the odd uneven time

well, she's off again, this girl of mine. yesterday, mark and isaac drove her in the general direction of new york city, pausing for the night at holly's house for a few last hugs and a family sleepover. they will deliver the girl to barnard at some point this morning, where she'll drop her things off and get a first glimpse of her dorm room before she settles in for a week of community service. the three of us will drive back down there next weekend for the official move-in day and orientation, and then it will be for real.

this last week has been a mixture of happy-sad, and while the sad is pretty hard, the happy parts have been truly lovely. on thursday, zoë and i drove up to camden to climb our favorite little mountain, mt. megunticook.

it was so foggy down in camden that we couldn't see the harbor. still gorgeous, but in a strange, above-the-clouds kind of way.

we stopped for perfect iced coffee and a delicious white bean salad at zoot, and then drove that pretty drive back home.

i am an old hand at this girl-off-in-the-world thing, it's true. but still.

photographic evidence

i have pictures, but today blogger desires that you not see them. maybe tomorrow. in lieu of pictures, i offer this news!


bean is going to barnard college.


it was her first choice, so i am very, very happy. she is still formulating a possible gap year plan, but she is pleased to know where she will be going to school. m and i are relieved that the application/waiting/breath-holding stage of this is over. also? they offered her bunches of financial aid!

we travel on our stomachs

i mean, not literally, but...well, you'll see. bean and i returned home last night after the fabulous final college tour of 2009. we had a great time and saw some lovely college campuses, but the best part was going home each night to hang out with these sweetie pies:
























plus, of course, their dad and their mom, the amazing holly, who managed to cook us gourmet meals every night while in the midst of her busy weekday life (just for example, she leaves for work every morning long before the sun comes up). she also helped me finish up a secret crafty project that i've been procrastinating about for a long, long time. i can't wait to go back and stay with her when there's more time available for lounging around drinking coffee and talking, because she's one of my favorite people in the world to talk to. also, she makes the most beautiful jewelry you ever saw. i snuck and took a picture of her studio (soon to be expanded, since she's taking over the current "ping pong room"):
























so, day one was vassar, where i neglected to take any photos at all. bean and i found a nice spot near campus for tea called the crafted kup (not krazy about that kute 'k,' but it was a sweet little place). our tour was great, the highlight being the indescribably gorgeous library with a nearly floor-to-ceiling stained glass portrait of the first woman to receive a doctorate. bean liked vassar, although she still thinks she would prefer to be in a large city.

day two we toured bard - our guide was from pakistan and had the most charming accent. bard was absolutely lovely, right beside the hudson river, with views of the catskills off in the distance, and farmland all around. too remote for bean. also, the director of admissions was played by jane lynch. seriously. it was bizarre.
























there are many charming paths through the woods at bard.
























we drove to nearby rhinebeck for lunch at bread alone, where we had delicious white bean and escarole soup and an artichoke panini.
























friday was connecticut day - first, wesleyan, which bean really liked.
























our tour guide, rachel, had the adorable habit of closing her eyes for long stretches.* the campus was great, and the town of middletown had lots of cafes and restaurants. we got a private tour of the rare books room at the main library from susie cupcakes, and stopped in at the german department (bean's usm german professor attended wesleyan), where there were no professors to be found, although we had a nice chat with the department secretary.



















the best thing about wesleyan was the food at udupi bhavan, a southern indian restaurant we found nearby.
























we shared vegetable pakoras that were like spicy indian beignets, so tasty:
























and we each got a different type of masala dosa (they're actually not this huge, since they fold up around the filling to be about the size of a burrito). they came with coconut chutney and sambar, yum.
























next we went to connecticut college, where our tour guide just happened to be from portland, maine! we walked around in the pouring rain - it was raining so hard that it was difficult to even see what the campus looked like.
























on saturday, we were signed up for a full day at sarah lawrence, but we ended up cutting out early after a very long info session. the campus was lovely, and the people seemed wonderful, but bean was certain almost immediately that it wasn't for her; she wants a college with at least a bit more traditional structure, and preferably one that's larger.

on our way home we stopped at rein's deli in vernon, connecticut.



















bean had a veggie reuben and i had a potato knish.


and when we got home, look what was waiting for me:

























*all of our tour guides walked backwards except the one at wesleyan. "that's dangerous," she said.

vassar and bard

quickie report from the college field trip: vassar was gorgeous (oh my god, the liberry). bean was, unsurprisingly, not charmed by poughkeepsie. but she liked the school, and she's considering applying there.

bard was also gorgeous, in a very remote, little-buildings-in-the-woods-by-the-river kind of way. bean is less interested in applying there, mostly due to its location (kind of in the middle of nowhere). more details and photos to follow!

best of all, we are spending lots of time with holly and her family.

today we are sticking to connecticut - first we'll check out wesleyan, and then connecticut college.

college tour, day two

if today is thursday, we must be checking out bard college!

final college tour 2009

today bean and i embark on a college wrap-up tour, cramming in a few more campuses for her perusal before the girl has to sit down and finish her applications, write all of those essays for real, and mail everything off. or, well, hit the "send" button on the common application, actually. she knows for sure that she is applying to

the university of chicago
barnard college
macalester college
and
the university of kansas

i wanted her to be able to see a few more, plus it's a great excuse to stay with holly for several days! so, day one (today), our itinerary is thus:

*get up super super early, hit the road at 5 am
*drive to poughkeepsie
*attend the vassar fall open house all afternoon
*drive to holly's house in connecticut

we have stolen our family's sole car, leaving m and boo with only their feet and their bicycles for transportation.* we will return to them late on saturday. more college details to follow!



*update: thanks to the generosity of mama d, those boys now have a car at their disposal!

joie

i had a happy weekend. first of all, it's fall. friday night some wonderful new friends came over for sushi and games, bearing a delicious cake, the remains of which they left behind, which meant that i got to have a piece for breakfast on saturday. cake aside, it was really fun to spend time with people who make me laugh and who i can be my goofy self with.
























saturday m and i ditched the kids and drove to rockport to the center for maine contemporary art to see our friend karen's exhibition, "wozzeck" - my beautiful obsession. it was so gorgeous and engaging -strange and sad too.



















the piece included photographs:
























photograph/object combinations:
























records playing a variety of things throughout the space (german language instruction, opera, 70's music),
























this quilt,



















cans of peas:



















i am tempted to post all of the dozens of photographs i took there, but i'll restrain myself. m and i took a scenic drive all around rockport, camden, and then down around boothbay. when we got home, bean and i whipped up our favorite pad thai recipe.

sunday, to celebrate the rain and the chill in the air, i had a lovely cup of soup with the lovely dancer at north star (soup pictured below, green split pea). i wish i'd gotten a picture of a nearby laptop screen, open to a page that read, "how do human limbs know where to form?" which struck us, obviously, as hilarious.
























i took bean to a local college fair, which was a little underwhelming college-wise and overwhelming number-of-people-wise. the admissions rep from dalhousie was our favorite (among other things, i learned how to pronounce it. the key is, don't say it with a faux french accent). bean learned about their honors program, and i learned that u.s. financial aid does not always transfer to canada, although sometimes it does. on our way out, after observing many regular teens and their regular parents, bean leaned her head on my shoulder and said, "i'm so glad we're not normal."

sunday night, it was enoch, games, finishing homework, veggie potpie with seitan, and apple-blueberry crisp with coconut milk ice cream.

college tour

bean is going to be a senior in high school this year, somehow, so i suppose it makes sense that she's thinking about applying to college right about now (although, having lived without her for an entire year, m and i are in no rush to send her off again on her next big adventure). i took her to boston for a couple of days this week to check out brandeis and tufts, and we had a great time despite the official heat wave we endured.

first up was brandeis, right outside boston in waltham, mass. here is bean (on the right) beside the castle, which is the weirdest building on campus, housing a dorm and a coffeehouse. it looks like it belongs at storyland.
























she liked a lot of things about brandeis, especially their tradition of inclusivity and the influences of jewish culture. we had a sweet, slightly nervous tour guide, and we sweated like pigs. for lunch we found a macrobiotic restaurant in waltham called masao's kitchen where we ate plates of hot food in a space that was not air conditioned. we felt healthy but even hotter.

the next day we checked out tufts, whose mascot is jumbo the elephant.



















bean was very impressed with tufts - our tour guide was really wonderful, the campus is lovely, and she loved how close it is to the davis square t stop. tufts has an emphasis on globalism, international travel, and language acquisition that seemed like a great fit with bean and her interests. she asked lots of questions, and we're planning to return after school starts so she can get a feel for the campus when it's full of students. my mom came along on this tour expecting to be bored out of her mind, but she was pleasantly surprised!
























much iced coffee was consumed. above, iced americano from 1369, and bean with her brand new ipod touch, a gift from my dad!

mom took us out to lunch at the buddhist cultural center, one of my favorite places to eat in all of boston. again, the food is healthy as can be, but it is SO good. below, the lunch special, with the most delicious tofu skins and stir fried veggies and perfect brown rice. bean and i also had bubble tea.
























the next stage in bean's college plan is a trip to chicago with m to tour the university of chicago. she's also interested in checking out columbia, barnard, and nyu. i can hardly believe that in four months or so she'll have mailed off all of her applications.

providence

bean and i played hooky this week. we drove down to cambridge on monday night with minnow, who got to hang out with mom and lulu on tuesday while bean and i spent the day in providence. we took a tour of brown university:
























the weather was absolutely perfect (we started out in sweaters and scarves, but we were sweating by the end of the day), and the campus was lovely. our tour guide was knowledgeable and friendly (she even called a friend on her cell phone to answer some of bean's questions about the brown radio station). we really disliked our fellow tour-goers, probably not entirely fairly, and there were LOTS of them. bean liked brown, but she didn't like-like it. she just wants to be friends with it. seriously (or "in all seriousness," as our tour guide said many times), her verdict is that it was her favorite of the colleges she's checked out so far, but she wasn't left just dying to go there. hey, the other thing our tour guide said seven or eight times was the word meiklejohn, which is the brown nickname for freshman peer advisor.

before the campus tour, bean and i discovered a tealuxe right there at the start of thayer street, so we each got a cup of vanilla rooibus to go. afterward, we headed through downtown providence (a couple of times -- i was a wee bit lost) and found a place called julian's, which was pretty good. we ordered lunchy stuff, and i think what they're really well known for is more brunchy stuff (and they'll veganize a bunch of it). so i got a slightly mushy black bean burger, but in retrospect i wished i'd had the vegan pancakes.

back on thayer street, we wandered into stores and paused to drink iced coffee drinks (the first of the season) on the porch of blue state coffee. i got two shots of espresso over ice and added some soy milk, and let me tell you, those shots were absolutely perfect.
























we headed over to the providence place mall, where we shopped a little bit and then went to borders to hear scott read from his new book:



















he was amazing, of course, and we were so happy to be there and witness a small group of adoring fans get their books signed afterward. we also got to witness a crazy weirdo kid in a gray hooded nirvana sweatshirt hassle scott obnoxiously and bizarrely. after he read from the beginning of we disappear, the kid said, "that sucked. that sucked, man. that was all perfunctory. that was all maudlin." if it had been possible, scott's adoring fans would have melted this kid with their laser-beam eyeballs. scott himself handled it incredibly gracefully, and the kid slouched away, and the reading continued. i wonder if the kid's s.a.t. vocabulary words of the day were "perfunctory" and "maudlin." or if he just likes to go to readings and insult writers...?