Bees!

I now present to you a tale of murder and mystery...

For the first time in years, I joined my dad at the bees. We had an important mission- to assassinate the old queen bees, and replace them with new, fresh queens. As a beekeeper, you have to replace the old queen every 2 to 3 years, because she stops laying as many eggs and your beehive will shrink in size. 

Last week, Dad got the two new queens in the mail. Yes, when you order bees, they package them in little boxes covered in screen, and send them to you via the United States Postal Service. As soon as he could, he introduced the new queen bees to the hives. Normally, the beekeeper must squish the old queen. Then, the bees release the new queen from her little screen box by chewing through a candy "door." She emerges and takes over the hive. 

Finding the queen is sometimes a needle in a haystack situation. When you order a queen through the mail, she'll have a brightly colored dot painted on her and is usually easier to find among the 10s of thousands of bees in the hive. But sometimes, the bees replace the store-bought queen themselves, and then the beekeeper has to find a big, fat, natural bee colored like all the rest. You might look through every inch of your beehive and never see her. And the more you take apart a beehive, the angrier the bees get. 

Well, dad was able to find and "assassinate" the old queen in my hive and replace her successfully, but he couldn't find the old queen in his hive. What could he do? He couldn't leave the new queen in her little screen box. There was no other choice. He put the new, young queen in there anyways, figuring that a battle between the old queen and new queen would ensue. The bees would eat through the candy door, and the new queen would emerge to take on the old lady in charge. He hoped for the best. 

This week, when we opened the hives, we saw the results of the battle: The new queen didn't have a fighting chance. She and her worker bees were murdered in their little box before they had a chance to find the old queen for a fair fight! That poor little virgin queen had her candy door opened all right- but she didn't even make it one step out into the hive. She was cornered and attacked! We found the little body with its bright yellow dot dead as a doornail. The unmarked queen will have to reign on one year longer. We didn't find her this week either. Regardless, both hives are very healthy and we're sure to have a huge spring honey harvest this year. 

Yes, this is my life. I swear I'll make it living in a city.

Plodding along

My mom predicted that it would be one week before I was bored of being home. Well, I'm not quite there yet- thanks in part to a few silly events that marked the last week.

First and foremost, since it's on my mind- my sister and I finally went and saw Star Trek. We were waiting for each other to get home from school to see it and went on a sister date this afternoon. I have a few comments: the movie was fun and campy, but you can only really appreciate it if you're a true "Trekkie." Kate and I had gigantic grins painted across our face for the good first hour of the flick. "Oh gosh, it's Kirk's Dad! It's gonna be Dr. McCoy, watch!" We were just plain giddy, brought back with warp speed to our nerdy childhood. Secondly (This is directed at you, fellow peers of Nessacus Regional Middle School) Spock is still the hot one in the film, and I've turned out socially normal. So there.

Mom, Kate and I went on a shopping spree to the outlets yesterday. If you are reading this, and appreciate the great institution known as "Banana Republic," get in your car and find your nearest outlet NOW. The entire store was 40% off, including clearance. It was teacher-clothes heaven. I did have a hard time discerning between "want" and "need." In the end, it turned out that I needed everything that fit me ;-)

Otherwise, beyond the beautiful weather, the pilates videos, the runs, and the constant studying- life has been pretty quiet. No, I'm not bored yet. But give me a few more days. I'll get there!

Peace and Love- and enjoy the graduation pictures below!

The End of the Line

It was a beautiful, sunny weekend. The families arrived in droves, the food and drinks flowed freely. Everyone dressed to the nines, and cameras flashed on proud families. Was graduation great? In many ways, yes. But in many ways...

It was horrible. 

So, let's start with the good. The family arrived on Friday night, past the dinnertime rush. I met everyone at the never-fail Knights Inn, where we decided to rally for a drink or two at Tulley's. The restaurant was still hopping at 9:30 pm with hungry grads and their families. Service was slow, but company was great. I was so happy to see Mom, Dad, Grandma and Grandpa. It was after drinks with the family that I started having the sense that things were really over: Stacey and I headed for what we hoped would be a glorious and raucous night at Chuck's. In actuality, it was the most bizarre bar night I've ever witnessed. Washed up moms followed their daughters to the bar, the people I wanted to see weren't there, and there was a general sense of doom about the place. I actually couldn't wait to get home- the experience just seemed somewhat morose. I knew, right then, that it was over. Chuck's would never, ever be the same ever again. 

Saturday was HOT. Sticky and humid, it was a great day for a cute dress but a terrible day for a cap and gown. The Newhouse ceremony was at noon in the Dome, and Stacey, Stephanie and my PR friend Sara found seats by my side. Long, aggravating speeches dragged on. A pompous journalist went on a soapbox about atrocities in Vietnam, and the new Dean made a speech about- of all things- the career services office. The whole thing was uninspiring and the cherry on top was when I crossed the stage to the announcement of 'Tori Horse-Stein." 

Luckily, post grad festivities were much better. Instead of trying to find a place to go for lunch and dinner, my family booked it immediately after the ceremony back to the Knight's Inn. There, beers, whisky sours, wine and tons of food awaited the partying family. The Canandaigua clan joined the fun, and Justin came along looking handsome in his new duds. 

That night, the party raged on in the Carrier Dome for the Dinner Dance. This had to be the best choice the family made all weekend. The Dome looked spectacular, and families ate a delicious dinner and danced to a full orchestra. Everything sounded amazing and I even found the perfect orange dress for the occasion. The end of the night, however, brought that same impending feeling of doom. The party was really over- the guests trickled away from the dance floor and Justin and I headed back to his apartment for one last peaceful night in each other's company. 

Sunday really was the end. Joe Biden's speech to the huge graduating class encouraged us to go out and change the world. I was excited as he mentioned by name Teach For America- it somehow felt like he was talking to me! I felt like I had made the right choice. The ceremony on Sunday was actually much nicer than the Saturday one. This one had beautiful vocalists and inspiring speeches. I really enjoyed everything I heard. Shortly after the ceremony, the family packed up and went home- only mom stayed to help me pack. 

Post-graduation, Syracuse felt like a zombie town. None of my friends had left yet, but everyone was just drifting around, emotionless. Drained emotionally and physically from the weekend, it was with a sigh of relief that I pulled out of 329 Comstock's parking lot. It was really, really over. Even ABC News said as much, in a piece that I was lucky enough to get a bit in: http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?

id=7553303

I am so lucky to have an incredible, supportive family. I'm blessed to have found such sweet and true friends: and dare I say, yes, my future bridesmaids! I count graduation weekend as a joyful one, but also a tremendously sad moment. Am I really ready for this incredible task that I'm diving into? It seems unfair that I have to leave my friends, my boyfriend, and my joyful and carefree life behind so soon. But at the same time- I'm ready. And I wish only the best for all of them as we head out on separate paths. 

Peace and Love. 

Wrapping up

This has been a week of conclusions. 

Last week I missed writing my post. Perhaps it was because I felt like my senior year was going out with a fizzle. Everything seems to lack the luster and sparkle it used to have. Perhaps it's my natural reaction to saying goodbye: to simply turn off interest so as to avoid uncomfortable emotions. 

For example, this past weekend was the spring APO initiations. It was the last APO ceremony that I will ever witness. But not being on eboard this semester and not taking a little caused me to feel distant from the whole process. It was fun as always to dress up, and eat good food and be with good friends, but my heart just wasn't in it. Perhaps an entire semester of "he said, she said" fraternity drama has also simply left me tired. There's been lots of "lasts" in APO: last elections, last parties, last trip to the bars. Senior Sendoff was a nice ceremony where brothers toasted the Seniors and we all enjoyed a tasty picnic. We had our nostalgic moments, doodling on the grungy bar walls and snapping pictures with each other. APO has been wonderful and full of memories. But without a doubt, after this weekend, I can say that I'm ready to move on.

Classes also finished with a whimper. I didn't have any tough tests, and smartly paced my final papers so that I wouldn't be overwhelmed this last week. With a click of "send," everything was emailed in and I realized that my undergraduate degree is finished.  Now, without missing a beat, I've started plodding away at my Teach For America course work due this summer. There are FBI background checks to complete, resumes to edit, certifications tests to take and vaccinations to arrange before I can legally step into a public school. But I'm in an odd transition period where, stuck at school for at least another week, I can't get enthusiastic about TFA work just yet.

The nice thing about having a lot of free time is the social freedom I've had in the last few weeks. My friend Stephanie and I just went and got our toenails painted orange. I went on a glorious shopping spree to Target, where I found a blue seersucker suit and just the right bikinis for the summer. Justin and I took a drive north to a quaint old drive-in movie to catch a double feature. But frankly, I don't know what to do with myself. No one ever told me just how BAD daytime television really is. 

As if an angel heard me calling for an end to my boredom, I did get a entertaining phone call this week. Through sheer good luck, and since I'm apparently an "articulate interview," ABC world news has selected me as a "poster child" for the class of 2009 feature they're doing this weekend. The crew is going to follow me around campus, filming me picking up cap and gown, packing my boxes and shopping on Marshall st before doing an interview with me about why I've decided to do Teach For America. The whole idea is very exciting and a really fun way to end my time here at Cuse! 

Full graduation report next week. 

Peace and Love.