The Greatest Place On Earth

Might very well be Preston's parents house in Wintergreen. I tend to shed all my stresses when I come here. We've been coming together since 2003, and every time we're back it just gets better. And better. And better. I think that it's the only place on earth (besides our apartment in Bryn Mawr) that I feel utterly and completely at HOME. We tend to eat better, drink better, and sleep better. We laugh a lot, and even though when we plug our MacBooks in at the Mountain Inn to steal free wireless you could easily mistake us for junkies getting ready to do lines, I LOVE being disconnected from the world. Our cell phones sort of work, but there's always the convenient excuse that we're in the mountains so I wasn't getting service! Sorry I ignored your 35 calls! Just kidding, I'm totally not popular enough to get 35 calls.

Pres and I after climbing Humpback Rocks (off of Skyline Drive).

I take long walks with Callie up the mountain, sit in the long scratchy grass at the Overlook, and watch mountain ranges unfold before me. We always watch The American President (a VHS that his parents obviously taped from TV--it's missing the first 25 minutes). We cook a lot of pasta (this is no different from life in Bryn Mawr). We drink good beer (ditto). We read a lot. We listen to music. And we really, really enjoy each other.

One of my favorite pictures of Callie. Isn't this what happy should look like? I sort of want to trade lives with her.

While it was WONDERFUL to have guests during our first week here, it is really nice to be up here alone this week. Especially since this week, this shining gem of a week, is our last before school-ish things start next week. And I'm excited but nervous, happy, but sad. I want school to start, and to meet my professors and my classmates and to read new authors and to pore over articles, but I also want to preserve this perfect, quiet, relaxed rhythm of life that Preston and I always seem to settle into when we come to Wintergreen.

Perfection.

So this is my challenge to myself. That, during the year, when things get crazy and I get panicky and every little thing seems as if it's going to push one (or both) of us over the edge, I'll remember this week up here. When I breathed and slept and relaxed. And that I'll remember that whatever's stressing me out at the moment, be it a paper, a puppy, Preston, or myself, it too will pass. And with any luck, we'll be back here come Summer 2009. Here's to living up our last few days. And soaking up as much Virginia wonderfulness as I possibly can before Friday.

Sun beginning to set over the valley.