the adventure so far....

so school started on tuesday but i just officially unpacked today and took my first shower of the week (sorry dmt cohort) so i am just really getting my brain around this thing that i have done...here have been some high points so far...

26 hours in the LUMINA with all my worldly possesions and LUKE...with a 2 hour break on the side of interstate 87...if you are ever feeling distant from your 100 lb dog...just move 1100 miles away with him...the drive will connect you in all sorts of new ways...and dogs make great roadtrip buddies...they let you pick the radio station, they like to eat anywhere you do, and you can still sing at the top of your lungs if you feel like it and it isn't all awkward...

orientation was great...they even let luke participate...i love the ladies in my program and my professors...also made some connections with girls from the SOUTH...they heard me coming a mile away...

MY HOUSE...so i met my new house and my new roomates and they all met LUKE...it went really great...it is an old farmhouse on 200 acres of undeveloped woods for us both to wander in...just about 10 minutes from school and a super easy drive...luke got along with everyone including their dog faith and the new kittens...while we were there we saw two bucks eating from the apple tree in the front yard and a double rainbow...i am taking both as good signs! my roomates are super nice and very helpful...and i have a clawfoot bathtub! i really love that.

since they were still re-arranging for our arrival luke and i headed up to ellsworth for a few days to give them a chance to finish...luke got to meet jenny jones and junebug's family...i got to swim in graham lake and see the "big rock"...and it was a very. big. rock. i really do love maine. and lots of people in it.

as for actual school...here is the low down...i go to a grad school where you are required to remove your shoes before you enter the majority of our classes, there are no tests, we laugh and make noise and dance around like children as PART OF OUR GRADE, i spend my days in a room full of amazing women who not only appreciate my passions...they SHARE THEM...it is going to be intense and tough but it is also going to be amazing...i love the teachers, i love the the mindset of this place, i love my classmates...

speaking of my classmates...what a group of women...one of them has worked with the peace corps, one is a playwright who saw her daughter through a brain tumor (daughter started college the same day we did), one worked at HONG KONG DISNEY (and she knew right away i would want to be one of the "brown" princess...i like that :), one loves candy and snacks as much as i do (yeah we sit together a lot), one is a mother of a three year old who also cares for her disabled mother, and one girl has come from india (her first time away from her family and she moved in the saturday before classes) just to study dance therapy - i think of her if i start to get overwhelmed by my move...pshish :)...there is a brave and beautiful story for each of them and and i am so honored to be taking this journey with them...

there was definitely a moment this week when i kind of freaked out...i realized that i hadn't just thought about it or talked about it...i had actually done this...i had packed up and moved away, i had rented a room in a farmhouse in new hampshire, i had taken out a student loan and enrolled in a well respected and really tough graduate school...i have never bet so much on myself or invested this way in myself and my dreams...and i know i never would have without the love and wisdom i have been so blessed to live in for so much of my life. there are so many of you that have poured into me in truly remarkable ways and your giving has made this new season of my life a reality. thank you.

p.s. all the gas stations around my house a called "t birds"....