What perfect weather it was for garden tea party last Thursday! So fun to catch up with friends over sweets. I think it is just about my favorite past-time these days. How grand that I have found yet another opportunity to wear my senior prom dress (it is almost always my last resort for a Halloween costume).
The menu included:
Chilled Lime and Mint Tea
Chilled Cucumber Tea
Radish and Chive Herb Butter Sandwiches
Cucumber Sandwiches (thanks Laura!)
Egg and Rosemary Sandwiches
Coreopsis Fairy Cakes
British Butter Scones (served with clotted cream)
Wee Ginger Cake and Lemon Curd Trifles
It was a delightful evening - a shame I don't have the energy to do something like that more often! The turn-out was modest but made for rich company. So many leftovers! I forget to compensate in my baking when I make it an "girls only" affair.
It's nearly 2 weeks now since I arrived back stateside and I have that funny feeling like I have been back for ages. It is odd talking with Matt on the phone while he is still in Edinburgh and I am living the Utah life. It is almost like I am talking to a person who is still living in this intense and memorable dream I once had. Before I left, I did all that I could to try and find closure on leaving so that I could feel ready to move on. After having moved several times in just the last 4 years, I have gotten pretty accustomed to finding ways of feeling ready for the next step and much of that involved looking forward to what lay ahead. But this was difficult to do this time around because I really wasn't quite sure what lay ahead aside from a shot at a librarian job in Denver, a tea/cake dome party with some of my girlfriends, and some outdoor swimming. Truly, I had little left in me to stay much longer in Edinburgh: my legs were starting to constantly ache from the walking and housekeeping, too many clothes were worn to threads, my teeth were telling me they needed a dentist appt, and every job I applied for was put off by me living in Scotland - I made too inconvenient a candidate, etc. I was really doing the best thing - not overstaying my welcome there - but I still get a tight feeling in my throat and a pinch in my eyes every time I hear Matt talk about all of the things he is going through as he packs. That year really passed as if it were a dream.
I am quick to remind myself though of how I started to get British teeth while I was there (the hygienist literally had to sand off the herbal tea stains off my teeth!) and how my faith in coming home when I did resulted in a job here. And I really have been greeted by so many comforting routines and marvelous company as I have come back. But there is this feeling I am constantly battling as I settle into my American lifestyle again and meet up with my dear friends I have known so long. I have this inclination to want to stay a bit sad about being back. I almost want the a homesick melancholy to stay with me because somehow it feels as if I am closer to that year of living Scottishly than if I were to just whole-heartedly take to my new life back here. I don't wish myself miserable but I can't help but embrace the sad feeling of missing the people, places and routines from Edinburgh that are so different from my life back here. As a result, I have been playing the soundtrack from Submarine on Grooveshark or listening to endless folksongs sung by The Corries, music that very much reminds me of my time in Edinburgh as it often was what I often listened to while cooking or walking to the supermarket.
Still, it is hard to stay too despondent when I have been up to my favourite trails, baked in a kitchen with a normal sized conventional (not convectional, celcius) oven, stared towards the Wasatch front while backstroking in the Alta Canyon Pool, been able to spend money without thinking in terms of a merciless exchange rate, and constantly experience the incredibly freeing feeling that comes with no longer being an outsider wherever I go. Life is good. Once again it is forcing me to move forward before I quite feel ready but I think that is probably just as it should be - at least it is as it always has been.
While prepping for an interview for the Austin Public Library Teen Centre, and racking my brain to figure out some programmes I could do for "at risk youth", Matt and I got to browsing comic making websites. Indeed, our FHE turned into making elaborate comic strips:
Matt's was much more involved. I was impressed.
My comic is probably more realistic for the crowd I will be trying to appeal to (short attention spans for the afterschool types). Mine references an almost daily (and funny every time!) occurance in the teen centre when kids try and get in the "queue" on the computers. Maybe sorta an inside joke but the folks I will be emailing this to will hopefully get it.
Fingers crossed they won't be just "having a laugh" when I present it to them. Oh how I would love to be Austin bound for the next Sweeney chapter...
I have tried to explain, to lots of people, why law school was such a bad bad idea for use. It is hard to articulate it but I have to say that this cheap video says it all. It may not be true for the lawyer friends you know. To that I say, this is good for them and I give them my best wishes in their future endeavors. For Matt and I though, I give you: "So You Want to Be A Lawyer".
I know it seems like a bleak statement about things but really it is funny now. It is funny because we understand now that what happened to us isn't personal. It just happens. And actually, it feels pretty good to have entered the laughing about it stage of dealing with a trial. I think that now that we are able to have a laugh about it means that we are going to be okay.
why I don't seem to update this blog much or what life might be like if you were to move to Scotland to attend uni, then might I suggest you check out my new blog: Temporarily Tartan.
It's free.
It's easy.
And it's what the Sweeneys are up to these days.
I will most likely be updating BakedGoodsandBads now and then, when the news isn't Scottish. Otherwise, regular posts will resume upon my return to the ol' USA.
Remember that bat bridge I once heralded as an awesome local wonder of Austin? Well, I still think it is pretty cool....sometimes. The thing is, it has almost always proved to be a great place to take out of towners to show how Austin "keeps it weird". Turns out though, that the bat bridge can have an off kind of night.
We took some great friends of ours who were new to the area to check it out. We described the novelty of it with such wonder and intrigue. We made of night of it - stopping at Big Top Candy Shop on South Congress before hand and then spouted off all the trivia about the bats we knew as we walked and ate Aussi licorice and gummy alphabet letters. It was a great time.
Then we got to the bridge. We waited. We waited. We waited. It was getting pretty dark. The sun was well down (the cue to the bats to come out). The bat watching tourist boats were lined up all in a row. It got darker.
Matt got mad. "Stupid bats! What the heck? They're not coming out. We should just go...stupid bats..."
I stayed optimistic. "Come on Matt, it always takes longer for them to come out than we think. We just got here kind of early and so we just feel like it has been a long time."
Darker. Bat boat annoucers running out of jokes to make, trivia to say...
Then a dozen bats flew out with the reek of guano. The guy next to me says "Oh ho...Here We Go!" Much anticipation. Everyone leans over the bridge waiting for more.
Darker. Then another dozen bats. This repeated itself until our friends convinced us that it was a-okay. The candy and company was good enough to call the evening a success. Matt and I felt a bit dumb still.
It got so bleak even the bat boats started to head in toward the docks. We headed home.
Luckily our friends are talented folk with a good sense of humor. They documented our experience together by doing what they do best.
Life has sped up to what seems like warp speed since coming back to Austin. So much to do to move out of the country! No wonder not many people end up doing it.
I have started to get over the scary, sad "I am going to miss everything I can't bring with me phase" into the "let's purge this apartment and never look back!" Of course I will look back with nostalgia to the experiences I have had but having a good and proper Exodus of sorts is pretty healthy to do every once and a while. In the words of a dear, spiritual friend of mine this is "my Abraham experience". Perhaps I am overdramatic to claim such things but it is really quite liberating. Gets you to thinking about how there is very little we take with us after this life. So few things are important besides experiences, relationships and what we learn. Yep. I am waxing biblical now but this experience is making an impact on me - what can I say?
And oh the wonders that craigslist can bring when you are ready for an "Abraham experience"! We are shedding stuff so quick it gets a little addicting and I have to remind myself that some things really ought to be kept around for when we return. The thing is, I am having a hard time planning more than a year, a month, a week in advance - which is an unusual thing for me indeed. It is a truly an immortal experience to rid yourself of so many things and just start to lean into the curve a bit. Less stuff can somehow make you feel a bit more powerful. Without stuff, all I have to worry about is me and Matt and I have taken care of me for a long time now - even a 1/4 a century; Matt and I have figured out all kinds of unexpected, difficult things in 3 1/2 years. I can do that! Even in a different place.
In other news, housing has had some hiccups. Turns out the most likely scenario for Matt and I to find a place is going to have to be when we get there and can represent ourselves "in person" at the apartment viewings. I started to hyperventilate a bit when trying to come to terms with a scenario of staying in a hostel for a week, navigating bus routes through a city I never been to and trying to keep up with 12 credit hours worth of coursework. Again, I am learning to take a deep breath, lean into the curve and get a "what the Hell - why not?" kind of feeling. Yep. I am pretty much getting invincible right now.
I still could use some extra prayers for our visas though....
Matt giving his bass some goodbye chords. I started to feel a bit sad he was giving it up (his first instrument). I asked him if he felt sad and he just responded by saying, "I just want somebody else to play it." Then I realized this was the first time he had played it in a year and there many worthy financial causes in Scotland to look towards!
First off, did I mention that I had some terrific times with my fam for 2 full weeks of August? Let this collage (compliments of Picassa) show you how easy livin' was in the ol' SLC and Reno.
Maybe I am just imagining things but it really seems like this has been the best summer of my life. Is this too bold of a statement? I remember a wise Redfish coworker once pointed out that "summers are sacred". This thought has the potential to be a very true thing indeed so I don't take my aforementioned statement lightly. Still I think that this has very well been just about the best summer ever.
It surprises me to realize what a good life it has been these last 2-3 months being that I have worked a respectable amount of time through June and July librarianing summer school in Round Rock ISD. I spent the hottest hours of the day in an cool library reading some of my favorite books like Elephants Can Paint Too, Rattletrap Car, I Stink and loads of other read aloud gems to some very enthusiastic 5 and 6 year olds. A good confirmation that you want to be an elementary school librarian is when you sing "One Elephant Went Out to Play" or "Going on a Lion Hunt" until you are hoarse and still wonder why you are getting paid.
When I got off at 3:30 (such a luxurious time to get off of work), it was often off to Town Lake to take Matt to his rowing class and me to my Deep Eddy Pool. How had we not partaken in these local recreational marvels until this summer?! Deep Eddy Pool is the loveliest marriage of spring fed water into a multi-lane lap pool. It has been just about the only relief around for this Austin summer heat but 2 or 3 jumps into that pool a week was enough to keep my thoughts cool while crossing a Costco parking lot on a Saturday. That is one powerful rush!
Yep. Swimming in spring water, watching Matt row from the docks, reading youth fiction for leisure, attending a handful of Paramount Summer Film Series flicks, lots of Sonic happy hours, being wined and dined by friends saying farewell, having a helluva Cake Dome Party with some great Utah folk and knowing that I have to soak up all the Austin flavor while I can has made for a great "carpe diem" kind of June-August. This summer was just about as sacred as it gets.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Matt stearing for his graduation row last month.
If you care to follow some of our adventures then feel free to check out my new "web log". It took a while to decide on a name. On our hike to Cecret Lake up Little Cottonwood Canyon, Matt, my mom and M. Swirly Patterns all deliberated over the right title. Some of our musings included:
-Temporarily Plaid
-The Sweeneys go McSweeney
-Tea and Cakes
-Writings from the Highlands (problem is, I will be about 2-3 hours from the actual highlands)
The rest we came up with escape me now but I settled on a catchy "Temporarily Tartan: a year of living Scottishly". Not sure what will end up being posted there over BakedGoodsandBads but I thought this new era needed a new look and feel. So a new blog is born.
It says it all really. 
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