For some reasons, I’d have to say this last summer was the worst of my life. For others, it was one of the best. I like to try focusing on the better points, so I’ve made a list of what made this summer for me. I’ve listed the winner (in italics) and two runner-ups for each category.
| Favorite Trip |
Boston and Cambridge
Kayaking under the Deer Isle bridge
Whale watching off Bar Harbor |
| Best Concert |
Projekt Revolution
Dave Matthews Band
Guster / Ben Folds / Rufus Wainwright |
| Biggest Surprise |
I can’t do web design 40 hours a week
I’m not completely a geek
I like getting outside and doing things |
| Most Important Realization |
I really care about my friends
Keeping busy is important to me
I don’t need to be on the computer all the time |
| Favorite Hobby |
Photography
Biking
Swimming |
| Favorite Movie |
Garden State
Shrek 2
I, Robot |
| Favorite TV Series |
Freaks and Geeks
Daily Show
Fairly Oddparents |
| Favorite Place |
Boston
Otter Point, Acadia National Park
Atlantic Ocean |
Have you ever had that feeling with a movie or TV show that it just nailed something about your life?
I watched the complete series of Freaks and Geeks over the last week. Whoa. That show brought back so many memories of everything from high school to just a couple months ago. It really made me wonder how many people went through the same kinds of things I have. I love the show, too, because I can identify with just about every character for something; it’s like I’m some weird combination of them all.
Watch it. Now!
The weekend before last was incredible for a couple of reasons. I was able to go whale watching, I was able to go golfing with one of my best friends, and most importantly, I was able to head to Boston for a trip unlike any I’d ever taken.
Maine is a great place. It lacks a few things; one of the most notable is a large number of people. In fact, the greater Boston area has approximately half the number of people in the entire state of Maine. For a few reasons, I’d never had the chance to really explore a city larger than Bangor (read: 30,000 people). I found an opportunity to walk around Portland before and after the PSC/AFA concert, and after my friend Laura invited me down to have a tour of fair Haa’vad (yes, I actually just linked to Harvard), I knew I’d have some time to explore New England’s biggest city.
The first notable point of the day: it was long. I caught the 8:50 Downeaster train from Portland to Boston (meaning I had to leave home around 5:00). I rode around Portland for a bit to find a place to eat and finally found a Mister Bagel to have a good, quick meal. I was at the station in plenty of time and started to ride on the rails.
A quick aside for those of you who don’t know my family history: I come from a railroading family. For generations, the guys on my father’s side of the family worked all around northern Maine laying rail and getting trains ready to run. I’ve been watching and playing with trains my whole life, but I’ve only had the opportunity to ride on a (real) passenger one four or five times in my life. Needless to say, the trips down and back on the train were two of my favorite parts of the day, and ones that I’d definitely recommend for anyone travelling from Portland to Boston or vice versa. It’s not that expensive, either.
I met Laura in Harvard Square and received a grand tour of the Yard, complete with history and trivia. After that, we explored Cambridge a bit. We ate at a great organic-type restaurant (memorable for more than just its comfy seating and exquisite mint brownies), saw electric-powered buses, and headed to MIT to check out a lab and a couple of the more interesting buildings. She also successfully convinced me to try some kiwi juice (though disappointed I didn’t have the tea) at the Boston Tea Stop (such a clever name), complete with tapioca balls known as bubbles. Interesting, to say the least.
We caught Garden State at the Kendall Square Cinema in Boston, a great movie with Zach Braff (from Scrubs) and Natalie Portman. It was definitely my kind of movie. It was completely worth walking a few long blocks in pouring rain, thunder, and lightning to go see.
Zooming off to Boston proper on the Red Line, we stopped in the North End to have a fabulous dinner at La Famiglia Giorgio. Man, that was good… I’ll never forget the cheese-drenched garlic bread.
Finishing dinner at 8:00 with the train leaving Boston at 10:20, we decided to check out the Copley / Park Street area. We got on a nice new Green Line car and headed from Haymarket. After the Park Street stop, the car stopped and waited for a little light to turn yellow from red. It never did. We ended up walking across the line to the Park Street station and then outside, attempting to journey down to Copley ourselves. It didn’t quite work out, but I now have a story to tell about a subway.
We arrived back at North Station at 10:00 (after a somewhat misleading but reliable ride back on the Green Line) and said our goodbyes, and I headed back home. I finally got into bed around 3:00 or 4:00 after a few stops in Augusta for gas, apple danish, and a much-needed hot chocolate.
Quite simply stated, that had to be my favorite trip ever.
Last Sunday I went down to Bar Harbor for a continuation of a tradition started in 1994: whale watching.
First of all, I like the water. I like swimming, I like kayaking, and I like boating. Whale watching in Bar Harbor with the Bar Harbor Whale Watch Company is fun because I get to go 35 MPH in a boat in open seas, and I’ve been taking my GPS over the last couple of years so I can track where exactly we go when I come back home.
We had a successful trip this year. We saw a minke whale, a finback, and three humpbacks (my favorite, for reasons shown in the picture above). We also saw lots of birds and a couple of tuna (wow, those things are fast). I love everything about whale watching – it’s one of my favorite things to do.
More pictures are available (of course) in the gallery.
I haven’t studied a lot about closure in psych, but in my books there are two types: good and bad.
Good closure includes hugs, smiling goodbyes, and some sort of positive, reassuring contact with the person or event.
Bad closure happens when a single event (or multiple events) strikes you so much to make you realize that it’s done.
I experienced both good and bad closure today. Fortunately, I’m fine with both of them in these cases.
Goodbye. and hello.
In the past 60 hours, I’ve gone from whacking a small ball around a bunch of grass with one of my best friends to being chauffeured by a passenger train across three states to strolling in the rain in the streets of Boston with another one of my best friends to seeing the insides of buildings at Harvard and MIT to eating at an authentic Italian restaurant in the North End to riding in (sometimes unreliable) subways across New England’s major city to watching the largest mammals on earth show their tails ten feet from where I was standing as part of an (at least) ten-year-old tradition.
I think this has been the best weekend of my life.
To me, there’s nothing better than a sincere, caring hug. Getting (or giving) one always makes me feel better. I’d really like to shake the hand of the first people/animals/whatever that tried it out.
Of course, giving them a hug might be a tad more appropriate in this context…
You’ll never know what you can do until you try.
Finally, a relevant fortune cookie that makes me feel better about myself.
Summer Camp yesterday was lots of fun. I didn’t get to hang out with Erin (that really bummed me out, because I had been looking forward to seeing her), but I did get to see a good concert.
Amid U.S. Cellular people handing out bags of Maine Coast potato chips, Vacationland, As Fast As, and Paranoid Social Club played to a crowd of hundreds. The concert was held on WCYY‘s patio, right outside One City Center in downtown Portland. Each band really seemed to be enjoying the show, and it was echoed in the audience. The show itself was about three hours long, and I had a chance to hear a bunch of new songs off of As Fast As’s latest album (Open Letter to the Damned) and PSC’s latest release (Axis I & III). The audience loved PSC’s “Two Girls” (even though Dave Gutter slipped a couple of times as he forgot he was on the radio) as well as some of their older songs (“Wasted”, of course, and others like “Evolution” and “Bully”). There was even a visit from Kevin and Adam from Headstart with water guns. Both new albums from the bands are excellent – I bought them both this weekend – and I’d suggest that everyone go out and buy them. PSC and AFA are two of my favorite bands, so I really am glad that I had the motivation to go down there and see a great free concert.
With just about two weeks left in my summer vacation, I’m finally getting set to go on a trip. After Erin tried so hard to convince me to go see Gavin last night, I compromised and said I’d come down to see PSC and AFA at SC (I was thinking of going even before we talked). On the way down I’ll be hopefully stopping in a few places to take some shots of the Tourist Stretch, and I’ll get to hear some great music, too.
