Back from Clifton

Erik arrived back from Clifton, Ireland this afternoon. He has been up for almost a day, but you wouldn't know it in looking at him. He seems to have had a great time, and he still is close friends with Brooks, who was gracious enough to invite Erik.

We haven't heard all the details but there seems to be a few stories about ordering a Guinness, something about cider and pitching dried bog chunks with Martin and his family. Too much, too much. All seems to have gone well, with the exception of a death of a small camera.

The only downside is that something seems to have changed with Erik's relationship with Rachel. She came over tonight after work and she left after a couple of hours. Erik was in tears when she left. That isn't great timing, but I suppose Rachel couldn't wait any longer, and with both of them heading in separate ways in a month, perhaps this will be a chance for a fresh start for everyone. Who knows what is involved...I don't know the whole story.

So with all of the that, I turn, once again to music. I have "Big Country" by the Flecktones humming along in the background to help me make sense of all of this.

Erik shared some quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald - something along the lines of being gracious and not attributing the worst to others and giving situations the benefit of the doubt. That is a game plan that serves me well as I struggle to get a handle of my educational future with a new Head of School and Director of the Middle School. What things do I control? Then those are the aspects of my life that I am going to work on developing. Perhaps my sense of community moves in a bit--I don't know. I shouldn't judge things before they have a chance to get started.