fruity drinks

I just got back from a week of mommy-daughter time in the Caribbean on St. Maarten. There are a million and one stories to tell and pictures to come when our waterproof disposable camera is developed (yeah we wanted one that could get stolen and wet if the situations arose, only the wet part happened, luckily). The trip was fabulous, relaxation and tans were achieved. And to top it off, my mom drove on the British side of the road for a day in Anguilla without killing us both. A noble and admirable feat. I'm seriously not kidding about that, because I would have killed us both.

The beaches were absolutely fabulous and the company was, as always so wonderful. My mom, in case you don't know her, is an above excellent travel companion. I love her so much and am so thankful she was willing to travel with me -- Typhoid Travel Bethany. If you know me at all, which most of my readers do, you'll know that I'm incredibly cursed when it comes to the magical and mystical wonder that is air travel. I haven't been on a flight in probably four years that hasn't at least been delayed ten minutes. Nothing ever goes right for me. And it didn't this time either, but nothing so catastrophic that we didn't get there and back within a few hours of when we were supposed to.

But anyway, it was wonderful. If you haven't been to St. Maarten/St. Martin, I highly recommend it, though only if you stay anywhere other than the Flamingo Beach Resort. It was a hell hole. Not only did we have problems with our reservation before we even got there, but it continued on through the week. Check in began at 3 p.m., we arrived at 5 p.m. only to find our room wasn't ready. No biggie, we'll just go sit at the pool bar and have a fruity drink, our first in probably close to 100 during our trip. We came back at 5:30 to find that our room was ready, but that it was situated on the first floor with beach access, but that it was immediately behind the beach bar, which we would have to look through to see the beach. Awesome, I thought, when does it close? The answer was a civilized (to some, heresy to others) 10 p.m. No biggie yet again. We're easy, we're on vacation. The room was really nice, except that the beach bar was under construction along with the rest of the resort. Workers started sawing wood, painting buildings and cutting metal tubing outside our door starting at 7:15 a.m. OK, that one's a little bit more of a big deal. The last straw was when we came back from our day trip to Anguilla to find that the maid had left our door open. Big deal reached. Luckily, nothing was taken and it was an honest mistake -- she'd been called away and then just forgot to come back. But still, not cool. And the worst part, they didn't really do anything about it. Sorry. That's all we got, which was fine since nothing was taken, but still. Some free fruity drinks would have been nice at least. Oh well.

My dad and brother just wrapped up a week of racing our boat, Incommunicado, during Block Island Race Week. They came in fourth overall (PHRF 3) and did really well on Wednesday when they won twice. My brother was interviewed that afternoon for a daily video recap of the races. It was his 15th birthday. He comes in about halfway through the video if you're interested.

Oh and the most exciting thing of all, I start my job tomorrow. I'm the newest member of the communications team at the International Partnership for Microbicides. I'm a production assistant for the external relations department. It's a great organization, and an excellent cause -- they work in developing nations with pharmaceuticals to promote a medication that has been proven to prevent HIV in women. I'm super excited and ready to go, but that's another post that I've been rehuminating on for a while. It'll come soon.

That about wraps it up, sorry to be long winded.

Art Collections website

After nearly a year's worth of work, the Elon Art Collections website is finally up and running.

A little background on the project: As many of you know, I love art. As an art minor, I was required to take an art history class, and I fell in love -- a little too late. I wasn't able to double major or minor in art history, but I was able to take a few more classes. One of those classes led me to this project. A friend of mine in the class, Alaina Pineda, who is a brilliant art historian, has spent most of her Elon career working with the problematic Elon Art Collections. Like most people on campus, I'd never heard of it. It contains more than 650 works in seven different collections. It's under funded and under appreciated, but it has many gems and I realized that I might have the means to help it out.

My senior sem project (basically like a senior thesis) was born: I would make a website for the Elon Art Collections that would not only explain and explore the collections, but attempt to obviate their use as a teaching tool and a developmental priority. What that means in plain English -- Why it's important that we pay attention to it.

And so I was off. My friend the university photographer, Grant Halverson, graciously agreed to take the photos. Anyone who has ever tried to take a picture of a picture knows just how impossible it is. It's because of his work that I think the project turned out so well. And then I began building with Flash.

And nearly five months later, here it is:

http://org.elon.edu/arthistory/artcollection/home.html

Enjoy, show all your friends, and most importantly, if you go to Elon, any time you get to talk to an administrator, ask them about the collection and what they're doing to promote and support it.