Update!

It was Oct. 27 and we got our first snow. None-a-that KY snow that are just little flurries, but enough to cover the ground. The next day it all melted.

Today. We have about 12 in of snow.
Today. It is Oct. 29.

Yes, folks. I am in Narnia.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

Well folks, ,it's been quite a week. We've had some pretty awesome ups, but some punch-you-in-the-gut downs.

Monday and Tuesday Jen went to her friends house to watch TV for hours on end. I don't blame her, I'd need a break too. And Sebastian went to the city with Kai for the week. SO it was an intern house for the first part of the week. We did smaller tasks like picking huckleberries while watching scrubs and digging Edgar potatoes, cutting wood, and watching more scrubs… Scrubs is awesome. I didn't realize how much I liked it until I started working here. Maybe it's just because it's my only form of TV (even though it's TV on DVD), but watching Scrubs seems like the best thing on earth. I take no shame..

Wednesday was pick and process day, however, it looked like the apocalypse outside. Dark, cold, extremely windy. So we decided not to process and keep ourselves inside as much as possible. We still had to harvest our greens, though. Mustard and chard. But a WHOLE LOT of mustard and chard. The CSA bags this week were full to the brim. We also chucked in some garlic, baby cabbages, broccoli, and/or cauliflower.

After we finished work for the day I went to my room and took a nap. It was the most glorious feeling EVER! I always crave sleep from the time I wake up to midday. And this time I was actually able to satisfy that craving! It was awesome.

Thursday Jen and Sebastian went to the city and as a nice gesture, Tess and I made dinner all by ourselves! I felt so accomplished! It ended up being a nacho dish. Tortilla chips, rice, beans, salsa, cheese, green peppers, olives. And it turned out amazingly well. I also made more bread that rose so much the top of it hit the top of the over and I couldn't get it out… Jen had to pull out the rack from under it while I held onto the bread. Tasted awesome though! And now I know to never put the bread on the top rack.


We wanted to have dinner actually ready by the time she got home, but unfortunately we were still working on it. But when she came home and asked what we were making and we answered with "dinner" she got really excited. She later said that on the way home she was trying to think of what to make for dinner but kept drawing blanks. I was glad to help out. I knew she'd like to have someone else cook for once since on the way back from NYC that first week I worked at the farm, she said that what was really exciting was that her mother was making dinner, so she didn't have to!

Friday Jen, Kai, and Sebastian went to Connecticut for Jen's dad's birthday so Tess and I again had the house to ourselves…for a little while. That evening Jen's friend Deb, and her friend, Sue, came to the farm. It was interesting hosting these guests that I didn't know in this home that wasn't really mine. I guess it truly shows me how my age doesn't matter…i mean, here I am, taking care of a whole entire farm and playing host to 40 something yr olds. And doing both successfully. I'm 18, remember.

We chatted about college and application essays since Sue was an english major. I've been going through one of my many "All my friends are amazing therefor, I suck" phases. And this translates into: I will not be able to write a good app. essay.Which is stressful, because I'm pretty sure my app. essay will make or break my acceptance into most of the schools I'm applying. GAH. college. I don't know how I would've been able to apply last year when I had no desire to go.

Saturday was the day. It was when Teddy and Katie came to the farm, when Deb and Sue left, when everyone went down to work on the garlic field, when the tractor got stuck, and when Didjeriedoo died. Yes, folks, one of our beloved kittens–my favorite, actually–died mysteriously.

I'll break it down from when the tractor got stuck…
Kai was bringing down a hay bale to the lower lower garlic field and got stuck in the mud, but in trying to get out ended up sliding farther down hill and being stuck IN the part of the garlic field that we had just finished readying to plant. Damn you, fate. After about an hour of trying to get it unstuck, Kai was thoroughly frustrated and obviously felt horrible so we finally called the hallorans and had them bring their tractor down and tow it out. A small bit of the field was ruined but there wasn't any serious damage. Everyone was safe and the tractor made it back up to the garage safely.

Unfortunately, while we waited for the Hallorans to arrive, we all went up and began chores. While Tess, Teddy, and Katie put away the tools I headed to the chicken house and in my path I saw a lifeless kitten…. It was more shocking than anything else. I can't quite explain the feeling I had when I found him. It was just… finding something that shouldn't be. I ran back to the milkhouse and told tees that a cat was dead and all of us ran to the spot where I found him. He had blood from his mouth and nose and his left eye was almost popped out of his skull. We all tried to figure out what could've happened but came to no conclusions since there were no other visible injuries. Teddy went and told Jen and Kai who were just as shocked as everyone else. And eventually Tess and I continued with the chores while Teddy, Jen, and Katie laid him under a dead apple tree in the pasture.

It was a solemn rest of the evening. I told Jimmy about the events of the day and his response was spot on: That's a sad day. People always try to romanticize farming, but neglect to highlight the potential emotional drain that goes along with it.

Very very true. Working on a farm hardens you. It's impossible to raise chickens from their baby chick phase and then soon after turn em over for slaughter and NOT form some sort of emotional shield. Or plant 5 rows of a crop and only 1 row actually survives… there are many different things.

So R.I.P Didj. You had a short life, but you touched mine greatly.

The next day was hard and slow getting started. I was still trudging through my grief of Didj when we began working at 9:30. And it was a missing Parker day. Our whole day was made up of remaking the part of the field that was wrecked by the tractor and haying and shaping the rows. It was a long tiring day. At the end of it Tess and I began salivating at the thought of waffles with strawberries and whipped cream and then jumped up on a couple hay bales and tried willing them to fly us back to the house (the walk from the garlic field to the house is a long steep hill…go figure). So that was a lot of fun. And then that night Katie and Teddy made tacos!! OHMIGOD they were so delicious. Just thinking about them makes me swoon. After dinner, Tess and I stayed up and chatted with the guests while Teddy made a portrait of Jen's "ancestor aunt Flo."

I'll get a pic of that and put it up here when I get back to the farm. Basically Jen wants anyone who visits the farm and wants to-to paint a portrait of some fake ancestor so that we can add a bit of history to the farm. Such as, oh aunt Flo, she would always hunt out chickens…that's why the family couldn't actually have any chickens for 20 years… ya know, weird stories like that.

Somehow I also ended up driving Katie and Teddy back to the city this morning, since I was heading there and they needed a ride and vuala! They're really cool. Teddy is going to begin traveling this Feb. in India and on my journeys I may even meet up with him if I decide to go to India. who knows!?

And there it is again, the other my-age-really-doesn't-matter thing. I would say that these two folks that I gave a ride to could possibly be considered friends. Or at least, they would've been if there was more time for us to actually hang out. And these two folks are in their late 20s? Katie is married. And Teddy seems to have had enough time to spend four years in school and then a good amount of time traveling since he's been to thailand, laos, and India. I'm 8.5 years younger than my sister, but I hang out with people that are her age. weird.

So all of us went to breakfast and then we parted ways, I traveled the city for the first time by myself–took the uptown train from 103 to 145 so I could get back to Kate's appt. And now I'm in the city just getting some of my much needed R&R, watching the kids play ball and readying to go shopping for making candy apples. I'll spend the night, wake up at 6 and head back home tomorrow morning…with just a short stop at dunkin donuts! I'm excited about the rest of the day. And ya know what? I have less than 4 weeks left of working on the farm! That thought is bizarre. And kind of scary, because then I'll have to enter the rest of my life which is ALL completely unplanned.

Next time I post there'll be 3 weeks left, then 2, then 1… so I guess that means there's only 3 more blog posts! man. Time sure does fly...

Just life

The rest of the week was slow, too. At least, slower than usual. Or perhaps slow isn't even the right word, maybe less packed would be more fitting…I'm not sure. Anyway, because we didn't have a CSA last week we put a ton of stuff in this week. Though, nothing that needed to be refrigerated and nothing that had to be picked since we had so much stuff left over from the frost.
We packed:
tomatoes
potatoes
tomatillos
carrots
radishes
garlic
peppers

So lot's of goodies! And it was nice because we could just sit in the living room and sort–so we ended up watching Scrubs all day. And it was AWESOME!
I had forgotten how much I loved Scrubs. And it reminded me of home…

Thursday was one big surprise.
Normally Jen and Sebastian wake up at 6, head to the city, make the dropoffs, and come home around 6 or 7. Never in the history of this farm have only interns gone. But today? This was the day that changed. I woke up, went to the chickens, and immediately asked Tess why the jeep was still here and she said that Jen was sick. So I thought-ah, another day here with Jen. But then Tess also said, and she wants us to do the dropoffs. And at the moment my jaw fell and I couldn't stop repeating: "what?!"
For some reason that was so beyond the realm of possibility to me, but lo and behold, within an hour I was driving the jeep straight to NYC–the institute for integrative nutrition to be exact. And it all went pretty smoothly. Tess and I even stopped at dunkin donuts on the way back. Oh! and to make it more interesting we had a cat delivery that day since a couple of Jen's friends are going on a vacation and so we're watching their cats. They dropped them off at ATC, our second dropoff point, and we lugged em back to the farm with us.

Woo!! so that was one fine day. At least I now have a grasp on the grid system. I'm feeling more and more like a native city person.

Friday was cold and wet. So we cleaned out a bit of the barn and moved the temporary cats in there, Tess and I cleaned the chicken coup and I made more bread! This time I mad War Bread, which is a blended grains dough with a bit of wheat flour, molasses, and rolled oats. It's pretty tasty! The dough is a whole lot harder to knead, but I think it's worth it since it makes more bread and it tastes better, in my opinion.

And Saturday was awesome. Everything about it just felt like I was at home. Not BG home, but a new yet just as comfortable home. We made green tomato pie, some sugar cookies with leftover pie dough, and everyone went out to the old cow pasture and we picked apples! Or rather, Kai climbed the tree, shook it, and everyone else gathered the fallen fruit. It was awesome.

And After lunch we went to a slow food event where we made apple cider out of our apples! It involves a couple big machines to produce as much as we did, but it's essentially pulverizing the apples into a pulp, and then putting a ton of pressure on that pulp to push out the juice. It tastes amazing. Best apple cider I've ever had. And we brought home 4 gallons of it so that'll probably last us 3 days. It made me really excited for the christmas season when I can have hot apple cider made by my dad. It's really yummy! The whole day actually reminded me of christmas. It was awesome. But did make me anxious to go to home home.

As soon as we got back from the slow food event I hopped in the car and drove to Princeton to visit with Alison. I must say, Princeton is beautiful. Best architecture I've seen on any campus. Last night we saw Drive with Ryan Gossling. It was really entertaining…I couldn't peg it as any one style of movie. I suppose it was action–but it was just…different. Anyway, now I have a celebrity crush on Ryan Gossling. He's perfectly hunky. :)

oh yeah, and the movie, soda, and popcorn were free. So that was awesome.

We also went to Hoagie Haven, which is apparently quite famous, and split a Sanchez, extra dirty. It was a sub with cheese sticks, chicken, and french fries…and lots of special sauce. It was crazy. I regretted eating it afterwards-but it was altogether a good experience.

And now I'm chillin in her dorm, having my daily argument with Parker, eating cookies on her bed. Ahh, real life–not good, not bad. Just life.
All day we've just been sitting in her room basically, but it's all good since I need some just sitting. It's my favorite activity! :p

and Brunch here? amazing! They have chocolate fountains!

the end. Tune in next week for next weeks update!

Plowing plowing plowing BREAD!

Beauty. True beauty. It exists.

This evening I looked across the valley at the neighboring hillside and couldn't comprehend how such an amazing sight could really be so close to me. Now I understand what inspired artists such as Monet. And until tonight I had to look at a picture to see even a glimpse of the magnificence that nature can conjure.

There was a big full moon right above a mountain rich with the colors of fall. Never in your life have you seen autumn's splendor at such a scale, I can almost guarantee.

And then I turned around, looked up our hillside, and saw the sky painted a deep pink. I've seen plenty of sunsets, but none like this; none of such radiant color and texture.

I couldn't take it all in. It's similar to when I went with Duncan to see Gabriel Iglesias and I felt as though I couldn't possibly express how funny I actually thought something was…like even though I'd be laughing as hard as I could, it didn't feel like enough.

That is why, at some point, I want to take some time to learn how to take it all in. Just be with nature. I know that sounds very cliche' and hippie-like…but it's the only way I know to describe it. Just be with nature. No cell phones, no music, no school, no farming. Simple. Time, Space, Earth. That's it.
I believe that would be the only way I could learn to deeply inhale such sights.



… so, on to my week since, yes, a week has passed since I began writing this entry.

I already explained the majority of my Yale visit, the only things I didn't mention were that Michelle and I did have dinner with Bernardo and later I met one of Michelle's friends, Kimo. He's my favorite of everyone I met there. Genuinely interested in me as a person, didn't seem at all stuck up, and very sweet. He also didn't try to recruit me, which was a bonus.

And dinner with Bernardo? Well that was really fun! Bernardo's a really neat person and it still seems strange to me that we haven't seen each other in 4 years or so, because it honestly feels like we've been good friends for my whole life. I know this isn't true though since he definitely didn't like Michelle or I in elementary school! He crossed our faces out of the yearbook.

I got home late that night, around 11:30 and I was exhausted! So exhausted that my subconscious conjured a dream in which Tess texted me: "Jen said you could sleep in since you got home so late." Because of that dream I ended up sleeping past when I normally do and actually getting up at 8. With another intern around I feel especially horrible when I do that because then she has to start the chores alone and I look lazy in comparison.
I'm just not a morning person!

It was a slow morning anyway–a good one though. Kai was home because of Columbus day and so he made some super delicious pancakes and all of us sat in the kitchen and chatted. Have I mentioned how much I like the people I work for and with? They're very intelligent, very fun to talk to, extremely patient, and don't treat me like I'm a child, even though I'm the youngest in the household, besides Sebastian.

After Breakfast Kai and Jen both had to run a couple errands so Tess and I journeyed up our hillside. I hadn't been up there since my first day working here, so it was quite a sight to behold. It's amazing how much something can change in such a short amount of time. The view which was just a month and a half ago a sea of green was now a mix of oranges, reds, and yellows.

Seasons. Oh how I enjoy them.

At the very top of the hill there was a drop off, and at the bottom of that drop off was tons and tons of trash. It was disheartening to see so many glass bottles that could've been recycled, however, it was interesting to see all the different brands from various different years. There were some really recent things like Sobe and other very not-so-recent ones. Kai later told us that this was the old trash dump and that every farm has one..

The rest of the day we plowed and moved rocks and plowed… always my fav. activity! :p

And the next day? We plowed! Even though Kai wasn't there, Tess and I got on our big girl boots and plowed away. It wasn't easy. But a lot less agonizingly horrendous as I had remembered. In any case, I don't like that machine. It frustrates me to no end. Which is funny because for Tess? She could deal with it, but she hates the chainsaw–I however, love those spinning teeth of death!

We were almost finished, only about 10 more passes to go, but we checked the blades and they were worn down so much that we were hesitant to continue. So we brought it up to the house, looked at it, determined we couldn't fix it, and then proceeded to move it to the barn garage. But as I was moving it, the plower attachment just fell off! So after putting the rest of the tractor back in the garage and hauling the plower to the side of the driveway, we were tired of machines.



So, I made bread! It was called: the first loaf, and it was a simple yeast rising white bread, but I was so damn proud of it! When it came out of the oven and I cut that first slice…it was amazing! And shocking…I don't really understand how the crust can just end up as the crust and the middle is so soft. Anyway, I MADE BREAD!

We also made homemade pizzas again, which were just as delicious. And I made most of the sauce and sauteed the peppers! Ahh cooking. How I love it now. And right before college too–so it's gunna blow not having a kitchen.

Oh yeah, and Tess decided to "powder" her face with my leftover flour...

A backtrack into the life of an intern farmer. The last part!

Saturday was AWESOME!

In the morning we cut up the rotten potatoes and got them ready to become french fries! Which we would do for lunch.

But before we could actually make the fries, we had to cut some wood so we could get the wood stove going. At first I was really excited about that, but then I learned we'd have to use the chainsaw, and that scared me just a wee bit.

But I'm not going to say, "no! I will not learn how to use a chainsaw!" So I learned, and it was AWESOME! I feel so accomplished now that I can use it! And I'm still definitely a beginner, but I'm surprised by how well that machine and I got along.

Sometimes it wouldn't start for Tess and I'd go over and yank it-and for some reason it would start up right away. Who knows….

I also got over my fear of using the chainsaw. They're certainly dangerous, but as long as you're really careful and pay attention, you'll be fine.

So the whole morning was spent cutting wood. It was exhausting and we got filthy from the wood chips, but I really enjoyed it. I think we may cut even more wood on Monday, so I'm excited about that.

I really just feel like a total badass now that I can use the chainsaw.

Badass.



Jen told me to do this one. "Do a sexy chainsaw pose!" Best boss ever.



The rest of the day was spent making french fries from the rotten potatoes we had cut, and chatting with a photographer from Germany that was part of a workshop in Sullivan county sent on an assignment to capture "transitions" with the camera. I didn't get a lot of time to chat with him, but what he said was very interesting. He talked about the protests on wall street and said it was odd that the American people are so afraid of their government. He doesn't think it should be that way. I agree. He seemed to be saying that the protests gave him some hope about America. I wish it could give me the same hope. Maybe in time it will, but right now I still feel like there's no way to save...everything.

And now, I'm caught up!

I've told you a little about Yale already. It's buildings are beautiful. And seeing Michelle is wonderful. Frat parties are gross. And I'm so 100% in love with the dining hall buffets. AHG SO MUCH AWESOME FOOD!

Soon I will go with Michelle to have dinner with Bernardo. And then get back home so I can begin another busy week of farm work. yippee!!!

A backtrack into the life of an intern farmer. Part 6

I'm so close to catching up on my blogging! woohoo for Michelle having to study!
I mean, I'd certainly rather be spending time with her since it's super awesome being able to visit her. But we both have some much to get done that I think this is working out well. And in an hour we will be heading out on the town for some food and we may even meet up with Bernardo!! Which is absolutely crazy since he moved away so long ago and I haven't seen him in years. It doesn't feel like that though. For some reason it feels like Bernardo never really left…idk.

So this week was filled with less chaos but still lot's of fun!

On Monday we picked another 250 lbs of tomatoes, so those pups are really are their prime. It's awesome! CSAers are going to get a hell of a lot of tomatoes next week.
The contrast between last week's picking and this week's picking was odd though, since last week we were all freaking out, "257 lbs! Oh my god!" Now we just take it in stride, "Oh yeah, that's a lot."

Also on Monday I achieved a good Zen(n). It no longer felt like work, instead it just felt like…life. And that was amazing. And liberating.

Tues. morning we found out that there was supposed to be a frost on Wed. night, so for the next two days, we prepared. We picked all the corn, carrots, and radishes and washed and stored all of them. We put hay around the greenhouse and pulled a lot of our herbs and potted them. We also potted some rice plants! And our final task was to put the agerbond over Fergie, which was much easier than the first time we put it up for the frost we had 2 weeks ago.

The really weird thing about this week is that there was no CSA! An Italian couple came by the farm to drop off some wood on Tues., and the wife told us that it was supposed to get down to 25 Thursday night! So Jen made the decision to stay home on Thursday and help us ready for the hard frost. It didn't help that the jeep is having problems and we're not quite sure when that can get fixed. So there was no picking and processing! Just readying for frosts.

Thursday morning, Jen came out the greenhouse to check on things and told us that the weather was saying it was only supposed to get down to 34 that night, so we could spend our day doing other projects which turned out to be haying the front yard: project kill the grass!

That was actually pretty fun. I really like having Jen come out and work with us. It just feels right. And taking a break from the field is always nice. Plus, this was the idyllic farm scenario. Pitchforks in hand, we filled the wagon with hay. It was what you imagine when you think of farms.

Eventually though, we got tired of the wagon and just began rolling the giant hay bales down the hill. That was a good bit of excitement. We ran into a tree and a rose bush…
And no, you don't need machines to roll hay bales. Yes, they are huge. Don't underestimate human strength.

We finished that job and went in to eat lunch. But after lunch we stayed inside-away from the hay that was making us wheeze, and made Pizza. FROM SCRATCH!



Tess's shaped pizza

My shaped pizza

It was really fun! Tess and I made the dough. It really wasn't that difficult. I'm not sure why making your own pizzas doesn't happen more often. The only difficult part was kneading it, and that's because it never got elasticy like the directions said it would. So even though the cookbook said to knead the dough for 8 minutes, we ended up kneading it for at least half an hour.

It was all good though since we had Twilight to listen to! haha. Jen goes to the library and gets books on CD, and last week she got Twilight. Listening to that with Tess and Jen is probably one of my favorite things to do. It really is a brilliant comedy. :p I mean, come on. Bella + Edward = BEDWARD. Clever. Oh Stephanie Myer, how you astound me. Jen has said on multiple occasions now, "I just wanna punch Stephanie. I really do."
Teen Erotica at it's worst. That is Twilight.

The pizzas turned out wonderfully! The sauce was made from our tomatoes, basil, arregeno, thyme, garlic, onion, etc… and the green pepper topping was also from our farm. I'm pretty sure that was the best pizza I've ever had. And while we were eating it, Horse even came up on the porch and looked into the living room, as if to say, "can I have some?" It was hysterical.

On Friday Kai came back from the city and so we were planning to rotary plow the whole day (HELL), but other things got in the way. For instance, Sophie, our cow, got out of her pen somehow. So her and her calf, Horse, were chilling in the hay we just put down. It was about time we returned Sophie to the Hallorans, so we figured we would just walk her back to their farm then and there. (The Hallorans let Channery Hill borrow Sophie for the summer, but it's time for the cows to go home.)
It was really fun walking the two cows down the road. Similar to walking a dog, but…on a larger scale. haha

We were all sad when we finally had to say bye to Sophie, though. I almost teared up myself and I never even milked her!

Thank you for being such a good cow, Soph.

The rest of the day we went back to purgatory and continued moving the endless amount of rocks from the newly plowed lower lower field. Tess and I were going to give Kai a break from plowing and do a row, but Tess went first and when she got to the end of the row and I was about to take over she said, "DON'T DO THAT. IT's HORRIBLE. Just don't do it." So, I took her advice and continued throwing rocks.
By about 6:30 it had deteriorated to us just trying to throw rocks as far as we could. We were practicing our baseball pitches. :)

Friday night was also the night we finished Twilight while fishing out rotten potatoes from the potato bin. We're ready for the next part of the saga!

A backtrack into the life of an intern farmer. Part 5

I'm currently sitting in the Timothy Dwight Yale library. It's a great place. Too quiet for my sniffly nose, but altogether pretty neat. I think my favorite library of all the colleges I've seen. Though they all have different strong points.

Moving on so I can catch up and actually write about my Yale visit.

It was Tess's first visit to the city so we had to brainstorm what to do. We settled on the Natural History Museum after eating at Fred's, a nice brunch place named after a black lab. Brunch is becoming my favorite meal, now. And my biggest meal, when I can get it.

James went shopping while we museumed because he was making a really cool dinner that night…unfortunately I don't remember what it's called. It's similar to chinese dumplings though.

We had to pay to get into the museum, or rather, make a suggested donation, which I thought was lame! But it was worth it. We spent most of our time in the dinosaur exhibits since Tess is super interested in that. And near the end of the day we went to the ocean room and saw the BIG BLUE WHALE! It was huge.
Even if we had spent the whole day there it still would've been impossible to see everything, but I think we spent our time wisely. It was all very cool and interesting. Though I think I learned that I'm a little more interested in the oceans than I am about dinosaurs–though I enjoy learning about both.

there'll be more pics from this visit later. I just have to get them from Tess

Tess kept trying to persuade me to go into archeology or something of that realm, but to no avail. I'm pretty set on my passions for healthy food and a healthy world.

Tess would also exclaim, "that would be so fun to ride!" when she saw the skeleton of a dinosaur…. Oh Tess. haha! I feel as though we're really becoming friends. I thoroughly enjoy her company and we never seem to run out of things to talk about.
She also keeps me sane when I have my "bad Parker" days. I bounce my feelings off of her and usually end up with more insights about my own emotions at the end of the day because of that.

After the museum we made a stop at whole foods and picked up, I think, 4 things. It was almost $50!
I know why good organic food is so expensive, believe me, I do. I work on an organic farm and it's not easy. But $50 for 4 items?! That's impossible. If we really want a food revolution, that must change.

Soon after we got back to the apartment Darren arrived and although I'm positive I'd met him before, I couldn't quite place when or where. But it was awesome getting to chat with him! Kate has really awesome friends, I like all of them. It makes me nervous and excited about going to college and making my own friends. I can only hope they're half as awesome. So far, though, most of the ppl I meet at colleges seem pretty bland. Though that's probably because they really don't care to show me much of their personality since I'm not part of their world.

One thing I've noticed when visiting colleges is that I'm introduced to someone, and then they start acting as though I don't exist and chat with other people about things I couldn't possibly understand because I don't go to that school. I think it's just a freshman thing…the whole new college-new life selfishness. I believe most people grow out of that. But it's annoying.
Don't get me wrong, not everyone is like that. But enough to get to me a little bit.

And a mildly related personal note, lately I've been feeling somewhat left behind, since now my friends are settling in with their new lives and they're making new friends. I wouldn't change anything, because I still love where I am, it's just...it is what it is, gap years ARE hard sometimes, especially if you go down my path and don't join a program with a bunch of other kids your age. 
I'm just not able to "settle" into anything long-term and I'm not in a place to make new friends, really, so I still feel like my only friends are my old friends–but they're all moving on. 

Luckily, it's easy to work the pain away here. That sounds harsh, but it's actually really nice.

Back to NYC…
The dinner James made was delicious. And after we ate Tess and I took off for home. It was a long, fun day.

And driving to and from the city is nothing to me now. I'm very happy with my new confidence as a driver.