Before I Go On...

I said I’d talk more about the Foreign Service Officer Test, and I shall, but first, some comments about Southampton. During the time that I was in Chicago and Princeton, all the hedges filled out and loads of flowers bloomed. It’s gorgeous out here. I’m outside writing this, in fact. I always wondered how those people on TV could look at their computer screens outside, and I must admit, I can’t see much, but it’s just warm enough and breezy enough and sunny enough and overcast enough for me to give it a try (as opposed to yesterday, when it was chilly and misty and it was fine to be inside for most of the day). It’s still not a beach day every day, but I am taking more walks by the ocean and also longer bike rides. So many birds to watch! I need to position the bird book on the table where I usually write. The market has fresh local strawberries, which might be the best I have ever tasted. This time of year always amazes me – the days are so long! And, perhaps more amazing in a way, soon I will be in a place where day length doesn’t change much, and then I’ll come back and the days will be short, the trees and hedges will be bare, and the cycle will begin again.


Today I did my first race since the Marrakesh half-marathon, a 5K (well, 4.97), http://www.christophersrun.com/index.htm. Reading the story of Christopher on the web site warmed my heart – I know there are so many similar stories but something about the small-town feel out here made it more personal. Indeed, when I got a banana at the finish line (and fresh local strawberries), the volunteer there said she was Christopher’s speech therapist, and the person next to me getting food was also related to Christopher (though it sounded like the said he was Christopher’s nephew’s uncle, or that his girlfriend was, so I’m not sure of the connection). I loved doing this run – community integration! On the way back to the bike (yes, it was a bike-walk-run-walk-bike – a quintathlon! I locked my sister’s bike some distance away, since I had gotten busted by a cop this week for riding on one of the two streets in the village that don’t allow bikes – not a ticket, just an admonition to walk the bike, but that was my sign that high season has arrived) I passed Alex’s Lemonade Stand – the volunteers there said that since I ran for a cause this morning I could have some free lemonade, but instead I put the five-dollar bill I had with me in the donations jar.


I should also mention that this week I have been enjoying the Stanley Cup finals and was thrilled that the series went seven games (and that they were for the most part so compelling). I watched a lot of the playoffs (once I found Versus on the home system here). I hadn’t watched a lot of hockey since the lockout but, spurred on by the Blackhawks game I saw in February, I remembered how much I liked hockey. I went 27 months without that too! And just like that, now it’s the hockey off-season.