Biking the Siskiyous!

After a long hard winter bundled up with a good book and a cup of tea listening to the 7o mph winds plastering snow to the windows, Spring is a blessed season. Okay, so maybe the winter isn't like that every day and there is some of the most amazing ultimate sledding out here, but still the Spring is most appreciated. With that in mind, I've been out on the trails as often as possible biking and hiking this magnificent countryside. I must warn you that this post is very picture heavy :). Enjoy!

Mt. Shasta! About 10 miles away from my house and an active volcano. Beautiful when sleeping.
Pardon my ocherous hand (it was stilled stained from henna-ing my hair), but here is a piece of obsidian that was used to make Native American projectile points. You find worked obsidian allll over the place out here.

J workin' hard ;)

Now back to that cup of tea and book snuggle.

Accepted!

Wow, what an incredibly emotional day. I woke up this morning a weee (yes with three "e's" because I am a badass like that) bit sleep deprived (forgetting to close the blinds, a malediction on you!) and then henna-ed my hair since it was raining to much too go outside and do any super cool sun-powered things. Besides the fact that I looked like some prehistoric swamp beast recently unleashed to terrorize mankind for a few hours and that the smell of henna is apparently something to be reckoned with, it all in all went well. That isn't really what this blog article is about though since this afternoon I got the good news that I was accepted (after having been waitlisted) to the Académie de Besançon France through the TAPIF program!!! I think the last time I was so happy that I cried was as a child when I found out my dog would be okay after being hit by a car. Well, needless to say I bawled my eyes out upon reading that email. After the long period of unemployment, rejection, just plain bad luck, something has finally happened and honestly it just feels right; it feels like this is the path I am supposed to take. I can't be totally surprised, however, since I've had certain intimations that my luck was changing the past couple of weeks. For example, when I went to take Anna Kerenina to the library to get it renewed and found a copy of it in a free book pile right by the door THEN the same day I saw this:

the best wanted poster of all time. In case you can't tell, this is a sketch of a guy in a ski mask. Enough said. I should have known at that point that good things were coming my way, and yes, in fact they are ;).

Much Love!