She's Just The Right Combination of Flexible and Anal-Retentive

The above is a direct quote from my boss, made yesterday morning in reference to my work preparing the script revision pages for the second day of rehearsals. I took it as the compliment it was intended to be, and asked if I could quote her on that. She said she'd be sure to stick it in any letters of recommendation she writes for me. :-)

Well, it's been an amazing first few weeks living out here on the East Side. And I guess I actually haven't posted a blog update since South Dakota. Wow, a lot of ground covered since then... So, brief overview:

The morning after my last post was one of those absurd days when everything goes just slightly wrong. I miss tours, am charged outrageous entry fees, get lost in obnoxious seas of tourists, drift three hours behind my planned driving schedule, am bitten by vicious flies who find their way into my car and attack my ankles as I'm driving, and then, after I've finally taken a moment to pull over and journal and get over some of my frustration, I get back on the road and am pulled over for speeding, and then an hour later a crazy lightning storm rolls in and I'm forced to try to find a place to pull in early because I'm driving through freaking flat-as-a-pancake South Dakota, and who knows what could happen if I drive into the middle of this puppy. Oy.

After that things got better. The next morning I stopped at the Archeodome, which is this amazing archaeology site excavating an old Native American village, with fascinating displays, and I made friends with a British archaeology student working there. Then I drove through Minnesota, stopped briefly to follow some signs to the Spam Museum (which, sadly, was closed), drove into Wisconsin and down along the Mississippi River, took a quick detour across the border into Iowa so I could say I'd been there (and was treated to a glorious, quiet sunset over the river, complete with cricket chirps and fireflies... all that was missing was the faraway pinging of a banjo), drove with relentless determination until 2 in the morning, and finally made it to my friend Donna's house in Milwaukee.

I stayed with her for the next few days, playing some frisbee golf (I am horrible at frisbee golf), meeting her roommates and other fellow med students, making several forays into Madison to spend time with some very cool friends, and of course picking up Harry Potter Seven at a midnight release party at the Milwaukee Public Library (which was lots of fun). Sadly, I had to wait almost 48 hours, the book sitting temptingly by my side the whole time, while I spent another day in Wisconsin hanging out with friends and then drove through Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan to meet up with my family, before I could actually dive headfirst into reading it.

The book was amazing, but I won't say more in case any of my readers haven't finished it yet, for some insane reason or other (seriously, what are you thinking? turn off the computer now, and get going!). And Michigan with the family was glorious, as always. So good to have everyone together for the first time in a long time (and the first time ever for a few of the newcomers). Fun times hanging out around the house, picking blackberries, playing games, swimming in the lake, going minigolfing, etc. The CLUE play starred six of the seven grandchildren (one had gone to bed and played his role in absentia) and was a wild success--or at least, a cursory (as in, fictional) internet search has revealed no written reviews to contradict such an optimistic claim.

All too soon it was time to press onward, so I drove through the rest of Michigan and into Canada, making it to Niagara Falls by nightfall in time to catch them lit up in all their nocturnal splendor. I spent the night there and the next morning took a few hours to walk around and explore in the daylight. A glorious place--I highly recommend a visit if you ever have the chance. Then I drove through New York and Pennsylvania, and managed to make it into Princeton by the evening.

There I managed to find my apartment, and was welcomed by Brent Ferguson, husband of one of the leaders of my high school Bible study group and former attendee of Princeton Seminary. They still live in the area, with a two-year-old daughter and another on the way (or possibly arrived--I haven't spoken with them in about a week...) Brent came bearing a welcoming assortment of food, milk, and OJ to tide me over until I could get to the grocery store, and some maps to find my way around. He also helped me pick my bedroom from the two available. I opted for the "treehouse" (as nicknamed by McCarter's company manager, who apprently described the room thus only to me out of the apartment's three incoming occupants, so I think I was getting the attic room spin sell from the get-go)--a cozy room up my own little flight of stairs, with sloped ceilings that get about six feet high at the tallest point (which gives me a good two inches of clearance--plenty!) and really does have a lovely tree just outside the window. The first few days it was pretty intolerably toasty up here, but I've since fixed the air conditioner and now I am loving my arboreal sanctuary.

In the next couple of days I met my two roommates--Raegan, the development intern, who hails from Texas, and Heather, in stage management, and originally from Connecticut. They're both very cool people, fun to live with, responsible about cleaning and house maintenance, and chill but friendly. It seems like a good situation. I started work on August 1st, and it's been a whirlwind since then. I've already written a pretty extensive blog post about my first week and a half of work for McCarter's blog page, so you can check that out if you want more specifics about what I've been up to at work so far. In addition to working, I've had a little chance to explore the area, and I've been able to hang out with my friend Jess, who is just starting at the seminary, and who has introduced me to a bunch of her seminarian friends, all of whom are very cool, and with whom I have so far cooked pasta, played Apples to Apples (yes! I know!), gone bowling, and gone out for ice cream. Fun times.

The area is incredibly beautiful, with absolutely amazing architecture, and the people are all really cool. I went to the grocery store today, and everyone was so nice! Other people were actually dancing along to the grocery store music (I'm usually the only one...) and the guy ahead of me in the checkout line and I had a lengthy conversation about lentils and treacle and soup and other food-related adventures. I get to walk through campus on the way between home and work, and pretty much every building looks like a castle. I'll probably post some photos soon, and you can see for yourself if you've never been out here. We also live right next to the cemetary, which is actually a kind of nice place to sit in the shade and read or journal (I feel like Anne of Green Gables, or of Windy Harbor or wherever it is that she lives right near a cemetary and loves to go walk around in it). Grover Cleveland and Aaron Burr are both buried in there, in case you wanted some random Princeton Cemetary trivia... Or in case for you (like Allie) Grover Cleveland is your favorite Grover Cleveland.

Anyway, the point is, I am completely loving living here, and the internship is cool, and my living situation is cool, and I think this is going to be a very good year. And now I'd better get to bed so I can get some sleep before work tomorrow. More later!