Friday 27 April 2007

Has it been a year already?

A year has flown by and not a day goes by that I don't think about you. My life has taken me on such an unexpected path since last April. I am living to the fullest potential and seeing the world as I know you would've encouraged me to do.
Here's a little tribute to you, my friend, sister and confidante. You were my cheerleader and my back up, my partner in crime and my shoulder to cry on. You are my inspiration. You were a part of our family and you will never be forgotten.
Your spirit and passion will live on in me. You rocked my world and for that I will never be the same. By the way, I never thanked you for wearing lavender at my wedding. I know that was hard for you. :) We really had a blast didn't we? See you in New Orleans at Cafe du Monde for some coffee and beignets.

Tuesday 24 April 2007

Back in school...



I started my class today. I am taking drawing and painting at the local college. I was hoping that it would be a great way to make friends in the area, but alas the class is full of older ladies and one older man. I guess I should have known. On top of it, all the people in the class have been taking classes together for two years and they all know each other well. Despite that though I had a good time. It will be a fun class to pass the time. I also have to walk a mile and a half to get there and a mile and half back. So the 3 mile walk is a plus.

Today we learned about line, about how heavy you draw parts of lines brings emphasis to the parts you show as important. For example she showed us a Picasso drawing where he only drew the parts he felt deserved to be shown, like he left out details on a pocket, but drew the hem of a coat. Anyway, I don't know if I really got it down right, but it was my first day.

What do you think?

She brought in a bunch of laundry related items. Can you tell?

Next week we start painting and I can't wait!!

Thursday 12 April 2007

We sadly say goodbye...

A devastating day for the literary world!! My all time favorite author has passed on. I fell in love with Kurt Vonnegut first in high school when I was asked to read Cat's Cradle in my senior English class. It is when I truly fell in love with words. My second greatest moment with Cat's Cradle was meeting Josh. We fell in love over the fantastical world of Ice 9. Thanks to this book, and Lisa for introducing us ;) , Josh and I are now happily married. At our wedding, every table was adorned with our favorite books, our table of course bearing Cat's Cradle. Mr. Vonnegut, you will be missed! Thank you for the greatest things in my life, my love of reading and my lovely husband!


Found via:
http://weblog.cacas.org/blog/default/2007/04/12/Poo-tee-weet

Monday 9 April 2007

My own Canterbury Tale

This is a good representation of the roundabouts we dealt with all day.
They do not have just normal intersections.
It was the one part of driving in the UK that I haven't gotten used to yet.



Nice reminders posted along the roads.


This was our first view of Dover Castle.


Dover Castle from inside the walls.



This is from the drawbridge of Dover Castle.



Josh could not resist joining the children.
The hills surrounding the castle were calling to him.

I'm not sure the message here is really Do Not Climb.
It looks more like falling, but that's just me.

The not so White Cliffs of Dover.


This was the gate to some weird bunker carved out into the white cliffs.
I just thought this looked cool, this rust made it look almost cartoonish.


I could not find a hotel to reserve in Dover, so I settled for booking something in nearby Canterbury. It ended up being a better place to stay. Canterbury was such a cool city! This is our hotel. We were above the Starbucks and next to the gate into the Canterbury Cathedral. Our window is in the roof on the left. Can you see the room slanting to the right?


This was the view from our the hall outside the bathroom, the Canterbury Cathedral. It was gorgeous, however, the bathroom was shared with everyone on our floor.

The Cathedral at 2am Easter morning, again from the bathroom.


This was no trick of the camera. Our room was really that slanted.
Reina was afraid of rolling off the bed because it was downhill.
We hung out one night and played cards since the city closed
down for the Easter holiday. The drinks would slide down the table.
We had to keep it against the wall to collect anything that slid.
Walking from the door to the opposite wall was like walking up hill.

This is from our bedroom. Every time I look at these roofs
I wanna sing Chim-Chimney, Chim-Chimney, Chim-Chim-Che-roo!!

This trip was awesome! I look forward to exploring the cliffs of Dover once again with my parents this summer!! The only complaint I have about this bank holiday is that I wanted to take advantage having a car and actually buy things at the grocery store that I normally don't because I have to carry it all back to my house on a mile walk. Apparently everything shuts down completely for Easter. Ooops! So much for that. Other than that, it was great to show Reina a rare, yet gorgeous weekend in our temporary home town. She left today, leaving us with a lovely overcast sky....couldn't leave the nice weather could ya?

Friday 6 April 2007

Hmmm, should I be allowed on the roads?

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Rachel DeWald
Date: Apr 5, 2007 4:26 PM
Subject: blog
To: me.myself@andi

So here I am sitting at the airport waiting on Reina's flight to get in. I am categorically the biggest dumbass because I failed to check online for flight status before I set out on the bus for Heathrow. Sure enough after the hour's ride I got here early to be sure we didn't miss each other and found her flight to be delayed. Not by a little, by a lot. Two hours to be exact and as I sat in the cafe sipping a blendy drink the time ticked later and later.

Surely it's been a half hour by now, glance to the watch, nope 5 minutes have passed. So I got up to walk around and found this little internet cove. Only my blog site is apparently blocked due to high porn content. That's news to me, last time I checked there were no nudie pics on my site. So I have resorted to typing a little email to myself in order to pass 20 min on the computer. It's like talking to myself, only the people around me in the airport won't know I am crazy since I am just typing away.

While I have a few minutes, let me tell you about my first driving experience in England. This morning I had to go pick up the rental car that Reina, Josh and I will be driving to Dover this weekend. They are closed tomorrow for Good Friday, so I had to go all by myself. I signed for the car and all was well until he handed me the keys. My mouth went dry and it felt like I was a teenager going out for my driving test.

First of all, the car is manual and it's on the other side. So I had to shift with my left hand. While being on the right side of the car. So I left the car rental place without a hitch. Actually I did great for the first mile or so which was just a straight shot. :) Then I came to my first roundabout in which I would have to not only make a right loop around, but also end up in the left lane at the other end of it. I didn't know who had the right of way in a roundabout so I just went for it, deciding that for the day, I always had the right of way. Second obstacle went by, surprisingly, without a hitch.

Most of the way home I hit no traffic, I actually never had to stop. That is, until I got to town centre. Now it would have been so easy to make a right onto my street, but you can't, so I had to take a loop around the town and back to get into my complex. For the first time I had to stop at a light. When the light turned green I tried to go, but failed to find first gear. Instead, I consistently found 3rd gear and kept stalling. Not knowing the car I could not get it turned on again. People were honking. Finally, I resigned to the fact that I would not be able to get first gear and I threw it into 2nd and just punched the gas.

Finally I pulled into our parking lot where I passed our parking spot on accident. No big deal right? I will just reverse. I can't for the life of me figure out how to put the car in reverse. So I had to pull the car into some empty spots turning as far as I could. Then I turned the wheel back the other and left it in neutral allowing the car to roll, very slowly I must add, backwards. Then I was able to go forward to the parking spot. I had to do this a second time when I needed to adjust into the spot. Pulling up the parking break and turning off the car, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. I had made it home alone! Now I have to drive two hours into the country, this should be interesting. LOL!

Monday 2 April 2007

Deaf Post Secret Cards


It's very upsetting that this is a common feeling among parents of Deaf children.



But then there is this card from Post Secret. It says "I love how we use [sign] as a secret language." Let's not keep it a secret, more people should know that sign is as much a language as English and every other spoken language.