Busy weeks

It's been a while since I've written. The last few weeks - the last month really - has been really busy. Although technically the fiscal years ends at the end of September, we spend the next month finishing out everything for that fiscal year - submitting all of our financial reports, program reports, quarterly reports, etc. I had a couple of major deadlines at the end of October. Praise God those are done! One was a quarterly report for the last quarter of the fiscal year; the other was a response to the fed's response to our proposal...now I just have one monitoring report to finish up (from the trip I took in August) - then everything for the fiscal year should be wrapped up...

Fall is definitely upon us. The fall foliage is just beautiful. One of the things I love about living on the East Coast is the change of seasons and the beautiful fall colors. Unfortunately, along with the change of seasons comes the cold...BRRRR. I'm never ready for the cold, no matter how many years I've spent in places with cold winters (the Chicago area, Bosnia and now Maryland). Perhaps I'll always be a California girl when it comes to the weather...

This last week I got up in the wee hours one morning and went to New York City for a meeting. With my new role at work I'll probably be going up there about every other month. I hadn't been to NY in about 4 years, so it was great to go back. Although I can't imagine living in a crowded, busy place like NYC, it's a great place to visit - lots of activities and things to do. One of these days I'm going to stay for a long weekend and go see some Broadway shows. You can't live on the East Coast and not go to Broadway! I haven't been to any shows since I lived in Chicago - where I saw Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables...The funny thing about my trip to NY is that it took me longer to get there and back (about 5 hours round trip) than the length of my meeting (about 3 hours).....but the train ride was great and it was nice to just have some quiet, down time - no phone calls, interruptions or meetings....And the ride was very scenic with all of the fall colors (see picture, top right). After the meeting I made the mistake of walking from the meeting on Second Ave. back to Penn Station with some colleagues...I love my Italian shoes, but they were not meant for walking all over Manhattan! Needless to say I ended with a few blisters...Ouch!

This weekend has been full of activity. Yesterday I went to a bridal shower for my friend Mandy, who's eloping and getting married in California next week. They've rented a private beach in Monterey for the ceremony.

One of the not so fun things about home ownership is the responsibility that goes along with it. I have a massive Maple tree in the front yard and when the weather starts getting colder, my yard is covered with leaves (see picture, top left). Today I'm really sore because I spent hours yesterday raking and bagging leaves - 17 bags so far this season! And I have about another 5 bags left to go. As it is, lots of people are stopping by my house, looking to make some extra money - asking if they can rake up the leaves for me. My philosophy is, as long as I'm strong and healthy (and can make the time), I'll do it myself...but it is definitely hard physical labor...I used muscles I didn't even know I had! I also had to defrost the freezer yesterday. For some reason I've had massive ice build up in my freezer since I've been back from India. So I defrosted the whole thing and just started over - that seems to have done the trick...let's hope...

Today I took a personal retreat day and drove up to Pennsylvania to get away. The Pennsylvania state line is less than an hour from Baltimore. I drove to York, Pennsylvania which is about 20 miles north of the border. Had breakfast at a small Greek diner - with great decorations, then sat by a creek and just enjoyed my surroundings - spent some time in the Word - just what the doctor ordered...couldn't find a Starbucks for the life of me. Hard to imagine life without Starbucks! That's small town life, I suppose...

In less than 2 weeks I'll be heading home to California for Thanksgiving. I'm really looking forward to it. It'll be nice to take some vacation time - and to spend time with the family. My sister and I - and a couple of friends will be heading to Yosemite for a day trip. I can't wait. I've never been, which is embarrassing considering I'm a California native. And I'm definitely going to head to the beach at least once. I can't be home and not go to the beach.