Well, it has been sometime since I have entered anything onto this site. Wait. Actually, I have never entered anything onto this site!  It is about time then.  I am sitting in my dorm room at the Kushi Institute in Becket, Massachusetts ripping my friend, Kelly’s cd collection.  She’s got some pretty far out stuff.  Anyway, Tom and I have been in Becket serving in the kitchen for about 2 1/2 months now.  At the end of October, I will have completed my third 17-week session in the kitchen and will begin level 3 of the macrobiotic counselor training program.  I am doing more cooking this time around and finally feel some solid roots in this kitchen, like I make a difference here.  I am learning the quirks to the pressure cookers and figuring out how much agar to add when making kanten for 60 people!  I especially enjoy the shifts in the kitchen with all women. 

The weather is starting to turn chilly and the leaves are becoming brilliant once again.  We have had much rain in the past month.  I suppose our tomatoes (which still haven’t turned red) are enjoying it.  September is always my favorite month no matter where I am.  I suppose that is because my birthday is on the 16^th. I will turn 30 this year but because time doesn’t really exist, I’m not making much of it.  However, (just ask Tom), I am celebrating my existence!  My best friend, Zoë, and I are heading to the hot tubs in Northampton for a bit of a soak and a massage, then off to see The Well, a great reggae/dub band from Boston. Check them out if you get the chance.

Tom and I will head back to Austin mid-December, visit friends and family, hopefully attend another Vipassana 10-day silent meditation retreat and then be in California with my parents before we leave for the Peace Corps in February.  Ah, the Peace Corps. We finally received our official invitation and the country in Africa we have been assigned to be in is Madagascar.  Yes, I know a movie has been made with the same title.  We will be doing environmental education on the island.  I feel blessed to have the opportunity to explore that part of the world.  Nous sommes pratiquons le langue de Français—ok, so we still have some work to do here!  But we are certainly having fun learning.

Tom and I have recently been enamored by our acupuncturist, Lonny Jarrett.  Lonny practices in Stockbridge, Ma (the home of Normal Rockwell ) and has published a few books, Nourishing Destiny and The Clinical Practice of Chinese Medicine (a little more than toilet reading, this one).  He seems to treat the spirit more than the physical.  We have been exploring evolutionary consciousness and the meaning of enlightenment.  You know, what the hell is it and all that.  Humbling, mind-blowing, frustrating and fun all at the same time.

Ok, well, that is all I can handle writing for the moment.  More soon…