Sept 1: Virginia visit
Returned yesterday from a week spent visiting with Susan, my cousin who just moved back from Italy, and her daughter Emily. While I took my laptop down it was acting strangely with her hook-up. I could check mail and do a couple basic things on her laptop, but was thrown by the set-up of her keyboard, which is set up for European use. It has some different letters and symbols, which changes the set-up of the keyboard and kept me from typing with any speed, so elected to wait until home.
We had an action-packed week including a couple visits into Washington DC, going to Mt Vernon and the National Zoo. If you've never had the opportunity to visit the area it is really worth it, although the Zoo wasn't as great as some. But the new work done at Mt Vernon is just terrific. Going to the museums, which are supported by our tax dollars, is nice because you don't feel obligated to spend the entire day there as there is no admission fee. But you have to pay to get entrance into anything other than the displays, which is how they make their money. I went on my own to the National Art Gallery, found that about 5 hours was all I could physically take, also taking into account walking and using the Metro system. Emily, almost 14, came with me Monday and we explored the Natural Science Museum, which was just fabulous. Emily's favorite part was the collection of jewels, including the Hope Diamond. My favorite part was the live butterflies: you go into a room about 100 feet long by about 15 feet wide, filled with plants. Butterflies are flying all around, many more cocoons are there so the supply is replenished. Turns out they have a life expectancy of about two weeks. A couple landed on each of us, and it was wonderful to have them fluttering around us. It also turned out that they had some nice minerals and stones for sale in the shop, made much more reasonable by my being a member of Smithsonian and getting a 20% discount. It enabled me to add to my crystal collection, which I continue to use for crystal healing and therapy, although haven't done anything interesting of late.
Emily is preparing to start 9th grade next week and is understandably stressed out. Starting high school is bad enough, but this is a new school in a new country with a language that she speaks well but has never had to deal with classes like math and science. And she doesn't know anyone. We are all trying to reassure her that she'll adjust quickly and make friends, but that doesn't make it less scary.
I continue to be pleased with my endurance, although it's helped by resting frequently. Slow and steady wins the race, so in addition to my zebra status as a medical case I also seem to have become a turtle as well. Isn't that a bizarre combo?!
The visit was marred by news from home at the end......See next post.
Thanks for checking in, Laurie
We had an action-packed week including a couple visits into Washington DC, going to Mt Vernon and the National Zoo. If you've never had the opportunity to visit the area it is really worth it, although the Zoo wasn't as great as some. But the new work done at Mt Vernon is just terrific. Going to the museums, which are supported by our tax dollars, is nice because you don't feel obligated to spend the entire day there as there is no admission fee. But you have to pay to get entrance into anything other than the displays, which is how they make their money. I went on my own to the National Art Gallery, found that about 5 hours was all I could physically take, also taking into account walking and using the Metro system. Emily, almost 14, came with me Monday and we explored the Natural Science Museum, which was just fabulous. Emily's favorite part was the collection of jewels, including the Hope Diamond. My favorite part was the live butterflies: you go into a room about 100 feet long by about 15 feet wide, filled with plants. Butterflies are flying all around, many more cocoons are there so the supply is replenished. Turns out they have a life expectancy of about two weeks. A couple landed on each of us, and it was wonderful to have them fluttering around us. It also turned out that they had some nice minerals and stones for sale in the shop, made much more reasonable by my being a member of Smithsonian and getting a 20% discount. It enabled me to add to my crystal collection, which I continue to use for crystal healing and therapy, although haven't done anything interesting of late.
Emily is preparing to start 9th grade next week and is understandably stressed out. Starting high school is bad enough, but this is a new school in a new country with a language that she speaks well but has never had to deal with classes like math and science. And she doesn't know anyone. We are all trying to reassure her that she'll adjust quickly and make friends, but that doesn't make it less scary.
I continue to be pleased with my endurance, although it's helped by resting frequently. Slow and steady wins the race, so in addition to my zebra status as a medical case I also seem to have become a turtle as well. Isn't that a bizarre combo?!
The visit was marred by news from home at the end......See next post.
Thanks for checking in, Laurie
posted by Laurie @ 12:36 PM
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