When James Met Sandy

Although lacking the love story that When Harry Met Sally had, When James Met Sandy has the potential to be a comedic tragedy.  Something tells me that the two are not getting along well. Specifically, the James River is flowing currently flowing backwards from Hurricane Sandy. Talk about women ruling the roost!

Today, I will be taking photographs of the pier on the James River outside of my home from the kitchen window. Although I like to write about exciting things, the major part of me hopes that this story lacks a lot of excitement. 

It is also pretty cool to compare with Hurricane Irene because I made similar post last year. Click Here!

Monday, October 29
8:00 am

The river is up to just underneath the pier. As you can see by the droplets on the window, it is raining! However, there is very little wind.

Monday, October 29
10:00 am

It has stopped raining, but the James is now up and over the pier. The river is also flowing the opposite direction in which it usually flows. 

Monday, October 29
11:00 am

It has begun raining again! The wind is picking up. I zoomed out on the picture below because the river is actually completely over some parts of the pier.

Monday, October 29
12:00 pm

There has been relatively little change since 11:00 am . However, the water has risen a touch and wind is picking up a touch more. Every once in awhile there will be a strong gust, but it is relatively calm for a hurricane... so far. Below is a close up shot of the water.

Monday, October 29
2:30 pm

Crate Myrtles are starting to bang into the house and the rain is now a full out rain as opposed to a hard drizzle. You can see in the picture below that the tide is starting to move out rather quickly as well. I can see the pier... and a broken tree limb from banging into the house...

Monday, October 29
4:00 pm

I just took a magical nap with the rain hitting the windows and the roof, sounding like little drunken fairies. The whimsical wind was caressing the house outside. I woke up to another magical turn of events: the tide is going out quicker than it came up!

Tuesday, October 30
11:00 am

Sandy and James have finally broken up. Sandy moved on to find some new bachelors like the Hudson River. They had it worse than James did. We have a few partially flooded roads and some broken tree limbs. I feel blessed that James and Sandy's break up did not cause any further devastation. I leave this post with a picture from this morning and a much calmer pier that is happy it survived another James River break up.

Airplane Delight

Tips on How to Have a Nice Flight


Yesterday, I just had the nicest flight that I have ever had in my life. I was flying a one way trip to MIC (Kansas City, Missouri) and immediately leaving MO with my grandmother to move her here. I have had a ton of airplane flights in the past with a lot of complaints afterwards. The air travel industry gets a lot of negative wrath, so I thought it would be nice to share some tips on how I had a really delightful time in the sky.


Tip #1- Book the Earliest Flight Possible: I flew on a 5:50 am flight out of RIC (Richmond, VA). Although it stunk to get up that early, it paid off. Everyone was asleep on the plane. It was quiet. There were no upset babies. Plus, if I were to have a connection problem, there are a lot more possibilities to reschedule earlier than later.


Tip #2- Make Alcoholic Jokes with the Flight Attendant: When getting my beverage order, I told the flight attendant that I wanted a coke"straight up." Although I was being a total sleep deprived dork, she laughed and gave me an extra cookie for making her laugh. I like extra cookies that are "free."


Tip #3- Fly Delta with a Connection in Atlanta: If possible, fly Delta connecting in Atlanta. This was the smoothest connection I have ever had. They actually had screens at the gates showing people where their connections were located. The airport personnel were also friendly. 


Tip #4- Be Courteous When Boarding the Plane: I was sitting on the end seats. This made life easy. However, when I found my seat, I put my personal bag on the seat and stepped into my seating area. I let the people who needed to get to the back of the plane go before I stowed away my carry on bag in the overhead apartment. When we were exiting the plane, this woman let no one but ME in front of her because I had been nice to her.


Tip #5- Pretend to Fall Asleep so the Creepy Dude Next to You Won't Talk to You: Enough said.


After this flight, I was picked up my by my grandma and I drove a little over 500 miles to Louisville, KY because I had enough well rested energy (that was about nine hours!). It was really a blessing.


Please feel free to comment any other happy ideas that you may have! :)

James Meets Irene

When Hurricane Irene came, I thought it would be neat to document the changes of the James River from my kitchen window. Here we go...

Friday, August 26, 4:00 pm: When I got home from the middle school, the water level was normal. The water was choppier than usual. You can see the little ripples. For this picture, I took the camera outside. It was so humid that the camera lense was fogging up.

Friday, August 26, 7:00 pm: The water level was already rising! We were even having little white caps on the waves. Notice the direction of the water is towards the grass.

Saturday, August 27, 7:00 am: 12 hours after the first picture, the water level had raised considerably. The picture is blurry from the raindrops on the window. The tide is changing from towards the grass to towards the pier.

Saturday, August 27, 9:30 am: The water is crashing into the pier as it continues to rise.

Saturday, August 27, 1:00 pm: The water rising and consuming the pier

Saturday, August 27, 6:00 pm: The walkway of the pier is underneath the water.

Sunday, August 27, 8:00 am: Back to normal. Other than a few branches, you'd never know the hurricane came. I'm rather happy that James and Irene's relationship didn't work out; he kicked her out in hopes of a better catch.

Naming a Blog

While this is not my first webpage, this is my first blog. My last webpage was in college. It featured quotes from professors and friends, the Reuben Review (on the best Reuben sandwiches of course), and adventures of a traveling gnome. I hope that this blog will be a new start and a chance to grow and share small adventures, creations, and thoughts.

Naming the blog was quite a chore. At first, I wanted a name that had to do with time. Time is my most valuable resource. Carl Sandburg had said, "Time is the coin of life." It is the only resource in which one can spend without having another person ultimately influence it. However, The Coin of Life was not a suitable name for where I am in my life's journey at the moment.

The past three years I have been changing careers from an archaeologist to a teacher. I moved in and began a relationship with an amazing man, learning to overcome traumatic childhood experiences and gaining self confidence. To top off the changes, I was just married this past weekend.

Recently, adventures in life have taught me how to balance the brain and the heart. The point of the blog is to document the journey on making the heart, brain, and body happy and healthy, from inside and outward.