Keep Your Enemies Close....

Now that Lola has done the obligatory "I haven't written in ages... please forgive me," the raging public that is living for every drop she writes can rest assured that she is writing again. Albeit bitching about the ridiculousness of assholian family members.... Lola prepares for her nuptials in June... Only to discover that her future in-laws, savages at best, have decided that they would rather sit at home and be spiteful than enjoy a lovely lobster dinner at her wedding. Well, Fuck Them. Lola has taken entirely too much of their self absorbed bullshit. And since she's paying for her entire wedding herself, she gets to choose who is allowed to come and who is not. When push comes to shove, the people who are willing to stand up for you are the people who count. The people who shit on you with their own insecurities and neediness do not deserve the privilege of being in your immediate circle of family/friends. Or in the outskirts. Or on the next continent. Surround yourself with people who love, support and cherish you. Those who suppress, hurt and belittle you can suffer in the darkest realms of Hades, left to fester and die. You don't need them. And nor does Lola.

Holy Shit

Ahh, Lola has been BEYOND remiss in actually blogging. She has thought about it many times, but, sadly, ennui has won out on each and every instance. She was, however, delighted to see that people have actuallly READ said blog. And her hear grew three sizes that day... As you few readers have surmised, Lola's musings are really just a commentary on her life in general. And, gladly, her life as of late, has been quite good. Lola has found a man that can handle her. Unfortunately, his family is not up to the task, but that's their problem, not hers. Her knight in shining armour takes the good, the bad, and the occasionally hilarious. Lola only hopes that others find such completeness.

Vacation!

After arriving at Lake Winnipesaukee in the wee hours of Sunday morning, Brian slept a few hours then went fishing. He did very well and caught 4 big fish so we were all able to have some for dinner! We of course went to Moulton Farms for corn and I have since discovered that they now make cider donuts. Which are apparently laced with crack. Yummy! Too bad we couldn't have stayed longer. On the bright side, on the way to VT we stopped at Lost River Gorge, where you can walk down a boardwalk through the gorge and explore the caves an see little waterfalls. It was excellent! I highly recommend it!
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On the Road Again!

Ah yes, as per usual, Lola has wantonly forgotten her blog for an entire year. But seeing as to how she has no dedicated readers, this really is not all that terrible. She really only uses this format, found in the darkest corners of the internet, for her random musings on life in general. But it seems that every year at this time (even if at no other time) as she is preparing for her annual escape into nature to commune with the squirrels and racoons (although not too closely... those assholes have rabies), she feels compelled to start anew and profess great aspirations of updating the blog regularly. She supposes that this, like many other pathetic attempts, will be more hogwash than anything, but the intent is to at least try to update the blog with the latest trip. This year, however, she is not spending her usual week of "annual psychological resetting" at Lake Winnipesaukee, but rather only a day or so at the lake then venturing off to Grande Isle in VT. It would appear that Lola and her paramour B have taking quite a liking to this perpetually green, earthy-crunchy mecca of Cheese. Cheese in all its many splendors: Cow's milk, Chevre, random varieties of bleu and stinky cheeses. And its all absolutely Wonderful!!! VT, Lola may perhaps be your biggest fan. More to come! (hopefully)

Nightmares and Dreamscapes

In the Stygian darkness of last night, incongruously coupled with a full moon, I had a horrible dream that B had died. The particulars of this nightmare were indistinct. Tenuous, like the edges of the flame from a candle. I was rocked from my sleep, tears streaming down my face, the breath ripped from my lungs. An extremely rare circumstance for me, I was incapable of making any type of sound. In the wake of this horrendous dream, I began to come to my senses, and realize my surroundings. B was safe beside me, snoring quite contently. I put my arm around him, waiting for the tears to subside and my breathing to return to normal as if I were afraid that Charon himself would rip B from my grasp. We all have nightmares in this vein: something incomprehensible that we know would have a detrimental effect on our lives. Plain old nightmare? No. It highlighted something in my life that I already knew to be true, and that is I cannot live the same life without B in it. I was well aware of that fact before I drifted off into a nefarious dreamland last night, but perhaps dreams of this ilk serve a different purpose. Not to remind us of what we already know, but to enlighten us to never take for granted those blessings in our lives that have been granted us.

Bipolar Much??

It would appear that Lola is a somewhat maudlin character from time to time. Since her last wayward musings, she has snapped out of her funk and realized that all things happen for a reason, whether we know that reason or not. She has also realized that in the last few months she has been extremely remiss in updating this blog. On the bright side, the picture on the blog is of Lake Winni, where she spends a week each summer, and that week is just around the corner! Woo-hoo!! Lola prepares for another interesting, and usually hilarious week with her peeps at the Lake, her annual "reset" button before tackling young minds at school. Truly important life lessons that Lola has learned in the past from camping at the lake:

1.) The bike must be in neutral to start it, regardless of its behavior in the past
2.) Noodles on for safety
3.) Beer bottles do not float
4.) Nor does a dismembered fishing reel
5.) Yes, you can wear a bridesmaid's dress in the woods. As long as there are flip-flops to go with it
6.) Poker is apparently not as hard as people make it out to be, as long as you take away all the other players' chips :)
7.) You can get moose on any article of clothing. Print, not the actual animal
8.) Yes, bears DO shit in the woods
9.) No, mosquitoes DON'T care if you are bathed in deet
10.) Anything you say in front of a toddler WILL be repeated at an inopportune moment

Youth

Youth is a fickle thing. When we are young, the only thing we want is to be older, and in some cases, "respected." As we age, we realize that all we want is to be younger. The cliche that youth is wasted on the young is more true than most of us would like to admit. Lola has not lived myriad years, but sometimes she feels like she has. As she looks back on her life, she is proud of many of the decisions she has made, and not so proud of more than a few. What do we do with those poor decisions? There is always the option of chalking it up to being young and dumb. There is also the less appealing fact that yes, we knew it was a bad idea, but we did it anyway. And the least fabulous thought is that we made some of those decisions out of anger or spite. Lola unfortunately must admit to all three, but particularly the latter. She made an awfully stupid decision when she was but a young thing, perhaps telling herself that it was the best thing at the time, but knowing that the primary reason she did it was out of spite. And what was she rewarded with? Knowing that, out of being hurt, angry, and (embarrasingly) out of spite, she made the worst decision she could have possibly made. And she will most likely spend the rest of her life regretting it, and asking herself, "But what if...."

It Never Stops

Just when you prepare yourself for one thing, something will completely sideswipe you and knock you off your course. I have yet to decide if this is good, bad, or indifferent. Sometimes being led (or shoved onto) a different path is good; we see and experience new things. Other times it just plain fucks shit up. At the less than ripe old age of 30, I have decided I may be too jaded for my own good. Not only am I not getting nearly as worked up about things as I used to (which, in some regards is wonderful), but I find myself completely nonplussed by most occurrences. I fear that I could blithely sit by and watch some sort of tragic accident, and only be annoyed if something were to spill into my cup of tea. I feel there must be some fine line between caring and complete apathy... I just haven't figured out how to find it.

And So It Begins...

I sit here, on the eve of a potential hurricane, realizing that in a few short days work must yet again commence. Part of me (the OCD part) wants to go back through all the posts from Europe and format them appropriately. I am going to try to stay my hand on that one... a little imperfection does a soul some good. But now I must settle my wanderlust, and get back to business. But oh, how I like my vacation! On the bright side, it looks like I have a few new students... on the downside, Dean just upped my class limit from 27 students to 47... which sort of makes me worry about how many people they have scheduled for me.... God have mercy.

Thick as a Rock

Interesting Bits:
There is a faultline that runs through Scotland. In fact, where Edinburgh currently sits there were 5 ancient volcanoes, long since dead. North of this faultline the bedrock is granite. The buildings in this area are made from granite, mostly in a pink, white or grey color. South of the faultline the bedrock is a red sandstone, and the architecture there reflects the natural material. Its interesting to see the contrast that is nearly a clean dividing line between granite and sandstone buildings.
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St. Andrew's

On our way to Edinburgh, we stopped in the town of St. Andrew, the birthplace of golf. We walked around a bit and visited a ruined cathedral. When John Knox gave his inflammatory sermon in God knows what year, the Presbies left the Holy Trinity Church in a bit of a lather, walked down the street to the catholic cathedral (which up to that point had been the largest cathedral in Scotland), and began demolishing it by hand. It served as an unofficial quarry anytime the townspeople needed stone, now only 1 tower and a couple of walls remain.
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At The Bar

Last night after dinner, Dad and I decided to go to the hotel bar for a scotch. We ended up talking to some Irishmen, who were in Scotland on a fishing trip. They found out I was a musician, and wanted me to play the piano in the bar. Turns out the lid was screwed shut, so I figured I'm off the hook, right? Nope. One of them went to his room, got a screwdriver and broke into the piano. Unfortunately it was so out of tune it was unplayable. In the end, I sang a couple of songs, they explained fly fishing to me, and each one of them insisted on giving me a kiss when I lwft to go to bed. All in all, quite a fun evening!
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Swim For Your Life!

We went to a teahouse on the Falls of Feugh on the River Dee for tea and scones. Whilst dining, we heard about salmon fishing in Scotland from a fisherman, or "Gilly." I'm not exactly sure what salmon fishing has to do with tea and scones, but it was informative. We then went to the little pedestrian bridge over the falls and could actually watch the salmon swimming upstream and trying to fling themselves UP the falls. Takes a special level of stubborness to do that.
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Castles

Today we left the hotel at a reasonable hour for our day of touring. First we went to a little town near Balmoral castle, the private residence of the Royal Family where they spend each August. Braemar (the little town) was cute; did more shopping of course. We then headed towards Craithie Kirk, where the Royals worship. On the way we were able to catch a glimpse of Balmoral, but my speed camera skills lacking, I decided to buy a postcard. Next was Crathes Castle, which was interesting. Built in the 16th cent, the walls are 6 ft thick, and it is definitely built for protection. Even though some of the ceiling paintings had been lost over the centuries, overall it was not as ornate as some of the French castles; more practical. Lots of furniture and artwork.
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Accomodations

On this trip, we have been in relatively nice hotels, but this one takes the cake. It is a hotel and spa, that was originally owned by a man who got rich making and selling soap. The original wing looks like an old castle. Inside, there is ornately carved woodwork, gorgeous chandeliers, etc. I think I could easily live here. Too bad we're leaving for Edinburgh tomorrow.
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I Hope I Don't Jinx Myself

Lola has heard such horror stories of the Scottish weather, that she has, until now, avoided mentioning it, for fear that it will permanently drive the sun away. She had been told that it was cold, dreary and rainy, but the scenery is nice. So far, the weather has been quite lucky and Lola thanks the meteorological gods for this blessing. For the most part, it has only rained at night, or in the morning when we are on the bus. There has been quite a bit of sun, and Lola even visited the pool! Granted, it's indoors, but that is completely beside the point.
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Glenfiddich

We awoke at the arse-crack of dawn to begin our journey to the next hotel, which had 3 important stops along the way: Speyside Cooperage, Dean's Shortbread, and (drumroll please) Glenfiddich Distillery (by far, my favorite part of the day). The cooperage was very interesting. They mostly refurbish old bourbon casks from the US, and most of the work is done by hand. Then, the distillery. FAH-bulous. A nice tour that told the history of the company, and then a walking tour of the grounds. I had only the vaguest notion of how whiskey is made, so I found this riveting. We ended the tour with a tasting of the 12, 15 and 18 year old scotches. We ended the day at Dean's, which had a lackluster tour, but a good lunch and nice history about this shortbread company.
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A Bit of History

After the lighthearted dogs, we went to Culloden to see the museum at the battlefield. Here's your history lesson for the day: in 1745 there was a Jacobite Rising; those who wished James VII of Scotland (III of England) returned to the throne, along with catholocism. Led by Bonnie Prince Charles, the Jacobite troops were undefeated until their last battle. Due to several issues, they were slaughtered at Culloden. The museum is just beside the actual battlefield, which has remained relatively unchanged since the battle. The field had the battle lines shown for each side, and the dead are actually buried there. There is a stone for each clan that lost members. That was the last battle fought on British soil. It was awe inspiring.
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Sheep Dogs

This morning we went to a sheep farm to see a border collie demonstration. It was absolutely fascinating! There are 2,500 sheep and 35 dogs. Each dog has its own set of whistle commands, and the dogs are friggin brilliant. After the cornering of the sheep, Neil (the shepherd) showed how the sheep are sheared, and let people try. Those that did got to keep a piece of fleece. Now THERE'S a souvenir... Sheep bits. Anyhow, the dogs then corralled some wayward ducks, and I got to feed a lamb from a milk bottle. Lots of fun, and very interesting :)
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Here Nessie, Nessie

Last night we had driving tour of Glasgow. Much of the architecture is reddish, or mottled in color due to the sandstone in the area. Today marked the first REAL day of sightseeing, and we did quite a bit. We took a boat cruise on Loch Lomond, the 3rd largest lake in Scotland. 500 ft at its deepest! Then we continued through the countryside, through Glencoe where we learned about the massacre of the MacDonalds by the Campbells in 1692. We continued through Great Glen, and the Caledonia canal, which connects 4 lochs, the last of which is Loch Ness, the 2nd largest lake at 26 miles long and 900 ft! Try tho I might, I did not see Nessie. The countryside is indescribably beautiful; the mountains are extremely steep, and lakes so deep because they were cut from glacial ice. I've already taken more photos than I know what to do with!
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