Saturday…

Well, I missed out on “the Friday Five” once again. This is happening a lot this summer. So, here’s an update (we’ll use bullets):

• The summer gig is done. Yay! I’m still “employed” but will not be staffing a program for many many months. In response to the reduction in stress, I stopped chewing my nails and actually had to use the nail clippers!
• I have a week left at the ‘bux. I’ll miss the people–both co-workers and customers, but not the job. Especially the way the company has been going lately.
• I have to make a to-do list, because there’s tons to be done before the end of August and I’m so far behind.
• I started looking at the biblical hebrew book and I’m nervous, because I actually can’t read the English transliteration (it’s different than the modern transliteration I’m used to).
• Riley is very cute, but still not housebroken. I’ve been spending a lot of time with him and will miss him when I leave. He has also become attached and barks at me when I return from wherever (even if it was for just a few minutes). It’s nice to be missed I can’t wait for him to able to roam the house without accidents.
• Does anyone have suggestions for resources for a Comparative Judaism/Religion class for 8th graders? the materials I have (and when I googled the topic they are used nation-wide) are so out of date (1978 and 81).

all the little things

I feel like I need a catch-up post. Many little things have happened, and I’ll save some for Friday.

I’m really getting into the idea of going to Chicago in a real way. It’s coming up! I now have an apartment assignment and I’m going to splurge on a parking space. This is all scary, because honestly, the apartment is a splurge too. I know that there were some other options, but I know that this will be the best for me this year. Anyway, the most luxurious aspect of these new living accommodations will be the elevator. Which, since I’ll be living on the second floor, is mostly just a positive for moving in.

I’m also facing the reality of holding down three jobs while working–the senior program, religious school, and a work study job. I didn’t expect to qualify for work-study, but I did. I’m nervous. I’ve never worked that much while going to school. And U of C is not a cakewalk.

In other news, my family got a puppy! It’s my dad’s birthday present and it’s been a long time coming. His name is Riley, and he’s super cute!

He’s a cross between a King Cavalier Spaniel and a Bischon Frisee. And yes, we did get him from a breeder, that was what my dad wanted.

What I did on my summer vacation

I just came back from a 5-day vacation up near Land O’Lakes, WI. Land O’Lakes is at the tip top of Wisconsin, bordering with the UP (Upper Penninsula of Michigan). I went up on Monday, the rest of my family left on Saturday. My parents, sister, and I stayed in a little 2-bedroom cabin on Lac Vieux Desert. Lac Vieux Desert is a very shallow, isolated lake. Well, the whole place is isolated. The lake is also the location of the headwaters of the Wisconsin River. One of the islands had a bald eagle nest, which was really cool. We saw many bald eagles flying around.

A Wisconsin family, through and through, we have a boat. Our boat was built in the early ’70s. We call it “Dream On.” Anyway, the old thing still works on its original engine. Like any Wisconsin family that goes “up north”, we boated, tubed, fished.

Usually, when we go up north, we stay near or in Minoqua, which a little tourist town. It was definitely isolating to stay so far away. It was about 25-30 minutes from Eagle River, another small tourist town, 20 minutes from Minoqua. It took about 10 minutes to get to Highway 45. It was gorgeous, I’m not complaining, but I’m not sure I was ready to be so far away.  I have been doing so much since April, when I got hired for the summer job, that I was not used to having the same amount of free time (especially without the internet to suck it away). It took me about the whole vacation to relax.

My sister and I spent one day at Clear Lake. Which is where we camped last summer. It was wonderful, although a little chilly. The sun kept going in and out. We swam in a little bay that we hiked to while watching a seaplane land and take-off again. We finished off that day in Minoqua with our parents, eating dinner at the Thirsty Whale and watching the Min-Aquabats ski show after a good hour of camper-watching (3 busloads of girls had invaded town). I don’t remember a time before seeing the Min-Aquabats. Which is about right, since I began vacationing up north as a baby.

Another highlight of our trip was kayaking on the Wisconsin River. Most of the Wisconsin River is straight and wide. This part, near the headwaters, was curvy (hairpin turns, seriously!) and very narrow (and shallow). My sister and I were in a double kayak, and although we’re veteran paddlers, we ran into lots of branches. Part of the problem was that we were not used to the lengthe of the double kayak. It was fun though and we laughed a lot.

On Friday, I finally got to see some UP waterfalls. We crossed over the border and visited Bond Falls (very cool) and Agate Falls (not so accessible). Bond was beautiful and the hike up to the top of the falls was very nice. We saw a group of geology students and a lone snorkler, snorkeling in the pool. Agate Falls was used for logging back in the day. The path out to it stuck out over a hill so that you could look down, but it was from the side. There was no safe and easy access to the water (although we saw some young boys jumping in it who had climbed down from the trail).

And that is what I did on my summer vacation.