Home Again, Home Again

It rained today. I love the way it smells when it rains here. I was running when it really started pouring and there was something really satisfying about running through the rain and getting soaked but still being warm and all the spring flowers bending in the rainfall as I jogged past. I love Oregon in the springtime. While I was running I went up into the new development at the crest of the hill. It's really weird up there and I haven't been since they finished. I wanted to yell at everyone I saw, "Hey, I used to walk my donkey in this field and in the winter I used to bring my sled up here with Alice and Boomer and play in the snow!" I hate how things change and grow and eat up beautiful hillside hay fields and pastures. I was actually looking for a shortcut to the bald hill path but they had put in a huge fence to protect the train tracks. I was so disappointed, but I think in the future I'm just going to jump the fence.

Being home has been relaxing though, aside from the French bureaucracy I am currently at war with. The French LOVE paperwork, they simply can't get enough of it and I couldn't tell you why... They also changed all the rules to apply for long stay student VISA's this year as well, so everyone, including the French, has no idea what the hell is going on. I think by the time I leave in three months I will be bald from pulling all my hair out. I have, however, scheduled my appointment to get a VISA and will be staying with Bob Ingersaul in San Francisco for a few days at the beginning of June. I am really excited to spend every extra moment I have in the city exploring the wharf, the museums and the maybe even Alcatraz. My job will start shortly thereafter, with a crash training on the 13th and 14th. They are having me come out a few days early to get ready so I can go on the first trip! It's a river trip and I'm so excited. They said I might end up on the gear boat, but I didn't mention I've never rowed. It can't be that hard, can it? It'll figure it out... I'm pretty sure I'm going to have more fun than the kids though, especially if I flip the gear boat, heh heh.

I haven't really figured out what to do with all the extra time on my hands though, and I have, surprise surprise, resulted to baking and cooking. I have really been enjoying myself, but the parents are complaining about the sudden inundation of desserts in the kitchen. I've been making them dinner every night and grocery shopping/farmer's marketing for the house. I think I could be a pretty good professional maid, expect I don't clean much, so maybe live-in cook then. This cake was fun, but time consuming. It's a triple lemon layer cake. I even made the lemon curd filling myself. I have also created a mini strawberry rhubarb cobbler, pots de creams, and a carrot cake. I blame this on the amount of Fine Cooking magazines lying around the house, which I seem to pick up every time I sit down and find myself reading for the next hour. Nerdy I know, but there is this really good-looking recipe for rhubarb muffins in the one I was reading this afternoon...