Maggie’s Blog

So it’s been so wild and busy the last few days I don’t even know where to start. I’ll be posting another “sneak peek” later this week, but for now, I’ll just try to capture the important stuff that happened over the last few days.

SATURDAY

Family came up for the Taylor Clan post-wedding bash! It was a ton of fun, with car “decorating”, evil sodipop (a.k.a. Wine Coolers), The Newlywed Game (which we lost, horribly), famous couples, cake (provided by my sis), and pie (key-lime, yum!), and gifts! Hooray! Can’t do much better than that! Pictures from the trip were shown, and it was a smashing time.

SUNDAY

Attended the Writer’s Club pot-luck dinner at Mrs. Lankin’s house! Hooray for yummy food! We ate, we talked, we laughed, and we pet the adorable kitties, which Andy liked very much. OH! and there were sombreros. A party just isn’t complete without sombreros.

MONDAY

First, we saw The Dark Knight, which was a load of diesel-powered fun on a bun! I <3 Two-Face. He was always one of my favorite villains. And the Joker was awesome; different, but awesome. Half-wish they’d figured out a Harlequin character, but who knows what the next movie will bring, eh?

Then we dropped off film to get developed, and got the car washed (because it still had paint remnants on it from Saturday). Picked up Hot Fuzz from Newbury Comics, then went to hang out in the mall (got black heels, which I’ve been needing for a while, for $5! CRAZY!) Actually, we mainly used our gift cards, and so none of the minor shopping at the mall actually cost us (as in, from our bank) anything!

Went to dinner with Andy’s church band, Crossfire, at Olive Garden. There was much eating of breadsticks, good conversation, and a lot of laughs. Hooray!

Went back to get the film, only to learn that “somehow” the film in one of the canisters had gotten crumpled and therefore jammed their machine–long story short, we got one roll’s worth of prints and the three other canisters, though developed, with no prints. Lovely!

TUESDAY

Actually got some writing done! HOORAY! I started working on the Summary Draft of the novel project in the hopes of actually having fun plotting, and the ability to change and rearrange events at will without all the drama of changing or deleting written scenes. I also got 3 (count ‘em! THREE) Critters reviews done, which is excellent. I think I only need two now to make sure my manuscript can go through the queue on time.

Then we decided to get out of the house and go canoeing! At first, we were heading for Rocky Pond, but our attachment job on fixing the canoe to the jeep (which as a sports utility vehicle, you’d assume would actually be accommodating of that sort of thing–which it isn’t) was so rickety, we ended up just going to the Nissitissit River right down the road. The water was a lot higher than it was the last time we went canoeing there (thankfully–hauling a canoe across sand and rocks is no fun), which meant that we had no trouble clearing the rocks. The current was really strong, which made going down very easy, but made coming back up a real battle. There are also a lot of trees and branches hanging low over the water, and I think we managed to hit every single one, both ways. Also, there are spiders, and I hate spiders.

Otherwise it was a lot of fun, though exhausting.

Also watched Air Jaws II on Discovery Channel, and sharks are cool.

TODAY

Applied for an unpaid but lucrative submissions editing job this morning, then got a money-order to pay the deposit on our new apartment in Portland (yay! We have a roof!), and picked up War of the Worlds/Time Machine audio book, so while I’m working on other projects, I can still be catching up on all the SF classics I need to read.

Also discovered that I’m sick with a cold. Lovely. Napped, then lazed around the house chugging water. Doing a little better now; we’ll see how it goes.

So that’s about it for today’s update. Be on the look-out for a new “sneak peek” episode from the Switzerland trip!

July 3, 2008 — Day 2: Excerpt

The Aareschlucht

It was only about a 1 km walk (it was labeled on a sign like everything here, that’s how I know) to the Aare Gorge (Aareschlucht) from Riechenbach. We thought about taking the little railway tram that goes to it, but I was getting my second wind, and I was enjoying the exercise. This was when we discussed how we wanted to speak other languages, and how we were kind of glad there weren’t more American tourists around, as we both concurred that they are the most annoying (the loud, almost shouting slow English at people, as though that will help; refusing to speak a foreign language; finding cultural differences (like small fridges) annoying, etc.). This was about when we decided to work a little more on our French, since Andy’s had six years and I’ve had five (both include individual years of 7th and 8th grade, which technically is only French 1 together). Besides, we’d been relying on that for all written instructions and signs anyway.

We bought our tickets (ouch, another 15 francs together) and headed off on the trail. We actually went the opposite way as my family did the first time through the Aareschlucht, from the restaurant (where the path lead us) to the other end, which seemed to make sense since the numbers of the attractions were actually going in the right direction (1-13). Andy really liked it, and I loved it too. We spoke a lot of the time in French when we could manage it—Andy speaks French better than I do, but I can usually understand what he’s saying and respond accordingly—and English when we couldn’t.

At the other end of the gorge, we were really warm (because we went from the really cool, damp beginning of the hike to the end, which was muggy and hot) so we bought a previously-known-as Solero Shots! It’s not called Solero Shots anymore—starts with a C I think—though there were Solero popsicles, so the company is still around, just maybe sold the drink part. It was a lovely walk down memory lane, and Andy enjoyed it. Then after another brief pit stop, we headed down the road toward the sign that said “Aareschlucht Ost” which strangely led us down across a foot bridge over the river Aare to a solid rock wall with a handle-less door set into it. It looked like a utility tunnel, or like something the DARMA initiative (LOST) would have. I noticed that the sign next to the door said something like “stops on demand” and Andy noticed the buttons, one with an arrow pointing upward with the words “Aareschlucht Ost” and one with a down arrow with another town name under it. He hit the one with the up arrow and the button lit up. I tell you, it was like Riven. We stood and waited, not moving, and then all of a sudden (which again, was vehicular luck or divine intervention) there was a cool gust of wind and the sound of a train rushing past the open window (which we didn’t realize was open behind the meshing until then) and then the handless door slid open with a hiss, revealing the open doors of a train. We boarded, showed the conductor our ticket (which thankfully covered the cost), and off we went, zipping through the tunnel back to Mieringen.

July 02, 2008: Day 1– Excerpt

Train in Zurich

As we rode the train first to Luzern and then made the five-minute connection for the train to Meirigen, we saw the real mountains coming into view. It was stunning! Even having been here before, I can’t even get my head around how beautiful and majestic it is here. It still takes my breath away. Andy was loving it, too.

First Glimpse

He’s probably never seen anything quite like this before—even though I have, it’s like the first time for me, too, because this time, I have to organize everything and get us from one place to the next. It will be an adventure.

Rode the train to Meiringen until the Brieg stop, then we (the other two Hasliberg couples as well) disembarked with the well-wishes of Margirit the Untours organizer, and climbed on the bus that would ultimately take us to Reuti. The other two couples are staying a town or two down, in Holfhof or something like that. I’ll check tomorrow. At any rate, Andy and I end up being the last Untours people on the bus, with a whole bunch of locals (or if tourists, German speaking-tourists). At one point, I really worried that we’d missed the stop, because it seemed like the bus was starting to go back the way it had come, but just when we started to panic and plan our backup steps(take the bus back to the trains station and then take the train to Meiringen, and take the cable car up to Reuti), the bus turned back down the way we were supposed to be going.

We finally got off at Reuti, but then we were left alone. The bus had apparently been a few minutes early, so the caretaker (Jacquiline Strieche?) hadn’t had a chance to get to the bus stop yet. But before she came, we had another little panic attack about what to do next, where to go, how to contact people, where we could find a phone, etc. It wasn’t “panicking” so much as serious “O.K. we’ll figure this out.”

Mountains Across from Reuti

Luckily we decided to wait a few minutes to see if she would come. She did, and we made our greetings, etc., and she and her friend led us back up to the Pollux. I used a bunch of the Swiss-German phrases I’d learned because it seems a waste to say in English what I could say in Swiss (such as, the Weather is Beautiful), etc, which it was, by the way. As I told Andy on the way up, “At least we came in on a clear day so you could see all this awesomeness, even if it gets all socked in tomorrow.”

The Pollux is just breathtaking. It’s unbelievable. Even 100x better than the pictures made it out to be, and the pictures made it look lovely! Our view is to die for, the apartment is not only pretty modern, but beautiful and simple. Andy and I just about fell over when we saw how amazing it was. It really is a fantastic place to stay—we both were almost giddy trying to communicate with Jacquiline. Her English is a little rusty, and my Swiss is atrocious, so I’m rather impressed that we managed to overall communicate. To tell the truth, her English, even rusty, is millions of miles ahead of my Swiss, which I’m starting to realize although incredibly useful (see below), it is completely insufficient for any kind of extended conversation.

Me and the Living Room	Bedroom
Back Balcony	Balcony

After Jacquiline got us settled, Andy and I decided—after some discussion—not to try to squeeze in Riechenbackfalls today, since we were both jetlagged and it was getting later in the evening for the Swiss (it was about 4 o’clock by now), and we weren’t sure if there would be time to go down by the lift, go to the falls, actually SEE the falls, and then catch the lift back up. We haven’t been taught how to read that insanely complicated book of schedules yet, so we decided to play it safe and just walk a little around town. Jacquiline had pointed out a little grocery shop just a little ways down from us, so we dropped in there to pick up some supplements for the small food stuffs Untours provided in the apartment (which was exceptionally nice!). The lady who runs the place speaks—again—better English than I do Swiss, though perhaps not quite as fluently as Jacquiline. Then again, who knows? She just seemed more willing to trust our faulty German skills. She was incredibly nice and very helpful. We managed to scrape out a question about the wine selection (actually knowing that vise vie meant white wine and reuss vie means red wine), and what she would suggest. I used my catch-all phrase for the second time today: I understand a little Swiss-German, but not well. I’ve also been using “Ish guet” a whole lot, because it’s easy to remember, and because it fits my mannerisms—otherwise I’d just be saying “sure” or “that’s fine” or “cool” which doesn’t translate as well. We also picked up some lemon-citron icecream that looks exactly like something we got here when I was last here. At least, I don’t recall seeing it anywhere else in the U.S., so it must have been here.

Then, because of the heat, Andy and I headed back up to the apartment. It has been a difficult afternoon, because we’re both exhausted and want to sleep, but while I’ve been trying to fight it off by planning tons of things and looking and maps, etc., Andy has been accidentally dozing wherever he so much as sits down. I’ll call out “Andy wake up!” every time he disappears into the bedroom or up into the loft and the apartment gets really quiet. Then I’ll hear a groan and he’ll get up. He’s doing a little better now, mainly because he isn’t letting himself sit down or lay down. He took some more pictures, though which is great.

Night View from Balcony

I still can’t get over our insanely perfect view. We definitely did not have a view even that good in Meiringen.

We ate around 6, cheese, bread, red wine, and jam. It was super tasty. Even though Andy disliked the cheese at first (he felt it tasted too much like parmesan (which granted, it did a little—it was very strong), once he realized it tasted very good with the wine, he ate a fair amount of it. The bread was absolutely divine, also. However, due to the lack of sleep and the fact that we haven’t been drinking much, the one small glass of wine each made us both rather dizzy and low and behold-! more tired. ^_^

Since then, we’ve just been trying to stay awake. I think tomorrow after the orientation, we’re going to try to hit up at least Riechenbachfalls and maybe the Aerschlucht if we’re really on our game. A hot berry Sunday sounds good now—it’s cooled off significantly from the swealtering heat of earlier. Reuti is still sunny, but Meiringen is probably in shadows now. Maybe we’ll try to watch Shrek 3, which the hostess has, in order to stay awake until 9. I think it will be a challenge.

And we’re back! Well, technically, we’ve been back for two days now, but this is the first chance I’ve had to log on to wordpress. The trip was awesome, except for a little “lost luggage” incident which took a week to clear up. Despite that, we had a great time. We’ve got tons of pictures and +20,000 words of travel log (I was verbose).

So consider yourselves the lucky few who get a sneak peak at the journal/photos! I’ll be updating this blaag with snippets from the log, along with the pictures to accompany it. I’ll see about getting the first peek up tonight or tomorrow.

Other than getting home in one piece, there isn’t too much news. Or rather, there’s so much to do, it seems like a whirlwind of stuff happening, but it’s all fairly mundane. I did call Social Security to get the form to start legally changing my last name, and Andy and I finally got a joint bank account (which we couldn’t do until we had the marriage license anyway). We also got his financial aid stuff signed and taken care of, and thankfully it’s enough to cover all of tuition and even some for room/board.

*pulls out to-do list* Let’s see…what else… Ah, we got the fixie project Andy’s selling, and we stopped by his old house to see if the lawnmower was still there (we’ve had a few offers on it, so hopefully someone will take that off our hands). Andy cleaned out the Jeep, and we had the oil changed today (which normally Andy would do himself, but decided to have it done for him this time). I’ve also started organizing our financial stuff into an simple filing system.

All in all, there’s still a ton to do. Our room at my parents’ house is jammed full of all our stuff, plus extra stuff Andy got from his Mom that may have sentimental value later on, which she came across during the hyper-packing of their house. There’s just so much going on, so much changing–I’ve got to admit there are times when I feel a little overwhelmed. But that’s what to-do lists are for, right? ^_^

Writing has been shoved to the side for the last three weeks, and I’m sorely missing it. In Switzerland, I was driving myself half crazy plotting in my head without really being able to write. I’m hoping to start hammering out a summary draft of the current novel project. Unfortunately, that means the “weekly” (haha) updates of chapters will be at a stand still until I get the summary draft finished, likely for all three books in the group. Luckily, summary drafts are pretty fast, so I think I can get all three drafts finished by the end of the year, and then turn my attention to the prose itself. I’ve got two and a half descent chapters for Marha’s stuff, so I’ll leave those as is and just plug forward from there in the hopes of accomplishing something. Everything’s just so hectic, it’s nuts trying to find some sit-down time to get any real writing (or editing) done, and I’ve got so many projects I want to work on, I need to just set a schedule and keep it. I’m hoping once we get out to Portland I’ll be able to schedule myself a little better and get into a daily routine. Until then, I’ll scribble out a summary draft and see how that works.

So look for the Switzerland Travelogue Sneak-Peak coming to this blog soon!

The following telegram has been sent to the readers of maggiedot.wordpress.com:

HI EVRY1. STOP.

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NO INTNETS. STOP.

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Brace yourself for ultimate pictures when we return, plus perhaps glimpses into the daily log of our travels! Tata for now!