shouts of joy

We took a fast trip to Boise this weekend. Went to the farmers market. Played a lot of Dutch Blitz, football and Taboo. Made great home cooked meals and ate around a crowded table. We went to bed late and woke up early and studied on the drive back home. Studied for a Spanish test until I was car sick. Got home and ran until sweat was dripping off my face, gross? Yes. Don't worry, I showered before I went to Whitman. Here I've sat for the past two hours where I've made an hourly schedule to study Spanish for an hour, Math for an hour, back to Spanish and so on.The trees out the big windows in front of me are reflecting gold but I don't have a good enough camera to capture the glow, so the mac photo booth will have to be enough proof. I found out that my last Spanish test resulted in a B- but not this time. Watch out Whitman here comes the Spanish!

I can't tolerate the sponges that soak up the optimism and energy.  Ah, why can't they just wade in the puddle?  

We went to the corn maze and carved pumpkins this weekend... Roasted pumpkin seeds... Pumpkins remind me of India. Dried pumpkin, curried pumpkin, sugared pumpkin, pickled pumpkin, white pumpkin, orange pumpkin. Next time it'll be carved pumpkin!

A few weeks ago I spent the weekend in Spokane with my awesome friend Emily who is currently volunteering in a health clinic in Chad, Africa. She has been doing a lot of cooking and baking the past few months and recording her creations on her facebook. Sketchy stuff for Emily! She once created a carrot soup that got the name "mush" after it's texture. The weekend I visited I suggested we make crepes for Sabbath morning breakfast. She suggested we color them. So I suggested green and orange for pumpkins. Today I was missing my dear friend, so in preparation for Sabbath I made pumpkin poptarts for Emily. If she were here they would have been multi-colored. But here they are.

This is the first year of college I've remained two years back-to-back, and I'm getting antsy. I'm ready to jump out of my seat and fly away. I need space and fresh air. Being cooped up inside the past few days has encouraged my mind to travel the world. I'd like to be back in India right now, as the weather is beginning to cool to a tolerable temp. I'm not a fan of the frost on the grass and could settle for a warm place like Tahiti, but more than that (from someone whose always lived in the mid/northwest) I've always wondered what Boston would be like in the Fall... 

Funny, the things that bother us, our pet peeves, the little stuff that nobody understands. I'm sick today and part of me wishes I was sick more often. Because when I'm sick I just don't care. The peeves that creep into my little house don't matter. I see the dirty mug and I shrug it off. I see the plant in the corner needs a drink but I let it go. I see the paper on the floor but I'm not going to pick it up. Oh, those stupid water stains on the faucet... you bother me! But I'm not going to move a muscle. The little things just aren't that important. There's something more important here. I gotta get back to tip-top, ship-shape so I can take my Spanish test tomorrow, go climbing, go for a walk with Jacque and Beau, have a meeting to figure out camp stuff, make copies of my car keys, add a 1 credit class, and reschedule a meeting with a professor. Oh, peeves you can wait!

While I've been on this hunt to step away from what I know as comfy and dependable, I've talked with alot of people about "real" things. I like real talks. Not just the, "Hey, what's your name and major?" sort of empty talk. When I talk real with people, it's amazing how much they'll open up without too hard of a nudge, not everyone is that easy to open, but some let me dig. Some can get "real" pretty darn quick and I've seen a common pattern among these "realers". They've been hurt, they've tried to move on, some are on their way out, some are on their way in. Some are trying to find what they lost, and some are trying to give without having anything to give. We all have seen similar stories or been a similar character, and somehow we all repeat it again and again. Maybe, just maybe, the next person we have a "real" talk with could be a part of the next story.