So I'm back from Boxerwood, with quite a few pictures too. Now I'm going to start posting pictures soon, but before I do that, I'm going to get a full subscription so that I can get some money out of selling prints of the photos. The money goes to Boxerwood's financial trust, which uses the money for general garden upkeep, educational programs, and workers salaries, things like that. So please support Boxerwood and buy a print of one of the pictures!

So, my grandmother died on the Summer Solstice, at 10:00 pm, just as the sun was setting. I went to Pittsburgh to go to her funeral last Friday. It was the first time I can remember when someone close to me passed away.

I'm still finding it hard to believe that she's not here anymore. She was the matriarch of my dad's family, and without her there, everyone seemed disorganized and lost. I know that's how I felt.

Of the things about that week that make me the saddest are the image in my my mind of arriving in her house and not hearing the grandfather clock in her kitchen ticking. There was never a time in my living memory when that clock was silent. The other is the daydream I keep having, of her sitting alone on a train, looking out the window, until it comes to a stop, and the door opens, and my grandfather is waiting there on the platform, just as he was when they first met during WWII (he was blinded by a grenade, and she was a volunteer at the hospital where he recuperated after his injury). She looks just like she did in high school (there is a beautiful picture of her, that was over the casket at the funeral home). She looks lost and scared, but her face lifts as she realizes it's him, and that they're back together again.

At the funeral service, my uncle Bob said a few words about her life, and he mentioned that she had asked him what he was going to say at her funeral. He said he didn't know, did she have any requests?
"Be brief," she said.
Those were the only two words she said on the subject.

I can't shake the feeling that it was all a hoax, and the next time I go back to pittsburgh she'll be in the kitchen making spice cake. I'm trying to hold on to that image, because I'm afraid that if I don't, I'll forget what she was like.

I did see her while she was in the casket, and it was hard to believe she was dead. She looked so healthy, just as she looked ten years ago. In her memory, I've written lyrics for the song "Once in a While, Talk of the Old Days", and every time I sing them to myself, I have to hold back the tears, because of the memories they bring back.

I've saved one of my kleenex from the funeral service. It's in my commonplace book, with a caption that reads: "The tears I cried for Nana."

She'll always be with me.

So, I have a very busy summer planned for myself this year. Currenty, I am working at Boxerwood Woodland Gardens in Lexington, Virginia. It's about four hours drive from my home in Bethesda, Maryland. I'm staying out here for three weeks (hopefully. My grandmother who lives in Pittsburgh is doing very badly, and if she shoves off before the end of the three weeks, I will be returning very promptly). While I'm here, I'm hoping to be able to take loads of pictures that I can post here, and maybe I can convince my dad to get me a full subscription to Deviantart so that any profits that come from prints can go towards Finale 2010. I also hope to be working with some kids from my Quaker Camp, who come through at the beginning of July to do service. For those of you with my contact info, if you call my house and leave a message for my parents, they'll bring you with them when they come out to see me.

After this is over, I have a couple of weeks free before I leave home again, to go to either France or French Canada. My parents and I have a deal that if I go to a French speaking country and immerse myself in the language for a week, then I don't have to take a French class next year. I'm looking foreward to going!

Then, when I come back, I go to Baltimore Yearly Meeting's Anual Session in Frostberg. I have to go a few days early, because I have an orientation for my position on the Exec. committee of my Young Friends group, as a Member at Large. That will last about a week, and then I have an Alumni reunion at Catoctin Quaker Camp from the 14th to the 16th of August, and then nothing until school starts, unless something comes up.

See you all sometime soon! I look foreward to seeing you all again next month, and I hope you all have a wonderful summer!

So, I was quarantined In Kaili, China, for five days at the end of May. We were on international news, and Fox News used six photographs (which I willingly provided for them after watermarking them with a "Copyright Tom Webb 2009" decal).

The experience was quite good. The Chinese doctors who took care of us were all very kind and cheerful, and it definitely rubbed off on us. We all understood that it was important for the Chinese to quarantine us even if the case of H1N1 was only suspected. They have far more to worry about than a group of 24 Americans on a school trip.

Some of our students were interviewed this Monday, and it seemed that some of the reporters were trying to get us to say that the Chinese treated us badly, or did things that we didn't like, or were inhumane, which is absolutely bogus. If there is one thing that we have learned, it is that the Chinese people are a completely separate entity from the Chinese government. The people we met were all extremely courteous and kind, and they treated us very well.

For those of you that want to see the video documentary put together by myself about our China experience (minus quarantine), then please tell me, and I'll try to post it somewhere. I also have a journal, which I will be scanning and posting here for you all to read. I took a page of notes every hour I was awake in quarantine, as well as a count of all the hours we spent there.

Please ask me any questions you have. If you are a member of the press, you can bugger off now. If I see this on the news or someone's separate blog I will be very annoyed, and remove everything.

So I have decided to make a musical suite out of the music of Hayao Miyazaki's movies. So far, the order of the suite looks like this:

First Movement: Princess Mononoke
--Journey to the West
--The Young Man From the East
--Will to live
--Mononoke Hime
--Ashitaka and San
--The Legend of Ashitaka

Vignette: The Promise of the World (Howl's Moving Castle)

Second Movement: Spirited Away
--One Summer's Day
--Always With Me
--Waltz of Chihiro

Vignette: Stroll (My Neighbor Totoro)

There is still rome for maybe one more piece, and I still have to pick something for a prelude. And I still have to find music for "Stroll". Right now I am working on getting the pieces input into Finale (c) on the computer so that I can make key changes and stuff easily without having to transpose stuff in my head. Then, when it's all done, I will post it on Deviant art so all you guys can get at it.

Wish Me Luck!

Suggestions are welcome!!

--Tom