Adopting in Ashburn

I watched this great episode of My So-Called Life tonight about old friends, and how even after you've gone your own way, that old friends can be incredibly valuable. So tonight, I just want to say, to all my friends: I don't tell you how awesome you are enough. I wouldn't be able to live in this happy, little Heather-world without you. Mes amis en France: vous me manque tous les jours. Il n'y a pas une journee qui passe qui je ne pense pas des heures que j'ai passe avec vous. J'attends le jour quand je peux rendre une visite et vous embrasse encore. Tout mon coeur to my friends here et lesquels loin de moi. Gros bisous. ~Heather CF Select after we swept the competition at Hershey park (or was that in Williamsburg)? Part of the grad school crowd picking pumpkins. More grad school buds at Hoops for Home. The bests in Barcelona. Il Etait Une Fois cast from USC L'Aumonerie (youth group) at Taize in France USC Club Volleyball Paper team (of Rock, Paper, a...

... and I don't mean in a chair on the porch. Friday night I picked up my cousin from the Greyhound station. It was so awesome to have him come to town. The big impetus was a P.O.D. concert at the Hard Rock Cafe on Saturday night. So Saturday a.m. we got up late because watching Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels kept us up much later than our regular bedtimes. We ran to Home Depot to get some gardening supplies (yes, the townhouse is now in good enough shape that the yard is on the agenda). We swung by Harris Teeter for lunch supplies and bought ribs and asparagus. Clark made tons of barbecue sauce and I fixed a potato/egg salad and the veggies. An hour or so later we were chowing down. In the late afternoon we took a walk through Old Town, checked out Christ Church and the cemetery, the Confederate statue at Prince and Washington, and then we were walking towards what I thought was Captain's Row when we came across an open house. This guy waved us in the yard to a hi...

I just read this article in The Chronicle of Higher Education , titled "My 'Little' Professor." I can't stop thinking about this boy and his plight. I don't know if he realizes what an outsider he is - or if that is a shield the syndrome protects him from. I have no concept of what his life will become as he moves beyond elementary school into the increasingly socially-driven aspects of education. Though while teachers will spend hours working with him and others like him (as they well should!), there are hundreds upon thousands of students getting lost in a No Child Left Behind system. Students with no measurable differences except their desire to learn in a society that treats "smart" like a dirty word. I long for the day when I can help make that disparity disappear. I don't want to leave the impression that those with Asperger's or other learning differences are stealing all the attention. It is, in fact, so horribly the opposite. ...

Joyeux Paques! Happy Easter (for the next 48 days) I had an amazing holy week/weekend. Palm Sunday was relaxing and I got a bunch done around the house. Then Monday was St. Patrick's Day (I know, it was really the 15th, but whatever) and I fixed corned beef and cabbage for Dana, Bill and I. Then Tuesday we had four of our annual events at work. If I ever complain about my job, please just remind me that I got to spend five minutes talking to Andrew Von Eschenbach, director of the FDA at work on Tuesday. Not to mention all the other cool people who served as panelists on the forum (heads of CDC, NIH, AHRQ, AARP; a corporate VP of Johnson&Johnson; and the director of research for Veteran's Affairs), Susan Dentzer as moderator, and then the sundry other notables (former members of Congress, major non-profit heads, director of PARADE magazine, etc.). It was an amazing (and very long) day. In true Heather-sense, I managed to have an adventure even under the most structured ...

My blogging tonight is reminiscent of my year in France, when I blogged at night to fill time, because I had nothing else to do.  Tonight I have plenty of other things I could be doing, but am unfortunately restricted to a location that prevents me from doing them. So, in this interlude of internet access and spare time, I thought I would share with you a few stories from the past couple of weeks.  And, in true late night fashion, ramble a bit about what is going on between my ears. First, I have moved in with two fabulous roommates.  As I have not confirmed their being okay with me using their identities, I shall call them roomie 1 and roomie 2.  I've known one of them since graduate school and the other we met online in our search for roommates.  I was, admittedly, nervous about having a "random" roommate (do roommate counseling enough times and roommates will scare anybody!).  However, the two of us get along famously already.  We have a number of things in common, eve...