If you can't say anything nice, then...

Dear friends,

Well after an much needed visit in Arkansas, I'm back to work. Thanks to all those who hosted me.

Only a week into work and I feel like I never left. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing. What is possibly a bad thing: my schedule just got changed, so I'm now working the less favored side of the week: Wednesdays-Saturdays. This means I'm off Sun-Tues, when everyone else will be working. So much for a life. Hopefully this switch is temporary as they tell me it is, but you never know around this place. I feel too blahh and uninspired to post, so I'll quit here.

Until I'm feeling more positive,

Ellen

Tooting around towns

Well, that 5-mile run I was working up to, turned into a 3-mile walk. The residents who were training for the run decided not to go, but luckily, some others jumped on for the walk. So even though no big finish line awaited us at the end, we still had a down good relaxing time! But at least in training for it, I got up to jogging 5, so I'm sure I could have done it... Well, actually a mile of it was uphill. The run was at this place called Camp Tanawandah, where they filmed that movie about a fat camp...it had the blob in it. Neat.

I also saw my friends Keely and Carsten this weekend. We tooted around the farm, Asheville, and Greenville. I don't think I'd ever want to live in Greenville, although it was definitely fun to visit. Too south for me! Although the hiking we did in South Carolina was pretty. And there's this cute little contra dancing shack out in the middle of nowhere that Keely introduced me to that I must return to visit, with the promise that I'll meet some mountain people, who I surprisingly haven't already met in the dozens and dozens. Too tucked away I guess to come out and play.

I love to swim!

This is the second day in a row that I've swam across an ice-y lake. How good for me! I forget what a water baby I am. I just love it, love it, love it. Although it will be nice when it's a tad bit warmer. However, it was warm enough to get a bit of a tan. Rejuvenated skin. Okay, well, if scientifically speaking, ruined skin.

I also went hiking the past two days. Things are in bloom, like tons of spotted trillium (Have you seen this flower? or smell, I should ask? It smells like an apple).

Made a soap dish and plant holder out of clay. Keep your fingers crossed that they don't explode in the firing. I'm really a lousy potter, but working at it in small doses. The wheel is still pretty frightening.

Read a little about British spies infiltrating the IRA, pharmaceatical companies (yikes! even scarier than my pottery skills!), and also I read a book called The Day the Voices Stopped by Ken Steele (I recommend it). Tried to watch RENT, but too awful to sit through.

My lifelong friend, Keely, comes on Thursday!! Excited about that. 5 mile run is on Sunday. Worried about that. Going home to Arkansas next Thursday. Thrilled about that. Doing taxes sometime? (Okay, recruiting my mom do my taxes). THANKS MOM!