Ben & Jerry & Rita & Casey & Bre & I

Just got back from a walk to Ben & Jerry's (Cherry Garcia, in case you're wondering) with two of my new friends. Rita (17, Chocolate Therapy) and Casey (19, Pure Vanilla) are ESL students from Taiwan. I met Rita doing laundry last week, and her cousin Casey moved in over the weekend.

We had a great visit, and I'm looking forward to getting to know them better. Rita was astute enough to notice that the swimming coach whose teams are staying in the dorm was monitoring the girl divers' food trays in the dining hall. We all agreed that the Ben & Jerry's product wouldn't have passed nutritional muster. We took some photos, but my still camera only likes to be outside, so I'll have to try again for a post-worthy shot.

They gave me a wonderful gift from Taiwan...a small dangly curio which is going to bring me great wealth. I gave them some song cards to share with their ESL classmates.

Meanwhile, my next door neighbor, Bre, found out her financial aid has fallen through and she will be leaving the U this weekend. I'm sad about this, because she's a fun, smart person and was the first person to welcome me to the dorm.

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I have quite a bit of guitar homework, so this afternoon I took my axe down to the dorm's music room to practice. I had to check out the key and hike down, down, down through a semi-scary tunnel.

Because of the ridiculous winters, the buildings on each bank of the river are connected via a subterranean labyrinth called "The Gopher Way." This makes me a little sad, because when I was about eight my Uncle Russell and my dad took care of a "gopher problem" by using the garden hose to flood the critters out of their homes.

This did not happen to me today, thankfully. Instead I found the room and was pleased to have a gorgeous piano to use for about two hours. I'd been a little discouraged about my guitar progress, but sitting down at the piano and being completely relaxed convinced me that if I can just stick with it the guitar will feel that way, too. I don't think I ever thanked my parents for all the piano lessons, which is too bad, because it's been an uplifting constant in my life.

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Photoshop and Dreamweaver continue to baffle me. If I amass any more "For Dummies" books, I'll need to move to a bigger room.

My hat's off to the Hallmark designers and illustrators who make it look so easy. All that talk about layers and slicing just makes me hungry.

Part of the problem is my unfamiliarity with design software in general. And the other part, if I'm honest, is that I tend to live inside my brain making things up. I'm not accustomed to following directions.

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I'm a little more at ease tonight than I have been, because my two younger sons returned safely from a 2,000 mile road trip. I get nervous when too many pieces of the family puzzle are out of place at the same time. The rule should be "one upheaval at a time."

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