A Journey of a Thousand Miles...

I spent this last weekend (an extended one, at that) in California for the long-awaited wedding of my cousin Wendy and her fiancé, Chris. It was a beautiful affair in Three Rivers; intimate, simple, classic, and celebratory. This ceremony was not only an exchange of vows for Chris and Wendy, but also the union of a family, with Wendy's eleven-year-old son, Scotty, an integral part of the marriage. We all had a wonderful time, and I was even the recipient of a happy surprise when my own dear one, Michael Benjamin, caught the tossed garter! Don't worry, though, everyone--wedding plans have a few more years ahead of them.

Here are some photos of the happy event:

My family's table...

Michael Benjamin and myself, taken by Scotty...

Max gets his groove on before the ceremony--he does a mean Jerk.

Remembrance table for my Uncle Marc, Wendy's Dad...

Wendy, glowing just after the ceremony...

The cake!

The first dance--and hopefully some adorable ginger babies soon!

The whole wedding was a beautiful success; everyone had a wonderful time, and I've never seen Wendy and Chris so happy. Best of luck to you two, and all my love!

For All of You Who Were There, and All Who Weren't

Here are a couple of videos that, for sentimental reasons, I dug up on YouTube and decided to embed here. I remember watching these practices, on sticky summer nights, sprawled out on the cool field at the high school, watching the slick shadows of moths play around the tall lights--Some things about high school weren't so awfully dull--



This is "Hide and Seek," 2006.



And "e-motion," 2007.

To this day, I get goosebumps and excited, stinging tears when I watch these videos. Some of the most beautiful performances I've ever seen. Who would have thought that Imogen Heap would get along so well with marching bands? Again, this is for all of you who saw these alongside me, and those of you who've never thought that marching bands could be cool, and especially for my brother, who is the tallest tuba player on each of those fields... :)

A Friday Night

Here are some photos of my Friday night--Will and I spent a few hours in the Black Squirrel, he shooting pool with some other guys and I drinking Nutella hot cocoa (CAN you believe it!?) and taking photographs. I guess it was somewhat fruitful, although the lighting was poor...


Here's Will shooting.


Green felt huzzah.


Will's feet and cue.

I've spent more time than I care to admit drinking various Nutella beverages and watching all the boys shoot pool than I care to admit... but there are certainly worse ways to spend an empty Friday night.

2009 Saw Mill River Parkway BIOBLITZ

On this past Saturday, I journeyed with several other resident "nature nerds" here at college to the campus of Pace University, in Pleasantville, New York, just outside of Sleepy Hollow (I know, right?!) for an interesting nation-wide event known as the BioBlitz. Held locally at the Saw Mill River Parkway, it was a two-day event in which many local scientists, naturalists, and ambitious students arranged in teams sought to identify and report as many species as possible within the area. They focused mainly on animals, plants and fungi, and I volunteered for the tedious, but rewardingly fascinating job of data entry; I took the lists from the various teams and entered the lists of species, locations, and scientific names into a computer database. It was long, but after much counting, categorizing, and re-assigning, we came up with a conservative estimate of at least 636 species in that little area! Go Hudson River Valley! It was wonderful to be on the job of data entry, if only to be able to familiarize myself with the still-unfamiliar wildlife in this beautiful area.

Perhaps out of this recent interest pique, I've begun reading a collection of essays called The Poetics of Natural History, a birthday gift from the best friend, which is blowing my mind with its beauty and thoughtfulness. Thanks, my dearest and loveliest lady friend, wherever and whenever you may be reading this!

Merry Mabon, Everyone!

Today is the first day of autumn, or Mabon, according to Celtic mythology. Here in New York, I can feel the season approaching more and more quickly--the wind is restless, the cicadas are slowly being silenced, and even the dogwoods are turning pink and showing off Christmas-red fruit. It is still sundress weather in the daytime, but at night it cools into something smooth and playful, and the two resident skunks here on campus are taking advantage of the mild weather. I see them scrounging in the rubbish bin outside my dormitory almost every night.

I finished the David Attenborough BBC series, The Life of Birds yesterday on my Netflix online account. It was thoroughly enjoyable, although I've endured no end of teasing from Jamie and the others for being such a nature dork. Speaking of which, I've found out about the hiking/exploration group here on campus--GORP, which stands for something of course, but the R eludes me. So far, the groups I have joined or am looking to join are that one and the SLC Stitch N Bitch (so I can learn to knit!).

I'm off to my history of photography class now, so I shall leave this post, but I thought I'd drop in for a hello. Once again, a merry Mabon to everyone, and I hope it cools down in Modesto soon!

Fox and Deer

Perhaps I'll develop this imagery in a later piece of writing, but for now, just gaze upon the adorableness:
It's a little like M. Benjamin and me, don't you think? He's all lanky and gentle and quiet, like a deer, and I am all pointy and quick and busy like a fox. Would that either of our ears were as cute as these little guys'!

From the Top of the Rocks

Well, yesterday was Laura's birthday, so we spent the evening in the city. It's a funny thing, but the whole experience made me feel, for the first time, that I'm actually living here in New York.

We took a train into Grand Central and then hopped the Subway from there to our first destination, a lovely Mexican restaurant called Rosa Mexicano. While the entrées were priced a bit outside our budgets, we took advantage of their sizable and reasonably priced appetizer menu to build for ourselves a meal. Jamie and Laura each ordered the tortilla soup for a "first course," and were surprised to see it come to the table in two vessels apiece: they were each given a bowl with a little heap of chicken, fried tortilla strips, queso fresco, and avocado, and then our server poured in over the mound a thick, brick-red soup. I ordered the house salad to start off, which was a pile of mixed greens, shredded carrots and jicama, quarters red and yellow grape tomatoes, and a delicate, sweet-and-spicy vinaigrette with mint and sweet peppers.

Just when we thought it couldn't get any better, we got our second dishes. Laura and Jamie had ordered the flautas and taquitos, respectively, and I ordered a dish called "Zarape de Pato," which will go down in history as one of the most delectable dishes that has ever passed between these lips. It was made of tender, juicy, seasoned duck, shredded with spices and sandwiched between two soft corn tortillas and drenched over with a smooth, sweet, creamy puréed corn sauce. It was fantastic, sweet, spicy, smokey, and the duck was cooked as I've never seen it before--not chewy, not stringy, not tough, and not overly gamey. We left very full and very happy, and walked next to Rockefeller Square, where we had previously purchased tickets to go up to the "Top of the Rocks," at the top of the Rockefeller building. I need say not a thing--here are the photos:





Some of them are a little blurry, but I think it only adds to the charm.

You always here people describe the lights of New York City, the silver and neon, the sky that's never black, but it's another thing entirely to see it, and from above. Looking out over the city, with the golden September moon above me, I cannot say that I felt as though I were home. But I can say that this whole experience no longer felt like summer camp.

We walked about the city a little more after that and then caught a 10:30 train back to Bronxville. We were tired and our feet were thrashed, but we'd had a lovely time.

Almost Forgotten...

I realized this morning that I never posted the surprise I mentioned I had worked on for Michael Benjamin. It was a sidewalk mural, the remains of which I'm sure are long-gone by now. Such is the ephemeral beauty of impermanent street art...

I suppose that's why cameras were invented.


Just imagine these images as left-to-right instead of up-to-down... It's a peach tree in blossom, swarming with honeybees, and it says, "For my Peach, from his Honeybee."

Interviewing Begins in the Hudson River Valley! We All Go Dotty! Yippee!

I don't know that anyone who reads by blog will recognize the subtle Sufjan Stevens reference in the above title. Maybe Sean.

Anyhow, the arduous process of interviewing our professors for classes has begun. This experience, set to the sometimes subtle, sometimes unbearable soundtrack of clicking high heels, frantic asking for directions, and summer cicadas, is unlike any I've ever had. I will admit that despite its anxious effect on my nerves is somewhat counteracted by the fact that searching for all these people's offices has led be to some beautiful and yet-undiscovered corners of the campus, like Andrews House, with its round stone tower, winding staircase, and archways, and the campus Greenhouse, all abloom with all sorts of roses and hydrangeas.

The stress of interviews has caused my friends and I a bit of counter-stress craziness. Observe our anti-dance dance party:


This is Jamie rocking out to some of her excellent music. She should never eat cookies, as they cause her much injury.


Laura loves to wear robes and does an excellent slow-motion seagull dance.


Jamie and I rock the Molly Ringwald. In this picture, she has evolved into full-fledged Anglophile by means of this epic jacket.

So that's a sneak-peek at our reaction to this process.

Below, I want to publish a slightly more nostalgic picture--this is the crew of tried-and-true friends who saw me off to Oakland so very early on Thursday morning. Look how wonderful they are...


That's my darling Peach, Michael Benjamin, myself, Navaz, and Kevyn. How I love them all!

Orientation at SLC

I've moved into my dorm now and am thoroughly thrilled. My roomie is great (her name is Lauren) and the building is beautiful. Our room was actually a kitchen until the early nineties, so it's a little funky, with slanted tile floors, lots of extraneous pipes, and a stripey wall texture. I had meant to post photos, but I don't know if that's in compliance of SLC policy yet, as blogs are considered a sort of publishing. Hopefully though, pictures will follow shortly.

I've made friends with a pair of roommates down the hall from Lauren and me. Their names are Jamie and Laura, and the four of us have taken to attending many of the mandatory functions together. I've gotten lucky so far with the food--if it stays this good all year, we are in for a treat. there have been tons of fresh vegetables, marinated tofu, and today we got crabcakes for lunch, with a decent Hollandaise! Not bad for dorm food.

Today we had to sit through a three-hour lecture on fire safety and campus security and such, and we have another lecture at two. Fun Stuff.

Well, I'll post picture when I know I can, but until then, my writing will have to suffice.

Finished my last day of work with my Auntie Cathleen this morning--my Macbook has been purchased, boxes sent and received. Today, I took in my winter wools for cleaning and will be making a stop at Countryman's Jewelers to have some jewelry repaired. Many small chores still anticipate my doing before I leave--mending, sorting, organizing, packing, typing, and printing--but for now I am on hold at an enormous precipice. My own Mr. Herndon arrives tomorrow evening, just before my going-away party. I have a surprise for him, which I have not yet finished. It is odd to think that this is my last week in Modesto.

My whole life I have seen high school as but a means by which to go to college, and college as just a means by which to get a job. Somehow, though, in this moment, it seems bigger than that.

A Film/Food Dichotomy

On Friday, I had a rather curious experience regarding watching two very different films about food in one day. The first film I saw, while eating an enormous box of Whoppers and drinking a Coke, was Julie and Julia.

The film was entertaining, and it's portrayal of French cooking left one hungering for lobster, duck, and all other sorts of delicacies. However sick the enormous amount of sugar I had consumed had caused me to feel, I still went home craving Coq Au Vin.

Later in the evening, my bestie and I went to see a film with a far more cynical take on the occupation of eating:

This was certainly one of the best documentaries of the year, in my opinion. It did a good job of presenting facts and appealing to emotions without becoming too sensationalist. Overall, it truly made me rethink the food industry and my own buying habits.

I'm already a label-reader when it comes to every product I buy: food, cosmetics, dish soap, you name it. I have a certain "checklist" which I usually make sure the product meets before I buy it, including things like people-tested, organic, no parabens, no palm oil, etc. But before this movie, I had never really thought about corn and soybeans, and how those industries are mostly ruining our environment and our bodies.

Here's a list posted on the site for the film of 10 simple things you can do to change our food system:

1. Stop drinking soda and other sweetened beverages.

2. Eat at home instead of eating out.

3. Support the passage of laws requiring chain restaurants to post calorie information on menus and menu boards.

4. Tell schools to stop selling sodas, junk food, and sports drinks.

5. Meatless Mondays--Go without meat on day a weeks.

6. Buy organic or sustainable food with little or no pesticides.

7. Protect family farms; visit your local farmer's market.

8. Make a point to know where your food comes from--READ LABELS.

9. Tell Congress that food safety is important to you.

10. Demand job protection for farm workers and food processors, ensuring fair wages and other protections.

I hope that anyone out there who reads my blog (if there's anyone out there that reads my blog...) will make a point to see this documentary, learn more about the issues at hand, and make fair choices about the products they choose to consume. We are not helpless to the system!