All This Time Passed: Things is Good!

It sounds like my mom is sad that I may never get around to documenting our time together in the mountains of Spain (Navalonguilla) so I will try to get around to that. I also need to get around to talking about my weekend in Chicago and how much I loved that city and returning to my home state. I need to do a better job blogging about my mom's wonderful visit here to Atlanta (two visits in a week!). I reconnected with some elementary school friends, as well, and want to write about that. I'm overdue talking about some of the nice new places I've gotten to check out (Noni's--a special wonderful beautiful restaurant in Edgewood; Cakes and Ale; and Leon's Full Service). I've gotten to do some amazing hiking up Tray Mountain and Brasstown Bald--quite possibly one of the best (the best?) hike I've ever done in the area, as my mom and Ben can testify! I need to blog about two beer clubs, but I'm gonna ditch that idea right now because we've started a new blog about Beer Club. We are meeting today. Theme? Pairings.

But I'll get around to doing that all...sometime!

In other news, these past few weeks have been pretty up and down. I've had some concerns about lots of things going on in my life, and adjusting to the longterm outlook in Atlanta has simply not been easy. What's wrong, you ask? Well, nothing, exactly. But settling in and getting acquainted with friends, understanding my job, resolving a health issue--all these things have taken their toll on me. I've tried to come to the understanding that all these things take time, and I must be patient, but for some reason that just didn't help me to cope these past few weeks. I have been so lucky in having a few friends here who have grounded me. I'm lucky too, in being with Ben, who's gone above and beyond hangout duty. I've been getting into running--often running several miles every day of the week.

The good--no, great--news is that I went away for 5 days with Katherine/Wilson/Dominique/Miyo/Ben up to Ringrock, the house in Northern Minnesota. It was a quintessential winter wonderland--tons of snow, beauty, ice. The requiste activities were done: skiing, hiking on the frozen lake, reading, cooking, saunaing in the classic wood-burning sauna, eating at the Ely Steakhouse. I even bought a new winter coat for winter activities, to help boost the economy. Lots of game-playing, too, occured. Wilson and I went crazy for Geografacts (he dominates Africa, I held down Europe, putting my GFC knowledge to use--together, we got Asia!) We also played Taboo and tried to play a game called "Expose Yourself" with some of the dumber questions I've seen in a game. We avoided "Therapy."

We arrived in Minneapolis a bit early and got to eat at Snuffy's malt shop. The chocolate malt, a real classic, was shared with four straws. Also a highlight was checking out the Elizabeth Peyton's "Live Forever" reviewed in the New Yorker and the Times. My favorite is below (which just happens to be called "Flower Ben"):
Kind of surprisingly, we had an awesome creative and organic meal at the airport! I had some vegan (?!) corn arepas with soysage, balsamic reduction, and spinach. Delish!

But back to my earlier idea about good news. In taking a step back and getting a chance to update lots of folks about where I was in life, I realized how much good had happened in the last few weeks. I was able to really zoom out and appreciate it all! My job is going really well, I'm making friends at work, my health issue is resolved. And I'm enjoying Atlanta! I feel happy.

Also, there is so much to look forward to. Cheap airtickets have allowed Ben and me to get tickets to Boston and to Chicago for this spring. I'm going to Niger for work sometime soon. Mimi and Al come Saturday to ATL, and we'll go to Alvin Ailey and the High Museum to see the Chinese Terra Cotta soldiers and maybe even King Tut. I definitely don't want to see the Bodies exhibit. Grey's Anatomy is enough for me! I also really want to play bocce ball.

YAY!