The Old and The New

Sometimes is seems that there isn't much that can be new anymore. I'm not getting any taller, I've had the same haircut for more than a year (and don't plan to change it anytime soon), I'm at my third project and in my fourth BVS year. "Coasting along" would be a pretty accurate description of how I feel many days.

Despite the familiarity of it, springtime is never quite a coast-along time, though. The first of our garden seeds - kale, I think - sprouted on Saturday, followed by the quick-germinating alyssum that had been planted indoors just a few days earlier.

They're tiny lil' suckers, alright. Part of the excitement with these is due to it being the first success story of an effort begun by Kristen and me last fall. We'd been collecting seeds whenever we happened to think of it and saving them away "for such a time as this" (sound familiar to anybody?). These seeds came from LeAnn's house which she's currently renting to Don. As exciting as sprouting seeds can be (but seriously, I love it), it's even better when there are stories of friends and travel intertwined with them. Still yet to come (hopefully): Cosmos and Zinnias from Kristen's parents; Marigolds from Taste of the Himalayas at Chelsea's farewell meal; Moon Flowers from the Mid-Atlantic District youth advisor's house (which I remember seeing when I was there as a youth for meetings); some more seeds from the Spring Street house; and Columbine and Chinese Hibiscus gathered during a walk at fall orientation in New Windsor.

In other news, I joined the smart phone world. As much as I'd resisted it, I had to acknowledge that there are some benefits to access to this sort of technology. Considering how much I traveled this past year, it would've been pretty nice to have a map readily available that 1.) didn't need to be printed and 2.) was smaller than my U.S. road atlas. I'm also able to keep up with (read: learn how to use) Instagram and potentially Twitter. This Snapchat thing has happened, too. Apparently I snap current and former female housemates quite a bit. This was me learning how to take a screenshot, FYI.

Another first happened this past weekend. Theresa (whom I've taken to calling Tessa without really realizing it) and I spent the entire weekend with the house to ourselves. To preserve the sanctity of housemate relations and bonds of trust, I will not go into any further details regarding movies watched and amounts of ice cream consumed. Suffice it to say we enjoyed ourselves.

Maybe it's not as old and boring as I'd initially thought. To be fair, ice cream always helps. Until next time...


Ben