Be Curious:

Well, we decided to put off unpacking for another week.
Instead, we rented this little car:

And drove up to Redding to spend a day with this little guy (our favorite nephew!) and his dad!



We went swimming at Whiskeytown Lake where the water was all sparkly because of so much fool's gold in the sediment:



And got yummy frozen yogurt from Razzlicious for dessert that night!

The next day Sean and I drove to Ashland, Oregon:

 

Where we ate twice at our favorite restaurant EVER (Dragonfly):



And also attended a spectacular performance of Romeo and Juliet by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where we had 2nd row seats!! This scene is Mercutio's death. :(



Then we drove home through the mountains, trees, and twilight, talking about God and Harry Potter and Truth and all kinds of wonderful things.

The next day I had massive amounts of dental work done, and then we had sandwiches with Karrisa, Liz, and Tim at a cozy sandwich shop in Montara.



And now we're home, and maybe we'll get some unpacking done today! You never know!

Shakespeare and Shooting Stars

It happened late one night while I was driving home from work listening to David McCullough's John Adams on audiobook. McCullough was describing how John Adams and Thomas Jefferson once took a trip through the English countryside for a week--just the two of them--to explore the manicured gardens and estates of the British upperclass. On the trip, they visited Stratford-upon-Avon: the venerated home of William Shakespeare. Upon arriving at such a momentous landmark, Jefferson reportedly bent down and kissed the ground of Shakespeare's birthplace.

I was listening to this, and thinking what a grand and perfect gesture for Jefferson to perform, and how I'd like to do the same if I ever travel there...when a glowing ball of light danced across the sky directly outside my windshield. At first, I thought perhaps it was a rogue Disneyland firework, but it made no noise, it was alone, and it fell brilliantly through the sky in the way only a magnificent shooting star can do. And then I thought--remembering the ancient myths in which great people die and become stars, taking their place in the heavens to illuminate the earth--that, perhaps, I saw Shakespeare himself--flashing through the firmament on warm summer night in California.

A Gypsy Summer and A Van Gogh Home:

I'm really feeling like a gypsy this summer. Since late May, Sean and I have been--either together or individually--to:

-Arizona (for a wedding!)
-Boston (I went to visit Megan!)
-New York City (Sean went with his Dad!)
-the Bay Area (3 times to see friends, attend weddings, and relax!)
-Florida (Both of us went to spend a week with my family!)
-Santa Barbara (To spend Sean's birthday with Victor and Beckett!)
-Laguna Beach (Spent a weekend with Uncle Ronnie and Auntie Karen!)
-San Diego (Sean went for a week as a leader for his friend's youth group!)
-Manhattan Beach (house-sitting for a week!)

That is not to mention the (seemingly) countless nights I spend in Manhattan Beach for work, nor the almost 2 weeks of single minded devotion that we have given to the games of the 30th Olympiad, nor the fact that: WE MOVED.

The calendar tells me that we moved 3 weeks ago, but we've spent maybe 5 nights total in our new place (individually or together), and absolutely all our belongings are still sitting in the big mess of a pile that we put them in when we shoved all our stuff in here around midnight 3 Saturday nights ago.

I keep telling Sean that I'm continually about 5 seconds away from a panic attack. I recently told some of our friends...only half-jokingly...that we might be settled in by Christmas.

It's not like things are slowing down, either. Sean is out of town this weekend, and next weekend we have plans to be out of town, and then Cayla is coming for a 10 day visit, and Seth and Jamie are getting married, and, and, and!

But we are very happy. We love our new home--even in its unsettled state--so just imagine how much we will love it when we have it all set up. On Thursday we walked, hand in hand in the blazing heat, to the Fullerton Market and Sean got a tri-tip sandwich and I got roasted corn on the cob smothered in butter and pepper and Tabasco. Then we drove TEN MINUTES (so wonderfully short!) to our dear church, and attended Mass with the sun shining brilliantly through the stained glass windows above the door. We are so much closer to the life we want to be living. Slowly, slowly, things are moving in the right direction.

And my favorite part? The walls of our new home are exactly the same color as the walls of van Gogh's bedroom: