Oh hi there.

Has it really been so long? Life has been a whirlwind in the last month or two. I've been traveling just about every weekend and all of these trips have been wonderful and (mostly) relaxing, great chances to catch up with friends old and new, and fun times to explore new country. In between those weekends away, life has been steady and yet hard, stressful, and discouraging. Stretching, one might say. It's that combination of glorious highs and wearying burdens that has kept me away, but on this hot July night I'm back to catch you up.

Dave and I flew to North Carolina to attend his great-grandmother's 100th birthday party. One hundred! Amazing, right? It was really fun to get to meet Grandma Dot (I have my own Grandma Dot already and now I have two!) and spend some time with Dave's family. We also went to the beach, which I told Dave, "is right out of books that I've read!" To which he replied, "You mean Nicholas Sparks books?" Zing. He could be right. Anyway, totally different than Hawaiian beaches, but still pretty great. On our way home, our flight got delayed for hours, but luckily the NBA finals were on, so we kept ourselves entertained.


Just because these were on my phone... food. I had basically zero time to grocery shop in June which made for some serious eating out. Latte art by Dave, Chicago's new Chick-fil-a (!!), Grahamwhich (soo good), and finally, just to prove that I don't only eat junk food, the salad bar at Whole Foods.


And finally, good and bad things that took place in June. Bad: We had lots of storms in Chicago and one particularly strong one knocked this tree over in my front yard. Also, Kate's car got broken into on my watch. Boo. Good: Lots of good dog-spotting. I managed to snap these two pugs without walking into any live intersections (points Ashley). And my first (and longest!) roomie, Kari, came to visit me in Chicago! She's been teaching in Senegal for the last year, so it was wonderful to see her.

So that's what's been going on. There was also a camping trip (including raccoons and waterfall hikes) where I got in touch with my Indiana roots, but I haven't nabbed those photos yet.

Pardon the absence. Life happened and I felt paralyzed by it. July will bring some more travel, a wedding, a move, and who knows what else...

On being distracted by technology

I read this article in the New York Times today on the distractions of technology and what it's doing to our attention span. With the onset of portable-internet-ready everything and gchat blinking away and new blog posts and incoming text messages and and and... everything else that fights for my attention (and I WILL give it my attention) no wonder sometimes at the end of the day my brain feels like it has been skimming across the surface (of everything) for hours but I don't quite have a complete idea of where I've been. It makes me want to turn that all down a notch.

Cue the timely demise of our internet connection and TV. We have new neighbors (and they're very nice!), but with the installation of their wires, ours got cut. So, I'll be practicing some un-wired home habits this week. Perhaps I'll make a good dent in my stack of library books? Hopefully. But then again, I'm sure I can find a way to get distracted...