the thin line between optimism and delusion…

I just wanted to say “hey!” to Uncle Bill in Marietta, I hope you are having a good summer and I can’t wait to show you all my pictures and talk to you about everything. I am sad that you weren’t able to go to Greece, but I know you will have another chance. See you soon! – Charlsie

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I am in the mountains, and my mom is lamenting the fact that she can’t call my dog on the phone and see how she is and if it is still raining in Augusta. Bella and Bo don’t like storms, and my mom would like some verbal affirmation of the fact that they are in one piece still. But she is really mostly worried about Bella, and not Bo. It is quite sad.
So, I have moved out of Windsor. It would be sad if I didn’t hate the place so much. For the past five years, there has always been an apartment of people I cared about a great deal in Windsor and it has always been a second home, and two of the years I lived there full time. But never again. No one in my close circle lives there currently, and I will never live there again. Thank the Lord.
Yesterday we had two movers come over and move our furniture out, which was the greatest idea we have ever had. I hate moving furniture, and we had a lot of it. It was kinda fun to watch the move, but nice to just be supervising. They were nice guys, and pretty entertaining. Of course I am easily entertained. Once my room was cleared of my belongings, it was clear I had a way to go with cleaning. The carpet was a graveyard of hair rubber bands, folded up candy wrappers and pieces of paper, wads of tissue, and dead bugs (mostly centipedes with a few nicely positioned roaches). But there was nothing that I could do about last night, because I was too tired. I went to the grocery store before Katie got home to get some essentials for the new apartment, like cokes and cookies. Well, when I got to Kroger, I realized that I was going to have a fit if I couldn’t get a greek salad really soon. It became very apparent that I was having a serious withdrawal craving for a greek salad. I spent a great deal of time picking out the olive oil and a limited amount of time on the other ingredients and rushed home. I wasn’t confident that I was going to make it through the task of cutting up the cucumbers and tomatoes without passing out from lack of greek salad. And everyone likes to make them different, but my idea of a greek salad is cucumbers, tomatoes, feta, seasoning, oil and vineger to taste. It was delicious (did I ever express to everyone how under-used the word delicious is? I think everyone should try to use the word delicious more often, help it live up to its potential). Of course the only fork we had in the apartment was one that I picked up from mean bean earlier in the day, so when Katie came home and wanted some of my awesome salad, I told her she had to wait till I was finished. But I was happy she was home. After salad time, Katie and I went to target (which is always exciting) and bought a bunch of cleaning supplies for our new apartment. We decided to start all over new with the new apartment because we were so grossed out by the old apartment and we didn’t want anything from the old apartment to taint the new apartment. Everyone is going to have to come see the new apartment, it is quite cool. I am falling asleep, good night darlings.

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Run down is not even the word. I am worn out. I’m so tired I don’t even know what to do to not be tired anymore. I can’t even sleep anymore I am so tired. I didn’t think this was a possible state of affairs. Especially for someone like me who loves to sleep. It is kinda like how the worst side affect of adderrol is that you don’t really enjoy food anymore. Food and sleep are the greatest. Maybe I should eat some more food and then try to sleep some more. Yesterday I drove to the ATL, and met up with Betsy and Katie. We got some chocolate chip cookies from the nestle store in phipps, which is always a must when in the buckhead area. Last night we went to the Park Tavern, which was an awesome place. Cristina and Brandon met up with us and it was wonderful to sit on the edge of the park and see the lights of midtown in the distance. After dinner we went to the bars, and it was almost like being in Athens, but transplanted to atlanta. I am very excited about going back to Athen tomorrow, I really miss the place. I don’t know if I miss all of the stuff that goes along with law school, or all of the people, but I miss most of the stuff and most of the people. It will be interesting to see how this summer has changed the way I feel about law school and whether I have changed or not. It is interesting to have life changing experiences and then to see how they apply to your real life. Because this summer wasn’t real life. It was wonderful and amazing, but it is hard for it to be real life, since we were so far away from home and the stress of real life was so far away. I’m rambling, I think i need to take a nap. XXXX OOOO

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Hello everyone!!! I am back where I started, in the chair in the den of my parents house, with my dogs chewing up my stuff, burying bones in the pillows of the coach, and barking up a storm; watching primetime in the daytime on TNT, eating caramel cake and drinking coke. I think I have been doing a good job of recovering from jet lag, i went to sleep at 10 last night and woke up at 11 this morning, but at least I am on the right time schedule. Next on my list of things to do today is to decide when to go to Athens and when to go to Atlanta. I am thinking about going to athens on friday, and then to Atlanta on Saturday. Does anyone have strong feelings about this? (I mean, obviously everyone has strong feelings about me coming to their place of residence, but does anyone think I should come to the ATL on friday and athens on saturday?) I need to athens on friday because I have to set up our water for our new apartment (very exciting!) – but I can go through athens on my way to atl, either way. Monday we are moving, and then I am going to the mountains for a few days. But I want to see as many of you as possible this weekend, so please let me know if you are going to be around, or what the plan is. I love and miss you all, please post and let me know what you think. I would love to update more about my trip, but I think it is time to move on with the rest of my life, maybe a little later i will feel up to it. I can’t wait to see you!!!!!!

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I never properly gave an entry for my time on kefallonia, and I don’t want to lose it, so here it is. Helen and I arrived in Kefallonia via a Blue Star ferry named Kefallonia. As I have said, we made friends with two guys who just graduated from the Air Force Academy on the ship, Steven and Jeb and made plans to meet up with them on Wednesday. Once on the island, we took a taxi to Lakethria, to our house on a cliff. It was a long taxi ride and we didn’t get in the house until around 1:30 in the morning. We were both a little uneasy being by ourselves in this house, but we shook it off. The house did not have air conditioning, but it did have these huge windows/doors that led out to the porch with huge pull down screens. Without these doors open, the house got quite hot, but with the doors open, it was quite cool. There are also ceiling fans, which helps a lot. Tueday we awoke quite hot, but very excited about the day. We cleaned up the house a bit, and rearranged the furniture. Then we went to wander around the town. Lakethria is the cutest town, and there was a great cool breeze blowing, and lot of sun, and flowers, and flowers, and flowers. We visited the chocolate store, where the man told us he was there all day long and late into the night, and we promised him we would be back to sample everything soon, but first we needed some real food. We also had plans of going into Argostoli, which is the capital, about 10 minutes drive away, and renting a car and checking our email. First we went to visit our new next door neighbor who owns a souvalki takeout restaurant, and who offered us a drink and wanted to make sure we were okay, and who insisted on giving us his extra cell phone until Helen could get her own. Well, it turns out that we couldn’t find a taxi, and we ended up eating at a restaurant in Lakethria, visiting the chocolate man and getting lots of cakes and other delicious concoctions and heading back to the house to enjoy the porch. We called the rental car place we had been instructed to call by Hero, and the man said he was also a neighbor and that he would bring the car to us, later that afternoon. We thought this was awesome, so we ate cake and I taught Helen how to play Tavli while we looked off the cliff into the Ionian sea. That night we went to the pizza place down the road and drank big beers and talked about life. More later….

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I love you all so much for being excited that I am still alive, it means so much to me. I can’t wait to see you again and to sit at Son’s or the Globe, or some other shady bar or maybe just a back deck and drink a beer and talk about life and what we were thinking when we decided to go to law school, or to get a job, or where the world is headed. I miss athens and augusta and the great state of Georgia. I might even venture to say I miss the ATL, but it might be a stretch. I am about to go talk to the travel agent and make sure I have a flight from Kefalonia to Athens to catch my flight from Athens to Atlanta. I was attacked by waves in the Ionian sea yesterday and thrown against the pretty white rocks on the beach, but I survived, once I got all the rocks out of my bathing suit and my hair. Actually, I think there are still some rocks in my hair…….miss and love you

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Hello everyone!! I am sorry to have dropped off the face of the earth in the past couple of weeks, but I will be home soon! I am in Kefalonia, with Helen Dalis, and we are having a great time. I left Spetses on Saturday, the 10th, and went to Athens. Athens was quite possibly the hottest place I have ever been. Really, I thought I might die, or at least melt into a puddle on the steps of the Parthenon. Mama was still with me, and we were able to stay in the best hotel in Athens, and they took very good care of us. Saturday night I met up with Dave and Justin who were on their way to Rhodes, and we went out to this really cool bar on the water that was shaped like a boat that the guy at the front desk of our hotel recommended. We were comfortably the only Americans in the bar, highly probably the only kids that weren’t greek. Sunday Helen met up with us and we were taken on a tour of athens by a car driver who designated himself our personal tour guide. He demanded that we speak Greek and talked to us the whole time in Greek, with a few words of english thrown in, but precious few. Needless to say we learned a great deal. Monday morning Mama left for the states, and helen and I caught a bus to Patra. Patra is the 3rd largest city in Greece, so Helen and I anticipated being able to check our email. Well, too bad half of Greece lost power monday afternoon. Remember the blackouts in New York last summer? Ummm, yeah, that is Greece right now. Since everyone lost power, including all of Athens (thank the Lord that we left Athens when we did, because without electricity, there is no air conditioning, and I would have LOST it if we had to stay in athens with no air conditioning) all the stores closed, and we couldn’t catch a ferry to Kefalonia until 8:30 that night. So Helen and I did what any intelligent americans would have done, we got a beer. Then we went and met up with the people who had the key to the house on the island. Hero was the woman’s name and she was adorable, and wanted to take care of us, and wanted us to stay the night, but was worried with the power outage that we wouldn’t get to the island the next day, and we had already bought our ferry tickets. She settled on feeding us some apricot dessert, taking us back to town, buying us a beer and a greek salad, and putting us safely on the ferry. Helen and I have started picking out americans by their shoes, and we spotted a guy with rainbows on, and we decided to make friends. After watching the sun set on the deck, we went inside and sat in the line of vision of rainbows and then Helen went to the bathroom, and I turned around and stared for a second, made eye contact, smiled, and turned back around, and put in my earphones. two minutes later he came over and asked if I spoke english, and we ended up making friends with him and his friend, they both just graduated from the Air Force academy. We are suppose to meet up with them at the beach today, but anyways, it was good company on the ferry. Okay, I have to go because my time is about to run out and I want ya’ll to know what I am up to. I miss you and I love you and I can’t wait to talk to you on the phone next week!!!!!!!!! hugs and kisses

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So….Greece just made it to the finals of the Euro Cup. This is a really big deal, and I just wish I was more up for celebrating. Tomorrow we are going to see all the sites of Homer, and the things he has to talk about (for lines and lines and lines). Then after we see the ruins we are going to go to a greek play in a greek theater. But more importantly, my favorite people in greece are going, and I love them to death. I had my first irish car bomb tonight, and now I am going to sleep. Did I mention that I am in love? With this place. I miss you and I love you and I will be in touch.

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I’m in love with my international contracts professor. His name is Ole Lando, and he basically wrote all the EU codes on contracts. He is a little short danish man, and is so sweet. My face was a little burned yesterday and he told me that I still retained my beauty, and that I was burned because I am from a more nordic race than he is. He is great. and deaf. I love spetses, I don’t think I would come home ever except for the fact that I miss all my friends and that football season starts in 64 days. Let me tell ya’ll about my new best friends. Most of them were also in Rhodes, and this is nice, because we have really bonded in the past month, and it is cool to have the same experience. I spend most of my time with Andy and Michael and Erin. I absolutely adore all three of them. They make me happy. And I spend ALL of my time with them. Andy and Michael and I pass notes during class. Andy makes the best facial expressions, Michael has the prettiest eyes, and Erin is my saving grace, I would be lost without her. And they all make me laugh, and we are all very tan. Andy and Michael have been planning the sports that my children are going to play in college and professionally, they think I should have 8. I also spend a lot of time with Eric, Mike, Rea, Purna (the big purn), and Dan. Mike might possibly be the funniest person I have ever met. And Rea speaks and reads Greek perfectly (cause she is greek american), and this comes in handy a great deal of the time, since Greek is a little difficult to read (wrong letters and everything). Plus she is cool. Purna is the cutest, she is cute when she is sober, and then she has one beer and is even cuter. Eric takes very good care of me and looks out for me, makes sure I don’t lose stuff or get left. Eric was our boat captain when we went out on the boat and saved us from disaster a couple of times. Dan went to UGA and goes to law school in boulder, so we have lots to talk about. The new additions to the group are Beth and Leigh Anne, Todd, James, and the Greek girls – Alexia, Dora, and Rhonia. Beth and Leigh Anne are from Indiana and grew up together, they are really fun girls (Leigh Anne was a THETA!), Todd is awesome, I could talk to Todd about nothing or everything for hours – he has had a very interesting life, James is from somewhere near New Orleans, but he went to Penn, and he is very louisiana. We have a tendency to get into it about SEC football, but he makes me laugh, so it is okay. The Greek girls are the best, all three of them are so cool and sweet. Dora goes to law school in the UK, and speaks better english than I do, Alexia and Rhonia both go to law school in greece, but they are finished with class and now have internships, it works a little different over here. It is so cool because I feel like I am actually learning about law over here just from being around them. They are all very smart girls, and very pretty. That should be everyone, if I forgot anyone, I am really sorry, I don’t have much of a brain. So basically we lay out on the beach (well, it is kinda a beach) and play in the water, we wait for the hydrofoils and catamarans to come by and play in the wake they leave. Even though we don’t do much of anything, it is a very intense environment, since we are around each other all the time. But guess what? MAMA IS COMING ON SATURDAY!! I am so excited, and so is everyone else. tomorrow we are going to the mainland to see all the homer stuff and where it all happened, and then tomorrow night we are going to see a greek play in an ancient greek theater, outside of course, and guess what? There is a full moon tomorrow. Greek tragedy, greek theater, in greece, full moon…..wow, I just got chills and I’m not even there yet……But then on saturday I am going to meet mama in athens and she is coming to Spetses!! It is going to be awesome. I miss you all and I love you to death.

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