me hungry.  Biscuits and sorghum sound really good right now.  

YEEEEHAAAAW!   I am so happy to be back home in beautiful Kentucky, where the hills are rolling, the weather is humid, and everyone at the bank knows your name.  

Mogie arrived in the Catskills last Tuesday, we spent the night at Sally’s and hit the road Wednesday morning.  Yes, it was sad to say goodbye to Caleb and I know that in a couple of weeks I may have a bit of a freak out about it.  But right now I am focusing on how nice it is to be back with my family and friends.  

We had a great trip home.  It was a good transition time for me.  We spent one night at a bed and breakfast in Lancaster County, PA and ate supper with an Amish family.  The next morning we were passing by Gettysburg and decided we should take advantage of being so close and visit the battlefield.  After much driving around with me grousing under my breath about the “auto tour” signs which seemed to be leading us on a tour of the parking lot we finally found what we were looking for.  To say the battlefield is a giant field or even to say it is a whole valley just doesn’t convey the size or the place.  From the giant Roman styled monument to the sons of Pennsylvania it is hard to make out the the statue of Lee on Traveler dedicated to the sons of Virginia on the opposite ridge.  The view of miles of valley that was once strewn with over 7,500 bodies is sobering but I was not depressed by the visit.  I am proud of what the US has become in the 150 years since the War Between the States.  

After Gettysburg we headed through Maryland to West Virginia.  We took kind of a back way through Maryland which was really pretty.  It reminded me that I know next to nothing about Maryland but I liked what I saw.  Mogie had looked up various places to eat on roadfood.com.  We decided to try Julio’s in Clarksburg, West Virginia.  When we got off the interstate we were unsure which direction to head in.  So we stopped at a Panera and asked a couple for directions.  They were so nice and helpful and told me that it looked strange but had great food.  Off we went through town and into an increasingly run down area.  We made our final right by the railroad tracks and pulled up in front of a tall brick building with blacked out front windows.  Eloise was the only car parked in front of the building.  We got out with a little trepidation and opened the restaurant door.  We were greeted by a view of a long shiny wooden bar on one side of the room and a row of plush red leather booths along the other.  To say the inside of Julio’s is in direct contrast to the outside would be putting it lightly.  A smiling waitress came up and asked us if we’d like to eat in the bar or in the dining room.  We opted for the dining room just to see what it was like.  It was very nice with a large screen painted with a Venice scene on one wall and a fireplace.  We were the only patrons all night long but we enjoyed our food (lamb for me, pasta trio for Mogie) and chatted with our waitress.  We managed the whole trip without once eating fast food, mostly stopping at little diners.  Julio’s was definitely the most upscale of our dining experiences but they were all enjoyable.     

For the most part our drive went smoothly.  The only real problem we had was in Charleston where we got on 64 East instead of 64 West.  There is a rather long explanation for why this was an easy thing to do but the best part of the story is that Mogie was reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to me and we weren’t paying as strict attention to the road signs as we might have been otherwise.    

We arrived home Friday evening and got up bright and early Saturday morning to get ready for our family reunion.  That story will have to wait for another time as it is late and I am ready to get some sleep.

Quote of the Day:

Gee but it's great to be back home 
Home is where I want to be 
I've been on the road so long my friend 
And if you came along 
I know you couldn't disagree 
It's the same old story, yeah 
Everywhere I go 
I get slandered, libeled 
I hear words I never heard in the Bible 
And I'm one step ahead of the shoe shine 
Two steps away from the county line 
Just trying to keep my customers satisfied 
Satisfied

It’s my last day off and I woke up at 5:30 and could not go back to sleep.  So about 6:00 I got up and continued my packing extravaganza.  I had to move out of my room this morning so Trisha could re-paint the floor.  So it’s goodbye to my lovely room and its beautiful view.  I’m moving down the guest room which may not have a view but at least it will be cooler for sleeping.  

I don’t think I wrote at all about Caleb’s birthday.  We had a little party with some of Sally’s friends.  Sally made sure that we wore color coordinated clothes and we took lots of pictures.  Much to our delight Caleb actually ate his birthday cake.  He eats everything, pasta, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots... but he doesn’t like bread or things that have a bread-like consistency, even zucchini bread or grilled cheese. Anyway, I will have pictures when I get home for those of you who will be at the family reunion.

In other news, the job hunt is on hold while I rush around like a maniac getting ready to go.  I have a pretty good possibility lined up.  If something comes of it I will let you all know.

Last week Caleb knocked my TV off its stand and onto my foot.  My first reaction was, “Is Caleb OK!?”  second, “Is the TV OK?!”  and then, “OUCH!”  Both Caleb and the TV were fine and my foot was making a good recovery when I left for the city... and preceded to walk all over lower Manhattan.  Not a particularly brilliant idea.  I’ve been limping off and on since then and periodically treating my foot with an ice pack which I balance on top of a suitcase while sitting on the floor sorting through clothes and various scraps of paper. 

Seeing Mary and Matt in the city was a lot of fun.  It’s nice when two of your friends get married, you get two for the price of one when you see them.  We went to Sally’s former bakery.  It is TINY.  Let me tell you!  I mean, I knew it was a bakery not a restaurant or even a cafe.  But there’s barely room for one tiny table with two chairs.  We got cupcakes (which Sally is famous for) and they were tasty but the icing was perfectly delectable.  Then we walked through the Village to SOHO and down to Little Italy and Chinatown which are scrunched together in a way that I find delightful.  Any place where you can find lobsters swimming in murky green tanks of water next to exotic Asian spices on one corner and tables with red-checkered table clothes presided over by Italian men in crisp white shirts on the other is alright by me.  It drizzled off and on all day.  I read in Julie/Julia the other day that in Chinatown it is always raining.  Is that true?  All I can say is the only other time I have been in Chinatown (as an 18 year old) it was pouring and my long baggy jeans syphoned the water off the streets until they were soaked up to the knees.   

My favorite part of our day was visiting Ellis Island.  We’d all been to the Statue of Liberty before so we skipped that part of the ferry tour and just stayed on the boat until it took us to Ellis Island.  I have to say though, the Statue of Liberty is really very beautiful.  I remember climbing up the crown as a senior in high school and being kind of underwhelmed.  It’s small and crowded in there.  But that’s not really how the statue is mean to be appreciated.  Seen from the shore line or better yet, seen from a boat in the harbor she is simple, beautiful, and inspiring.   

But, I digress.  Ellis Island was great.  I’d always kind of thought of it as a quick pit stop for immigrants bound for NYC.  Instead I find that it was a major operation.  There were hospitals and dormitories, a cafeteria.  There were medical tests and mental ability tests.  Single women who were traveling alone were not allowed to leave the island until they were married so lots of marriages were preformed there.  So many people came through who had to be diagnosed, translators found for them, they had to be housed and fed.  It was really quite impressive undertaking.  

I will write soon, probably from the road.

My thoughts on HP and the HBP.  It was the cliff notes version of the book.  I don’t know how I would have done it better.  It’s just that you can’t take a book of that length and complexity and turn it into one movie, even one that is over two hours long.  It was a lot of fun though.  I was glad they gave Ginny a more prominent role and I liked watching the unfolding of Ron and Hermione’s awkward teen romance.  

I have generally approved of the casting in the HP movies and none more so than Alan Rickman as Snape.  Even in this movie which is named after him Snape still doesn’t have a lot of screen time.  But, Alan Rickman has this sort of gravitational field around him that turns everyone else into side characters whenever he appears.  

It was after Dumbledore’s death scene (let me tell you, hearing the “killing curse" gave me goose bumps) that I realized the story has gone a bit beyond the PG level in terms of violence.  They don’t show the “sectumsempra” curse to full effect because it would be too gruesome and I really don’t know what they will do about the death, destruction and mayhem of The Deathly Hallows.  

One of my favorite parts of this particular movie going experience was that the median age of the audience was around 35.  It was fun to share in the excitement, fun, and sorrow of Harry Potter’s world with an audience of adults.  

Favorite quote in many months-

edenlass to small boy with Batman t-shirt- “I like your shirt!”

small boy giving her a hug- “You’re beautiful and I love you!”

I had great plans to be terribly productive today.  But my throat hurts and I wanted to make sure that I do not catch the horrible cold that Sally has had for the past week and a half.  So I diagnosed myself as needing tea with honey and milk and an afternoon of napping and watching movies.  

We’ve had company this week.  Harry, Sally’s brother, and his four year old son arrived on Monday morning and are leaving tonight.  Harry is a movie producer and he’s been on his cell phone as much as reception makes it possible in the Catskills. I’ve enjoyed listening to him talking about getting actors for his next movie, problems with lawyers, funding and all that sort of stuff.  I’m glad the jobs I have had have allowed me these glimpses into lives so different from my own.   

Caleb has enjoyed the company.  He loves his cousin and follows him around trying to pet him.  His cousin is almost five and very patient with him.   It’s been fun to watch them interact.   While we’ve had company Sally and I have continued in our quest to learn all about grilling.  She has never really grilled (I know, I was surprised too) so it is a learning experience for both of us.  Last night we grilled chicken thighs with this wonderful apricot glaze.  They were very tasty and I think I’m getting my fire starting and managing skills down.  

Quote of the Day:

“The man was mad!”

“He had a very tidy mind,” said the Bursar

“Same thing.”
-Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett

edenlass:  I wish I had some stationary.

Sally:  I think there’s some in the barn sale!

Sally: I wish I had another baking dish... 

edenlass:  Maybe there is one in the barn sale!

It got to the point that I wondered if we’d actually have anything left by the time we had the sale.  We ended up combining the barn sale with the garden tour that Sally gave for the local “Slow Food” organization.  Both were a great success.  Sally says that the flower garden will be in full bloom by next week and then I will take pictures.  It is already beautiful and every morning she goes outside and returns to report on which flowers have new blooms.  Sometimes I take Caleb out for a ride in his wagon before anyone else is up.  We take a tour across the dew soaked yard, around the flower garden and then down to the vegetable garden where two white rose bushes bloom in wild profusion against the picket fence.      

Caleb is seeming less and less like a baby and more and more like a little boy with each passing day.  I was home alone when he took his first steps and I was so shocked and excited I yelled and the dogs came running to see what was the matter.  He is now walking about half the time and is very proud of himself.  

Speaking of Caleb, we think we’ve found him a new nanny!  It’s a great relief for Sally to have found someone and I am happy because I think we would get along really well.  She’s very into fantasy and movies and loves cats.  It’s nice to know that Caleb will be with someone who shares my love of fantasy and imagination.  

This morning I’ve spent a while running around the internet in circles trying to decide what it is I want to be doing next and how I plan to do whatever that is.  It’s too bad nothing I really want to do offers a any decent salary.  

Friday morning I discovered a snake by the front steps.  I don’t mind snakes but Sally feelings towards them are comparable to my feelings towards spiders.  So, the snake had to go.  I had never killed a snake before and so I didn’t manage to cut it in half with the first blow of my shovel.  This led to me basically bludgeoning the poor thing to death while saying, “I’m sorry, snake!  I’m sorry!”

We had a good time in NYC on Thursday.  We dropped the dogs off at the groomer, Sally went off to her hair appointment and I wandered around SoHo looking at exorbitantly priced artistically ripped jeans.  What I really love about the city is the  variety.  The variety of stores, of food, of styles and of people.  I walked about two blocks and just wanted to sit down and write about everything I saw.   Then I went and got a pedicure.  I think I will go into the city one more time before I leave and that will be in large part just so that I can get another pedicure.  Gosh.  My feet were so happy.  After that I took a taxi to meet Sally and we ate an early supper at Balthazar.  Since it was my first French meal Sally felt I should get steak and I did not argue.  We had belinis and roasted beat salad and steak frites with this amazing bearnaise sauce. Then we had a scrumptious caramelized banana pie sort of thing with homemade banana ice cream for desert.  YUM! 

The strangest part of the day was when we were waiting to get the car out of the parking lot and I smiled at this girl who took her phone away from her ear and yelled, “Michael Jackson just died!”  I was so shocked I made her repeat herself.  Not having a TV as a child I missed out on the growing up to Michael Jackson’s music thing. But Efe did not miss out and she was reminiscing about it with me last night.  Even though I wasn’t a fan it does still seem sad to know that such an icon isn’t around anymore.  

Sunday we took Caleb to the Farmers’ Market where he flirted with all the ladies and where we finally got some fruit.  It has been such a rainy spring we think we may have missed the strawberries entirely.  

Monday I drove the the airport and picked up Gerry (Sally’s mom).  It was a beautiful day (until the thunderstorm on the way home) and I drove Sally’s Jeep with the windows down listening to ‘90s country music on Sirius Radio.  Late ‘80s early ‘90s country music is my guilty pleasure.  It is sooooo cheesy but it makes me feel good, reminds me of my childhood and I know the words to almost every song.  

Now I must go do something productive.  

Quote of the Day:

Chuck: [regarding Emerson] Is he upset you brought your childhood sweetheart back to life?

Ned: He barely knows you're here.

Narrator: In fact, Emerson had finished knitting a sweater vest and two handgun cozies in the week since Chuck's return.

-From the ever so wonderful (and sadly cancelled) Pushing Daisies

Sally and I are going into the city on Thursday.  We’re taking the dogs to get their baths while Trisha stays with Caleb.  It will be his first time staying with anyone besides us.  But, he and Trisha love each other so I think they will have a good time.  Sally and I are pretty excited about going out for the day.  She will get her hair cut and I will get a pedicure.  Then we will go eat French food.  

Speaking of food, I have found a new favorite pastime which is to ask two chefs how they liked the meal they had at a restaurant.  Jay and Sally went out to eat this past weekend and when they got home I received a full report of their meal, all the components of their salad and how the steak could have been improved.  I also received these most basic and most important cooking tips, “Serve hot food hot and cold food cold!”  and “Make sure to season things well.”  It seems that restaurants mess these things up quite often.   

Quote of the Day:   

 “We are not chefs!  We are Enthusiastic Home Cooks!”- how Jay describes himself and Patrick while barbecuing 

But, there are nice things about this transition back to Kentucky and one of them is that I will get to see that teacher again.  He’s teaching US history these days and every time I talk to him he has a new bit of Civil War trivia to share.  I know he’s going to Utah and Boston this summer and will have plenty of stories to tell.  He’ll be busy with a new school year and farm work but I’m sure he will take time out for his daughter and we will sit around the kitchen table with Mogie and Boo and talk late into the night.  It will be good to be home.

Happy Father’s Day, Daddy!