Why I Went to Maine!

The real reason I got to go to Maine for an overnight escape was that I volunteered to be Lisa Genova's bodyguard. If you remember(February 4), I wrote about Lisa and her book, Still Alice. Actually, I am friends with Lisa and we both went to Bates and she was doing a few talks up there, so I horned in on her time alone! Ok, I asked if she wanted company and thankfully she did!

We had a great time getting to know each other better and seeing our campus that we hadn't seen in a few years. It has changed so much!!! The amount of new buildings etc was amazing!

We got to stay in a guest house on campus...

This lovely walkway used to be a road, now it is a place where kids can sit on the grass and benches and hang out.
The most impressive change was the Commons. At Bates, everyone eats at the same place. This place was awesome and yes, our jaw dropped when we walked inside.

It wasn't the cute coeds that caused the biggest reaction. It was the cereal bar. Lisa and I spent many meals eating cereal. Actually picking up a box and pouring different types of cereal in our bowls. This is what the spoiled brats, I mean cute coeds, get now!

Yes, I almost fainted. Then I walked over to the bakery section. OMG. I think K wants to go just for this...
Because I cannot sleep in, I got up and walked around campus Thurs morning. I went and visited our ski team meeting place. Everyday for most of the year, except when we were skiing, we met at this rock. The tree has gotten quite a bit bigger in the past 20 years.

This lovely building was once the maintenance shack. Yeah, they tore it down and created this. 
Lisa and I kept wanting to ask each student if they knew how lucky they were! We were wondering if we could come back and grab another degree.

Thursday we were off to Portland to the 207 news office. Lisa was interviewed for 5 minutes. She will be on May 27th if you are in viewing area. It was really cool being a fly on the wall with my camera in the studio!


Lisa had never been to Ogunquit, so we detoured through there on our way home. It was about 90 degrees and a total beach day. We had kids to get home to, so we didn't stay, but we did put our feet in the 40 degree water. 2 days full of talking and interviewing and the girl looks this good.

Thank you Lisa for such a fabulous opportunity! I can't wait to go on your European tour with you!

Maine, the Way Life Should Be.....

I went on an overnight to Maine on Wednesday. It was an absolute BLAST and a little vacation from reality too! I'll tell you why I went tomorrow, because my house is screaming at me for going away for 30 hours. No, not my kids or husband, my house is saying, "Where have you been and why doesn't anyone else pick up around here?" Yeah, that's a whole'nother post.

So, because I got to escape to Maine and my tight schedule allowed me 2 hours to do anything I wanted, I called up Hallie and said, "The time has come! I must meet you in person!" Hallie and I could have been sudo sister in laws. My sister dated her brother one blissful summer in Ogunquit, Maine where we had houses IN THE SAME NEIGHBORHOOD! As the stars were not aligned that summer, Karen and David broke up and I never got to meet fabulous sister Hallie. Fast forward 20 or so years, Hallie comments on my blog and a little back and forth, we realize how close our pasts had come!

My Maine BFF, Becky (yes, I have BFFs in lots of states), came with me to meet Hallie and Mary Ellen at Gritty's Bar and Grill. I think there was a grill included, but we only made it to the bar part. I have been following M.E.'s blog since it began, so not only did I get to meet one fabulous blogger friend, I got to meet TWO! I do love my brother in law and Hallie loves her sister in law, but we did wax poetic about how great it would have been to spend every holiday together for the past 20 years!

Our little visit only touched the tip of the iceberg, so I am sure there will be many more trips to Maine for me and perhaps a few trips to the Cape for them!

Yes, indeed, bloggers are real people, not just imaginary friends!!!

Yeah, He's My Brother

My brother, Tommy (ok, he's now known as Tom), surprised my mom for Mother's Day by coming to the Cape. He decided that he didn't have any pictures of us (me and him), so we shot a few. And as I was thinking about posting the pictures, I thought you might like a funny story about him.

Tommy is the youngest (golden boy). I am 6 years older than him and my sister is a year and 1/2 older than him. We lived about 3 miles from the elementary school and my parents would let him ride his bike. He must have been in the 6th grade. Well, after much convincing, our neighbor Becky was allowed to ride her bike with him one sunny morning. My mom got the call from the nurses office that Tommy was ok, but needed a new outfit. My mom and I were going somewhere that day (seniors got out of school early) so we took our time and got ready to go before we dropped off Tommy some clothes. The secretary called and said, "Are you coming soon?" So my mom went upstairs to get T an outfit. As he tells the story, he was wearing a cool pair of shorts and his long sleeve Vaurnet tshirt that day and looked very hip. He will tell you that my mom went into the depths of his drawers for the geekiest, smallest pair of shorts and a "braggin dragon" (Sears brand of alligator) polo.

My mom gets to school and is horrified because Tommy is covered in scrapes. He describes what happened...' we were riding safely on the sidewalk when out of nowhere a cat runs in front of my bike and I flip'. They were 1/2 way to school and T had promised Mrs. Lucas that he would get Becky to school, so they continued on instead of coming home. May have had something to do with Tommy's penchance for perfect attendance (geek).

So since that fateful day, Tommy's nickname is Scab. Thankfully he has a good sense of humor because we LOVE telling this story to anyone that doesn't know it.

Love you Tommy!

Foreshadowing

I caught a glimpse of my future yesterday.

It scared the shit out of me.

I picked up K from school and she asked to go to Dunkin Donuts on the way home to see if they had lemonade coolattas yet (a summertime treat). Reasonable request, so we hit one of 3 DD's in a 5 mile vicinity of school. (We can't get a Target on Cape Cod, but you could line up all the DDs on Cape Cod and probably walk on their roofs to England.)

I sweetly say to the nice man, "Are you serving lemonade coolattas yet?"

The very unfriendly man says, "We don't have them. They are now discontinued."

K opts for a glazed donut and as we get in the car, she bursts into tears and throws her donut in the backseat.

Yeah, she is THAT devastated over the "not ever again, lemonade coolatta".

She yells about never (NNNNEEEEEVVVVEEEERRRRRRRR) going to DDs again. Ever!

This tantrum goes on for 30 MINUTES.

OMG!

My mind immediately fast forwards to the first boyfriend break up. If she is crying for 30 minutes over lemonade, what is she going to be like after a breakup?

I need a show called Super Nanny for Teens. NBC, ABC, CBS, if you can read this could you quickly create this show because my graduate degree in teaching technically only goes through 3rd grade. I am currently wading in uncharted waters about to be in over my head!

The Past Week

The past week has been busy. Busier than any of yours... probably not, but it has been b-u-s-y! The funny thing about not posting in a week is that my "followers" have gone up. This happened the last time I had a week break. This is a little disconcerting. I like to think if I skip a few days of posts, it gives you guys a break from reading my posts and lets you concentrate on other peoples' posts. I am sure you miss me, but I have to give the other blogs out there a chance. 

What have I done in the past week+?

Celebrated one's fabulous 12 year old birthday.

K, you make me laugh every day. Some days you make me cry, some days you make me wonder what I did to deserve such a fabulous kid, some days you make me wonder how things will be 10 years from now, some days I just want to sit on the couch and snuggle with you, some days I want to sell you, but every day I love you. 

Evidently my husband is paying homage to the Deadliest Catch on his boat..


I helped plan a kick ass maritime festival complete with a 'blessing of the fleet'. Those boys and their boats deserve a good blessing every year. Here is my sister and her husband getting their boat blessed.

I watched my girls' babysitter drink beer legally.
I watched my brother in law win the survival suit contest. It is a very good thing to get the survival suit on in less than a minute!
I watched a cheery train do laps around the community center parking lot about 150 times. This particular time, famous author Lisa Genova and her 18 month old were riding the rails. You have all gone out and bought her book, Still Alice, right?
I watched my sister, Kate and Becki play with squid.
I watched a group of fishermen try their hand for the title of best "rope coiler" in town.
I have listened to B sing in church with a newly formed kid's choir.

I have volunteered at the elementary school, watched K ride in a horse show and place 3rd!, coached B's softball team, and taken 5 families' photos for a fundraiser. 

I have sat at 2 nights of town meeting to see anything that has to do with the school pass (phew!)

Basically, I have barely had time to pee, never mind stop long enough to post. I would like to say the next few weeks will be easier, but it is not looking that way. 

Why, Oh Why, is everything crammed into May and June? What's wrong with February, when I have plenty of free time?

Softball is not just for young'uns

I played softball ever since I was about 8 years old. I remember my best friend neighbor asking me if I signed up for softball and I didn't really know what it was or that I could! It was around the time of Title 9 where girls could play any sports boys did. I loved softball. Secretly I wanted to be on the Boston Red Sox. I thought I could be the first girl on the Red Sox. I thought that was something noone had thought of before. Then the movie League of Their Own came out. I realized that other girls had the same dreams that I did.

So I played through High School and didn't play in college because the girls were scary, I mean, I was training for ski team year round. This brings us to present day.

The Rec dept in our town put together a coed adult league this year. Who was one of the first to sign up? Yup, me. So psyched to be playing softball after a 20 (or more) year absence. My body realizes it has been a twenty year absence, but my brain has not.

That is why after our first game yesterday I was sitting on the couch with frozen hash browns on my groin and frozen peas on my knee (where I took a line drive) and a big smile on my face.

As I moaned and rolled out of bed this morning, B said she didn't think "old" people should be playing softball and why was I doing it.

"Duh, because it's fun!"

Just hope that if you come for dinner, it's not a low budget week or you might be getting recycled hash and peas.

Dream a Little Dream....

I've officially lost it. 

I had a dream the other night about the Jonas Brothers. 

For all you psych majors out there, yes I remember my dreams and yes they are usually quite complex. I think I scared one of my college professors describing a dream to her once. Actually I think she quickly retired immediately after that semester. 

Anyway, back to the Jo-Bros. They were at my grandparents house that was on Lake Winnepesauke in NH. For real, my grandparents used to live on the lake, their front lawn, leading to a beach, a dock and the lake. In my dream, my aunt and uncle from Michigan were there, my brother, sister, but not my kids. That would have been too good to be true! The dream would have been about them passing out not me passing gas.

That's right, in my dream I was talking to Kevin Jonas and farted. Then I had that awkward thought of do I say "excuse me" or do I say "must have been the dog, my uncle, my brother..." I am not sure what I decided to do, but I am sure I was horrified. Then the next thing I knew I was diving off the dock and swimming around. 

Any dream analysers out there? How embarrassing farting in front of the JO-bros. My kid's would have thrown me under a bus, literally.

May Day

May Day was an exciting holiday when I was in elementary school.

We lived in a neighborhood where everyone knew everyone. You played outside until it was dark and then came home. Everyone watched out for everyone else's kids. The neighbors enjoyed getting together and having adult parties and kid parties. May Day was special because anyone who wanted to play along put their name into the "hat". Your family was given another family's name secretly. Sometime between the night of the 30th of April and the beginning of May 1st you were to leave a basket of flowers on your specific neighbor's doorstep. The catch was, you could not be seen!

The whole sense of sneaking around really appealed to me. The year I remember specifically, is the year we had the Rosenfields. There's was the perfect house because I could sneak through a bunch of neighbors' backyards to get to their back door. I was winded and proud by the time I got home because NO ONE HAD SEEN ME!

The funny thing is I can't remember what any of the baskets of flowers looked like that we received or gave away. I just loved the tradition of giving (secretly) a basket of flowers to the neighbors.

At school we would have a May pole and we would dance around it with it's colorful streamers.

Maybe because it was spring and we had had enough of winter and summer was in site is why I have such fond memories of a holiday that has seemingly been forgotten these days. A couple of years ago, I introduced the girls to the dropping flowers at peoples' houses. They too, loved the sneakiness of it all.

We didn't have time this morning, but maybe we can be sneaky this afternoon and drop off a few flowers. We'll have to wear our camo gear because it is a little harder to sneak in broad daylight.

May you all find a little taste of spring on your doorstep today! If not, pretend I dropped these off for you!