8/31: kaiti

I met a former student, Kaiti, and her spouse for lunch today; they live three hours north of Conway, but they were in town for the morning and early afternoon.  I hadn't seen her in four years, despite various hoped-for and sometimes almost-accomplished meet-ups during that time.  It was great to catch up with her.  It also made me so happy when she said--with no prompting from me--that she feels like she uses Latin every day:  although she doesn't work with the language directly anymore, she said that in her nursing studies and work she relies on the systematic thinking that learning Latin developed in her.  Her spouse wasn't there for that part of the conversation, but when he joined us he happened to mention that Kaiti often tells him that she feels like she uses her Classics degree all the time because of how it has trained her to think--so to me that suggests that she wasn't just saying that to make me feel good about what I do, that it's really truly the case.

8/30: rachel

Rachel is my sister.  Like many sisters, we've had our share of rollercoastering in our relationship over the years, but as I get older I realize how much we share and I consistently wish we lived close enough for us to get together regularly and hang out casually.  Every now and then we send each other photos of things we see lying on the ground (abandoned toys, lost necklaces, stray playing cards, etc.).  I saw a bright orange ticket on the ground at school the other day, but I didn't have my camera on hand.  The ticket was clean, however, so I picked it up--and today I will pop it into the mail to Rachel.

8/29: chandra

I met Chandra through swap-bot.  I don't participate much on the site anymore, but I'm grateful that it connected me with Chandra, Fiona, and some other wonderful folks.  Chandra and I both work at small colleges, and we both enjoy photography (as well as sending postcards of our photos).  Chandra wrote to me today because I asked her where she gets her postcards printed--I'm looking for a new printer.  It was great to hear from her in general, and I'm excited to try out a postcard source.

8/28: bryan

Bryan was a student in my first class at my present school (15 years ago!), and in the time since we've gradually transitioned from a student/teacher relationship to a friendship.  I'm oh so grateful for that.  Occasionally on this blog I mention taking trips to Altus to meet up with a friend; that friend is Bryan.  He has a blog  (click here) which recently got named as one the top 10 food blogs for northwest Arkansas, and this evening I was happy to write to him to congratulate him on that, his new baby, and a new job he'll be starting next week.

8/27: rhonda

Rhonda was our next-door neighbor for the past six years; she moved away at the end of July.  Today I sent her a postcard with a picture I took on the lake because I know she misses this place.  She's a really great, interesting, and kind person--she's done things like raise orphaned baby raccoons!--and now that she's in far-away Florida I wish that I had gotten to know her better when she was here.  But knowing her at all is definitely a good thing.

8/26: ann and anne

Today I wrote notes to two friends named Ann(e).  Ann is a colleague; though we work on the same small campus, we don't see each other as much as we'd like.  Anne is a dear family friend whom I've known since I was in grade school--she was actually my 8th grade science/math teacher and helped me study for the SAT way back when; more recently she has been amazing to me and my family during the challenges of my father's death and my mother's surgery.  I am grateful to/for both Ann and Anne.

8/25: fiona (and a plan)

I spent some time this morning writing to Fiona, whom I've not met in person but with whom I've been corresponding regularly since January 2012.  We send each other postcards several times a month, often about what we're reading, but touching on other topics too.  Her friendship is definitely a good thing.

(I think I'm going to try to use my daily posts to appreciate some good friends and provide an impetus for me to write to them, so this post is the first of what I hope will be a series.)

8/23 & 8/24: woolly hollow

Woolly Hollow is a small state park about 20 minutes away.  We visited it with our cameras on Saturday near sunset and on Sunday after lunch.

Turnsole on Saturday evening:

A moth on Sunday afternoon: