The Argument Clinic

So I know I have been terrible at updating this lately. Mostly because I have been really busy with grad school and work and have very little excess energy.

Right now I am sitting in newark airport waiting for my flight. Am connecting though london heathrow on the way to budapest and praying that my suitcase joins me there as well! Then I will be in hungary until thursday, then am going to the uk for a few days for a different meeting for work. I don’t expect to update this much when I am gone but will post some pictures and info about my trip when I get back. I expect to have 1 day to see some stuff in budapest and 1 day in london.

When I first got here I had to wait a little while before I could check my bags. And was reminded once again of why so many people think americans are obnoxious when they travel. One guy jumped on the other side of the desk at check in and started looking around back there to find someone to check him in (meanwhile a lot of other people were also waiting). Didn’t work of course so he resorted to yelling about it to everyone else who was waiting quietly. Then he yelled at the woman behind the counter when she did get there. And it wasn’t even possible for him to be late for his flight yet. Other travelers outside the US just don’t seem to act out like this. Oh well…

Interesting that I have seen several non US citizens wearing vote obama buttons. Guess they officially care way more about the election than I do. I just want to stop hearing about it.

Back to waiting about an hour until I board. I like getting to the airport early, relieves some stress at least.

So we had a great time in Maine!  The camp was really nice, had a lot of space and was right on the water, so we got to go kayaking quite a bit!  So my kayak is all broken in now (meaning that I am more used to handling it)!

We stayed in dexter, maine, the lake we were on was really quiet.  Very few boats so we mostly had it to ourselves, which was great!  Saw a bunch of loons (or the same loons several times, who knows), a hawk, and a green heron while we were there.  No moose, though there seemed to be signs warning you about them everywhere. 

Had really good seafood, including lobsters that my dad got from the people who ran the boat he went deep sea fishing on.  I also got fried whole clams (not strips), which I can never find in albany, so I was excited!  The town of dexter was nice, small but it had a grocery store, a rite aid and a really good restaurant so I was happy.  More developed area than schroon lake, though that doesn’t say much.  Also did some reading, read a book of hungarian folktales by zsuzsanna palko, several of the stories were odd and several characters met very violent endings, but it was interesting.  Pictures from dexter can be found here.

Went to ll bean one day and ate at the muddy rudder (one of my favorite restaurants that I always go to when we go up there).  I love going to the ll bean factory store, so much better than the smaller retail stores.

On Friday, my dad, brook (my parents’ dog) and I went up to moosehead lake (about 1.5 hour drive) and went on a pretty easy hike (all I was up to at the time) at lily bay state park.  The area is really pretty and I hope to spend some more time up there in future.  Pictures I took when we were hiking and driving around can be found here.

On the way home we decided to take route 9 through new hampshire and vermont instead of taking the interstates (traffic was crazy on 95 on our way there, especially at the tolls, so we wanted to avoid that).  I would definitely take that drive again, it took a very similar amount of time and the drive was gorgeous.  It helped that we really lucked out with the weather (all week actually), which I was shocked by since the weather this summer has been pretty lousy in general.

Today I went to amanda’s (anna’s daughter) bridal shower at the stockade inn in schenectady.  Had a really good time, the food was really good and it’s always a nice location.

That’s it for now…  Back to work tomorrow and then grad school starts back up in about a week.  Not mentally ready for that at all yet.

So I got my grade today and did well enough to be reimbursed so am officially finished.  Now I don’t have to think about it during vacation!  And I officially only have two classes left in grad school!

So I spent most of this past weekend in nyc.  I took the train down from albany in the morning and went to the metropolitan museum of art, wandered around there for 3 or 4 hours.  Met a friend from high school, melissa, for dinner in the evening and then met up with a couple other friends later.  Stayed over at my friend siby’s apartment (lives in nyc) and then headed back sunday on the train.  Had a really nice time and the weather was gorgeous! 

My feet were killing me after all the walking.  The most walking I do is from my car into my office in the morning (the equivalent of roughly 1.5 blocks at the most), so it is not normal for me   I did manage to navigate my way through subways on my own and such, which was a first.  I have always traveled down there with other people.  I enjoy visiting the city, just not sure I could handle living there, I need space from people periodically (or frequently depending on my mood) and I don’t think nyc could provide enough opportunity for that for me.  Seems a lot of people from high school class ended up there though, not surprisingly since I grew up about an hour from there.

I read a really good book on the train, called half-life die already by mark steele.  Not new concepts to me, but were still good reminders.  A quick read.

That’s pretty much it for now.  Just mostly looking forward to vacation next week at this point!

I am pretty excited because my mom and I ordered tickets to go see steven curtis chapman and michael w smith when they come to the palace theatre in albany in november (need to take advantage when people actually come to albany!).   Last night I watched larry king live (which i never watch normally) because steven curtis chapman and his family were on talking about the recent tragedy in their family (their 5 year old daughter was accidentally killed in the driveway by a car driven by their teenage son).  It was amazing to hear them talk about how they are doing and to hear them actually talk about their faith in an honest way on cnn, of all places.

I love the song Yours by steven curtis chapman, he just released a new verse for it after his daughter died:

And I’ve walked the valley of death’s shadow

So deep and dark that I could barely breathe

I’ve had to let go of more than I could bear

And I’ve questioned everything that I believed

Still even here in this great darkness

Comfort and hope come breaking through

As I can say in life or death God we belong to you