Double-Stacked Bookshelves

Edinburgh Castle.  Photo taken May 19, 2008 Between September 2007 and September 2008 I was living in Edinburgh, Scotland working on my Masters in Comparative Literature at the University of Edinburgh .  While moving away from family and friends is difficult, it is also very rewarding.  My time spent living overseas gave my family the opportunity to travel to countries that had never been on their vacation radars.  This picture was taken in May 2008 when my sister and her best friend came for a two week visit. I am incredibly proud of this photo for many reasons.  1) I think it looks pretty damn good.  2) It offers an amazing reminder of just how awesome this city is.  And 3) It brings back so many fantastic memories.  I really wish I could walk out my front down and stroll through that garden right now... Nice weather like this was few and far between in Edinburgh, but this particular day was one for the books.  Taken while str...

Getting back into the swing of things has taken a bit of effort on my part.  It seems that, with everything going on outside of the blogging world, my poor blog has taken a tragic hit.  I've been so neglectful of consistent posting...though I do have several (perhaps ten or so) drafts in the works to be edited.  Wow.  So, to help aid my way back into consistent blogging, I'm participating in this week's edition of "Why I Love".  I've been participating in this blogging meme for a while now, but have missed weeks recently.  However, here's my attempt at getting back in the groove!  This week's topic is Favorite Series . There are so many series that I absolutely love.  The Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich, Harry Potter by JK Rowling, Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien, Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan...and on and on.  But I'm not going to talk about any of those, mainly because I've written about every single one of them in some capa...

We're halfway through the first week of the A-Z Challenge and it's going well.  Today is day five and it's dedicated to the letter E.  For me, E will always be associated with: Edinburgh, Scotland I remember the first time I saw the beautiful skyline of Edinburgh.  It was spring of 2007 and I was celebrating the end of a year-long teaching stint in Austria by taking a week long vacation to an English speaking country (or three) with my roommate, Lindsey.  After stopping in London for a few days, we boarded the train at King's Cross Station (the very place that Harry Potter departs for Hogwarts) and set out headed north along the coast.  It was an absolutely stunning train ride.  Then we arrived into Waverley Station and headed up to street level...and WOW! View of the Castle from Calton Hill (May 2007) Nothing really prepares you for the city that greets your eyes.  You can look at pictures, but they never do the actual place justice.  ...