Whirlwind of Life

Sometimes you just don't know where to start.... It seems like things with both work and personal life are a whirlwind. I gotta apologize for being so very out of touch with friends and family lately - as in the entire summer. Our greatest absence has been up to Dorset and I hope we're up there a lot in the coming months. The air is crisp and kind of exciting!

This past weekend went from Pats game (THANKS EMILY!!!) to Pashby visit (four dogs) to beach to boat to boat to wedding (CONGRATS Paul & Kristin!) to work to Cape girls to coffee date (BG and Sam are ENGAGED!) to work to more Emily bonding (she had QUITE the exciting weekend).... back to work now, and two nights of visitors this coming weekend. One big BIRTHDAY bash for Emily! And then Mom Hedman and a friend are coming all week next week, to be followed by more Pashbys and dogs and more Hedmans over Labor Day weekend. We're meanwhile missing the BON VOYAGE of cousin Kate to vet school on St. Kitts!




Yeahhhh. If you think you're having a hard time following that...

Even with all the excitement, though, there have been equal parts sad things going on in the lives of our friends and family. I'm a heart-stretcher by nature, I guess, and my heart is stretching wider than ever this month.

Meanwhile, Gary's tearing down what was the "boat shanty" and gearing up to construct the world's best adult-sized slip n' slide in our back yard. His work has also had him all over the place, but rest assured he's getting plenty of time for a sunglass tan line on his temples :-) We've even been cooking up our own fish more lately!

I've also been looking into a lot of international development work lately. There are a couple of local groups between Boston and the Cape that I would love to volunteer my skills to, and I would love to build up my aresnal of contacts in that area - both for current life and future. I'm currently reading You Can Hear Me Now: How Microloans and Cell Phones are Connecting the World's Poor to the Global Economy thanks to a girl who doesn't even know she recommended it to me (now she does!), and it really sparks a lot of thought about the difference between corporate investment and government aid to a country. I'm not a policy girl, but I love corporate strategy.

And I'm over 30 now - which puts me in a growing HEAP of friends who are thinking "wait, life's really short! where was I going?"

So anyway... My folks are in Alaska right now, so we have the precious and rambunctious Rigley at our house. They have been wanting to go to Alaska for as long as I've known them, and I'm very happy to be receiving a call like this morning when it's 5am there and my mom's watching the cruise ship pull into Juneau... Where will we all be vacationing when we retire?

I hope you're all doing well and full of energy as the summer winds down. We're thinking of literally every single one of you, and we'll -uh- be in touch soon!
SDH