Mt Nittany

Well I have made it through the first week at Mt Nittany, which was a was a week of orientation. Orientation was a bit boring, listening to speaker after speaker after speaker but I am impressed that they make such an effort to educate their new employees as much as possible about policies and procedures. I had a chance to meet some people up on my floor and get my schedule for the next 6 weeks. I am going to be working the evening shift (3pm-11pm) five days a week. I have met some very nice people who are working on the same floor as me, although on a different shift. Starting Monday I will be meeting with my preceptor and being assigned patients. I'm very excited! I took this picture on my way to work this week.

The trees have started changing already, it still seems early but the maples are all shades of yellow, red and orange and the ashes have started turning deep purple. It is quite picturesque looking out over the farms in the foggy mornings and seeing the beginning signs of fall. I cannot wait until it is pumpkin, cider and turkey time! There are not any u-pick apple orchards near us, but there is a fruit farm where we can fill bags with fresh picked apples. Mike and I went last week and ended up with 6lbs of apples. I tried my hand at some applesauce--it turned out really well and was a lot easier than I was anticipating--and today I am going to give apple turnovers a try, making my own puff pastry and all (eek).

White Mts Sept 2010

We've headed East to visit family and spend a week in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Our first stop was in State College PA to see Mike and Laura, all settled in to their town house. Everything was neat and tidy until we showed up and unloaded a slew of odds and ends, including lamps, pickles, and curtains, and other. We didn't make it to the Creamery before heading off to Huntington on Long Island, so we'll have to make another visit.

We had a great visit in New York with some sprawling and funny conversations, a blustery boat outing, some special almond cake, and a walk out on Lloyd Neck to Target Rock.

We left Saturday morning on 9/11 with beautiful weather and no traffic. Unfortunately, Sunday dawned with an overcast sky and fog inthe mountains. We hiked anyway on a trail up to Zealand Falls, a trip made 30+ years ago with Barb's and Blue's families. It was a nice easy hike to get broken in on, and on the way back we came across a moose calmly gazing in a ponnd along the path. No problem. The moose was to busy to bother with us. We hiked again on Monday at Hedgehog Mt and "The Flume", discovering some interesting geology and tenacious trees growing on boulders. More to come.

New Pursuit

Ever since college I have been itching to learn the West African djembe drum. No campfire, lounge on the academic mall, or college-style hymn sing was complete without a guitar and a djembe. And since guitar turned out to be harder than I planned, I yearned for the djembe all the more. I could have just bought one and been done with it, but I knew that without knowing how to play it, it would sit unused.

Soon after moving to Chicago I discovered one of my all-time favorite things in the city: The Old Town School of Folk Music. (Some of you might remember the belly dancing and vocal jazz..) Sure enough, they offer djembe classes for adults! I finally signed up in 2008 after quitting Language Stars, but ended up cancelling my reservation for lack of finances. This summer came around, however, and the djembe called.

My first class was last week. I am renting a drum from the school for the duration of the class, and when I went to pick it up, I couldn't keep the smile off my face I was so excited! I could just see myself swaggering around town toting this mystical drum, bringing it along to parties and picnics to add to everyone's entertainment.. The guy put the beautiful drum in its case and handed it over to me... And I staggered under its weight!! I had no idea these drums were so heavy!

On my way down the narrow staircase to my classroom with the giant drum slung over my shoulder, I should have had a sign on my chest that said WIDE LOAD. Every time I turned a corner I knocked the thing into the wall. Thank goodness I didn't have far to go. And so much for my vision of my bada** self carrying a drum. For a visual, click here. Then, of course, once I actually get the thing up onto my shoulders, it hits me in the back of the thighs and lolls awkwardly from side to side. Maybe it just takes practice.

Once inside the classroom, however, things improved. There are 7 people in my class with varying levels of experience, and we get to drum together for an hour and 20 minutes. Music therapy research has shown that steadily drumming a variety of rhythms can lower blood pressure, increase the level of oxygen in the blood, and regulate breathing and heart beat. Sign me up!

More stories to come. For now, I'm enjoying my lovely djembe and wondering if my playing is annoying to my downstairs neighbors (who are also my landlords). I hope they tell me before they evict me.

At sea.

After all that hurricane anticipation, Long Island (our end, anyway), didn't even get a drop of rain! By some miracle, we woke up Saturday morning to a divine summer/fall day. Today we planned to spend a leisurely afternoon on Uncle Blue's sailboat. There was a benefit concert at the lighthouse, so we motored over and anchored in a prime spot to hear the music. Then we farkeled and watched all the drama unfold as boat after boat cruised in to find a "parking" spot. One guy was particularly obnoxious when he let out about of mile of line on his anchor and then shooed everyone else away from his area because they were prone to swinging. Uncle Blue's friend decided to park in his berth anyway, despite the verbal abuse that was being slung out over the water. Uncle Blue hopped into the dingy and rowed over to help his friend.

Gram, Aunt Barby, Alison and I farkeled. Until suddenly I looked up to see a giant, 3-story power boat cut right across our bow, and as he chugged along, suddenly we were chugging along with him. "He's got our line!" I cried out. Aunt Barby jumped up and ran to the bow just as the tip of Uncle Blue's boat smashed into the side of the giant "Sir Speedy," shattering the window. The driver realized by that time what had happened and cut the engine while his freshly manicured wife, Aunt Barby, and I fended our boats off of each other. Uncle Blue rowed back, and some other good sams sped over to see if they could help. One of them dove under several times to try to loosen our anchor line from Sir Speedy's propeller, but it was too late. We were hopelessly entangled. We waited for the towboat to come bail us out. Finally they did and a diver went under to loosen the line. The line was cut through, but luckily he was able to tie the ends together so Uncle Blue could recover his brand new $600 anchor... phew.

Just another day, folks. Just another day.

Caitlyn vs. Earl

I'm spending Labor Day weekend on Long Island. Aunt Barby just reminded me today that Hurricane Earl is scheduled to arrive at the same time I will. Stellar timing, Earl.