Catching Up: The Merry Month of May

This month...

May was a month full of travel, with no time to write!  Here's what we were up to:

1
Congratulations to the UGA Class of 2014! 

We made our first May trip to Athens, GA to celebrate my sister's graduation from UGA!  After spending the day touring several campus highlights, we dined at Trapeze Pub--pickled green beans on a pulled pork sandwich, anyone?  I highly recommend it!  We then braved the prolific grass pollen and some angry storm clouds, but the weather held out so kindly that we watched the ceremony without the need for rain ponchos!  She walked through the stadium in style--decked out in cowboy boots and her "Nashville Bound" cap and gown.

2
A Michigan Engagement

Our next trip was to Flint, Michigan over Memorial Day weekend for Amar's cousin's engagement ceremony.  Perhaps it's the mitten shape I was taught to recognize in elementary school, or the fact that it's a state in The North, but my expectations for Michigan were limited to cold lakes and an industrial city feel.  I was not expecting every other radio frequency to be a Christian or country radio station, nor (within a half hour's drive of the airport) for the properties to rotate fairly regularly between farms and religious temples of one faith tradition or another.  During lunches at work, my co-workers and I have talked about what we imagine of different places compared to what we find them to be, and it was a fascinating experience to be so startled out of my (however vague) pre-judgments.

As for the engagement celebration itself (and Jennifer's wedding the following week), I enjoyed being part of wedding festivities without being at the heart of them!  And I was treated undoubtedly as a part of the family--receiving a traditional gift of clothing from the host family along with the other women attending the event, and taking part in the preparations by making gift bags for the others who came to celebrate.

3
Wedding in Historic Roswell

Weekend Trip #3: Back to Roswell for a mini high-school reunion as another of our friend group got married!  It was a beautiful wedding and reception, followed by a fun evening out on Canton Street.

4 & 5
Speedy Gonzales

In between all of the weekend trips, I graded papers in a frenzy, and taught the last two novels (A Separate Peace and Of Mice and Men) to my freshmen at lightning speed.  While I'm not sure I would choose to teach 2 novels in a month again, it was refreshing to turn over the reins to the students and see what they discovered when I didn't have the time to meddle too much in their reading.

We ended the month with just about the fastest apartment search on record.  On a Sunday, we learned that our landlord was selling our apartment (sans tenants), found a promising listing or two online that evening and contacted the listed realtor, saw a third apartment that the realtor hadn't listed on Monday, met the owner on Wednesday, and signed a lease the following Monday.  Next up, three weeks of fast packing!