In absentia

Well, on my trip from Dominica back to the states, I left my camera on the bed. So, my picture collection from the trip is scant, to say the least. However, I do have all kinds of pictures from family visits this summer that I never posted. Since I missed Wonderman like crazy, I'd like to share a series of photos I quite like. It's from a game called "Beat up Uncle Wonderman."



Let's be honest, it was a fun game to watch, but it sure made me glad that I'm not built like a jungle gym. The nieces and nephews sure seemed to enjoy it, though. Nothing quite like that happened on this trip when I was there by myself. Poor things. I enjoyed the family time anyway, though.

Climate Change

I recently left Dominica for a little bit to attend my grandmother's funeral. I knew when I was packing that I might have some trouble because I didn't have any socks. However, I never knew it would go quite to this extent. Let's zoom in a little:

Yup. That's snow, folks. There's not too much around these parts of the Caribbean. Rocky Mountain girl that I am, it still threw me into quite a shock and I shivered more than most. It was beautiful.

Focus on Science

Last Friday was the White Coat Ceremony for Wonderman's class at Ross University Medical School. It was like a sort of graduation, but at the beginning of the process.

Waiting for the ceremony to begin.

There were lots of official people and speakers and stuff, then the whole class had the chance to have a professor, all of whom are doctors themselves, help them on with a white coat. I went because it seemed the thing to do, but I didn't think too much about it. I snuck in and sat at the very back with some other spouses (a term that is used SO MUCH here and I find it strange, even though I am, technically a spouse. I've just never felt so defined by a simple relationship; however, that is all I am here. Sigh.) even though Wonderman was told there wouldn't be room. I just went in to see and simply stayed. I was so glad I did.


Like a graduation, there was a keynote speaker who said nice things, but was still long and boring. A necessary evil, I suppose. The great part was the change that occurred in me as I listened and thought about what all this symbolized. Wonderman is going to be a doctor. The whole time I've known him, there has been great focus on getting him to medical school. Not an issue anymore, he's here. Now I need to move my focus ahead a few years and visualize him as a doctor. When they put him in his official lab coat I could actually see it. It was a good moment for me.


I was just like a proud parent, down there crowding in where I shouldn't have been, taking pictures and getting a little veclemt (sp? talk amongst yourselves? anyone?). Sigh. I never wanted to be a doctor's wife, but now I'm all proud and so excited for him to be living the dream. Way to be, Wonderman.
PS - The pink umbrella is mine. He's being a gentleman, not a pansy.

Indian River

Before Wonderman started school, we went on one of the school-sponsored tours up the Indian River. Not only was it cool because part of Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed there (as I got told approximately 75 billion times) - very exciting, as are all things involving Johnny Depp (but not nearly as exciting as it all used to be; he only mildly turns me on these days. What is happening to me?) - but also because it was such a gorgeous, magical place.

I'm a big fan. I can't wait to start exploring more of this place.

Experimental cooking

If you've ever spent much time with me in a kitchen, you know that I'm a bit of a haphazard cook. Sometimes that works out really well, such as when I tried frying plantains (yum!):


Sometimes it doesn't work out so well, such as when I used a glass plate as a lid for my rice pot (bang!):


It had worked three or four times before, but I guess that time was just too much. The explosion really shook me up. It wasn't my best night here, needless to say. The good experiment didn't quite out-weigh the impact of the bad. Meh. We're moving on. I scored a sweet rice pot from someone selling theirs on campus. There is much rice in our future. Plantains, too.

Unscheduled

Wonderman's first day of class, I felt a little bit like this:

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But then I realized that the universe was telling me this:

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And I felt so much better acknowledging this:

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Quote

I read this today in Louise Erdrich's The Plague of Doves, and it seems oddly applicable:

"What men call adventure usually consists of the stoical endurance of appalling daily misery."

There's no direct correlation, but still. . . .