on the road again

With finally enough time for a blog post, I join you from the student union at Princeton University. On Sunday, Monday and Tuesday I made the trip from Norman, OK to Philadelphia, PA. The first day was a record-making 11-hour solo drive from Norman to Sewanee to pick up the bro. Then we drove the rest of the way together in two days, sketchy car issues notwithstanding. But anyway, here I am. The key to driving alone across the country is few stops, driving...uh...a bit...over the speed limit, and strategically eating or drinking something containing sugar. But it's still rough.

Monday I got a tour of the Sewanee campus and a hike to Piney Point.
Jesse demonstrated the use of holy water in the chapel:
The chapel from the outside:
We tried a self-portrait. Maybe it's time to give up on these:
Then we went on the hike through part of the 13,000 acre campus. Second-largest campus in the nation. If nothing else...
At the top:

A long way down:

**Stay tuned for more from Princeton, NJ, in the next installment of "SUMMER '08: Away From Norman."

a saturday

Some friends got married today, and I went to basically my first wedding. Unfortunately the seat I was in provided a terrible angle for any sort of good picture. But here they are.

And my date:

It was a good wedding, and nice to get some social interaction after a week of solitary packing and reading and such, most of everyone being out of town for that time.

I leave Norman in one week.

if at first you don't succeed...

...send the ol' visa application in again.

And hopefully it works this time.

School is out and I leave Norman on the 25th. After the 25th, my life will be driving, graduation ceremonies, hanging out in the Northeast, flying over the Atlantic, training across the Motherland, and finally seeing my family for a month, after nine months.

Until the 25th, my life is killing time in Norman, packing my life up, finding a way to store it efficiently, collecting things I will need for the summer, saying (temporary) goodbyes.

Oh, and reading lots of books that I choose.

This is the moral of the story, friends: Own Fewer Things. Get Rid of Things. Ruthlessly. Mercilessly. Efficiently. Space-Savingly. Stresslessly. Freeingly.

kite-flying

I've never flown a kite. Last week I did. It was fun. It was windy. Once I accidentally let go of it and Amanda, master kite runner, chased it down. Then Thomas decided to tie it down by a piece of grass. Surprisingly, the grass didn't hold. This time they couldn't chase it fast enough. Goodbye, Pokemon kite.
photo by John Stuart

spring

Outside our house there has long been what seemed like the remains of a rosebush. Very scraggly and wild and prickly. I never thought much would come of it. This is what it looked like in December, back in the ice storm days:



It was always pretty ugly. Then spring came to Norman over a month ago and still nothing happened with the rosebush. Not that I noticed, cause I never paid attention to it anymore. Then the other day I looked and there were a few roses on it. Then this week it exploded with roses!


sorry about the terrible lighting.