I'm an auntie!

At 8:31 last night (that is, Central Time), literally minutes before I had to shut off my computer to board my long flight to the UK, I got a message that my sister had given birth to a healthy little boy! 7lbs. 14oz. and as yet I haven't been told whether a name has been settled on, but momma and baby are both healthy and doing just wonderfully. It was a long labor, spent at home with a midwife and family, but despite the length, everything went smoothly and just as it should. I'm sad that I couldn't delay my trip a couple of days so that I could say hi to the little fella before running back off to Scotland (more on this later perhaps), but I'm trying to tell myself that it's all the more reason going home the next time will be extra awesome.

Cheers!
Kate xx

Happy Thanksgiving!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

It doesn't feel like Thanksgiving here.. at all. Obviously, because it's an American holiday. However, it's been interesting to celebrate the holiday simply as a holiday and with hardly a peep about all the commercial craziness that comes as part of the package now at home, with Black Friday, shopping weekend and now, of course, Cyber Monday. So it feels rather wholesome and authentic, and toned down!

A few American friends and I got together to celebrate the holiday last weekend, since the holiday falls on a weekday and it's business as usual here today! ;) Classes and seminars go on as usual and essays are due in a week. There's a lot going on, but we made sure to squeeze in a day for celebration. We made chickens instead of a turkey because our ovens are so tiny! The menu consisted of mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, roasted veggies, stuffing, potato rolls, roasted beets with goat cheese and pistachio vinaigrette, cranberry sauce, roasted shallots and PIE PIE PIE!! It was so amazing. Oh, not to mention the wine and a valiant, if not totally successful first-time attempt at hot buttered rums. ;)

It was so nice, and wonderful to celebrate with some pretty awesome people. I think we would all prefer to be home with our families and close friends today, but I'm so happy that we were all able to get together and have such a great time in spite of being so far from home!

So I'm thankful for the group I've fallen in with here in Edinburgh, and for Edinburgh in general... so far, overall, the experience has been great and this is a first-rate city in which to live and study. I'm also so, so, SO thankful to my family and friends back at home, and around the world, who have always been and continue to be so supportive, encouraging, loving and inspirational... no matter where they are or I am. I couldn't ask for better peeps!

Much love getting sent out into the world today!

I hope that everyone enjoys a really wonderful, happy holiday.

Cheers!

Kate x

I think the top of my Dovecot Studios mocha (in a sweater!) says it best today:

Dreams of other summers

Beware: I'm in a nostalgic mood. Which is apparently not actually a bad thing!

The closer I get to departure date, and while summer starts looking dry and August-like with back-to-school sales cropping up in stores already, I can't help but wax nostalgic about summers past. And about those beautiful, memorable, irreplaceable people who populated them. Sometimes there were long, crazy, late-night summers. Some were more family-oriented. This particular summer feels loaded with work and "grown-up" responsibilities, or those around me are strapped by grown-up responsibilities, and it makes getting away difficult. I think "lament" is a strong word, but I do find myself longing for whiskey-soaked nights on the porch with a Smith Corona, channeling our inner Hemingway and Kerouac (unpretentiously as we could manage), or sitting around a backyard fire, or stopping by the bar across from work after a long evening shift. The last few summers were lovingly carefree and terrifically complex at the same time, with the sort of friendships forged and lessons learned that I wouldn't trade for the world.



I miss those times, but I'm not forgetting all the wonderful people and things I do now, and the opportunities for friendship and socializing and more genuinely wonderful experiences to be had in the future. I find that I'm starting to be able to wrap up a chapter that involves a certain group of people, and harvest my small, yet priceless and carefully cultivated bouquet of memories to hold onto forever. For the first time, over the last few days, I've started to feel a teensy bit homesick for friends I haven't left yet. I've felt this before, when I've moved far from home, but it never fails to amaze me how strong these emotions can be. It's truly the most difficult thing about going so far, knowing no one where I'll be, and that all of my friends and family are here.

This isn't really a sad post -- I hope it doesn't come off that way. I've simply been ruminating on a number of relationships, how valuable they are to me and how they have changed me and made me the person I am. And how I want to try my very best to hold onto them in spite of the distance I'll be putting between us. There's a large handful of folks I'll be very, very sorry to not see as often as I do now.



And my cat counts as a friend, just for the record. ;)

Days to Edinburgh move-in: 35