Creative Haloween

One umbrella + long strips of bubble wrap + thin iridescent ribbons + glow-in-the-dark paint = a jellyfish!

One cardboard box with a hole cut out + one shoe box + one tin can + blue paint + black paint + five paper plates + two ropes = Thomas the Train!

One onesie + a pair of yellow pants + one pair of yellow rubber gloves + two white feather boas + one shower cap + felt = a chicken!

... but I only made the jelllyfish :)

Wisteria dreams

Someday after I have met the most wonderful man and we have dated, become engaged, married, and then settled down into our home, our own home, I want to plant wisteria. In addition to being an absolutely beautiful flower with the inviting meaning of "welcome fair stranger" and the more apt ones of "obedience" and "I cling to thee," I think it a lovely symbol for a loving relationship. Wisteria requires much care and attention (though too great an effort will prove a hinderance), and even under the best of circumstances will not flower for the first few years. Though this may prove frustrating as the gardener is eager to see the fruits of his/her labor, these things naturally require time, and the promise of the mature plant's splendor makes the wait worthwhile. Once it has taken off, wisteria cannot be allowed to run freely in any direction it chooses. It requires discipline, pruning, and training to a support in order to survive many years. The longer wisteria lives, the stronger and sturdier it becomes, but always, always, does it require support to bear its own weight and to prevent it from falling. The longer wisteria lives, the more beautiful it becomes. I dream of wisteria. I dream of love.

Unfortunate News

I received a call earlier this week from Harvard University ... the only place that really showed any interest in hiring me. They, unfortunately for me, have decided to "go with someone else" for this position. Surprisingly, I'm ok with this. Don't get me wrong; I am disappointed, but I guess this just wasn't meant to be. I canceled my plans for that evening and my family was good enough to leave me at home alone, and I wept uncontrolled for several minutes, perhaps even half an hour ... I didn't time it. ;) But we must move on, right? So I said goodbye to visions of Harvard, washed my face, ran on the treadmill to distract myself, and prayed. Now, as much as I wanted this job, I want God's will in my life even more, so I am truly at peace with this. The hardest part is telling people the news. So many people come up to me expectantly asking "do you have good news yet?" and I have to say, "no good news." So now it is back to the drawing board. I have about half a dozen applications out yet and probably just as many more to send out as I get them prepared, so all is not lost. But now I must return to a question I asked quite some time ago ... where will I end up?

North Carolina? California? Delaware? Maryland? Texas? I only wish I knew.

Sing a song of sixpence

I had a very enjoyable, and very musical day yesterday. It started in Sunday school, when the teacher began singing, though perhaps calling that music is a bit of a stretch. I left class just a bit early so I could make it to choir rehearsal on time, but I was stopped by the music minister (also my hairdresser) on my way. He wanted to know if I would go downstairs with my mother after the choir finished singing and help her with the children's choir practice. So I had a good hour or more of singing in the morning, and then when I got outside I ran into my former violin teacher, Claire, who I hadn't seen in a year or so. She mentioned the high school fall choir concert, and I decided that I needed to go. So ... I hurried home, ate lunch, arrived at the concert half an hour late, listened to some second-rate/some amazing music, and then went outside, where I bumped into Claire again. She mentioned that she had a concert she had to give that evening in another state, and I commented that when I had tried to tune my violin the last time, I had broken a string. Claire has offered to re-string my violin for me, so now I need to make an appointment with her to have that done ... but there's a catch. After she volunteered that service, she threw in the hurried "andthenI'llmakeyouplay" with a mischevious grin. But I would like to play again, so I suppose the only thing to do is to endure initial humiliation of my efforts after not having played in five years. :P

Worlds apart

As we begin to really get into autumn, dusk falls on us earlier and earlier each day. I ran out of the house today at a quarter to six to go on a deer-watching stroll through a lovely cemetery with my parents. We have to time these walks just right if we are to see many deer, and we were a bit early it seems, though the light had beautiful, rich red tones as it came through the trees. Sunset was at 6:48 this evening, and my father, thinking we were running out of daylight, rather rushed us out of the house. At the time, I was talking online to a friend who is a world away ... ok, a quarter of a world away. But as I had to rush off, I gave him my wishes for a great day. It seemed very strange that as I was hurrying to catch the last rays of daylight, he should be just about ready to start thinking about lunch. Now it is quite dark outside and what bugs are bold enough to brave near-freezing temperatures are making their nocturnal music. Meanwhile, my friend is out somewhere enjoying the peak of his day with its eighty-four degrees and his three and a half more hours of sunlight.

Whirlwind

Wow! What a week this has been. The fun all began two weeks ago when Harvard finally called me to let me know they wanted to set up my interview for just one week later. This began a flurry of activity as I began setting up flights, trying to contact friends in Boston, and figuring out where I would stay while in Pittsburgh for a week.

So Sunday came around and I went to morning worship service with my parents, came home, finished packing, and headed off to Pittsburgh. Once in Pittsburgh, we ate dinner and went to the church I attended while living in Squirrel Hill. My parents then left me with Lois, my host for the week, and I had the most fun I can remember having in quite some time. I thought Lois to be about 70, but it turns out she is actually 83! I couldn't believe it. I had such fun running around with Lois and her friends, going out for ice cream, shopping at Wal-Mart, playing dominos and eating a free dinner at Applebee's. I also spent a good bit of time at the Preservation Lab repairing and photographically documenting a book for a class of second graders at St. Mary's School in Marietta.

In the midst of this time of fun and games, I hopped on a plane, flew to Boston, took a taxi to Harvard University, wandered around at night hoping to find something to eat and L.A. Burdick Chocolate (sadly I failed with the latter), returned to my small but posh room for an early bedtime and a much-needed chat with a good friend. The next day was a 6.5 hour interview, beginning with an hour-long lunch, and followed by half an hour with human resources, half an hour touring the conservation lab, 1.25 hours in the actual "interview" part, and a fifteen minute break wherein I spilled milk on myself while no one was around. I then began again with a half hour presentation of my portfolio which HR forgot to mention until they called to set up the interview, half an hour of questions with the conservation lab staff, an hour and a half lunch, and finally a half-hour wrap-up with the search committee. I then left Harvard Square, headed to the Harvard Museum of Natural History to visit with a friend who works there for a few hours, walked back to my hotel to pick up my bag, took a taxi to the airport, and flew back to Pittsburgh.

I had fun. The entire week was fun, even the interview. I left feeling good about it, though, of course, the search committee really gave me no indication of how I did. I can say with confidence that I didn't do anything embarrassing ... when anyone was around to see it!