In more ways than one, this past month was about the apple. Autumn has arrived, and to spend our 1st anniversary as a married couple, and to honor the start of this glorious season, we went to a nearby farm with friends to pick our galas, fuji, delicious, and other bushels of the fruit which defines this time of year. It was a wonderful day, although I don't know that Mike nor I had ever picked apples while sweating, batting off bugs, and wishing we had brought galoshes to tackle the puddles accumulated over the weeks before - at least we hadn't handled such circumstances all at once like this time around.
Nevertheless, we explored the market first at Shady Brook Farm in Newtown and Yardley. We went to this farm last year, and fell in love with the mass amounts of homemade apple cider (Mike), and their mass amount of homemade ice cream flavors (Carly - pumpkin, obviously). This time, Mike and I also filled up a basket full of their newest produce: kale, squash, tomatoes; we also invested in some interesting (despite not incredibly local) finds: figs, peach-pear currant, and a roasted garlic cheese spread. What splendors found at side stands! Although I can't let my delicate sidesteps into this culinary basket of treasures mask the size of Shady Brook. It is truly a wonderland -- they have a pumpkin festival along with a corn field maze throughout apple picking season, and by the holidays they construct huge metal sculptures which are lit up and exemplify the elves, holly, and Christmas cheer come winter. (Much like Lights on the Lake us SU alums remember, yes?!)
So, amidst our feasting eyes, we get up to the register, spilling our contents of glorious finds and ask excitedly about the apple picking. "There is none." (Yes, said so apathetically via the lips of a teenage boy bored to tears to be working on his precious Sunday). Me, so much more politely, "What do you mean? Is it...too early to pick? (September, not time of day)" "We lost most of our crop thanks to all the hurricanes." Oh Nooo!! How sad, and how unfortunate for them. What seems like pennies when paying for a bucket of apples at just about $10, surely Shady Brook was losing more than just fruit, but dough as well. We felt glad to be able to buy from their market, and enjoy some of their homemade goodies out on the picnic tables out front before reconvening with our friends.
"We passed another farm on our way up here," brilliantly told by our friends Lauren and Kyle. I guessed it was Styer Orchard, Mike and I had picked there with some 'Cuse visitors during one of our first falls in PA. Just down the road, we gave it a go, and hoped that despite the short distance, we'd be able to revel in the picking of our apple crop for the season. (Or at least the first batch). Fortunately, Styer's was not only open for business, but bumpin' with a crowd - likely some who also left Shady Brook to enjoy some fall festivities - and we ended up taking both a tractor ride and a schlep out to another section of the orchard for a different variety. Sticky and sweaty, it was well worth the trek - less than two weeks out from the pickin's and Mike and I had made 4 apple pies and an apple crisp. Even better, these make great gifts during this time of year, and so we offered them to friends who either couldn't make it that day, or had exciting news of their own (we have a couple pregnant with their first due around Easter time!)
It's no surprise this is a favorite time of year, and this apple picking adventure proved as much why. It involves some work, some friends, literally some fruit of one's labor, and a beautiful day away from the noise of technology and all other things modern; it just puts me specifically in a good place of nostalgia and thinking about the hard work such farmers do into getting their orchards primed.
On another level of Macintosh, and a slight switch from the above sentiment, Steve Jobs died last week, creator and innovator of the beloved Apple, Inc. An achiever, a hard worker, an inventor, a family man, a business pro, and a creative soulful genius, in many ways the world lost one of a kind when he passed. Obama pointed out interestingly enough on the very devices that catapulted our world into speed and accessibility was Jobs' death circulating. People come and go, but if you read up on the kind of person Jobs was, as a professional but even more as a human being, it's no wonder the world should be in some mourning. The video that has been most talked about, is the graduation speech he gave at Stanford over 6 years ago. Jobs recites 3 main chapters in his life which help enlighten the bystander into the kind of person and magician he really was. "..the only way to do great work is to love what you do...don't settle." And morbidly, but honestly: "Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."
As I sit here tonight and think about all the extra work I have been putting in at my job, and the papers I have looming in my head for the rest of the school semester, I remember this month of September into October as the month of the apple. A month that meant we lost a great person who changed our world, but reminded us that we are given the opportunities to enjoy ourselves with friends and family, and to do what we can to be happy and purposeful. Thank you to this magical month, and to the magical people I have in my life. So many more orchards to explore together!
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Friday, September 23, 2011
insomniacitation
Can't sleep tonight. Don't know if it's the end of a long week, a tired body from working out hard the past two days, or the two chocolate covered espresso beans I had at noon for a dessert at lunch. Can't sleep though, and that's the worst after a long week.
Tomorrow is thankfully Friday, and I get to delve into the weekend with Mike just lazing about watching out latest Netflix video (The Fighter), and yoga on Saturday - golf too if the weather holds out. Then on Sunday we will be celebrating a) the glorious season that is autumn and b) our 1-year anniversary by apple picking with some friends. Apples, homemade ice cream, this place has local wines you can buy, pumpkin patches, a hayride out to the orchards - should be great!
May all your weekends share in this sentiment of being with those you love, doing what you enjoy. Including sleep.
Tomorrow is thankfully Friday, and I get to delve into the weekend with Mike just lazing about watching out latest Netflix video (The Fighter), and yoga on Saturday - golf too if the weather holds out. Then on Sunday we will be celebrating a) the glorious season that is autumn and b) our 1-year anniversary by apple picking with some friends. Apples, homemade ice cream, this place has local wines you can buy, pumpkin patches, a hayride out to the orchards - should be great!
May all your weekends share in this sentiment of being with those you love, doing what you enjoy. Including sleep.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
less than 1 going on 30
This post is in honor of my parents - over three decades friends, and thirty years exactly (on Aug 22 tomorrow) as a married pair. Congrats!!!
As a newlywed myself (this counts until 1 year in, right?), their love and relationship has always been a strong foundation to which I referred during years of pining and heartache - between my husband Michael and me (and even the few, less-adored boys before him). One of the most memorable qualities of their love is that they are in fact, friends first and foremost. This connection has fostered growth, shared parenting, individual hobbies, and a unified front as an admirable couple.
Without them, my sisters and I would of course not be; without us, our others would not have formed our family's now-termed "wolfpack." To the fantastic couple known as Laurence and Annie, I wish you thirty+ years more to travel together in love and life, and allow us around you to marvel in your journey! All the best <3
As a newlywed myself (this counts until 1 year in, right?), their love and relationship has always been a strong foundation to which I referred during years of pining and heartache - between my husband Michael and me (and even the few, less-adored boys before him). One of the most memorable qualities of their love is that they are in fact, friends first and foremost. This connection has fostered growth, shared parenting, individual hobbies, and a unified front as an admirable couple.
Without them, my sisters and I would of course not be; without us, our others would not have formed our family's now-termed "wolfpack." To the fantastic couple known as Laurence and Annie, I wish you thirty+ years more to travel together in love and life, and allow us around you to marvel in your journey! All the best <3
Saturday, July 16, 2011
you could fry an egg
AC went out last week - again, the year's hottest week (same as last year) - only this time we hassled the new maintenance staff for not one, but two window units, and much to our delight they obliged. On top of that, they actually convinced our HVAC contractors to come out and work on installing a new unit all together; last year they may have just patched a broken wire to the compressor with some duct tape. Possibly scotch tape it was so inefficient.
AC and few other issues aside, our new site manager has been doing good things for the apartment complex. Our community garden is thriving - I just made a homemade ratatouille of sorts last night including homegrown peppers, tomatoes, parsley, and basil - delish! The pool offered a measley little hotdog for the July 4th holiday, but nevertheless we scarfed it down after a busy weekend of family time and fireworks that Monday off. The most recent exciting news related to the apartment is but of course an end in sight. On to bigger and ideally better things with buying a house! Turning the house into home will be our project, and the timing of it all is truly inescapably nervewracking...How long do we sign our apartment lease for now? When do houses around here sell the best? Fall and Spring. It is fall soon - do we look? How many? Our friends who do own homes already have generously offered realtors and their average home-looks before settling down and it seems to be at around 20-30. So shouldn't we start now? "Some weekends we'd look at 8 houses." HUH?! What a process. It will begin soon, but can't tell anyone how shortly it will take....
We're trying to give ourselves a good window through another winter in this place. Hopefully we'll be moving gradually if we can time things just right and get into a house by late winter/early spring. Oooh, maybe during my break for classes. That's a whole other year gone by, too which is hard to believe. My time off from work has been pleasant, and yet it starts up again soon! Next week I will be working oh so close to home, and with a healthcare company set up within an Independent & Assisted Living Facility. After speaking briefly with my sister who is a physical therapist, she exclaimed happily what this means to her -- that I can sooner move to MA and begin working with her in an office somewhere...I'll cover the Rehab Tech job down here for now and then we'll see about transitions to New England yet again :)
**Anecdote approaching** My sister Sara and I always had this infatuation to work together, in neighboring communities...She would live in the city writing next to my farm country house, and then we'd meet over lunch every day and I would (naturally) braid her hair for work every morning. It soon shifted into her writing for, and me taking pictures on behalf of National Geographic Magazine....It's no wonder something down the line may involve the pair of us. We've already lived together twice, maybe working alongside her wouldn't be the worst of it. ( :-P )
Anyways, it's good now to have the next month off academically and see what this new field of "mental health" (in a unique way) brings. We get to begin August doing what most Philadelphians do that we have not in over the 2 years living here -- my friend Dan and his family invited us to their shore house in Sea Isle, so we get to lay on sand this time and not bake in a chair poolside pretending to hear the ocean while splashing among fellow Meadowbrook residents! On to an amazing month full of beaching, jobbing, sistering, weddening (!), and friending with DC'ers up to our City of Brotherly Love. Come on, August - we've been waiting for you!
AC and few other issues aside, our new site manager has been doing good things for the apartment complex. Our community garden is thriving - I just made a homemade ratatouille of sorts last night including homegrown peppers, tomatoes, parsley, and basil - delish! The pool offered a measley little hotdog for the July 4th holiday, but nevertheless we scarfed it down after a busy weekend of family time and fireworks that Monday off. The most recent exciting news related to the apartment is but of course an end in sight. On to bigger and ideally better things with buying a house! Turning the house into home will be our project, and the timing of it all is truly inescapably nervewracking...How long do we sign our apartment lease for now? When do houses around here sell the best? Fall and Spring. It is fall soon - do we look? How many? Our friends who do own homes already have generously offered realtors and their average home-looks before settling down and it seems to be at around 20-30. So shouldn't we start now? "Some weekends we'd look at 8 houses." HUH?! What a process. It will begin soon, but can't tell anyone how shortly it will take....
We're trying to give ourselves a good window through another winter in this place. Hopefully we'll be moving gradually if we can time things just right and get into a house by late winter/early spring. Oooh, maybe during my break for classes. That's a whole other year gone by, too which is hard to believe. My time off from work has been pleasant, and yet it starts up again soon! Next week I will be working oh so close to home, and with a healthcare company set up within an Independent & Assisted Living Facility. After speaking briefly with my sister who is a physical therapist, she exclaimed happily what this means to her -- that I can sooner move to MA and begin working with her in an office somewhere...I'll cover the Rehab Tech job down here for now and then we'll see about transitions to New England yet again :)
**Anecdote approaching** My sister Sara and I always had this infatuation to work together, in neighboring communities...She would live in the city writing next to my farm country house, and then we'd meet over lunch every day and I would (naturally) braid her hair for work every morning. It soon shifted into her writing for, and me taking pictures on behalf of National Geographic Magazine....It's no wonder something down the line may involve the pair of us. We've already lived together twice, maybe working alongside her wouldn't be the worst of it. ( :-P )
Anyways, it's good now to have the next month off academically and see what this new field of "mental health" (in a unique way) brings. We get to begin August doing what most Philadelphians do that we have not in over the 2 years living here -- my friend Dan and his family invited us to their shore house in Sea Isle, so we get to lay on sand this time and not bake in a chair poolside pretending to hear the ocean while splashing among fellow Meadowbrook residents! On to an amazing month full of beaching, jobbing, sistering, weddening (!), and friending with DC'ers up to our City of Brotherly Love. Come on, August - we've been waiting for you!
Thursday, June 16, 2011
the first of many
The first new day since yesterday. Sounds too simple, but it's true! The first new day until I have another first tomorrow.
Not much time to deliberate in this post, because I need to get back to studying and reading up on how to apply techniques of Counseling; I will be videotaping my 'therapist-self' with a classmate today before presenting our role plays next week. It seems so strange to still be so nervous, but without much application in this kind of setting, I know too little to feel confident! Like Goethe said, "Knowing is not enough, we must apply." Let's figure this one out...
But this new day, new chapter, new job hunting. Anyone hiring? :) I am so glad to have found this place again because it's still a comfortable place to be - to be searching for something else. My planning style? Always lightyears ahead. Taking the physical time to look for work again and be in school/classes, it helps hold me more in the present moment than I often allow myself to be. Fortunately, Mike is a present-moment partner, ever supportive, and listens to where or why I take my future plans. He associates those long-distance goals to today's actions, and I think of it like an exercise routine.
Say you want to lose 10 lbs, and you envision yourself there. You walk through the Old Navy or Target and pick up that Small T-shirt, sighing to yourself with a smile that you will get there. But if you don't alter the portions or up the veggies in your eating habits, and walk with a purpose, or play tennis to literally sweat some of those changed calories, what can change? How will you reach a goal without putting steps and stretching and the time into them? My girlfriend Lindsey came to visit last night and discussed how another friend of hers seems to have everything professionally and personally "fall into place." Lindsey is also moving forward with great conviction in earning a fantastic career move for herself, and living for the first time with her boyfriend back in NY. Her life could not have fallen more into place because she lived through the other experiences to get there.
The same applies to me, in that I can't keep spinning a possible future outcome to connect with my present-day activities; rather, I need to create the life I want now each day, so that my future remains full of days and moments that carry out exactly as I envisioned from this moment.
Good luck on YOUR day today, because it is best start to achieving what you want in this moment!
Not much time to deliberate in this post, because I need to get back to studying and reading up on how to apply techniques of Counseling; I will be videotaping my 'therapist-self' with a classmate today before presenting our role plays next week. It seems so strange to still be so nervous, but without much application in this kind of setting, I know too little to feel confident! Like Goethe said, "Knowing is not enough, we must apply." Let's figure this one out...
But this new day, new chapter, new job hunting. Anyone hiring? :) I am so glad to have found this place again because it's still a comfortable place to be - to be searching for something else. My planning style? Always lightyears ahead. Taking the physical time to look for work again and be in school/classes, it helps hold me more in the present moment than I often allow myself to be. Fortunately, Mike is a present-moment partner, ever supportive, and listens to where or why I take my future plans. He associates those long-distance goals to today's actions, and I think of it like an exercise routine.
Say you want to lose 10 lbs, and you envision yourself there. You walk through the Old Navy or Target and pick up that Small T-shirt, sighing to yourself with a smile that you will get there. But if you don't alter the portions or up the veggies in your eating habits, and walk with a purpose, or play tennis to literally sweat some of those changed calories, what can change? How will you reach a goal without putting steps and stretching and the time into them? My girlfriend Lindsey came to visit last night and discussed how another friend of hers seems to have everything professionally and personally "fall into place." Lindsey is also moving forward with great conviction in earning a fantastic career move for herself, and living for the first time with her boyfriend back in NY. Her life could not have fallen more into place because she lived through the other experiences to get there.
The same applies to me, in that I can't keep spinning a possible future outcome to connect with my present-day activities; rather, I need to create the life I want now each day, so that my future remains full of days and moments that carry out exactly as I envisioned from this moment.
Good luck on YOUR day today, because it is best start to achieving what you want in this moment!
Sunday, June 5, 2011
a check-in
Important Goings-on: (Well, at least goings-on)
Leaving OSA June 15
Friend Lindsey here that night (phew!) on her way back to NY
Searching jobs again, but -
- so glad to be in school with a focus on what matters to whatever career I will have
ME this weekend for A+N's engagement party
Finished a fab weekend with friends, M+W, home gardening/cooking, shopping, and HW
Yes, HW!
Talk soon.
Leaving OSA June 15
Friend Lindsey here that night (phew!) on her way back to NY
Searching jobs again, but -
- so glad to be in school with a focus on what matters to whatever career I will have
ME this weekend for A+N's engagement party
Finished a fab weekend with friends, M+W, home gardening/cooking, shopping, and HW
Yes, HW!
Talk soon.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
(un)controlling
So the crazyness that was OSA this past week - 2 weeks - has hopefully sudsided for at least a couple of days. The idleness is ever present (until the boss reports back in a few days or so), but the efforts we put into some mediocre fundraising, and assembly of a tight press kit for our boss' Board Meeting yesterday is sufficient, in that's its finished; and in the words of my coworker (in a positive mindset here) "what can you do?"
What CAN you do? So much of our lives is uncontrollable - or is it? The law of attraction is a Newtonian-esque approach in that what we give, we get. I do not believe it is as absolute as the science describes, it is not always equal. But then again, humans are not equal or symmetrical like fixed objects; we are organic, free-flowing beings, made up of wonderfully systematic and methodical particles, particular to certain logistics, but overall we are evolving in ways beyond the mathematics of things.
My coworker was accurate in his pondering - we cannot control another person's actions; we can do our very best and give forth all we have, but at the end of the day, it is the combination of efforts in the workforce that generates a working progress. "What (else) can you do?" It was a defeating and uplifting sentiment all in one. My mother-in-law visited a couple weeks ago and shared a similar perspective I hope to carry always: "Enjoy today, because you are as young as you will ever be." The world shifts, things grow, people grow or remain stagnant. Reactions are important as when they do not happen, because a lack of response is an action in itself. Work-wise, the most I can do is my very best, and hope that the best outcome, the most honest outcome will reside for an organzation full of heart. Sometimes, we try our best, and the best result is whatever genuinely occurs after that fact.
School begins tomorrow, and I can't help but attribute this same feeling towards classes and the field in which I will work in the near future. As a therapist, it will not be a goal of mine to control what someone does. I can create timelines for our meetings, and offer them homework assignments to gain control over their own life. I can control the kind of rapport to a certain extent as well, but in the mind of MY actions. The best kind of relationship client-patient will not necessarily be fixed, but goals for it will be discussed during our first meeting(s). I may end up deflecting a client relationship when/if the (un)control enters the session work negatively. It could be best for the client's outlook that we are not working together in a professional setting. There may be a fine line between these difficult choices, but I believe the line is there - it may just take some proactive digging to define it.
Ultimately, I am in a great place. Whatever work is doing to me right now, I am doing to it. Despite the decisions made to continue (for the organziation, or for myself), as my boss puts it, "it's just a job." I can make the job of whatever I put in, and the same goes for my personal life. The dog is happy (and ever 'puppying' herself), the husband is well (and ever supporting me), and the future is reachable (however we choose to create it - like the choice to buy a house and have kids nearing). Life is good!
What CAN you do? So much of our lives is uncontrollable - or is it? The law of attraction is a Newtonian-esque approach in that what we give, we get. I do not believe it is as absolute as the science describes, it is not always equal. But then again, humans are not equal or symmetrical like fixed objects; we are organic, free-flowing beings, made up of wonderfully systematic and methodical particles, particular to certain logistics, but overall we are evolving in ways beyond the mathematics of things.
My coworker was accurate in his pondering - we cannot control another person's actions; we can do our very best and give forth all we have, but at the end of the day, it is the combination of efforts in the workforce that generates a working progress. "What (else) can you do?" It was a defeating and uplifting sentiment all in one. My mother-in-law visited a couple weeks ago and shared a similar perspective I hope to carry always: "Enjoy today, because you are as young as you will ever be." The world shifts, things grow, people grow or remain stagnant. Reactions are important as when they do not happen, because a lack of response is an action in itself. Work-wise, the most I can do is my very best, and hope that the best outcome, the most honest outcome will reside for an organzation full of heart. Sometimes, we try our best, and the best result is whatever genuinely occurs after that fact.
School begins tomorrow, and I can't help but attribute this same feeling towards classes and the field in which I will work in the near future. As a therapist, it will not be a goal of mine to control what someone does. I can create timelines for our meetings, and offer them homework assignments to gain control over their own life. I can control the kind of rapport to a certain extent as well, but in the mind of MY actions. The best kind of relationship client-patient will not necessarily be fixed, but goals for it will be discussed during our first meeting(s). I may end up deflecting a client relationship when/if the (un)control enters the session work negatively. It could be best for the client's outlook that we are not working together in a professional setting. There may be a fine line between these difficult choices, but I believe the line is there - it may just take some proactive digging to define it.
Ultimately, I am in a great place. Whatever work is doing to me right now, I am doing to it. Despite the decisions made to continue (for the organziation, or for myself), as my boss puts it, "it's just a job." I can make the job of whatever I put in, and the same goes for my personal life. The dog is happy (and ever 'puppying' herself), the husband is well (and ever supporting me), and the future is reachable (however we choose to create it - like the choice to buy a house and have kids nearing). Life is good!
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