This month is filled with inspirational things. We are on a trip to NYC, NJ, Boston, and Portland. It has been quite fun since it was so unexpected. We left last Friday and went to NYC – saw Peter and the Starcatcher (wonderfully witty play) and Spiderman (a bit flat), went to the Natural History Museum (one of my favorites), visited the 9-11 Memorial (very strong commemoration), Ellis Island (humbling to realize how brave and desperate my great-grandparents had to have been to make the journey here), and Liberty Island (simply beautiful). We relocated to NJ for Jeff’s class – and we have done NJ things like eat in a pizzeria (ordered pizza and mussels), ate in a diner (such fun). Yesterday, Jeff was in class so I tromped off to the Staten Island to see the gardens – there is a chinese scholar’s garden which was amazing and a hidden garden that had a winding hedged path. It was a beautiful day and I thoroughly enjoyed myself as I spent time there. Even sat by the duck pond to write for a while. I had lunch at a great Italian place and had a wonderful cannoli. Today we leave for Boston.