Tag Archives: home

A Capitol Tour

Posted in Pennsylvania by

I grew up in Pennsylvania and went to college near Harrisburg, and yet I never made it to the capitol building until this past weekend. After spending so much time in and around the Wisconsin capitol building while living in Madison, I had high expectations for Harrisburg—none of which were met.

Just so that we’re on the same page, here were some of my expectations after living in Madison:

  • View of the city from the rotunda.
  • Lively surrounding area (shops, restaurants, etc.) outside the building.
  • Bright and friendly inside the building.

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Somerset Mountain Craft Days

Posted in Pennsylvania by

I’ve been hearing about Mountain Craft Days for years. My BeFF‘s family has a long-standing joke about how the event doesn’t actually exist, thanks to her mom driving the kids around for hours trying to find it a few years in a row. With that background going through my head, I was sure I’d have trouble finding it, but the signage was excellent and I made it in good time.

I’m gonna interrupt myself here to say how much I missed driving these mountain roads when I was living in Wisconsin! It’s so cool to have your ears popping when driving up and down steep hills—a sensation I’ve until recently only been able to experience in an airplane. What a great aspect of the state!

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Local Travels

Posted in Pennsylvania by

Get excited, people! I’m going to the Somerset County Mountain Craft Days this weekend! Don’t let the photo on the homepage of the bonnetted lady fool you—well, actually, that’s exactly what it’ll be like. So it’s lucky for me that I like learning about how they did things in Ye Olde Pennsylvania.

But primarily, I’m just excited to see local artisans and craftspeople. It was at this time last year that my mom met her bobbin lace teacher, and as an avid knitter, I love to browse the local fare. My mom says there are metalworks, too, and let’s be honest, who doesn’t love watching an ironsmith make sparks on an anvil?

I’ll let you know what it’s like once I’ve gone, but this is the first real travely thing I’ve done since driving here from Wisconsin. Rest assured: I have a few more things planned over the next few weeks and will be sure to post about them as they go.

In health news: I’m two pounds and one inch down over the past two weeks! We had a rainstorm last night that’s really made the temperature drop, so I’ve upped my hot tea consumption. Some might call it an addiction. When can I get back to Scotland? 🙂

Living With Mom

Posted in Not Traveling by

In the movie Failure to Launch (which I don’t remember really liking all that much), the main character Tripp and his friends Ace and Demo each live with their parents. It’s the point of the movie—they’ve “failed to launch” into their own independent lives—and Tripp’s parents hire someone to seduce Tripp out of the house and into adulthood.

The part I did like about the movie was near the end, one of the emotional climaxes, when Ace admits he owns the house where he grew up (bought it from his mom) and has the basement tricked out in ultra-tech super-modern style. And when Ace sums up Demo—the guy who’s always rock-climbing and traveling—like this:

Bradley Cooper

And Demo, here, has chosen the life of a wanderer. I mean, sure, he technically still lives at home, but his permanent address is in his heart.

(Oh yeah, I forgot to mention Demo is played by Bradley Cooper. Which was arguably the best part of the movie.)

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Getting Fishy

Posted in Not Traveling by

I love bread.

One of the best things about learning German was that I got to go to Germany where they love bread. In German Cooking, by Marianna Olszeweska Heberle, she writes:

A woman is leaning over her backyard fence, discussing her son’s career choice with a neighbor. “Well,” she says, “Manfred just couldn’t pass his baker’s exams, so he’s taking up brain surgery.”

While she admits it’s a bit of an exaggeration, it’s still true that Germans love bread.

https://i0.wp.com/blog.besserhaushalten.de/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Brotberg.jpg

It’s so obvious I’m German.

And so obvious that Wisconsin is peopled with expat Germans. In my 3 1/2 years there, I got to the point when some sort of bread was the focus of every meal. Bread, crackers, Panera Rapid Pick-Up, pasta, desserts—you name it, I probably craved it. And consequently overate it.

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Fit to Travel

Posted in Not Traveling by

Almost four years ago I moved to Madison, Wisconsin, a healthy, fit 135#, and started a full-time desk job. Each year of that job, I gained ten pounds, and so now, I’m officially That Fat American—a stereotype I definitely want to crush before returning to Europe.

https://d1aviatl7dpuhg.cloudfront.net/image/mode/crop/q/90/w/500/h/282/url/64/aHR0cDovL3BpeGNtc2FkbWluLnBpeGFibGUuY29tL3dwLWNvbnRlbnQvdXBsb2Fkcy8yMDE1LzA2L2hpcHMuZ2lm
from the German segment of Watch People From All Over the World Describe How to Spot an American (click image to view)

Part of it is that I have a wardrobe of cute clothes that don’t fit me right now, and I’m too cheap to buy new ones in my new size. Part of is that I don’t want to confirm negative stereotypes of my own country. But most of it is just that I feel better when I’m a healthy weight, and that I love-love-love walking and biking when I’m in Europe, activities that I can’t see myself doing well if I’m in my current state of overweight. (Besides, you can fit more clothes in a suitcase when the clothes are smaller!)

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