I've been in Tuscaloosa for about a week now working on support. Working on support the second time around has been a little less chaotic and less time consuming for sure. I stay busy no doubt, but its not like the first time through where every day I could work for 10 hours and still feel like I could work for another 8 if I wanted to. I now do a few hours of work and then call it a day.

I then find something else to do. Something a little more fun! It is the summer and one of thing I love about being on staff, is the valued down time. The school year is so intense that summer is meant to be low key. I'm certainly not on vacation all summer, but its not anything like my schedule during the school year. Summer is a time to catch up on all the times I want to do but never have time!

I've spent a lot of time reading...a few books that will help in my field of work and some just for fun (more on that to come), been playing guitar, cleaned my apartment, and man did it need it--I'm talking like a ceiling to floor clean out, spent time at the river, etc. Its been great!

One of the best things I've gotten to do, is get crafty! I love doing things that involve creativity and time, but don't get to do a lot of that because it takes time and money. Neither of which I have a lot of. I'm refurnishing my apartment because with Liz gone, that means the furniture will be gone too. So, now is a chance to change how things look. I always liked our apartment, but I also love change, so its going to be different. I started with the porch, because there isn't much out there.

I sit on the porch a lot, in the morning before meetings and such. But the furniture out there is certainly not top of the line. I got a few chairs to up the seating and add some comfort, a mosaic table and all of the sudden the appearance is totally different. Then there is my masterpiece.

There is a store in town, much like a thrift store that has pretty much everything for cheap. I found this dirty old table there for 5 bucks. It was painted green with pink coming through and in pretty bad condition--looking back I should have taken a picture of it. But is a cool table with some character, two hearts carved out--its one of a kind.

I got a few cans of spray paint and painters tape, a sunny day and took the table outside and went to work. With my ipod docked and playing, it was a great afternoon to great crafty. The picture above is how it turned out--which is how I wanted it to turn out--as a tree! I LOVE trees. That might be an understatement. There happens to be this incredible tree right off my porch that I love love love. I've watched it over the year change and grow. They fascinate me. Trees represent life and growth, hope and fruit, change yet unchanging, I see tenderness, adaptability, timelessness, strength, color, and joy. So I'm pretty excited about my table.

Sorry the picture has a glare. It happened to be sunset. Isn't it funny that when the sun is going down, and darkness is approaching, everything seems a little bit brighter. ;)