leaving the farm, time in harrisonburg

We have now been away from Twin Oaks for almost a week. We didn't use the computers much so the blog was somewhat neglected and I know everyone is dying to hear all about it, so I think we will both reflect on it this month. I am still not sure I have had enough time to decide how I really feel about Twin Oaks as a possibility for our future. I am very glad that we went. We saw and learned lots of interesting things and met some great people. We really enjoyed everyone who was in our visitor group - Zitian, Momoko, Diana, Liv, Bailee, Jordan, and Rick.

We left last Friday and drove Liv to Richmond and had lunch with my brother Matthew, who has just started his freshman year at VCU. It was awesome to see him, I'm still having trouble comprehending that he is 18 and in college. We saw his dorm and took him to lunch at a neat little place called Ipanema cafe, which a resident of Twin Oaks told us about (he went to VCU and now sells Twin Oaks tofu and tempeh to them). It was delicious. On our way out of Richmond we got stuck in gridlock for a while. It was a bit of a rude awakening to come into that after three weeks on a farm. It made us yell "Run Away, Run Awaaaaaaay," and I have to admit some of our dislikes of Twin Oaks seemed a lot less important at that moment. Fortunately we made it to Charlottesville and had a great evening with Jason and Ellen (see previous post on their wedding in Cleveland) and David Lowe and his girlfriend Meg. We stayed up really late with Jason and Ellen and I started to feel tired and lame but they said they never stay up that late either, so I felt less lame.

Now we are in Harrisonburg, staying with my family. David is attempting to get ready for his bike ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway but has a nasty sinus infection at the moment. We hope he will be ready to go on Sunday or Monday. It is nice to be in Harrisonburg for a while, we are rarely here for this much time so it feels more relaxed seeing family. It is also really fortunate that we are here right now to help my mom. My uncle Joe died while we were at Twin Oaks and I am very grateful that it is easy for me to be here now to help her start going through the house and to be around when family comes. If we were still in our same set up in Atlanta there is no way I would be able to do this.