Extreme Vacation

This has been an excellent vacation. Although the packing was a little more involved than most vacations (a 16-foot moving truck versus a couple of suitcases), it has been everything I could want: deluxe accommodations (actually our own home), great food, movies, books, and tons of together time with my favorite person in the world.
However, many have noted that there is an ideal length for a vacation and most put it between ten days and two weeks. Having just passed the two-week mark, I think I can agree. There is a part of me that needs to be called out of bed in the morning before I feel like it, to wear shoes instead of slippers, to accomplish something that impacts someone outside my household.
Luckily I have a pre-interview today. Its mainly just to get a little clearer picture of the job I'm applying for, which will help me going into the actual interview I think. This job is something I can do and do well. It combines my interests and abilities perfectly; working with food and children on a farm. Still it is an adjustment to get my mind ready to speak professionally.

The Missing Chapter

What you may have missed while I wasn't blogging:
I joined a commune (these days we call them intentional communities).
I fell in love with a farmer.
Object of my affection actually loves me too!
We moved in together.
We hated the commune.
We moved to upstate New York.

Now you're up to date!

Life in Camphill (the commune) was a lot of work and the things that looked like they would be pros eventually turned into cons. So we decided we needed some down time and came up here a couple of weeks before J's job begins. I, as a matter of fact, have no job (though I have applied for what seems like the job of my dreams) and there is something about being on the verge of a new life though that is just not conducive to relaxation. A) I don't want to spend money on anything until I know I have a job, and this causes me to notice all the things I want to buy. B) When I moved out of Philadelphia, I thought I was leaving city life behind for good and I couldn't have been happier. Now although Hudson is a substantially less large city and it's main shopping corridor is super cute, it is nonetheless a city. And although our house is very nice (and a few rooms too large for us, really) it is nestled amongst some pretty depressing living quarters, and it makes me feel like we have a sign out front that says "we're more fortunate, rob us please!" This causes me to imagine the mail being plucked from our mail slot (impossible really). This imagination has been encouraged by the fact that my sister sent us a package, but to the wrong house number (the number she used is actually a parking lot) and the FedEx man delivered it to the house next to the parking lot (supposedly) and after watching the man at that house have a violent outburst at someone in his doorway, I'd rather not go chasing after the package. C) After taking on a level of responsibility far above his training last year, J really burnt himself out (but did an amazing job all the same). Now he has taken on more areas of agriculture in which he has no real experience and although it is on a smaller scale and is something he is actually interested in developing, he is freaking out ever so slightly.

We have much to be thankful for, but new is so often scary. As much as I hear my mother's voice telling me that its all in my attitude toward the situation, right now I'm in the rant and despair stage. But don't be too concerned! Yesterday I made a double batch of my grandmother's candy cane crisp cookies and a batch of chocolate corn flake cookies and our cookie tin is bursting. Other menu highlights for this holiday weekend include fettucini alfredo, peppermint stick ice cream, gluten free scones, scrapple, an entire ham, roasted home-grown potatoes and 3 Christmas puddings!