Man, I've been getting behind in documenting my life. Spending too much time living it. OK, so Liz came to visit a few weeks ago, and it was an awesome week. I took three days off from work (plus the two weekend days) and effectively had a week-long vacation.
On Friday Andres, Liz and I went to El Yunque and hiked down to the waterfall, although Liz didn't dare to jump down the first waterfall. Ah well, it was really scary my first time as well. On the way down, we stopped and ate awesome Puerto Rican food as is tradition, and then, exhausted and sated, drove down the mountain with the windows down and Sigur Rós enveloping us.
That Sunday saw the premiere of the first of the new episodes of Family Guy, and American Dad, along with new episodes of The Simpsons and a few other good shows. Andrés and I made an evening out of it. We settled in, ordered pizza, and watched cartoons all evening. It was our version of Super Bowl Sunday, and the closest I'll probably ever come to being a typical guy.
On Monday we went to Baldwin and talked to our old teachers etc. Mr. Dip wasn't there to offer to take me to see his cousins again, but I did get to talk to Bill. I mentioned the feeling of musical stagnation I've been experiencing, and my desire to learn more theory. The idea came up of possibly resuming music lessons with him. He felt that technically I was beyond the level he was most effective at teaching (I've regressed enough that I'd probably disagree nowadays) but I explained that what I'm really interested in is theory — something I completely ignored when I was taking classes from him in high school. He agreed it was a viable option, but as we started to discuss possible times, we found it might be difficult. He's got kids now, so he doesn't have much time during the weekends, and work keeps me busy the entire day. So we'll have to see if we can work something out.
One surprise was that Mrs. Ledesma, my favorite teacher from high school, is back at Baldwin. She quit/was asked to leave while I was there, because they never liked her non-conservative approach to teaching. In particular, her Human Sexuality class was always a controversial point of contention. I was surprised to see her back, but happy that I got to talk to her again. She was insistent that I go to grad school and get my doctorate. I hadn't really given thought to anything beyond a masters before, but it's definitely not out of the question. Back when I was in Clemson, my original intention was to go straight to grad school from there, but I ended up finding this job instead and not wanting to pass it up. Whenever I do return to the US, that would be a logical time to go ahead and go into grad school.
Finally on Tuesday it came time for Liz to leave, and with great sadness I watched her depart. It was definitely a fun week.
The next week and a half was spent mostly uneventfully. Work kept me busy during the day, and each evening Andrés and I would watch things on the Tivo or movies he had brought down with him. Michelle and Andrea arrived from NY in the middle of the week, and we hung out with Michelle and Jóse a few days. We were basically just both waiting eagerly for Amy to come down on Saturday. Suddenly, on Thursday, Meg calls and asks if we've got room for one more, and the weekend becomes even more anticipated.
And that brings us back to Do, a.k.a. where I left off with my last post. I'll write about the last few days with Meg and Amy later, because this is long enough (also it's just about 8pm and I hear the whistle blowing and the Flintstones theme cueing up).