Perfect Day in Scotland

While EO is at work, we are relaxing at his flat. He's letting me use his laptop to check e-mail and write on my blog. He'll be back in another hour or two, and we'll take it easy tonight. We've been living the night life here, that's for sure! The first night we ate at a cafe where a friend of his works, and took our time getting home. Night before last, we closed down the pub where the EO works as a barman (bartender) on Fridays. The live music was fantastic. Last night we almost did the same, but decided to come home sooner. Nevertheless, every night we've been getting to sleep around 2 a.m. Partly due to the interesting fact that, this far up north, the sun doesn't set until after 10 .m. (and even then, the sky glows), and it rises before 4 a.m.! It's really wonderful. Your body thinks it wants to stay up all night...then you crash.

Thus, it is another beautiful day in Scotland. We left nearly 100 degree weather in DC to come to St Andrews where the temperature is between 50 and 60 degrees. This is as gorgeous a place as I remember it, with dark blue skies over the ocean even when the sun is shining. Which is why I am not going to stay to write very much. I'm working on a little watercolor painting of the North Sea...as viewed from St Andrews castle and I want to get back to it. I've been letting it dry before I do more.

I wish I could have had this education abroad experience when I was a student. Must go! Must paint!

Very exciting

So I will be out of pocket for two weeks. We'll be having fun in very cool Scotland (low 50s, as compared to the 102 degrees we had here the other day). I am taking my watercolor paints and hope to get lots of little paintings of St Andrews and maybe Inverness. A friend who lives close to Inverness has asked us to take a train up to see her for a couple of days, and we are all looking forward to doing so. She's a polymer artist. A true artist.

Here it is, 11:30 p.m., and we have to be at the airport by noon tomorrow...neither of us has started packing yet. We have both been totally overwhelmed at work and at home. But, I think I can get started now. I made a list (as I always do) a couple of weeks ago and it's a good way to get started.

Maybe I can borrow EO's computer at some point and get my blog fix... if not, well, I'll catch up in two weeks.

Anticipation

H and I hit the ground running this morning. We have so much to do before we leave for Scotland. We had a nice unhealthy breakfast at McDonalds (an Egg McMuffin isn't THAT unhealthy, is it?), then he took me over to the church so I could do the flower arrangements for the altar, and we stopped at the pet specialty store to pick up several cases of dog food for Kira while she's at the Doggy Spa during our trip. All this by 10:30. Then while H got his hair cut, I finished writing the newsletter for my needlepoint guild and e-mailed it. Off we went to Staples so I could make copies of the newsletter for members who don't have e-mail. To the auto store. To REI for new little bottles for shampoo and such. To Starbucks for something cold to drink. To the groc for dinner fixings. Back home to get some stuff done here. It's now getting close to midnight, and I'm really tired. There is so much to do, and, despite all we did today, I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere. Stressful. Add to that the stress from trying to get everything organized at my office.

The nice thing is this: I know that, when I get packed and we start out the door on our way to the airport, all the stress will lift. It's like magic. I won't even give a thought to the office. My friend, Dorothy, will stay at the house and take care of the kitties and plants and all, so I don't have to worry about any of that.

This trip to Scotland is really going to be a vacation. I'm taking my paints. I want to do some little paintings of the north sea, and St Andrews, and maybe try my hand at the architecture. I'm taking "The Kite Runner" for reading. And a couple of very small stitching pieces. I'll have my i-Pod for comfort. My camera for capturing the beauty of it all. Do I need my PDA? Not if I don't plan to give a thought to the office.

This is kind of a rambling stream-of-conscious entry... it really is time for a vacation.

Wind

I'm trying to get everything organized at my office so that my life won't be crazy when I return from Scotland. But it seems that every case I have has blown up somehow, requiring meetings, and issue statements, and draft proposals. For three months, things have been relatively easy, with only an occasional frantic day. But this entire week has been awful. And it promises to get worse before it gets better. I can't wait to get out of the office for two weeks, far away, in another country: Scotland!

We had a wild storm today. It hit us at around 4:00 in the afternoon, with sideways rain and branches blowing across the streets, power outages and falling trees. When we got home from work, we discovered that four trees had gone down around our house. Not our trees, our neighbors' trees. A 150-year-old oak tree fell between two neighbors' houses, messing up the roof of one and the side of the other, but not crushing either. This is a giant grandfather of a tree, and it laid itself down right between the two houses.

Then my neighbor on the other side lost my all-time favorite cherry tree, one that I have watched grow as my son grew. I used to rock him as a baby and look out of the window at the blossoms on that tree. It was much smaller then, but it was absolutely beautiful. Every spring when it bloomed, I was transported back to those magical baby days. The wind pulled the tree up by its roots, and tossed it toward our wrap-around porch, but missed. We think there had to have been a microburst, not quite a tornado. The branches were covered with almost-ripe cherries, and some of them blew onto the porch. This same neighbor also lost another, smaller cherry tree, and a dogwood. In the front of his house, an old oak tree lost two very large branches. My neighbor pointed up into one of his remaining trees, and there in the branches was a roof shingle. We could not find where shingles were missing from our houses or any of the houses around us.

None of my own beloved oak trees (including the 250-year-old white oak) was damaged. Some windy pruning occurred, but nothing severe. The crepe myrtle we planted last year looks fine, as do all the dogwoods. And the roses and azaleas seem to be really enjoying all the rain.

We had another loud thunderstorm about an hour or so ago, but now there is just a steady rain. It makes a lovely, soothing noise.

Weddings and the Passage of Time

H and I went to a friend's wedding on Saturday. The bride is a colleague of mine (she reminds me a little bit of my sister, Girl from Texas). It was a very intimate event held at an officers' club, and a very classy happening. Friday night, she had a small gathering at her high-rise condo in the Pentagon area, with the most spectacular view of the Washington Monument and the Capital from her balcony. It was sort of like a rehearsal dinner, but without the rehearsal. Just the dinner. We all sat around and talked and I got to know the groom a little better and decided that I like him very much. I think they are well suited. The wedding was equally close. The bride, her brothers, two law school friends, a couple of her colleagues (including myself, Lea and our supervisor) and our husbands, the groom and his three kids, two sisters and a colleague...not too many people. A very nice number.

Weddings are interesting to people who have been married for a while. When your child turns 21, you sort of forget that you were ever 21 yourself. But a wedding brings back the memories of the beginning. At the same time, a wedding slaps you in the face with the knowledge that you're NOT 21 any more. And yet, at this wedding, the bride was 40-something, and the groom at least 10 years older, but as I watched them take their vows, their faces filled with youthful anticipation, I was reminded once again that you don't really have to be 21 to be young. My father was fond of that old cliche "You are as young as you feel." So, the occasional wedding is a good reminder.

I don't know at what point during the ceremony H took my hand, but suddenly there it was, big and warm and very comfortable. Later, I overheard someone saying that they had seen my supervisor and her husband (same age as us) take one anothers' hands. And Lea and her husband were a little sweeter to one another.

So, what causes this sudden desire to touch each other? Is it a wish to be 21 years old again? Or at least to recapture the newness of it all, a time when everything was in front of us, a horizon of unknown potential and anticipation, before the mortgage, the career, kids, college tuition payments? Does it remind us to BE young?

The other day, the elusive offspring called. He is considering his options for the time after he graduates in June 2009. One thought is that he would take a 2-year visa and stay in the UK to work. Any work. Physics would be nice, but he says he'd even work as a mechanic just to get away from the academic world for a while. "You're getting a mighty expensive education for doing mechanics work," I said, and then suddenly I thought differently. "Actually, never mind. Now is the time to do that. Before you get the mortgage, the career, kids, and the pesky college tuition payments that go with having kids." He's only 21. His whole life is out there ahead of him. Certainly, I'd rather see him using his talents (singing, acting, his aptitude for science), but if he can support himself in the UK with whatever job he lands, well then, that's part of his life experience. I would have loved to have that experience.

And who knows? Someday, I might be standing at his wedding and reaching out for H's hand, reliving 21.