Good weekend

One of my best friends Hannah left for L'Abri in Switzerland yesterday. I am going to miss that girl! But I am so excited to see how she'll have grown once she's done with the program there. Wow--the Schaeffers influenced so many different people. Right now I'm reading "Total Truth" by Nancy Pearcey, who was converted at L'Abri when Francis was still around. Edith is 92 years old now and lives at the L'Abri in Switzerland. Hannah said she still attends lectures, but she's definitely getting up there in years! I wonder if she's still as sharp as ever. So, I spent all day Saturday with Hannah. We went to Art in the Park in Greenville, hung out with her large family (yes--I love big families!), then went contra-dancing with her two little brothers. It was SUCH fun--the entire day. The previous night we went to the UNC-Clemson soccer game. Winning to UNC was pretty exciting! We're rank #2 and they're #5 in the nation. It was the second-largest attended soccer game in Clemson's history. We celebrated Amy's birthday after the game. Amy and I made the "dessert exception" of baklava for her birthday, which was delightful! Even more amazing microwaved--have you ever tried that?

Boston

Ah--I had such a wonderful time visiting my relatives in Boston over the weekend! I arrived there Thursday morning around 11:00, after waking up at 3:00 am to drive to the Charlotte airport (you know those days where the morning seems like SUCH a long time ago? That was one of them!). Some of the members of the group I was with toured Harvard's campus for the day, but my sub-group went to Cheers for lunch then walked around the Boston Commons--a breath of fresh air in the heart of the city. I love the swan boats! I remember riding them when I was little! We also went SHOPPING. I wish upstate SC had an H&M and an Urban Outfitters :)! Friday night the group of us did dinner at Legal Seafoods--a super fancy restaurant with lobster that's to die for! The Barkers dropped in and chatted with us for a little while, so we HAD to get our pictures taken with them. They're so nice, by the way. They definitely don't act like they have a million other obligations that night, which I'm sure they had, being the president and first lady of Clemson and all.
At Legal with the Barkers


Friday morning Uncle Doug picked up Aunt Colleen and me for some kayaking on the Charles River. It was perfect--early fall in Boston, the morning, the lily pads, the incredible company. Ha--a lot more relaxing than whitewater kayaking down Yankee Jim Canyon in Montana! Aunt Colleen took me on a nice long walk in some woods near their house that afternoon. That's one of the nice things about the Boston area--it's a big city, but nature is still pretty accessible. The White Mountains of Vermont are only three hours away, and the beach is close, too. Uncle John thinks that's what makes it a great city, plus the amazing academic opportunities there. There's no city like it--with Harvard, MIT, BU, BC, Tufts, Wellsley, etc. in the city or surrounding cities, goodness. Did you know the population of the city increases by 1.2 million in the fall because of all the students coming back to school? That's pretty sweet.
Beautiful Aunt Colleen and Irene


Friday night I had a delightful time with Emily from Yellowstone! She's in seminary at BU. She, her twin sister Laura, Laura's boyfriend and I ate dinner at a delectable Indian restaurant then . . . had DESSERT at Mike's pastries--which, I know I'm on a dessert abstinence thing till Thanksgiving, but I considered it heavily and decided this would be an appropriate exception. Ummm... anyway! Aunt Colleen and Uncle John said it was ok, only because it's Mike's pastries. I spent the night at Emily's apartment near Bunker Hill. She and I had a great time catching up. Girl talk ROCKS!
Emily and me at Cashmere's

Saturday Aunt Tricia, Aunt Colleen and I went to get manicures and pedicures in Tricia's sporty yellow VW convertible. We then went to this adorable tea house for lunch. It was de-LIGHT-ful. I sat with the Clemson group at the game while Uncle John and Uncle Doug sat on the 9th row. John has a hookup for awesome seats from a "triple eagle"--a friend of his who went to Boston College high school, Boston College, and Boston College law school. Clemson lost to BC by one point in double overtime. It was heartbreaking :(. Especially since about a fourth of the stadium consisted of Clemson fans! I was a proud tiger. Uncle Doug and Uncle John were good winners, I guess :).

Hannah is back from her organic farm in VA! So last night we had a welcome back / going away party here (she leaves for L'Abri in a week). It was so good to see her and have her spend the night. Again, girl talk rocks!

Hannah's get-together

Happy Clemson Students

(click title)

Now I'm even HAPPIER to be a Clemson student! :) I thought this was a cool article.

Happy Clemson Students! (Bible study girls at a wedding shower)

Oh--and I'm so excited about Boston this weekend. I get to visit Emily at BU, Seth at Harvard, and my awesome relatives again! Yay!

We meet at last

Hanging out downtown with Joy McCarnan, whom I finally met in person. How fun!

September

Storm Brewing over our apartments

My room

Last hoorah with Amy

The first whole week of school was so nice. It was especially wonderful catching up with Amy Etheredge, who was doing an internship all last semester. However, I miss Hannah and Biz (they're both studying abroad--Hannah's still at her organic farm in VA), and am kind of disappointed I'm not studying abroad in Prague or somewhere cool like that this semester. But I'm excited to build on relationships started last year. I'm thinking of graduating a semester late and studying abroad next fall--perhaps in some French-speaking country? French is probably the class I'm the most excited about right now. I'm also SO excited about my US history 1917-1945 class. I had Dr. Saunders for History of Civ. last fall and the man is a genius. History is so fascinating and exciting!

Amy and I decided to abstain from desserts until Thanksgiving, starting yesterday. She challenged me to do it with her last year, from the beginning of November till Thanksgiving, as a reminder of how much we have/should be thankful for. So, of course, Thursday night we had a "Cate and Amy date"--we dressed up and went to Calhoun Corners, a fancy restaurant down the road from me, and enjoyed creme brulee cheesecake and Irish cream cake with coffee. It was a delightful last hoorah :). And I'm already craving the Heath bars that grace the coffee table in the living room! This isn't going to be easy!

Today was the first football game. I didn't go because I felt sick :(. But, I am hoping to go to the Clemson v. Boston College game in Boston next weekend! I'm so excited to see my aunts and uncles and Irene again--and Emily from Yellowstone! woo-hoo!

backtracking

Ah—so much to say, so little time. Should I start now and go backwards? Today is my last second day of school. I love the beginning—of everything. I love the beginning of the school year: walking across the library bridge and seeing acquaintances I might have forgotten, and friends I haven’t seen all summer. The anticipation at the beginning. You think it might be perfect. I’ve always thought Christmas Eve is a little bit more exciting than Christmas. I love receiving the new syllabus in class but not having a lecture. Except for Dr. Morrissey’s class. Milton should be exciting. Talk about reading closely! In a poem with 12,000 lines, try to catch this:

He with Olympias, this with her who bore
Scipio the height of Rome. With tract oblique
At first, as one who sought access, but feared
To interrupt, sidelong he works his way.
As when a ship by skilful steersman wrought
Nigh river’s mouth or foreland, where the wind
Veers oft, as oft so steers, as shifts her sail.

Look at the acrostic he creates. Who's Milton talking about? What a genius! “He’s a great writer because of the extraordinary reading he’s asking us to do.”

Today is the only day I’ll be 22 years and three days old—I need to live it up! ☺ My 22nd birthday was delightful. I love that my birthday is in August. My parties act as a reunion of friends I haven’t seen in sometimes a whole year, or more. Birthdays are the rare days all of the sisters are together, too. So of course, we take a few sister pictures that we might send in our Christmas cards this year. Watch out!

sisters partying down :)!

Last week we had a family reunion with the amazing Droney side of the family. No joke: all of my relatives are the coolest people in the world. I think I’m being objective when I say that! They’re so full of life and laughter and creativity and kindness. My little cousin Irene is now thirteen! She’s so talented and smart and is becoming a Renaissance girl. She and her friends are independently putting on a performance of “Rent”—which is like two hours long? Quite the feat. Go Irene! Isle of Palms was such a relaxing break from working at Yellowstone. The only work I did was on my tan. I practiced guitar and didn’t get much reading done at all. Which is bad, but there are so many lovely people to talk to. Oh—and we ate, a lot. Grandma’s spaghetti—it’s second to none. The Irish party the first night and the talent show the last night were what family reunions are made of.

my cousin and I kissing a lucky leprechaun

Something really funny: I’d always thought that we’d had several family reunions growing up before Anna’s wedding in 2000. I have so many memories from them: making piñatas with Aunt Colleen, beauty night, the Jacuzzi, this fishing pole I got for my birthday, a coconut bunny rabbit birthday cake, an oldies dance night, the “ballerina mouse” club, waves that tumbled you on the way down. Turns out, we only had one family reunion before Anna’s wedding—this was our third one. I told Jessica that and she, also, remembered several! Do you know how disorienting that is? Good thing we’re not writing our family’s history! I still can’t get over it.

Jess and Joel back from the AT for the week!

Oh, by the way, my friend John and I bought goldfish together and MINE DIED! And we painted my room orange--it looks great.

Home again, home again, jiggidy jig

I flew home the day the country was on "orange alert"--we couldn't bring toothpaste, water, perfume, makeup, or any gels on the airplane. I left at 1 pm and didn't get back home till 4:30 am the next morning, largely due to delays in Atlanta. People say their flights always get delayed in Atlanta! I didn't think it'd be delayed three hours! It definitely could have been worse!

Today I'm off to a family reunion--I can't wait to see the coolest people in the world: my aunts and uncles, and grandpa and great aunt, and two cousins. It should be fun times.

Yesterday my friend Joy from YNP was visiting Asheville, NC, with her fiancee and I decided to go up and meet them! When else are Joy and I going to be only an hour away from each other? It was wonderful swimming Lake James with Joy. We got pizza at Barley's last night then conked out during a movie.



My last five days at Yellowstone were pretty "hard core"! I backpacked to Union Falls with five other people (Julie, Knowels, Eva, Missy and Andrew). The falls were beautiful, and swimming in a warm river by this waterfall was so relaxing. Monday I checked off "fly fishing" from my to-do list! Andrew (who went to Furman and is moving to China to teach English! cool) taught me how to fly fish in the Lamar River. The Lamar Valley is famous for its fishing and wildlife. I didn't catch anything, unfortunately. We have to de-barb our lines in Yellowstone, but I came so close!



My last day off was spent kayaking with Rick. He took me down Yankee Jim Canyon--a pretty challenging course (level three rapids). The "big" wave was about halfway down our five-mile stretch. We had to avoid the boulder on our left and nosedive straight into this killer wave, which was probably about four to five feet higher than my kayak! I got soaked, but didn't flip, fortunately! Rick's a great guide. A few minutes later I got caught in a hole (the spot after a rock) and flipped my kayak. Being underwater without a breathing apparatus is always scary--it's even scary WITH a breathing apparatus!). I followed Rick's instructions and tapped my head twice (to mentally regain control), pulled the hook on my skirt, and pushed myself out of the kayak. I felt pretty dumb for surviving the big wave then hitting a hole. I had to swim that stretch of rapids, keeping my feet in front of me and holding onto my boat and paddle (no--I lost my paddle. Rick had to find it!). We pulled off to the side of the river and dumped the water out of my boat, then hit the river again. It was exhausting! The embarrassing thing was that I flipped two more times, the third time only thirty seconds after the second time. I think that first flip messed me up: it made me self conscious and afraid, and therefore more prone to flippage :).

Tuesday night I finally took advantage of my free cookout ride! I went with Andrew and Glenn, two YPSS (gas station) employees. By the way, YPSS people are all COOL. Xanterra's so big you never know what kind of people you'll be working with, but YPSS throroughly checks all of their employees. There are only about forty of them in the whole park. They don't feel dehumanized at work, like I often have! Cookout was great: all-you-can-eat steak, apple pie, cole slaw, cornbread muffins (!!) (we love cornbread muffins!), Roosevelt beans, and "cowboy coffee," coffee so strong you can bite into it, almost. When I was still in the dish pit, I asked one of the cookout workers why all the coffee mugs has coffee grounds in them. He said they call it "cowboy coffee" and people fall for it :). It was ok. I'm not much of a coffee person, though.

Wednesday was my last day of work. I took advantage of the morning and hiked Avalanche Peak with Rick. Avalanche is everyone's favorite day hike, and I hadn't done it yet! We met at 5:40 am, booked it up the mountain, took pictures, and literally ran down the mountian. I skipped parts of it, actually :). Skipping's easier than running down a mountain.

My last night was spent at a YPSS party. Julie Jabs (a Xanterra employee) came with me and Anju and Andrew to the YPSS dorms at Old Faithful. Julie and I met this lady Sally at the party who volunteered to help me check off two more items on my to-do list: seeing Grand Prismatic and the historic Old Faithful Inn--both beautiful sights. I'm so glad I got to pack those in!

Julie and I pulled an all-nighter that night, burning each other's music and packing! It was hard to say goodbye to my buddies at seven o'clock the next morning. Bittersweet. I'll visit again, I'm sure. I've had that experience so many times: when you realize you'll never be with the same group of people again. I think it's starting to hit me that it's just a fact of life--you can't stay close to everyone. It's ok. I think.