Fire

I always find the end of the school year to be a very bittersweet time. Even though I routinely give my students a fair share of good-natured abuse and work them pretty hard I do love them, and so the end of the academic year always gives me the blues. Adding to that this particular year is my own goodly share of personal sturm und drang, and that is magnified by the potential of spending the next year overseas. This last week I've found myself saying goodbye to my juniors, when I began to realize that I won't see them their senior year. It's also hard to think about leaving my close friends. For all of the pain of the last couple years, I've also allowed myself, really for the first time in years, to reach out to other people - and I've been blessed to have an amazing group of friends. Over the last year arguably the most pleasant surprise has been my growing friendship with Cyndi Brandenburg. We have a classic big brother/little sister relationship, with me picking on her endlessly and her getting very competitive around me (as can be seen in the chicken wing competition - oh, and I just realized that I've never gotten around to posting on the second incarnation of the chicken wings for charity competition). Aside from the constant tweaking of each other we've grown quite close, and I really like her husband Bill, the sweet and quiet twin girls Sarah and Maria, and the adorably corybantic Joey. Last night a group of us met at the Brandenburg/Vespa estate for one of Bill's classic bonfires (he is more than a bit of a pyromaniac, although he assured us this time that he had a permit this time). After building a fire, which I'm sure was visible from space, we feasted on hot dogs and smores, and the requisite amount of adult beverages. On nice evenings you can also walk through the field to the lovely country store, which completes the classic Vermont experience. So, I'm posting a few pictures, including ones of Kerry Noonan singing, her husband Steve and their daughter Dasha staring at the fire (I think this was shortly before Steve jumped the fire), and various shots of friends. The second one from the top if of Cyndi and Bill, the perfect hosts.