Weddings, Hikes, and New Fauna

     This past weekend, I traveled to Cincinnati for the wedding of my best friend and her now-husband.  It was a beautiful ceremony very much fit to their personalities, and the reception was great.  He is from Australia, and a lot of his family from the States and some from Aus. were able to make it.  They were excellent people as well.  On the 16th, they will be moving to Australia, so it's really hard to see my friend (and him) go, because I love them so much.  However, at the same time I am also very happy for them and glad they can be together for real, instead of the years of occasional back-and-forth trips and late night phone calls and emails they've had.  Below is a picture of me (right) and the Maid of Honor, her sister (left):

7/2/2011

     Today was a good recovery day after getting back yesterday from all the excitement and activities thereafter.  My sister and I went hiking in our woods and along our cliff by the river we live on.  It was a good time, but I'm sure we'll pay for it in bug bites later tonight.  The good news is that we apparently did not get into the stinging nettles (Urtica dioica).  Those things are vicious.  They are covered in little hairs, trichomes, that come off when brushed against and inject chemicals into your skin that make it sting quite a bit.  I was careless enough to touch some small ones with my hand while picking blueberries in our garden a couple weeks ago, and it was a fidgety half hour or so afterward.  They are apparently good for a lot of old medicinal uses though.

7/6/2011

     I'm still waiting to hear back after that phone interview with the Nature Conservancy. I won't let myself get my hopes too high; I'm sure there were a lot of applicants, especially with the position being in the Indianapolis area.  It's like I know that I am so qualified for things and would be a beneficial addition to the workplaces I am applying to, but this last few months of job searching has started doing a little number on that self-confidence.  I'm ready for something good to happen in my life.
     This morning I saw one of the new fawns from this year in the garden and down our driveway with its mother.  I hadn't been able to come across them yet, and it was really exciting.  I noticed the mother was a bit more skittish than usual, as is to be expected with a baby.  They've all become so used to me that I've been close enough to touch them (but I don't) heaps of times and they sometimes walk along beside me when I am walking through the field or yard.  It makes me feel like Snow White. Or Pocahontas.  But mostly I'm just so happy about it that I start sentences with conjunctions.  Still, I don't want them to become so used to being around me that they get too bold around other humans or cars, and I don't want them to become less wild.