Some of my favorite pics from our trip cross-country

Dusk at Roan Mountain, before the big rain storm. My my, beautiful country.

a circus in its own right

http://burlington.craigslist.org/car/579342719.html - first item of the evening. what do you think? or this one http://boston.craigslist.org/nos/car/589187059.html

second, what a crazy place burlington is. and i had just been telling people that i felt a relatively small "surprise" factor in my life lately (not necessarily a bad thing, but i do miss it), i ended up having a surprising night and surprisingly similar night to the one you described to me earlier. first i went to hailey's place to have a glass of wine before dinner, and knowing hails i thought we'd go to a fairly nice place with over-priced dishes with a chic atmosphere and unimpressive chicken - but no, i was wrong this time. we pulled up to a place with huge windows and bright white flourescent lighting pouring onto the street. a lit up plastic sign with two asian words i couldn't pronounce and hand drawn signs in the window. turns out, it was a pretty delicious and favorably cheap vietnamese place that served me the biggest bowl of rice noodles and peanut sauce - so delicious! and only 6 bucks! we could get one of those to share this summer when we celebrate a vietnamese holiday or something.

then i made my way to the new barack obama headquarters in burlington and it was a crew i met there. an interesting little thing about obama is how he can pull people from all walks of life into the same room. (black) suits and (hippie) skirts, total wackos and middlebury grads. i got a ride home (to carols) with a guy that looked homeless and crazy but insisted that North Ave was too dangerous for me to walk on alone at night. He drove a big truck and wanted to show me how he could go up on the curb and cut through the snowbanks - really wowed me!! i started to doubt my own supposed rational decision making when over the course of five minutes the guy seemed to degenerate to a state of craziness, 7 straight run-on sentances and some sure signs of terrets syndrome. but thats okay, i think he was tired, he is afterall a full-time convert to the obama campaign, and he probably just really wants him to win or something. carol let me get in the car with him so i figured it'd be okay. and it was.

until next time, mi amor - the sweetest of dreams.

Love Em

since u been gone...

i've been talking to dave zuckerman - vt legislator and intervale farmer - about some ideas i have for brighter planet to work with the intervale (wanna hear 'em? i 'll tell you in mexico...) but i also threw into one e-mail an inquiry about summer hires - with you in mind, not me...his wife rachel got back to me and said they are starting to hire now! and that if you are interested, you should be in touch...so i thought i would pass that on and let you check out their farm and all the other farms on the intervale. of course, i realize it was a bit pre-emptive to ask about hiring for the summer because i know you just said that it was an idea of yours to work on the intervale, but i think i was secretly interested in the intervale myself (i mean, not too secretly, ive always been curious) and got excited thinking about the summer.

so anyway, check this site out http://www.intervale.org/list_of_farms/index.shtml and check out Dave and Rachel on the Full Moon Farm - csa, berries, yum, yum, etc etc. and check him out literally:



and i also found this while searching: www.newfarm.org

i gotta run now, going to burlington with julia, for a surprise!!

more later,
love EM

decisions to make

josue! look! maybe i'm just easily satisfied, but im about to give you a virtual tour of the apartment that i saw last night and is just oh so great. and it can be ours for the months of june, july and august when you just say "yes, my dear!"

first, there is a mudroom upon entering, and then stairs right away...


then you enter the living room, with a dining nook -- these bay windows are facing west..

then, around to the left (of that ugly computer - the current renters will be taking that) is the perfect little kitchen - it looks like its an original from the 50's!

and had you taken a right at the top of the stairs, there is a bathroom, a big closet and then the pretty sizeable, western facing bedroom! take a look at this pic, and while i didn't take a picture of it, all the way to the left there is a door that goes out to a tiny porch! its big enough for a chair and some pots for plants, but its actually just this strange feature that makes it one of those little details of a cool apartment...
and last not least, a view from the outside, its dark but you can still see it well - its the second floor apartment...

so, my dear, look and tell me what you think. we've got a few days to get back to them, but i was the first to look and so we can be the first in line to have the place. the move-in date can be as early as may 15th because they are moving to nyc for the summer, and they are going to pay may's rent! when does keec go to? and are you taking the job sir or not? im excited to hear. also, the (engaged) couple said that they will take out any furniture we dont want, and since the ikea style is not really one we share, i think the living room and bedroom will be ours to furnish however we please. we can have this new bed that i am getting from cidermill, a couch from there, my table and chairs and a new trunk, etc etc. Still need to find a record player so we can play the hank williams record and any others that find their way to us...

im going to leave you with this, because we had a pretty decent snow storm the other day. shovelling my car off was not quite as ridiculous as the valentines day blizzard, but since i did it by myself it was. a good 45 minute ordeal i'd say, but i was pretty happy to do it. this means there is going to be good snow long past march 10th, which means we gotta get back to the kingdom for some spring skiing in the mountains! get ready jake and cathie...


so josh, its time now to make a decision, and i dont want you to feel that this decision is all on you - because its not - but i want to hear your thoughts and reaction to this very real thing that we have only just talked about in the past, but now its time! maybe you can write and let me know, or perhaps we will even talk one of these days? how long have you been gone - nearly 10 days now. i hope you still remember this sweet girl who is thinking about you alot and missing you alot too.

the "last time" to get really sick?

once again, i am defending my dislike for "the lasts". since wednesday, i've heard it many times, gotten suckered into gatherings i would otherwise be uninterested in attending (ironic, because the silly bunny-ranch party was the now infamous one that you and i talked about "getting really wasted" at months ago!), stayed out long past the bedtime of my body and soul, and have woken up sounding worse and worse each morning. alas, just one more night of this!

but why am i writing to tell you such insignificant and seemingly whiny thoughts of mine? because josue, i'm realizing that you've done something to me, that we have done something to each other. i sense that my standards for enjoyment have evolved, yet again, or perhaps returned to be a bit less oriented toward adventuring and being social and dare i say more wholesome than my dear friends here who are graduating...i guess i do understand how different it is for all of them who are leaving middlebury in the next few days, but i just wish we could think of better things to do together, like go cross country skiing or walk around the trails on moosalamoo!

(2 days later, Sunday morning) ahhhhhhhh, now i understand! i made it until 3 am last night!! i woke up tired, but i dont think it was from too much drinking -- just dancing all night long with everyone. really different music, more nyc thompson davis and andy rossmeissl style than what im used to, but still very fun. i think once every few months i can pull a night off like that - like the whole chinese buffet deal. speaking of chinese food, did you ever go before leaving for mexico?

(switching to 20th century now)

thankyou for the correspondence from mexico, i received yesterdays letters to day! it was good of you to think of me and to take time out of your adventures to write. how wonderful and different it sounds there! and while part of me wishes this could be something we were doing together, time will come for that, and the time for that is perhaps not just yet. island life...do you think we should be looking at other islands for the fall? do you know if you could get credit for linnea through college of the atlantic, if you were to do it? you'll hear so much about it in the four weeks you are with those two girls...wait, you did NOT tell me there would be girls on the trip.

i had all 5 adler brothers here last night for a a few hours, and "damn" is about all i can say about that. it was so telling, so rediculous. and needless to say, the house is a mess and julia moves in today/tomorrow...so i need to use the bit of energy i have right now to clean some. i love and miss you and hope i can hear more about the course and the people and maybe even see pictures soon?

all of my love, josue.
i'm missing your touch and your laugh and your company - but at least you arent smelling my farts.

love,
em

growing up

josh! where do i start...well, first i will tell you that as i read this description of you, i could totally see you there. you see, i just looked at all of olivia's photos from huangshan and she said the exact same thing about feeling like she was inside of a Dr. Suess book, with the truffala trees. and i saw them there in the pictures, stunning and unlike anything we have seen before. to think that you were looking at them not in pictures but right in front of you is a wonderful thought, and i hope to go there or somewhere equally incredible some day with you. as i was reading, i was not surprised, but reminded of how you are such a damn good writer. its interesting to me that you might think of all your thoughts and anxieties as complex and at times controlling your mind, because the way that you write about your experiences and thoughts are as if there is no confusion what so ever. that you have untangled a great mess and can now articulate it to the world (or just to one lucky lady) and i love that feeling, because i think i have had it before. and about those feelings of yours, i am so glad that you could make this very important distinction between the so-called peace in a relationship (although its ever-fluctuating and evolving) and the peace that you have within yourself. indeed, i believe that they are very connected. for instance, i think that since falling so in love with you over the last nine months, my idea of what peace within has changed dramatically. i am less intent upon finding that close-to-perfect place to live, job, roommates, etc. etc. and I have begun to give parts of myself to you in a way that sees our lives, happiness, contentedness interconnected in many ways. but as you articulated in your last letter, we cannot be and should not be interconnected and therefore dependent on each other on every level. and that is when it becomes important to listen to both each other and ourselves when deciding what we want to do each (proverbial) day we are together.

and that realization that you are on your own for nearly the first time and what kind of effect its having on your psyche--i have thought about this before too-- just the feeling that you are under some sort of pressure (not the pressure-cooker we know all too well), a pressure to figure out something amazing for yourself and to figure it out quickly. but joshua, i am here to say that you do not have to figure it out quickly. because nothing actually goes quickly except falling in love with each other, right? the quickness is otherwise perceived or self-imposed, but not real. where i am sitting now (al's couch, where we watch the world series together, nobody here, just writing while al showers) the room is quiet, the house is calm, and while the snow is coming down very hard now, i too am at peace here. its my huangshan. i saw some of my friends for the first time in a while last night--caitlin, carol, em and olivia. we very spontaneously decided to go poach the franklin hottub and hang out under the beautiful sky together. and while the evening was lovely, i wanted to come home to you and as i walked into my dark room, i even thought there might be a nice boy lying in my bed, waiting for me. but when i turned the light on, you were not there!

oh josh, i have had a couple of really wonderful conversations about love recently, with christina and then olivia, and not that i necessarily needed reassurance, but both conversations just left me with such a strong sense of the fact that i am so excited about us. excited that we have gotten to know each other so well, that we have been patient in times of confusion and that we are able to talk about what we want to do together in the near and distant future...

speaking of which, i might spend some time looking for plane tickets for our romantic getaway! im still hoping that olivia might stop being stupid with stephen so that we can go to cuba, but then again, i also just want to be somewhere where i am a total stranger to everyone except you.

i love and miss you, hope that our next date might be december 22nd at otter creek yoga, or maybe the night before.

love,
em

money and love

“It was tough to do anything else,” Mr. Yorke said during Radiohead’s first extensive interviews since the release of the album. “The worst-case scenario would have been: Sign another deal, take a load of money, and then have the machinery waiting semi-patiently for you to deliver your product, which they can add to the list of products that make up the myth, la-la-la-la.”

Signing a new major-label contract “would have killed us straight off,” he added. “Money makes you numb, as M.I.A. wrote. I mean, it’s tempting to have someone say to you, ‘You will never have to worry about money ever again,’ but no matter how much money someone gives you — what, you’re not going to spend it? You’re not going to find stupid ways to get rid of it? Of course you are. It’s like building roads and expecting there to be less traffic.”

....and if you want the whole article, you can read it here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/arts/music/09pare.html?_r=1&ref=arts&oref=slogin

whoa! months later! i just found this half-written post that i started when you were in China! as I recall, I thought of you when i stumbled upon this article...and i think that even if the musical creations of Thom Yorke have never impressed you much, you still might be impressed by his perspective on the music industry and other less tangible things in life....

more coming