FSI Day 1

As I sit on my bed in the hotel, I am transfixed with the pictures of the tornado devastation in Oklahoma.  As a mother, I can't imagine waiting for news of my child after the school was leveled. The horror, sorrow, uncertainty, terror, that they must be feeling is unfathomable to me.  God willing, Inshallah, I will never have to know.  My heart goes out to those still in the path, who wait in fear, for what is to come.  So it feels a bit silly writing about my excursion to the Nordstrom Rack and the satisfaction of good packing while I have one eye on the TV screen looking at pictures of those who have just lost all that is important.  I am aware of the incongruous nature of this posting.  With that disclaimer...

The first day of class went well.  There are four of us from my office and one who used to be in NH in this course.  The five of us started out sitting together, safety in numbers, I guess.  But in the afternoon we were rearranged by our instructors.  We are going to stay in the same grouping for the rest of the week.  One fun thing is that I met one of the guys at the table in London last summer when we were both there on TDY.  It was nice to reconnect.

I didn't take many pictures today.  After class I went to the mall at Pentagon City and hit up Nordstrom's Rack.  I lost track of time in that store.  For a while I carried around the cutest pair of Betsy Johnson, cornflower blue, patent-leather ballet flats.  I was enamored.  However, I came to my senses before check out and put them back.  They were cute, in the kind of way only $50 impractical shoes can be.  I tried on a pair of black strappy, pencil thin, high heal sandals.  As elegant as they were, I'm not sure that I could walk more than a few steps without twisting my ankle.  Those too, I put back, even though they were appealing to my sense of adventure.  I ended up spending more money than I had planned because I forgot sleepwear.  Duh.

And I found some cute hair accessories -- a barrette and a clip, and a pair of earrings.  They weren't on the list of what I went in for.

On the whole, I think I packed pretty well for this trip.  My suitcase weighed 9 pounds under the weight limit.  And in my bag I had a bunch of snack food -- good gorp and freshly baked biscotti.  For my clothes, I chose a pink, navy, and black color scheme.  So far, I'm happy with what I brought (even if I did bring 5 pairs of shoes).  I've done the shoe thing right so far because my feet are blister free.

A couple of non sequiturs here: I don't think I put up pictures of my planting on Mother's day.  I filled my tray with tomato and cucumber seeds.

Just a week later,  a few of the cucumber seeds had sprouted!

As well as many of the carrots.  We will be doing some major thinning when I get home.

I am trusting that my guys are keeping the garden watered and taking my seedlings in at night so they don't get too cold.  In another two weeks or so, we should be able to get those plants in the ground!

Lastly, Selim got a haircut on Saturday!  He is sweaty in this picture, but trust me, he looks very handsome with his summer, shorter 'do.