From Beach to Rock

Last week, I had off from work (not by choice- camp got canceled).  The first few pics below were taken during that week.  On Friday, Rachel and I drove to South Bethany Beach.  Rachel had family friends, Barb and Jim, who asked us to stay with them at their beach house.  They requested that I not take their pictures, so there are none of them below.  Barb and Jim, along with their dog Duncan, were wonderful hosts and extremely kind and generous.  I am looking forward to going back to the beach house.

On Saturday, it was cloudy, but Rachel and I went to Bethany, at the northern edge of the boardwalk.  We relaxed and had a great day.  On Sunday, we drove to Assateague Island, home of wild horses.  We were walking back to the parking lot when we were mobbed by a group of horses, they were great to see.  We then relaxed at the beach on Assateague.  On Monday, we went shopping and then started a game of mini-golf.  The weekend came to an abrupt stop when Rachel got a call about her mother.

The remainder of the week was difficult, as I try to be Rachel's "rock".  Her mom is dying, and the hospice care providers told us it will be any day now.  It is difficult to watch someone deteriorate in front of you, but death is one part of life that will come to us all...

  

Renn Faire

I have actually reached the limit on my Picasa free web album storage space, however want to keep uploading pictures.  With that goal in mind, here is a photo album (shown in movie form) of a trip Rachel and I took to opening day of the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire.  The theme this year is Shakespeare vs. Marlowe- a good idea, though one-sided at the fair, since they only showed Shakespeare scenes/plays...

Olympics

The Olympic opening ceremonies focused heavily on a large green mound, which represented Glastonbury Tor.  That was cool- especially considering I was there just last fall!

The Summer Writer

Haven't written in the blog in a while, but have been writing a lot lately. I finished the second draft of my novel and have shown it to a few people for comments before I start submitting to agents. I've also started re-working a play I had written with the hopes of submitting it to Fringe festival next year. I'd originally wanted to submit two plays, but I feel like my play Going Nowhere (formerly titled "Stuck") isn't quite right for this particular festival.

 In the spirit of writing, here is a haiku about today's lovely weather:

A summer wind blows 
Gently through a sea of smiles;
Golden sun shines down.

NY Anniversary

Rachel and I met last Memorial Day.  We've been together a year, yet have traveled internationally, been living together since just after New Year's, and are "engaged to be engaged."  She is the love of my life, so I wanted to treat her right for our anniversary.  I told her we were going to New York  She arranged the bus tickets, while I arranged everything else, and I kept everything that we were doing a complete surprise until the day we did it.

We had a wonderful time!  We wandered the city a lot (she'd never been as a tourist, and it's been a long time since I've been purely to sight see), went to the Top of the Rock, played chess in Central Park, and saw three shows: an off-Broadway parody of the Harry Potter books (hilarious), a jazz show at Birdland (wonderful) and one of my all-time favorite musicals: Wicked.  We had tons of great vegetarian/vegan food, and an overall wonderful experience.

Photo Contest

Today, CUAbroad announced a photo contest for students who traveled abroad during the past school year. Students had to submit three photos, which get voted on. I have so many photos I love, but ended up submitting the following:

Graduation

At long last my college days came to an end, as I received my Masters of Arts degree in Theatre Education on Saturday.  The MATE program has been wonderful, I have learned a great deal, made some great friends, and feel fully prepared for a career in Theatre Education.  I also got to go to Oxford last fall, as part of my graduate work, and of course had the time of my life there.

The ceremony was nice, albeit a bit long, and my family went to a lovely dinner afterwards.  The pictures in the slide show come from my camera (used by Rachel), my mom's camera, and I borrowed a couple of pics from my advisor Rosalind, who was snapping away as well.

Just three days after Graduation, today, I received my first request for a theatre teaching interview.  I have been applying to positions, counties, and schools for the past three months, but this timing was good.  The interview isn't until June, and is at a public school in Waldorf.

I am thrilled to have my degree, thrilled to finish with a nearly perfect GPA (only one A minus in my grad career), and thrilled to be done with graduate school and college!