Limbo

Ok, so I lied and updating took me longer than I thought. The picture was just a screensaver-type ploy to buy me more time. Guess it didn't work! ha

Summer has passed in a frenetic blur as usual. I spent time in four different states (CA, IL, NC, GA), entertained multiple visitors from Chicago and the East coast, climbed mountains, hunted salamanders, foraged, camped, danced, cooked and worked...just a little. Now I find myself floating in that wildly uncomfortable state of limbo. Waiting and waiting and waiting to hear from Tucson, mulling over my options, sloshing them about my slightly aching head (I find myself often on the brink of a headache more days than not...one that never completely materializes, which needless to say is irritating enough). Luckily though, California this time of year is primed. The beauty is enough to make you cry, if of course, you were a huge wuss. Fall and all its wondrous accessories approaches. Our apple and pear trees are bursting, zucchini bread is being baked as I type, wildlife is being sighted on the streets (I saw a bear and a ringtail on the way home from work...ringtails are very rarely seen, they look like this:)

the first rains of the season are starting, the county fair is coming up this weekend, grapes are being picked and crushed by cheap, immigrant labor...it's everything you would expect. And to further amplify the enjoyment of the season in as nerdy a way as possible, Taylor bought a scope for bird watching after years of weighing the benefits vs. the cost (he's not exactly a raging consumer). For those of you less attuned to natural cycles, fall is the time for many a bird to make the long migratory haul back to whence they came after a summer of amorous mischief. With the wonders of curved glass at our disposal, we've seen birds in greater detail than ever before...seems like an insignificant thing to get excited over, but you've never watched a Peregrine falcon bathing in a pool on a remote beach. So despite the anxiety thickly permeating the air lately, there have been many pleasant distractions. I welcome them all! Anything to pass the time until I leave California...and I will leave one way or another, even if school doesn't pan out this time around.