Crissy and Kelsey.

Meet Crissy Kirklin and Kelsey Hampton...

These two are two of my favorite people. The latter I live with in a house, and the former I live with in the form of a larger-than-life, framed, winking head-shot hung right above the bed. Needless to say, they're wonderful.

Crissy gave me the honor of taking her graduation shots and I got to do my first ever semi-real photo-shoot. Much merriment was had, despite the minor catastrophe of Al's phone deciding to acquire a life of its own and leap to its death to the bottom of Shilshole Bay (no fun, but she handled it like a star) and graduation pictures were duly secured. Then, simply because Kelse is gorgeous, we decided that she needed to be captured also. What else can you do when someone shows up (I refrained from saying "shoes" up because it's Sunday) in neon vans?

Good, fruity train...

"No, no, mustn't miss the twelve-fifteen. Good, fruity train. Everybody speaks well of it. Well, see you anon, mater. I think you'd better run like a hare."

P.G. Wodehouse ~ A Damsel In Distress

Well folks, it is finished. Finals are done, the bags packed, our graduates congratulated, and the parties partied with gusto. Today dawned the morn of my departure – of course beginning with a leisurely cup of coffee, quickly followed by a frantic hurrah to get everything packed in at the last possible second (because it is apparently impossible for me to get things organized in a timely fashion…it’s a goal of mine to make that happen at least once before I turn 30). However at 11.25, on the dot, I sat in my train seat, ticket in hand, all luggage accounted for and all limbs in semi-working order. Let me just add that this would not have been at all possible if not for the gracious souls that drove me, hurried me, fed me and hugged me off this morning…gah, I shudder sometimes to imagine where I would be without them. Either in my fully unpacked, intact room or in Wisconsin somewhere on account of boarding the wrong train.

Side note: Board with confidence after having double – no triple-checked your boarding pass whenever embarking on a journey via railway.

Having settled down with my book, delighting in that familiar feeling of adventure that chugging trains or humming airplanes stirs up in me, my heart stopped altogether when I heard the conductor announce:

“Ladies and gentleman, we have a full train to Chicago today, so if you will make sure that luggage is stored…”

Chicago? Oh no.

As it turns out, the train, on its merry way to Chicago, IL, stops in Bingen, WA. Naturally.

I was spat out of the very glamorous, overnight, Chicago-bound train after roughly an hour, at a little shed with not a human soul in sight. All was quiet, save for the wind and the occasional freight train that clamored by. I sat there alone on my rolley-suitcase, in my cowboy boots, thinking about what a dramatic picture it all made when all of a sudden, the aubergine-hued Rubesh minivan containing cousins of all ages showed up to my rescue. What does one do with a gaggle of Rubeshes after a successful save-the-lost-aunt mission? Mexican food, of course.

And so my travels this summer began. May all the moving too and fro to follow be equally as eventful.

Now I am home and basking in the glow of all that is off-roading, shooting guns, coffee with my wonderful family, the littles, Poncho the cat, celebrating birthdays left, right and centre, Mongolian food, mojitos, sleeping in and glorious stars.

…and just a few more days before the next epic adventure begins.

On New Beginnings.

I have decided to begin a blog. Now, I love to write and it warms me to the cockles of my soul that the words “begin” and “blog” share not one, but two points of alliteration…but the real motivation behind this endeavor is the Rubesh diaspora (and friends). We are everywhere. No joke. So really, what better way to extend the hand of news and musings than via the world wide web.

And so commences yet another well-reasoned-out filler of my time. I have many of these, dear reader, all equally valid and constructive…cross word puzzles and Sudoku for instance (I’ve heard it prevents dementia in old age). Or creating facebook photo albums. Sometimes coming up with an album title alone will take a good forty minutes or so. I’m going on album number fifty eight, a collection of carefully crafted gems entitled things like “Jamboree: A Large Celebration, typically lavish and boisterous”, “A Christmas Carol of Carefree Vitality” or “Picky Chipmunks”…the name of the latter coming from a certain hike that Kels, Mel and I decided to embark upon, which somehow ended in feeding chipmunks granola on top of a mountain, in our swim suits. The chipmunk had his preferences. Needless to say, I enjoy words. This is why I’m an English major.

I’m writing to you from a time of upheaval and academic unrest. T’is finals week – a week marked by tears, sighs, groans, untold numbers of chocolate wrappers, pizza boxes and coffee cups and – as Seattle would have it – sun. Praise the good Lord for that. I don’t quite understand why the Sun, after weeks of missed opportunity, decided to make an appearance during the one week we cant enjoy it, but at least it has given rise to raised spirits, summer dresses and a glimmer of hope at the end of an ugly tunnel of stress.

On that note, I must confess that I’m not an avid fan of stress and choose, for the most part, to either ignore it or avoid it altogether. My week therefore began with a good cup of coffee (this is a prime start to any day), a new outfit, an 8 AM final (which, I can happily now say went decently well), a crossword in the sun and strawberries and granola with a dear friend (thank you, Dave). May the rest of this day followed by the rest of this week be equally as pleasant.

And so I raise my mug to the homestretch. For all you final-takers…fear not, summer is around the corner, whatever goes down this week. Take a couple minutes to enjoy the sun, study well, breath and unwrap another Twix. There is always good in the world.