life right now

It's hard to believe that just two months ago I was enjoying this view and a great novel. (Or that it has already been two months ago?) These past two months have been a whirlwind. Zan and I finally found a tenant for his condo, and within the week, we also found a place of our own. I'm busying myself (in those rare moments I find a chance to do something other than homework) with decorating, a thing that is brand new to me but feels right and like it's time because I'm so happy that this apartment is our home.

Zan and I are heading to Georgia in mid-August to spend time with my family and pick up Sir Theodore from my mom. I can't wait to bring him home. I'm having increasingly elaborate daydreams of us being reunited - slow motion running towards each other and all.

The first season of the Rangel Fellowship is coming to a close, and I'm still wrapping my head around how fast this summer has gone. I'm more excited and ready for my career as a Foreign Service Officer than ever before. Having to wait two more years - and surviving grad school - to get there is a tough pill to swallow, but I'm finding all the reasons in the world to get excited about it. I love learning, and I know as soon as classes start, I'll be happier to be where I am than I can imagine right now.

And in two short (too, too short) weeks, I'll be on a flight heading to Vancouver. Callie and I are meeting there and heading to Victoria for our friends' Tiffany and Alex's wedding. We all taught together in Japan. I've been back from JET for five years, and I love these friends more fiercely than ever. Zan couldn't make this trip - and all the love in the world to him, but I can't wait to travel with Callie again. She and I have traveled to five (six?) countries together, and it's time to add another to the list. It's going to be so much fun and a needed mental break before school starts.

Is anyone else watching Orphan Black? I'm hooked. 

And that's about all my frazzled brain knows right now.

Happy Friday!

rediscovering great falls

We wanted to hike Billy Goat A at Great Falls - accessible only on the Maryland side, but we were so engaged in conversation that I didn't even notice when my phone's map sent us to the Virginia side.

Growing up in Georgia, I was relatively far from other state borders. We had to work to get to somewhere else. My mom would honk the horn when we would cross the border into Alabama or Florida, Tennessee or South Carolina. We'd holler our hoorays. I always felt this bubbling excitement of the unknown. Like crossing that state border would show me something so special I couldn't even imagine it yet. It always filled me with that mix of excitement laced with a tinge of fear of the unknown. To this day, it's the feeling I crave most.

It still isn't ordinary to me that I cross from DC into Maryland or Virginia with such ease and frequency. They're all right there, practically on top of each other. At Great Falls, you can literally wade from one state to another. You can accidentally end up in Virginia when you meant to go to Maryland. And if you want to fix your mistake? It's less than 20 minutes.

Maybe that's a reason why I feel so at home in DC - it's a place that isn't a state, it's neither here nor there, neither Virginia nor Maryland, Yankee nor Southern, but in so many ways, it's the epicenter of America - at least in my nerdy, political, international affairs world. It's a place where there's always something new to discover.

(I'm not sure where that tangent came from, but it felt good to write. Do you ever just feel good writing? It doesn't even matter what comes out, it just feels right to say it all.)

I love Great Falls, and this hike with Jess rejuvenated my soul. That sounds so crunchy, but damn if it isn't true. I haven't been hiking in far too long. Zan and I did some good walking in Costa Rica, but it wasn't the same. I need that nerves on edge, heart pounding, lick my lips and all I taste is sweat, kind of hiking. And I need a view that makes me want to sit and stare and think and be grateful for everything. In the past few years, I've overlooked Great Falls for mountains and bigger peaks and more expansive views. But sometimes the best view is what's in my own backyard that I've left untouched for too long. This was one of those days and one of those hikes.

I'd never seen the Great Falls themselves - in nearly four years of living in this beloved city. Isn't that crazy?

I'm so glad we went to the wrong state. It was the right hike. Standing up there on those rocks, looking over the cliff to the river below, I was excited with just a tinge of fear. The best way to be.

If you're interested, we started near the Falls and made a loop that combines the Patowmack Canal, Matildaville, and River Trails.