OK, so it's been too long

Let's see...November, December, January...June, July... 9+ months since I last blogged. Oops.

An awful lot has happened in that time...some highlights:

• Wendy got into Bryn Mawr early decision. But you probably know that, since the scream could be heard for miles when she got the phone call.
• Teddy survived his first year of high school. He was on the fencing team and got himself a crowd of new friends.
• Harry finished 5th grade and is about to start middle school at the very same school I attended 38 years ago. Fortunately it's a much nicer place now than it was then.
• Beth had a good second year at Brandeis, but now that the summer is over I think she's pretty psyched to be heading back.
• Wendy spent the summer volunteering at Minuteman National Historical Park. She was hoping to wear her 18th century clothes, but in fact she got a kind of volunteer ranger outfit and worked well over 100 hours in the visitor center. She had a blast.
• Teddy got started on a cool bike trip from Seattle to San Francisco. Unfortunately, a week into the trip, he had a mishap with a kitchen knife and severed the flexor tendon in his right pinkie. So he had to have surgery, flew home, and when we went to see a surgeon for follow up, we discovered that the repair had ruptured again. So he had surgery again and is now engaged in a long period of recovery in which he cannot use his hand. Good thing he's left handed.
• Harry had another awesome month at his camp. We got to hear his rendition of the Hebrew "Grace after meals" (Birkat hamazon) tonight after dinner.

In July, Colleen took the train to the midwest for her knitting camp. She had a good trip, including sleepers for a leg in each direction. We had one of those awful episodes on her return trip, though. I figured that I'd surprise her by taking the train down to New York, spending an afternoon in the city, and then magically appearing on her train when it arrived at dinner time. So I did. Just before I got to New York, I got a call from her that there was an issue with our AT&T account that I needed to deal with immediately. Well, I couldn't do anything from the train, since we were diving into the tunnels of New York and I had no cell reception. And when I finally got to street level, I had just enough battery left to find the nearest AT&T store (right across the street), where I paid our bill and was on my way. I headed off to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a great afternoon of making myself footsore. I ended up enjoying the 18th century European collection, as always, not to mention the swords and other weapons. Then I took myself to the museum store, where I got myself 3 ridiculously heavy coffee table books and then headed back to the subway.

Why, by the way, are the subway stations in New York City hotter than the streets above? In Boston, the subway tunnels are usually cool, but I swear, they must heat the New York tunnels or something.

Anyway, I got back to Penn Station way too early for the train. So I got myself some dinner and tried to find a comfortable place to sit and wait. Oops, the station isn't air conditioned, although the area for passengers with reservations at least had a nice strong fan. So I found myself wandering through the station, sweating like a pig, my arms killing me because I was carrying the books, wishing the time would go faster. Then the little TV screen with the arrival/departure information started to show that my/Colleen's train was slightly delayed. Oh great...ended up being about 30 minutes late by the time it got there.

So I made sure I was one of the first people downstairs (I was sure something was going to go wrong), saw her through the window of the train, got on, walked up, and said "Is anybody sitting here?" She started to tell me how it was, but she was saving it because she needed to keep her arthritic knee elevated (oh, by the way, did I mention she had the meniscus removed from her right knee in May and she's on cute pink crutches now?) so if I could sit somewhere else...so I said something else (like "even for me") and she finally noticed who I was and did the expected double-take.

So we rode home on a delayed, slowed train for the rest of the evening (and into the start of the morning), while she told me all about how she'd been freaking out because I was unreachable all day. So while she thought I was sweet for surprising her (sweet, me? I'm blushing here), it was definitely a mixed feeling. Some day (maybe already) it will be a good story, but not really the outcome I was looking for.

I could go on about the reenactments the last few weeks, which provide a good deal of fodder for fun, amusement, franticness, etc., or the preparations for taking Wendy to school, but this is already insanely long as it is... So until next time....