In other news, one of my good friends from Salem, Kathy Ann, drove up from Alabama and stayed with me Wednesday to this morning (Friday). We got a chance to metro-in to D.C., checked out the Hirshhorn Museum (very cool), played with bubbles in the park, met up with an old friend of hers, and ate some good Irish food at Fado’s near Chinatown. All-in-all I think she had a good time and I was sad to see her go! She’s headed up north to New Hampshire to work with Americorps. It’s nice to reconnect with Salem friends since we’ve all graduated and moved on. It has been hitting me especially hard since I keep seeing Facebook updates from the younger classes talking about moving back in. Last week my friend Sellen came up from Georgia and spent a night. We took a cab to Adam’s Morgan so she could see the craziness that is there. I’m pretty sure she had a few good stories to take with her up to Connecticut.

As for me, I stumbled on an amazing opportunity up in Pennsylvania. My eventing friend Nate helped me get in touch with Phillip Dutton, an Australian-born eventer who has been to the Olympics a few times and won gold for Australia twice. I spoke with him and his wife, Evie, and worked out a temporary position as a working student at his farm. Basically I will be working 7am-4pm 6 days a week on the farm in exchange for the opportunity to work with one of the eventing world’s greatest riders. I know that I will learn a lot about myself and am really looking forward to the experience. Sully and I will be heading up there on August 12th, so be ready for lots of those updates! I plan to blog about it as much as I can (though some days I will just be too tired).

 Also, this Sunday I am heading down to Litchfield Beach with the family (mom, dad, Tristan, grandma, 2 aunts, 2 uncles, 3 cousins, 2 significant others, and 2 kids of my cousin!). Hopefully it won’t rain too much and I’ll be able to relax a little before my big trip up north. We’re staying right in Inlet Point, so it’ll be convenient to the shops and things down there that we always go to. I’m ready for it!