it's delightful. it's delicious. it's de-lovely

last night, my family went to galatoire's as we usually do for any big event in our lives - first communions, homecomings, easter, ballet recitals, and farewells. we realized too late that our last sunday together was about 3 weeks ago, so we had to bend and have our galatoire's supper on a tuesday night. didn't feel quite right, but it was galatoire's so i got over that really quick. for those true new orleans buffs out there, you might remember the restaurant for causing a bit of a controversy in the social scene a few years ago. a waiter, gilberto, was fired for a sexual harrassment allegation - and all hell broke loose when many new orleans socialites no longer had their favorite waiter. letters were written. glasses were flung. an entire campaign to "bring back gilberto" was launched. the letters were so funny that the "Galatoire's Monologues" were born and performed for a while around the city - with local actors just reading the letters. a float in the mardi gras parade "krewe d'etat" featured a giant papier mache likeness of gilberto's head. chris rose actually staged a coup where he went into galatoire's to release balloons with www.welovegilberto.com printed on them - to poke fun at the uproar. i just checked - the website is still up and running. seriously, only in new orleans.

i digress. so the dinner made me realize we are at the end of summer. michael leaves for school on friday, i leave monday, sarah leaves tuesday. friends in baton rouge are in baton rouge for a while. friends are working. friends are going to school. new lives have started. this is it. and it came VERY quickly. wasn't ready for that. but really, when am i ever ready for anything? never. never on time, at least. today i packed sweaters, pictures, and DVDs. i felt like that was pretty productive.

i've been listening to the "delovely" soundtrack all day. not the best movie - but a greeeeat soundtrack. cole porter could be a genius. went to sushi with two old friends - spent aaaall afternoon uptown, just catching up. 3 different people from 3 different high schools, who could come back and share similiar stories about the last 4 years. it was pretty cool. AND one of them will be in rome studying for the next few years. fantastic - ryanair flies between london and rome for like 30 US dollars. europe is sooooo the place to be.

"It was just one of those things,

Just one of those crazy flings,

One of those bells that now and then rings,

Just one of those things.

It was just one of those nights,

Just one of those fabulous flights,

A trip to the moon on gossamer wings,

Just one of those things

So goodbye, Dear, and Amen.

Here's hoping we meet now and then,

It was great fun,

But it was just one of those things."

(cole porter)

maybe it's good that i'm slipping out when i am. maybe my timing is good, in a way, for once. i don't know. we'll see. the last few weeks have been a blur, and i think it's all catching up to me.

like children we come...

i found myself back in the halls of mt. carmel today. the very new halls of mt. carmel. besides seeing my mom in her "office" i hadn't been back since graduation. i had heard sister camille anne speak at my sister's graduation last year, but hearing her speak today was a very calming experience. it made me thank God that i had a chance to be part of that school. there was something very peaceful about it all. i can recognize that i was in a bubble during those years. a very nice bubble, but a bubble nonetheless. but then i thought about it, and i think that was the best thing for me at the time. i can laugh now at the fact that i had a different colored hair ribbon in my hair EVERY, SINGLE DAY. but what is so wrong with that? i was being sheltered when i needed to be. i learned how to pray. despite the four hours of sleep i got last night, it was easy to be happy and outgoing today. being in the new assembly center was better than a good cup of coffee. i don't think it was me - i think it was the power of carmel.

God must love us, channel 28 has a marathon of Law and Order SVU. score. i hope bd wong is in these.

today i officially started getting excited about england. it probably came from me having to explain to multiple people at mt. carmel "what i was doing with my life." it was appropriate. 4 years ago, i was about pick up and move to providence. i remember telling high school friends how it felt like i was about to jump off a cliff - with a parachute, of course. i just needed to jump. i couldn't begin to imagine how it was going to feel. but i couldn't think about it, i just needed to do it. and i knew i would land on my feet eventually. funny. i've never been skydiving. but i bet i would get that same feeling in my stomach - it would feel just like that moment i got on the plane to providence 4 years ago. i don't think my friends could relate to my feelings then, but i think they can now. maybe i overanalyze things sometimes - i apologize - sometimes i work better with metaphors.

so 4 years ago it was new england. now it is england. coincedence? nah, just meant to be. i'm definitely not as scared as i was then. this is just something i want to do. something great that i'm going to be able to tell my children one day. there's really no logic behind it. no reason - just passion. and we all know "nothing in this world is accomplished without passion"

remember that. be passionate about SOMETHING in life. and never lose your passion.


my school is something straight out of a british novel. absolutely beautiful. it is in kent - called "the garden of england" - just down the street from Rochester cathedral, Cantebury, and the Leather Bottle, a pub that Charles Dickens would frequent. i'm going to be drinking newcastle at the same table as Charles Dickens. i know i was a biology major, but i can appreciate the great literary air that is going to surround me. as if that wasn't great enough - i'm going to be aroundthe corner from one of the greatest ballroom dancing venues in all of Great Britain - complete with "swing nights." amazing. the main building was built in the 1600s. a mere 400 years ago. the school is for girls 11 to 18 years old. i'm not sure what age group i'll be watching over - but i'll more likely be with the younger girls. they live in the main building so i'll be living with them there. i feel like the first night, i'm going to want to run around in my socks, skidding all over the place. i'm going to be THAT american girl. and the brits are just going to have to deal with it.

so 8 more days in new orleans. counting down somehow forces me to do everything i want to do here. all the things i LOVE about new orleans. appreciate those things all over again. it's funny, i do the same things every time i have come home. i should make a list of the things i want to do.

i like that i can put the font as "tiny" on this thing. i guess that's going to be the closest i get to my own handwriting.

"As I told you before, in some ways I feel most alive when I'm holed up in some corner, writing things down... I love writing letters to the newspaper, notes to my friends, Christmas cards, anything where I have to put down words. I love writing you. You most of all. I always have... This letter, which I'm writing with my own hand, with my own pen, in my own penmanship, comes from me and no one else, and is a present of myself to you... And it's not a telephone call, which is dead as soon as it is over. No, this is just me, me the way I write... the way I want to be to you, giving myself to you across a distance, not keeping or retaining any part of it for myself, giving this piece of myself to you totally, and you can tear me up and throw me out, or keep me, and read me today, tomorrow, any time you want until you die" (Love Letters)

I'm a big fan of that play - let it be my first recommendation to you. but this quote always hit home with me. in more ways, i'm better in writing, on paper. i guess it's the unrelenting romantic in me. or the only way that my thoughts can begin to come together and be coherant.

9 days until another one of my adventures. we're in the single digits now. how surreal. but my feelings on that are for another night.

i got a call from one of my best friends, tessa, tonight - from Foxwoods, THE largest casino in the world apparently - and she made me realize that this summer has slipped by me without a trip back to providence. and she made me remember a certain trip to Foxwoods that started when they kidnapped me from duty. classic.