Welfleet

So, shortly after my birthday, my dad and I left for Cape Cod. Every year we take two weeks up at the family vacation house (we gave up a week so my Aunt and Uncle who usually never go could have some time this year).

Last year, when we visited Welfleet, we kept seeing signs around town saying "Pray for Caleb." Curious, we Googled the name, and discovered the Potter family. Caleb's mother has been blogging since Caleb's initial accident, and over the past year, I have been drawn to her blog for her wonderful way with words, and also to admire the strength that this family has had, to weather the storms thrown their way in the past year.

Now, in addition to the usual activities when I visit the Cape, I have a new one: keeping my eyes open for a possible "Potter sighting" around town. Although we have never met, I feel drawn to the strength of this family, and there was always a thought in the back of my mind: "I wonder if I'll bump into them somewhere... on the sidewalk in front of the Lighthouse, at Mac's Shack, at the library." It is always followed by another thought: "I wonder who else I am passing on these same streets that has just as much strength and just as many trials as the Potter family." It has made me curious about the lives of other people I know nothing about.

The above few paragraphs came into my head as I was taking a walk on Newcomb Hollow Beach, observing some surfers. Several times, I have seen pictures of Caleb or his brothers with their surfboards, and one thought leads to another, especially when one is walking contemplatively on a beach. Inspired, I snapped a few photos.


The moment passed, and our walk led us to an area where an old shipwreck washed ashore during a storm some months ago. Dad's Captain Morgan pose seemed appropriate for some reason.


Notice the wooden spikes. No metal screws for this ship... it makes me appreciate the age of the wood so much better.


You have to wonder why something that has been underwater for 300 years suddenly decided to float again. That must have been one heck of a storm.


How do heavy things wash up onto the beach? I have no idea.


Just a cool scene at high tide on a trail down south of Welfleet somewhere.


Last year I took all bird and flower pictures, so this year I thought I would expand my horizons a little.


I took several pictures of the grass but this is my favorite.


Sign at the beach:


Up near Providence, I'm back to non-stop pictures of flowers.


Oh the things you can find in P-town.



(BTW, Steve and my mom followed us up to the Cape a few days later- after mom took her certification exam. She will find out in a few weeks if she passed, but I have confidence in her. She's a good student! My brother stayed home... he already took a bunch of days off work for other things.)


Hey, we were in Provincetown for Pete's sake. Straight people are allowed to be a little gay if they want to.


The fog was hiding the lighthouse, Steve wanted to make sure everyone could find it.


Greedy little guy isn't he?


Meet Stumpy. A greedy chipmunk with an extra short tail.


Not Stumpy, therefore, its ok to pretend to eat him.

just stuff

I once heard it said that the problem with eating in an Italian household is that three or four days later, you are hungry again. (I have heard the same with Jewish households.)

I am tempted to say that the same goes for the barbecue on Sunday. Today (Wednesday) I felt hungry again for the first time since the barbecue. I ate on Monday and Tuesday, but simply because NOT eating makes people wonder if I am anorexic. Any time I am sick and lose my appetite, this is a fear in the back of my mind. I know I shouldn't worry about what people think of me, but the thoughts always wiggle in sometimes.

Strangely, I still sleep a lot. It is the only symptom from that little sick spell that hasn't gone away. I don't think I would say it is "fatigue" although I am not quite sure how "fatigue" is defined medically. It is more just... I get a full night's sleep and then sometime in the middle of the day or after work, I take a 2-3 hour nap. (Excluding this week when I know I will be too busy to get 8 hours of sleep at night.) Its not fatigue or complete exhaustion as much as it is simply that my body is telling me it needs to sleep (as opposed to "I need to sleep or I am going to quit on you").

And in completely random news, I was driving the other day and saw a speed limit sign advertising 9 miles an hour. I wonder what made them choose the number nine. I would appear to be... completely random.

Anyway, that is all. I will be in Cape Cod soon, so this may be the last post for a while. Sorry it is not more substantial.

My Birthday!

My birthday this year lands on an inconvenient day, so I moved it. On Sunday, we all got together for a beefless, porkless barbeque. This means we had other things. Asian chicken salad, bison burgers (they don't taste beefy at all!), orzo salad with Indo-Mediterranean influences, homegrown-salad-out-of-the-garden-not-counting-the-tomatoes (with organic influences), potato chips with American influences (starch, fried in fat then smothered in fat AKA sour cream onion dip), and grilled corn straight from India. Yep, Dhaval went there himself on Saturday and picked some up and brought it back to us.

He then grilled it like a college student would. I decided I never want to eat corn again unless it has the Indian secret ingredients.


Then we started in on dessert. Ice cream cake from Carvel, Spice Cake from Taylor, and spiced/sugared oranges from James.


Can't forget to mention the homemade cream soda from Anissa.


Always ask yourself What Wouldn't Jesus Do?


A few happy partiers.


After this we had coffee and strawberries and s'mores and ginger beer around the chimenea. I unfortunately did not snap as many pictures as I would have liked, but other people did. If they would like their photos displayed here, they can send them to me.

Modeling my new shirt from Navin.


We have decided that this is where we should have gone to summer camp when we were kids. Darn it all, it didn't exist back then.


Thats it, hope you enjoyed it!

Pretty!

So, I just wanted to share a few pretty pictures with you before I get to the other blog stuff I want to do. This was from the wedding I went to at my church on July 5th.


For the first time in about 5 years, our Easter lily decided to bloom (in July, not Easter).






Sister eating breakfast with the Easter lilies, the orange tango hibiscus, and the purple galaxy hibiscus on the far right.


Orange Tango up close.


Purple Galaxy as it is opening. Once it opened fully, it was 9 inches across. I think it grew from last year haha.

oops

"The average American woman today owns six bras, one of which is a strapless bra, and one in a colour other than white." ~Wikipedia

Heh. I'm not normal I guess.

arghh

It drives me crazy how people in the news are quoted as saying things like, "the White House has been opposing this policy for months now," and "resistance from Capital Hill has hindered the effort." The White House did nothing. Its a building. Most of the people inside the building also have no power to do anything for your policy. Stop being a wuss and name the person or people that are opposing your policy. The KGB will not make you disappear simply because you complain about a person. As messed up as this country is, we still have the freedom to say we don't like a politician's policies. Wuss.

heaven

59% dark chocolate with lavender and hints of blueberries. And completely organic.

That's all I have to say about that.

Update

So, I've been silent lately, and thought you all might want to hear from me again.

On Wednesday evening I went to see the Producers at Plays-in-the-Park. That was awesome and we ate a lot of chocolate.

On Thursday evening I was in a relatively good mood for several reasons: 1) I saw a double decker train, which I have never seen in NJ. 2) Driving, I saw a truck pulling a boat, and the boat's name was "Black Pearl." 3) Flipping through the radio stations, one talk show host wondered if there was a Ma and Pa Wawa in Mahwah. So because I was in a good mood, I went to Jujitsu, and took a fall I shouldn't have because that spinal thing is still hinting at coming back, but I was still in a good mood.

On Friday the 4th, I went to my Uncle's house and missed the parade. I had already missed the fireworks on the 3rd because of jujitsu, so I felt maybe my Independence day was incomplete. I did get my traditional strawberry shortcake, however, so that was something.

On Saturday, I went to a wedding of someone I didn't know, and skipped the reception to go to my aunt's house for a bbq. The wedding was alright. It was the first wedding held in my church in a LOOONG time, and the first after the renovation, when it actually looked like a church. I realized it does clean up pretty nice. I had always thought, "no way am I holding my wedding in a church sanctuary that was originally intended to be a basketball court." But now it might be do-able. I also appreciated that Pastor's message to the couple was pre-written. It avoids bunny trails. Unfortunately, it also makes everything he says unmemorable. And I have decided I hate that blasted candle tradition. You don't join two flames to make another flame, you join two flames and it just starts making the wick of the unity candle begin to change its carbon composition. A better example of unity would be pouring colored sands together. That is more inseparable. Or how about this? Tying a knot!! ANYWAY... the bbq contained a lot of food not intended for vegetarians, but there was this awesome orzo salad that I am going to try to make soon, without a recipe. I actually sat there and analyzed all the ingredients, and I think I might be able to make it. Later at night, we all headed out to my uncle's boat, and his neighbor's boat, and rode up to the north end of the lake and dropped anchor. What were we waiting for? The fireworks, of course! I finally felt like my holiday was complete. When they were over, all 500 boats turned around and headed back home. My uncle calls it The Flotilla. There are too many of them to go fast, so they go slowly which creates massive waves. It was hilarious trying to get off the boat onto a floating dock, in the dark.

By Monday my good mood had worn off a bit probably due to massive PMS which in a day or two ultimately led to the third worst menstruation of my life in which I wondered if perhaps I had forgotten about nine months of pregnancy and skipped right to the labor. Yep, more information than you bargained for I am sure. I went to visit Anissa Monday night and she cheered me up. I think we were both hoarse from talking for about 5 hours straight.

Today was not so bad. It was a decent day at work, and I came home and got stuff done. Oh I forgot to mention, the reason I was doing stuff today that normally my dad has been doing, is because my dad has not been home. Why? Because just before the holiday, my dad got a phone call. A bunch of people quit, can you come back and work for us? So he said yes, and started on Monday. Which means when I get home from work, I have chores again haha. But its ok. The garden has started producing lettuce, beans, and peas, the pumpkins are completely taking over, and the tomatoes are doing well and for some reason are not helter-skelter like they usually are. I am feeling pretty happy with how the garden is turning out. And also, my hibiscus plants are all in bloom, even my purple galaxy, which never bloomed once this past winter, even though the others did. I think the blossoms have gotten bigger too. When I bought it last year, there was a flower on it, and it was an average size flower. This year, the flowers are about 9 inches in diameter. I tell it how proud I am every time I walk past. Hopefully that will get it to produce even more flowers haha.

And that brings us up to date with everything. Now you don't have to wonder what is going on in my life.

Count me in.

(More Deana Carter)

Could there be a different ending
To the same old story
Cause you're not the first to say
You're gonna be there for me
I need to know what's in your heart
Can you finish what you start
How can I be sure I won't be sorry

If heartaches and tears and shadows of doubt
Are part of the deal, you can count me out
But if you're talking about a game I can win
You can count me in