L'aventure américaine

This is just a quick update as Sterling and I attempt to psych ourselves up for the biggest art fair in the country.  It's rained all day and I find that I'm wiped out after a week of school, so it's far too easy not to leave the apartment.  We probably should though. We are still settling into our place and are figuring out new roles and habits.  As I told Sterling last week, "I don't make the rules."  And he said, "Yes, you do."  And I replied, "That's true." So, our happiest new rule is that we must read the New York Times together for at least a half-hour on Sunday mornings.  Last Sunday it was much longer than a half-hour and it was wonderful.  I'm so full of useful trivia from "The New Yorker" and "RadioLab" and "The New York Times" and my classes that I don't even know what to do with myself.  Sterling does though.  He tells me to hush.  Not really, he's the best audience I'

Due to a fantastic letter (my first mail!  Car insurance was my second piece...) that requested pictures from our visit to Montana, I have posted some pictures of our days in Stevensville.  It was just a beautiful town.  I loved eating Kristie's homemade breakfasts and trying to make Waylon smile for me (he's in a shy stage.).  It was great to drink beer with Paul and watch he and Sterling bond over heavy machinery.  And their place is gorgeous.  Kristie was an amazing hostess, especially in lieu of the fact that she had little to no notice that we were coming.  In short, everyone should go visit Montana.  There are some Jochim's up there who will take good care of you. Kristie and Sterling take Jazz and Dakota for a ride. My head is cut off, but Waylon was happy, so it's a keeper! The Jochim living room; see Charlotte's windows? She is such a natural...  Mother Earth Incarnate. Happy with my family! Of course, this all seems a far cry from

I just updated my address and logged into all of my new Johns Hopkins accounts.  It asked for my emergency contact on one page.  For the first time ever, I didn't list my mom as my emergency contact.  I listed Sterling. I think that this means it's serious.

Wow.  It was an amazing vacation...  amazing.  Sterling and I saw so many beautiful places and things. Porcupines, bears, seals, whales, bison, mountain goats, prairie dogs, bald eagles and so many more things that I'm sure I haven't remembered.  The ferry rides, the mountains, the glaciers, the Pacific Ocean, the aspen groves, the wildflowers...  And a fantastic travel companion who could put up with me and I with him, so happily.  It was an epic vacation...  truly a once in a lifetime trip.   Sterling and I prepare to enter Alaska. We celebrate our entrance to Alaska! A false front in Dyea: a town that was the starting point to the Klondike Gold Rush (and the Chilkoot Pass) in 1898.  Hardly anything exists there today. Sterling is happy to be on the ferry, headed through the Inside Passage. A labyrinth that we walked outside of Juneau. Sterling in front of the Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau. Calving off the Mendenhall Glacier.  The ice always has a