Today

I believe in unplanned ice cream in a park with live music. I believe in taking one day a week for yourself with nothing that you HAVE to do. I believe in talking with your family every day, no matter your age, no matter the distance between you. I believe in a summer diet of watermelon, cucumbers, crackers and popsicles. I'm the girl who likes to reminisce over her own photos from years gone by; laugh, smile, and cry. I'm the girl who will cry like a baby while watching an HBO special on Derek Jeter's 3000th hit. I believe in going to bed before 9pm every once in a while.

Home Free

You'll all be very happy to know that they let me back in the country, and even more surprisingly, no one had to drag me kicking and screaming. Greece was absolutely incredible. I am still computer-less, and my ocpd won't let me write about it and post photos later. So stay tuned. Suffice it to say that each section of the trip had its own magnificence. Athens had the history, Mykonos had the beaches, and Santorini had the culture. Santorini was the pinnacle of the realization of an eleven-year dream, and I can't wait to tell you all about it! In the meantime, the things I will miss the most are the beautiful sunshine, the indescribable clear blue water, the sounds of the church bells over the nighttime city sounds, and the sounds of the beautiful Greek language. I am glad however, to be back in a land where people are allowed to flush their toilet paper, and smoking is socially unacceptable. And my bed, oh my bed. Always my bed!

On My Way

Here I am. At the airport. In my hands is a passport, a ticket that says Athens, and a chunk of euros. It's weird. Just weird. It's really here. My roommates and I all said in college that when we turned 30 we would go to Greece. And now here I am. That makes this the fulfillment of a goal I have had longer than any other in my thirty years. Longer than any of my college degrees or even my career. Not that those things just happened, because there was a LOT of blood, sweat, tears, and unbelievable hard work involved, but I set out to do them and withn a year, two at most, they were done. Eeeeekkkk!!!!!! I'm going to greece! :) ...and I tried to upload a picture of said items but I apparently can't upload it to blogger from my iPad. Grrr...

Playing House

Fair warning: I had this entire post done last night on a computer that isn't mine (mine died, very sad) and then somehow instead of publishing it it just reverted to only the pictures. I didn't have the energy to do it again, so I'm attempting now :)

Amidst the chaos that has been my life the past month with vacations and vacation planning and graduation (something I still need to talk about ...maybe when I have my own computer back) I've spent a couple weeks house-sitting for friends. A couple weeks ago I spent a week at a dear friend, Janice's house. Janice has three dogs. And three horses. I grew up with neither dogs nor horses. But she left me excellent instructions and I'm a quick learner so I figured I'd be fine. Did you ever see The Simple Life with Nichole Richie and Paris Hilton?   ...Well... The first night I brought my friend Siobhan with me for moral support. We were on our way to a farewell party for a friend at work (Read: we were in skirts and sandals)  but came to feed the animals before we went.  So we pull up in front of the house and Duke, the outside dog, began barking furiously. When we left the car and crossed the gate into the yard it became a ferocious bark and growl at the intruders on his space. I jumped back ready to run away crying, but Siobhan (who has a dog) saved me from the ferocious beast and we soon became good friends after a little food (not me thank goodness ;) ) and scratching of the ears --his, not mine. We met the other two dogs, fed them, and let them out to play while we ventured out to feed the horses. On our second guess we found the hay shed. It turns out there's a lot of sheds/lean-tos on a farm. Janice had explained to me what a flake is (a chunk of hay that a horse eats) and told me that she'd leave the scissors in a bale so I'd know about how big it was. Perfect. I had been assured that the hay would just fall right apart into the flakes, so it shouldn't be a big deal. I pulled on one end of a bale and nothing happened. Hmmm. So I pulled harder. Still nothing. I glanced at my surroundings and saw a pitchfork. I could use this! I stabbed the pitchfork over my head into the chest-high bale of hay, nearly whacking my friend with the stick end in the process. Sorry. The only thing the pitchfork helped us accomplish was tipping the entire bale up and almost on top of ourselves. At this point it occurs to me that perhaps the bale of hay is tied together with something. and that maybe the scissors served dual purpose. Aha. Those of you with horse/farm experience are getting quite a chuckle right now. So let's review. Lessons I leaned on my first day on the farm: Flip flops --not great farm-wear apparel. Dogs bark. Loud. And finally, bales of hay come wrapped in strings of twine, and will come apart much easier after you cut the twine.  Fortunately, I survived the rest of the week without incident and adjusted quite well to life on the farm. I quite loved it! Apart from the allergic rash on my arms and constantly runny nose from the hay. But the animals I loved. And I even got used to making every step with three dogs underfoot, because they followed me everywhere I went. Inside and out.  Here's two of my cuddle buddies from Janice's house, Lucy and Koda:

and here's Noble with a carrot fresh from Laury's garden ...this helped me get in her good graces :)

This week I'm house-sitting for another coworker who's on a sailing/camping/wedding extravaganza.  Only one pupae to take care of this time. Not really a puppy, but a beautiful 13 year-old golden retriever named Saba. I'm in love already.  She's just so sweet!! Never makes a sound, loves to play, and just needs to be in the same room where you are so she can make sure you're in good company.  I'm quite smitten.

Her favorite spot to walk in is right between your legs. She just wiggles herself right in there and could stay there for blocks if you let her. I myself don't have the coordination to do this for a long time without tripping and falling, but it does make me giggle :)

She's 13 and has arthritis and I still get worn out of playing fetch before she does!

She does poop our eventually though... at least kind of :)

I prefer to unwind in the very giant bathtub.... The view from this place doesn't suck either. Yes, I have it quite rough this week :)  In fact, if I wasn't going to Greece in a couple days it may be slightly awkward when Scott and Shelby come home to find that I'm not leaving and have commandeered their dog :)