Terrapin Station

We Return...

...from the Home of the Sunset, Key West (and the other Keys).

We flew to Miami on Thanksgiving and spent our first night on Ocean Drive, South Beach (think: The Birdcage with Robin Williams and Nathan Lane).   

The beach was beautiful, but the water was COLD!  We stayed in The Beacon Hotel, a gorgeous art-deco building. 

We met Santa out on the street that night!

The next day we picked up our rental Harley-Davidson and headed for the Keys.  We drove straight to Key West that day, where we had reservations at a resort.  Key West is very fun, very glitzy, lots of partying to do and stuff to buy.  My favorite part was the Hemingway Home and museum. 

Did you know that Ernest and Pauline Hemingway had all these cats in Key West with six toes?  Here I am with one of their many descendants, which have the run of the place:

Well, after a few days in Key West with all the zillion other people, we headed back north on Hwy 1 and stopped for a few nights in Marathon.  We found a great hotel on a gorgeous quiet beach and relaxed, watched a beach wedding, made more new friends, etc. 

Here is Ken with one of them. 

The news out of home was that a big, icy storm was coming; so instead of spending our last night in Miami after returning the Harley, we came on back.  (Because what fun would it be without the bike, anyway!?) 

Boy, were we lucky!  Our landing was only delayed for about 30 minutes as the front came through, the wind shifted and temperature dropped by about 20 degrees in 20 minutes...we made it home by 9 p.m., before the freezing rain and snow set in at about midnight.  Tonight's predicted to be more of the same and I expect the University will be closed tomorrow.  Right now we have 28 degrees but most of the house remains warm, thanks to our wonderful insulation! 

More to write...now have to catch up with mail and, um, blog reading! 

Goin' to Galvez

Ken and I are leaving for Galveston this afternoon.  I am not sure what type of internet access I'll have...probably visits to Starbuck's will be it, as we are parking the RV at the State park on the West Beach. 

Y'all will be in my prayers! 

In the Cave

Here we are inside the Inner Space Cavern (in Georgetown north of Austin).  It was very cool to see; I'd been there once on a junior-high Texas Tour when I was 11 (but as noted earlier, I don't think I need to go again until I'm 70, or if I have some grandkids to take, that would be pretty fun!)

I don't think these pix do it justice.  It's pretty neat how it was discovered:  the TX Highway department was building I-35 back in the 50's.  They were drilling into the rock and kept losing drill bits - they would just fall off!  Where did they go?  Eventually they drilled a BIG hole and sent a man down on the drill bit.  Imagine his surprise, with his little flashlight, to see the huge cavern and all the formations.  Legend has it his light hit on one formation that looked (to him) like a bear), and he "screamed like a little girl" and rode right back up.  Can you blame him?  It's kind of like the moon down there, but wet. 

 

We are Home!

Ken and I have just come back from 4 days in Austin, one of our favorite places.  We drove the RV down and camped at McKinney Falls State Park.  It was a wonderful location and we went into Austin to see old friends, attend a party, and fool around.  Went to Barton Springs, Whole Foods, BookPeople! 

Ken sang Compline with the St. Dave's group.  We ate wonderful foods that are not available to us in this locale, enjoyed that indefinable things that "Keep Austin Weird," and generally relaxed quite a bit.  Our first morning we lay in bed in the RV and watched through the back window as 3 deer (doe & 2 fawns) took a leisurely graze in our campsite. 

On the way home we stopped at Inner Space Caverns, where I had not been for 30 years.  Now I don't need to go again until I'm 71.  :)  And we stopped at the VA hospital in Temple to see a longtime friend of Ken's who is very ill. 

All in all, we had a good trip and loved being alone together.  It's been a really long time. 

In Montreal

Bon soir from Montreal, where I am sooooo cranky!

I have such wonderful opportunities for travel with my work, but this conference comes at the VERY WRONG time for study abroad advisors and administrators.*  It's as if it were the major ministry conference of a denomination and it happened the week after Holy Week/Easter.  Except, our big time isn't over yet, so I've left my staff with it and have sporadic email access and no cell phone for the week.  (Yes, I am addicted to technology and very twitchy without it.  Hotel was promised to have broadband, but that is only in BUSINESS CLASS rooms which I haven't got one of.  So I get to pay $10 a day to come up to the BUSINESS CENTRE and use it here.)

Must say that my staff is entirely capable.  Probably, they are better off without me at this point!  But when I typed the line above, I actually typed "ravel" instead of "travel," as I'm not very good on this laptop.  And that's how I feel, as though I am unravelling.  As if it's actually worse that I came here than if I'd stayed home and missed the prof dev opportunity. 

I hope that in the next few days I'll get calmed down and be able to absorb some things.  This has just been an exceptionally stressful year.  What with Brandon and the search commitee and Mom's surgery, etc....

I did get to Christ Church Cathedral

for Evensong today.  It was perfectly beautiful and terribly poorly attended.  It was broadcast live on their website, so the bulletin asked people not to leave until the officiant left. Instead, people wandered in and out THROUGHOUT the SERVICE!  Never seen anything like it.  That was infuriating.  But I definitely felt more knit together afterward than before! 

They have daily Eucharist so I will try to get back there some noontimes.  Tomorrow at least, before the bulk of the conference gets underway. 

I met the officiant, who is actually the dean of the Montreal Theological College.  He mentioned that he'd been to Texas once, to visit ETSS, and I said, "oh, one day I dream of going there!"  He said, "Well, you could come to Montreal and read theology.  Why don't you?"  :)   A fun thought.

My BOOKS came before I left!  I am so thrilled!  I bought extra copies for our bookstore at church and can't wait to get them in there.  Just in time! 

okay.  I'm going to the workout room - must get some of this stress out - and then back to the room to figure out what I'm supposed to be doing when this week.

see y'all.

*************************************

* so why is it scheduled like this?  you may ask!  Well, the organization was founded 50+ years ago for foreign student advisors, and this is actually a pretty good time for them...after the students leave from Spring term and before they return for Summers.  Study Abroad is a late addition to the field and we just go along with it. Now there's a new organization just for SA that meets separately, and I predict that will help a lot.

Going to Montreal!

So, there are a bunch of folks on this ring in Canada...and I am going to be in Montreal in a few weeks.  Just checking to see if anyone might be in that vicinity at that time?  I'm quite aware that Canada is enormous, and therefore it's pretty unlikely.  Just thought I'd ask.  :) 

Home Again

Home from San Angelo.  Mom much better.  Must round up at RevGals.  More to follow.

Off to San Angelo

Thanks for your prayers.  Mom is doing well after the replacement of her 16-year-old knee replacement.  But she's in a lot of pain, and so I'm off to San Angelo tonight to spend a few days with her in the hospital. 

She's groggy from the meds - itchy too - then she gets frustrated because her speech isn't clear and they can't understand what she wants.  I'm so grateful to be able to cut loose and go, and that my financial situation allows it.

When I e-mailed my sister my flight details, here is what she said:

"MB - I'm thrilled you're coming - not only cause I'm happy to see you - but it'll be great for Mom to have someone fresh there.  I'm pretty wiped out - it's not like taking care of a baby all night - cause I can't pick her up and walk her around the room to calm her down!! (Can you visualize it??)"

:)

I'll be back Saturday early evening, and the RGBP roundup shall appear thereafter.

Droppin' in on Mindy - NOT

Can't believe it's so long since I posted.  I was sick Sunday - Tuesday last week, and then the rest of the week was packed, trying to get ready to go out of town.  Thanks to those of you who checked in!  You sure made me smile! 

I went to San Angelo this weekend to visit my parents.  They moved there in June.  They've had some health problems since the move, but things seem to be evening out now (I hope).  Daddy fell and broke his foot a few weeks ago.  The doctor has decided NOT to cast it (!!), he is wearing a boot thing and getting around pretty well. 

We went to my sister's ranch for dinner on Saturday.  They live about 20 miles outside of Mertzon, the small town where she teaches and the kids are in school.  Until they build their new big ranch house, they have built a new apartment inside of a barn and are living there.  It's small, just one great room and two bedrooms, and that can get noisy with all the kids in full swing (Saxon is 9, Mallory 8, and Spencer 6.)  But it's beautiful and they have a great view. 

They have also bought a great house in Mertzon, and as soon as they get it painted, Nancy and the kids will be spending weeknights there.  It's especially cool since the house was built by Scooter's grandfather in 1929, and he grew up going there.  His dad's childhood footprints are in the cement of the foundation.  The place is spacious and has big trees (which you don't see out there, as a rule!) including a great climbing tree. 

I'm so glad they have that place; it will make life easier and safer.  There is a tremendous amount of wildlife wandering around on the road - we saw 19 deer between Mertzon and the ranch in just that one evening!  Plus a lot of roadkill. 

I drove out there (instead of getting a cheap flight) because my mom is selling her 36" Mighty Wolf loom

to my friend Peter here in the Metroplex, and I and my mom-mobile minivan am the delivery service. 

It's not a bad trip, especially with books on tape!  I listened to The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Little Altars Everywhere, and The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love.  Hooray for the Denton Library and its great collection of books on tape!  If I can't knit when I'm driving, this makes for a very satisfactory substitute. 

When I left to come home on Sunday, my dad wanted me to try a different route home.  He said it would be faster and less small towns to go through (but I LIKE small towns!).  Well, I drove and drove and started to get worried...turns out we had had a miscommunication, and I was going the WRONG WAY!  I ended up going about 100 miles out of my way, too far northwest.  (Home was to the northEAST!)

I figured it out, growled to myself, stopped at a rest stop and pulled out the map.  Hey!  If I was way out West, I thought, I should drop in and see Mindy! 

Well, I found her town on the map, and realized that it was about 150 miles MORE to the north of where I was.  Bah. 

Besides that, I didn't have a computer with me, and I don't have Mindy's phone number!  Or last name!  So I'd have ended up in her town, standing on the street corner hollering "Mindy!  Mindy!  Rach!  Mindy!  Chevy Pickup!"  Or maybe I could've gone around to all the fiberglass cows and asked them if they could help me!  :)

Oh well, I stopped at Sonic

for a Route 44 (that's BIG) Diet Cherry Limeade, and ate the ice all the way home in Mindy's honor.  :) 

RevGals Friday Five: Truckin’

Tell us five places you have been or trips you have taken that have been important to you. Feel free to disguise them if needed to protect your anonymity. The point is not so much the place as the effect. Let us know in the comments if you play!

1) The very most important place is St. Teresa Beach, Florida. My mother grew up there, and her father grew up there. After my parents married and moved to my father’s home in Texas, we went to the beach (THAT BEACH) every single summer.

It was never, “Hey, kids, where should we go this year? Grand Canyon? DisneyLand?” Nope, there was no discussion. We got in the car and drove, and drove, and drove. From Houston to Tallahassee and just south is now an easy (relatively!) straight-through trip on Interstate 10, but when I was little the interstate wasn’t completed, and we had to drive lots of little back roads. Beautiful places. On the way to the beach, I will never forget driving through Waveland, Mississippi, which I was sure would be a giant amusement park. Guess what - it was not! Just a town. And now, not much of a town any more. God, bless poor Waveland.

2) New Orleans.

The most magic place I know. Several short trips there for conferences, but two stand out: My high school choir went on a Texas/Louisiana tour my senior year (1987), and ended up with several days in New Orleans. I was in love with my darling high school boyfriend (Tennyson), who was along on the trip, and what a romantic and wonderful time it was. He was a musician and I vividly remember him joining in on harmonica as a street musician played guitar: “Jambalaya, crawfish pie, filé gumbo…” Also, DH and DSS and I stopped briefly in NO on our way home from visiting my parents at St. Teresa in the summer of 1998. I took them to meet my folks for a week visit after we had known each other 3 weeks. We got engaged on the trip and I will never forget the excitement and joy and infinite possibilities of that beautiful day in the French Quarter.

3) England/Scotland. First of all: Curry! I adore London and stayed there for 8 days at one stretch, 12 days another; and several other short trips. But I really prefer smaller cities or towns.

Stirling, Scotland, where I climbed laboriously up a hill and then had to basically roll back down…at the top was a ruined church and a graveyard with stones going back to the 1650’s. Winged skulls atop the stones.

Beverley, England,

where I was walking down a fairly unremarkable street and turned a corner, and suddenly an enormous THING loomed up in front. I asked my colleague, “What is THAT!?” She glanced at it without much interest and said, “Oh, that’s the Minster.” WOW!

Sheffield, England, where I attended Evensong in the Cathedral with university colleagues of Lutheran, Roman Catholic and agnostic beliefs.

4) Galveston, Texas.

About 1.5 hrs. from where I grew up in Houston. The place where I went to the beach while in high school…all the while feeling very much that this was “no real beach!” See no. 1, above. But it is, of course. Galveston has a wonderful charm all its own, and I have fantastic memories of childhood fun there, when my parents were part-owners of a little house near the coast; and of high school and college days spent with friends. Mario’s Pizza on the Seawall; the bomb shelter (there used to be a military base there during WW II – now that’s almost completely gone and the bomb shelter has been covered up by the San Luis Hotel; getting tar off your feet (there’s not much tar on the beach now, thank goodness, but there was when I was little).

5) Austin, Texas.

Where everyone in Texas would like to live…if they could just afford it. There’s an advertising slogan that says, “Keep Austin Weird,” and weird Austin is the part I love. Keep in mind that weird Austin has been being subsumed for the last 20-30 years by “perfectly enormous Austin with too much traffic and not enough jobs.” It has the University of Texas, the Harry Ransom Collection (for people like me who love to dig through letters and papers of famous & not famous writers – I did a grad school project there on Anne Sexton), Town Lake, St. David’s Church, Zilker Park, the Kerbey Lane Café, BookWoman, BookPeople, etc. Okay. It’s time to plan a road trip!