Sunday, May 19: The WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge is Escape: Depending on your current mood and headspace, or time in your life, this word can evoke different emotions and conjure a variety of images. Maybe the end of your semester is near, and you yearn for vacation and release: the desire to disappear and run away, the need to unplug and shut off. Or perhaps you imagine quite the opposite: Lost in a maze. Stuck in a room, feeling boxed in, with the worst company. Frustrated in your own thoughts, wondering what to do next.
This week is final exams and then the spring semester is over at the University of Nizwa. I still have 39 days left until my last day of work, and I’m not sure what the university will give me to do to keep me busy. All I know is that I’m waiting to escape my job here in Oman and return home to the USA for good. On the way, I plan to make a month-long stop in Spain and Portugal.
Here are some pictures of the good old U.S.A., taken last summer at Deep Creek Lake in Maryland. We won’t be going to Deep Creek this summer, but it does represent the quintessential escape for me. Lots of green, cool weather, a beautiful lake, boating, swimming and kayaking. Hanging out with my family playing games and just general relaxing. Oh, how I yearn to escape!
Life jackets and kayak paddles ready to go
these feet are ready for an escape
kayaks at Deep Creek Lake
Deep Creek Lake
an escape into a nice relaxing hot tub on the deck of the cabin
perfect escape, a drink, smoke and computer on the deck at Deep Creek Lake
a nomad in the land of nizwa 
Is that your son? Love it!
Yes, Kathryn, that’s my youngest son, Adam. He’s quite a character. 🙂
yes, you have a great well-earned escape getting closer and closer! you will smile your way home! z
I hope to really be smiling my way home, Lisa!! 🙂
A lovely escape indeed and stunning photo’s! Thanks for sharing hon. 🙂 *hugs*
Thanks so much, Sonel! And hugs back to you. xxx
You are very welcome. 🙂 *hugs*
Right now this challenge was made for you Cathy!
You are so right, Gilly. Escape is what I really need right now!!
it looks like a perfect escape .. what a lovely place! you will soon be there cathie … do you have three sons like me? or more!!!
Sadly this is one escape I won’t make this year. My sons wanted a break from Deep Creek Lake this year; possibly we will go elsewhere. No matter; this year it’s Spain and Portugal for me. By the way I have one daughter, Sarah, who’s 29 and two sons, Alex, 22 and Adam, 20. How old are your three?
Goodness I feel I am getting to know Adam quite well! I love the first photo. Brady Bunch stone does it for me every time.
You are going to have to tell me which of your ‘multiple personality’ blogs Mrs C is to follow on your return to the US of A. But this is cart before horse because we still have Espana y Portugal to look forward to, don’t we?
Haha, mrs. carmichael. My son who you thought was in the x-rated picture was Alex, my older son. Adam is my youngest. I know it’s confusing, those two A names. You should hear me as their mother getting them all confused!
As far as my “multiple personality” blogs (you’re hilarious!), when I leave Oman, I’ll be posting a few more posts here after I’m out of the country, then I’ll be moving to this one: http://catbirdinamerica.wordpress.com/
I also have the European one where I’ll post about Spain and Portugal: http://catbirdineurope.wordpress.com/
I know, I know. Call me crazy; or call me Sybil. 🙂
Well, hello Sybil. Mine’s deep cover but will say I have the exact same A issue with daughters and one is called….. da da da….Alex too.
Thought you might be going for a Sylvia of Bell Jar fame there when I first saw the S.
Do you have different pics (gravatars) for your blogs? Otherwise it makes my widgits grid look a tad repetitive .
Interesting that you have two daughters whose names begin with “A.” And one Alex at that. Great minds do think alike!
You know the Sybil I speak of, right? There was a book called Sybil: The Classic True Story of a Woman Possessed by Sixteen Personalities, by Flora Schreiber.
After I got this message, I went on my Gravatar to see if I could change the picture for each blog, but it seems it’s tied to your email address and there is one picture for one email address. So sadly, the same Gravatar picture is repeated for each blog. I don’t know how to fix it, except to remove the Gravatar totally from the widgets. I did that on some of the blogs. 🙂
I think (????) you can have a different pic as your WP image, ie not the gravater because when I changed mine the syncro legs stayed around for some things but I can only see randomness.
Yes, when I read Sybil, I thought of Sylvia (the bell jar) having just finished a bio (reading not writing) of her early years -Mad Girl’s love song – but Sybil with 16 beats Svlvie hands down.
OK, mrs. carmichael. I’ll try to play around with the images and see what I can do. Because I follow my own blogs too, in case of some random cut off of my blog (as someone reported WordPress did recently to them), I keep seeing my own stupid picture showing up 1,000 times!! I’ll see what I can do!
Yes, I think poor Sylvia Plath was quite insane too, but at least I think she only had one insane personality, unlike Sybil who had 16. By the way, I’m up to 16 blogs now, so I’m just like Sybil with my multiple personalities. 🙂
Haven’t we already established the you are mad or are we still needing resolution on that one?
No more resolution needed, Mrs. C. This is definitely established! 🙂
And here I thought your life in Oman was an escape. I must confess I couldn’t live in that heat so escaping back to Maine sounds great.
Haha, yes, Sybil, the first year my life in Oman was an escape, but two years has been way too long. Especially with the deterioration in my job in the 2nd year. Yes, it would be nice to go to Maryland, but it won’t be in the cards for this summer. Instead it’s Spain and Portugal for me. 🙂
You’ve served your time, Cathy, and I can sense your eagerness to escape. What fun you’ll have getting back into your life in the USA, but first your exciting trip to Spain and Portugal. Lucky you. 🙂
Yes, serving my time, Sylvia. That’s the perfect way of putting it. In my first year, I immensely enjoyed myself, but this year it’s all gone downhill job-wise, and it has felt like a prison sentence at work! I can’t wait to get home. Now… 38 days remaining. And Spain and Portugal will be the ultimate reward for a tough year. 🙂
😀 Happy for you, Cathy.
Thanks so much, Sylvia. 🙂
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Wow!
Thanks for sharing…
@))–>>—-
Thanks so much, lifebydmagdalene. And thanks so much for visiting. 🙂
Ah, Deep Creek Lake! My brother- and sister-in-law just got a piece of land and are building their retirement escape up there. Hoping to hang out there at some point…
Lucky you, Annette! I’m certain you will get to hangout there sometime. It’s so relaxing. 🙂
Lovely images of escape!
Thanks so much! 🙂
Looks like a great escape. 🙂
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Agree with Gilly, this was made for you!
The last few days must pass excruciatingly slowly! All the best Cathy 🙂
The days are dragging so slowly, Madhu. That’s why I’m keeping busy posting to all my other blogs right now, especially Thailand, Cairo and France. Keeping myself as busy as possible so the time goes a little faster… 🙂
This looks like a really perfect escape place. I know you look forward to the end of your time in Oman, the trip to Spain, the return to the USA. That’s a lot to anticipate…a good thing in & of itself.
Yes, I am simply bursting with anticipation. 🙂
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