Bye Bye Summer Blues

The first week of September has always been a roller coaster week in my life. Growing up it was the back to school week and the official end to summer fun. When I was working in New York City, it was a major kick-off, start new projects, put it in over-drive for the next 4 months week. Both growing up and while living in NYC, the first week of September also marked the end of tourist season. With a sigh of relief we could reclaim our Maine beaches and restaurants. The City was noticeably less crowded and Central Park was once again our haven.

Times aren't that much different now. Cameron officially started his fall term Monday (see first day of school picture above), and I buckled down determined to make finding a job my full-time job. Central Park has been replaced by the Duke Forest and the Al Buehler Trail (we refer to it as the WaDuke Trail after the Washington Duke Inn). Rather than noticing restaurants are less crowded, I've noticed that Target, Harris Teeter (grocery store) and the Alexan Pool are less crowded.

The inevitable summer let down has set in, but thankfully the Duke Partners Program is all it's cracked-up to be and in the five or so weeks I've been living here in Durham I have met a ton of great people. The girls and I had brunch on Monday at Elmo's Diner while the boys were at school, and we met up at the pool later that evening to chat and have drinks while they were busy studying. Tomorrow night we are celebrating a birthday and having our second weekly "Don't Throw it Away Thursday", essentially a smorgasbord of leftovers. It's weeks like these that I am super thankful for good friends and family...Oh and pictures of Olympic athletes, Apolo Ohno and Cullen Jones, who visited Duke on Tuesday. Enjoy!