penn

NYC

!!!!

As seems to be my trend with big cities, I love NYC even though I didn't expect to (this has held true for Paris, Boston, and DC but not for Baltimore). Matt and I are having a faboo time. I wish we could stay for longer, but we're leaving this afternoon. I'm just here to share a few quick pics.

St. Patrick's Cathedral -- we stopped in for 5 minutes of Sunday mass.

saw Starry Night at MoMA (eeee!)

walked from the south end to the middle of Central Park

we did a bunch more stuff, including lots more walking around the city, and concluded the day by going up the Top of the Rock (70 stories up Rockefeller Plaza)

I'll end with the amazing view from our hotel. We're staying in Queens at the Best Western Plaza. Can't recommend it enough -- free parking, free wifi, just a few metro stops from Manhatten, and only $80 + tax a night!

Love and leaving

Somehow, blogging just hasn't been on my radar screen recently. I've done so much since the last time I blogged. But there's little photo evidence and not a lot to talk about. I got really sick (but not with the flu, thank goodness), went to Boston overnight after I got better, and visited the Harry Potter exhibit at the Museum of Science. That was really fun!

This is my last weekend here in Maine, and I don't even have words to express my mix of emotions. Change is always difficult for me, and I suspect it's difficult for most people. I'm preparing to go back to Minnesota, and I'm excited to be back with Matt. But I'm sad to miss the lull of the ocean and a job that takes me outside all the time. I'm not sure yet what I'll be doing when I get back, so that's another difficulty. Maybe I'll finally have time to pursue lots of personal goals, although the catch-22 is always finding the balance of time and money. I'm trying really hard to be patient.

I do want to share something lovely I read last night/this morning: Love that Dog by Sharon Creech. It's a book of poems written from the point of view of a young man learning about poems, and it is lovely in the subtle allusions to other poems I love. It's a quick read and a must-read for anyone who appreciates poetry.

Voted!

I'd post a picture, but they were all out of the little stickers. Voting was busy here in Maine. I think a lot of people are showing up to decide the fate of gay marriage. (For the record, I voted to preserve gay marriage. But that can be another discussion for another time.)

Registering to vote was straightforward in Maine. All I had to do was take in a piece of post-marked mail that had been received at my address. It went well! So, I've now done my civic duty as a short-term resident of Maine, I was able to vote, and life is good. Certainly a better use of my time than job applications, right? Just kidding; I'm going to do job applications later this evening so that I don't fall behind.

Now to see how everything shakes out on the morrow.

More colors

The stochasticity of fall

These past few days have been Indian summer here; delicious, warm, golden, crisp, sweet fall days that I live for. I venture outside in simply hoodie and jeans to do both mystical and mundane: wander forest trails, visit the grocery store, do laundry. I'm hoping to line-dry this afternoon but am nervous about the prediction for rain despite seeing no heavy clouds in the sky.

Last night was windy but still lovely. I sat in my bed, read a good book, and enjoyed the movement of trees around my upper-story room. I live in a little nook nestled above the kitchen on the front end of the house, and I have one large window that overlooks the ocean and transmits weather news into my life.

I'm leaving soon; less than 3 weeks will find Matt and I venturing forth to explore America as we journey back to Minnesota. But for the present, I am here in autumn, out in the natural world, enjoying the random fluctuations and variations that each day brings.