September Brings New Beginnings

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Here it is September and at Skidmore College where I work, the second week of classes has started. My daughter Tricia has happily enrolled in an art class here in pursuit of personal fulfillment and developing her incredible artistic talent (says her mother!). In the College's museum, where my day job (and sometimes nights and weekends!) is Events Manager, we've opened a wonderful new exhibition, Classless Society.

September is that month of new beginnings for almost everyone associated with the academic world, whether you're a student, a teacher, an administrator, or know someone who is. Those of us who are not currently affected by an academic calendar can recall that time in our lives when September meant a big transition. In the movie "You've Got Mail," Meg Ryan's character speaks fondly of this time of year, imagining "bouquets of sharpened pencils" along with other hallmarks of a brand new season.

The biggest new beginning in this house is that my grandson Henry started kindergarten last week. It's a huge deal for all of us as we witness his excitement and the newness of this next phase in his young life. Little brother Peter starts nursery school this week, and he can't wait.  Here's a photo of "my boys" anticipating Henry's school bus that first day...

This September is a month of birthdays for good friends, a wonderful sister-in-law, and the very first birthday for the just-born grandson of my very good friend Sue. She's spending this week in Boston bonding with her daughter and brand-new family. Sue retired from Skidmore a few years ago, and we still get together once a week to have lunch. This past Friday, my friend Kim and I had planned a very small (just the three of us!) surprise Grandma shower for Sue to celebrate baby Louis's birth, but since it was a surprise Sue wasn't aware what we were up to and had to cancel to get some things done before leaving for Boston to meet the baby. So, Kim and I had our shower-less lunch and I brought our new-grandma gifts and lemon confetti cupcakes to Sue later that day.

My own new beginning commences tomorrow night at 8 pm when I begin a 12-hour fast prior to medical testing for a 10-week food study with Skidmore's Exercise Science program. It's a big commitment and a big change, one that I'm very excited about. It'll be days of supplements in the form of bars and shakes, with my own snack and dinner. I'll be cooking up lean-and-green meals over the next 10 weeks, inspired by a number of resources including a few really interesting boards on Pinterest.  It's not going to be Caesar salad and grilled chicken every night of the week, that's for sure. I need more excitement than that! It's good to know that I can eat out and choose from a variety of protein and veggies. The fact that there is little room for decision making is actually a benefit to me. I've done a number of Skidmore studies in the past (guess I enjoy being a Guinea pig), and I am never so compliant as when the results are important to a larger purpose. It's a privilege to help with this study, especially since my daughter Katie is participating as well. Instant support and team work. It'll be great doing this with her.

So, tonight, in my own last big meal before the big commitment, I made linguini with homemade tomato sauce, and enjoyed a big chunk of chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. No salad. No veggies. Just a carb-laden meal of my favorite things. Henry and Peter helped me make this double chocolate cake that is launching me into the cake-less 10 weeks ahead!

Here's a photo of that chocolate cake!

Hope you're all doing very well, and that September brings exciting new beginnings to you, too.

Photo credit: http://www.charmofthecarolines.com/.a/6a01156faa621f970c0120a9166d13970b-800wi

Easter, Spring, and New Beginnings

I don't have much time to post today. There's so much going on!  Today is my last day working in Admissions at Skidmore College. Monday, I start my new position at The Tang Teaching Museum, also at Skidmore. It is a beautiful and dynamic place, and I am very fortunate to have landed this job at this point in my life. Before Monday, there's so much to do! On my way to my last day of work, I'm stopping to drop off a cake to friends Mimi and Ralph. They are good friends who trust me with their special desserts, even though one recent order was completely missed when I was preoccupied with sudden car troubles, and Ralph had to rush out to Putnam Market to buy a substitute! I was sick over that little speed bump. But, they had faith in me and called for the next special cake for a good friend.  Here's a photo of the cake they requested for this weekend's Easter dessert.

Ralph and Mimi's Easter Cake

The cake was frosted and decorated last night, after I got home from a belated birthday dinner for my brother Steven and me (March birthdays, one week apart). We went to our typical favorite place and enjoyed a terrific meal with my brother Michael and sisters Patsy, Ginny, and Anne. We were missing our brother Dan (Danny to me!) who lives near San Francisco with his wife Suzette. As always, we have a lot of fun just enjoying dinner and each others' company. Such dinners are like a shot in the arm to me, bringing me back to the core of who I really am, who we really are as we started life together, the seven kids of Val and Virginia O'Farrell! It's very grounding. I came home with renewed motivation to jump into that fresh start, to finish things up right in my old job, and welcome the new. I look forward to a lovely Easter weekend, starting by spending Saturday with my friend Jan in Hatfield, MA, and then driving home early Easter morning to spend the day with my kids and grandchildren.  Henry and Peter are at such cute ages. Henry will be 5 at the end of April, and Pete is 2 1/2. Little loves of my life!

So, today will be bittersweet, since I'm leaving behind a whole staff of terrific co-workers (but really, just working across campus), but exciting as well to have a fresh start at age 59 (!) which, even though I've been 59 for two full weeks, seems impossible! Someone seems to have pushed a fast-forward button and we've landed here. As many of my friends and co-workers are considering retirement (or have already retired), here I am, starting over! It's all very good, though, because I am ready and willing to take on this next phase of life!

I hope you all have a wonderful spring weekend, whether you celebrate Passover, Easter, or just the spiritual renewal of nature and life. I am grateful for all of you who stop by to read my posts now and then.

AND... don't forget, April 1st marks the 1-year anniversary of this blog's comment contest, and there will be one BIG winner, to be announced before I walk out the door to start my new job. So, comment a little or a lot, and be in the running to win 12 months of goodies baked JUST FOR YOU!