Expeditionary visit with mom

1) We went to the Tulluride by the Sea film festival at the
in Portsmouth. Neat old theater.







We saw Coco Avant Chanel, a very good indep. French film starring Audrey Tautou. We felt pretty darn intellectual. Then we drank pumpkin spice lattes at
, which also made us feel intellectual.


2) breakfast at the slightly odd restaurant,





3) house-museums and
, a 12 acre museum of homes running from colonial era to WWII. Mid-September, the gardens are still blooming with a hundred colors and the grass is still a lush green while at the same time, some of the trees are turning red and orange and yellow. COLOR! We history-buff nature lovers really enjoyed this place.

4) toured to the top of the Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouse.









then dinner at Petey's Lobster Shack on Rye Beach.

5) watched the Texas Tech vs. tu game. I have never turned on my TV, so mom just about freaked out when we couldn't figure out how to turn on the game on .
Oh and Jordan Shipley almost got impaled by Bevo.


6) I went to the 30 mile cycling race through historic downtown. I snagged a great spot in eye shot of the starting/finish line. I got a cold drink and wondered around the festival, then strategically balanced myself on a 4 ft. concrete pillar to watch the end. I had never been to a race before. It was fun.

7-9) I spent the evening on my own (while mom worked). I went to Sarah Goodwin's garden at Strawbery Banke and memorized plant and herb names for a long time. It was too lovely to leave. Summer is desperate! Fall is migrating southward. There are a few strawberries still on the patches, the morning glories are still glorifying themselves and the johnny jumps have yet to stop jumping. Some trees remain July-lush green and half of the other trees are red, organge, or orangy-red. I left there to go to another garden where I practice my expertise treeclimbing skills and balancing acts. I got some weird looks. Then I went and watched the sunset over the Pascataqua River from a dock at Prescott Park.

10) Rented
11) drove through the white mountains to see the beginnings of fall leaves. Then ate half orders of pasta at a really fun restaurant at the Inn at Mill Falls right on the Lake Winnepesaukee. So we watched the sunset over the water while we ate and that was so marvelous.


12) down to historic Boston and Plymouth on the way to

13) Cape Cod. Walking uphill on fine sand for a long distance works your quads. We drove out to the very tip of the cape and spent the night in a Provincetown.

14) Then Wednesday, we went to the Masalin's (the most kind and hospitable family I've ever met) house for dinner, which was oh so wonderful!

And then headed back to Maine. Mom left for Dallas today.

cleaning the stove

A clean stove is like a guitar that hasn't been restrung in 3 years. Either is never used or it is broken.

My stove was dirty. My guitar does not need to be restrung.

In come the Canadian geese. Why are they called Canadian? They are only Canadian half the year.

Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park

A fellow Aggie-Coast Guard wife-temp. Mainer and I drove to Bar Harbor (adorable) and Acadia (wowingly georgeous) for a day trip.

Acadia is where those nincumpoops were standing on the cliffs during the Hurricane a few weeks ago and 12 people were swept off by a giant wave. So anyway the weather was good while we were there. The summer is hanging on for dear life, but it wont live much longer, so the leaves were still green, but some areas were getting a little autumn tint.

This park is so crazy diverse. 40 foot granite cliffs being continously smacked by white waves, not quite so high granite cliffs where you can better smell the seaspray, a sandy beach, mountains, mountains in the water- like they would be mountains, but they are in the middle of a harbor, so they are just really funny looking mini islands. One of those was called bubble rock and we could totally see why. so funny. There were other little islands with names like Long Porcupine, Sheep Porcupine, Bald Porcupine, and our favorite, Burnt Porcupine. haha. The sandy beach was made by tiny fragments of colorful shells. So I took a handful of sand and looked close and counted like 11 different shades just in my hand! And the beach was surrounded on two side by gray cliffs and on the third side by a yellow field. So pretty. We watched little red headed children run up and down the beach and talked about our dreams of motherhood. :). Also, we watched whales from the beach. The whole thing was magical, really.
On another stop, we descended some cliffs and spotted a shallow cavern/large mouthed deep pit in the rock facing the ocean. We made our way over to it and I inched my way around the edge of it on a narrow ledge to get inside, then wondered around. It was a little dim and the echo of the waves coming into it were so loud. I perched on a wet rock in the back and looked out at the ocean. It was such a strange sight. All my peripheral vision was taken up by dark cave walls and ceiling; beyond the enterance was just a line dividing two shades of blue: ocean and sky. Leaving was an audrenaline rush bc I had to go up to get out. If I had slipped, I would have fallen down into the water where the waves were oh not too violently pounding the cliff. But obv if I had thought I was gonna die, I wouldn't have done it- I am not that dumb. i just really wanted to rock climb.

We hiked along a 40-something or was it 50? I can't gage it. We hiked along a really stinkin high cliff for a while and just absorbed the views. We also wondered on some less risky rocky shores and I went up and down some less dangerous routes that were really fun! They say you can see sea lions on the bank at some time of the year that isnt now. That'd be neat.

Driving back down to southern maine was fun too. We had some good talks about aggie trads, coast guard this and thats, and the having of husbands. Good day. Good day.

on modernity

"w/ mechanistic and scientific views of the universe gaining hegemony & analytical minds swearing unyielding antipathy toward any invincible mystery that couldn't be broken down by controllable parts, nation-states and their cultures rose above ecclesiastical influence."

Wow what a sentence. I could never comprise that.

I read it in "A New Kind of Christian"by Brian D McLaren. This guy breaks down the evolution of the human mindset from Medieval times to tomorrow. He focuses primarily on Modernism and describes what it became and how it affects both secular culture and christians. He claims that we are now being thwarted out of modernism and into a new age that is now in its infancy and discusses how Christianity itself is adjusting.

You know, I wonder if the protestant reformation kinda saved the church. Some say that it is the worst thing that has ever happened to the church and that it fractioned our establishment and fractured the truth. While part of that statement may be true, it also may have saved it from dying out with feudalism. The rediscovery of science and philosophy (along with the help of the printing press to spread ideas) prompted individual analysis- "the universe is an intelligible machine and science the master screwdriver to take it apart via analysis." Humans got a little prideful in their ability to figure out everything (refer back to initial quote.) and many began to see religion as an old explanation for the unknown and turned from the church- evident in Western Europe's empty cathedrals. Humans began a conquest of knowledge and explanations that continued excitedly through Freud and Darwin. In the 1940s, analyzers realized that every answer evoked a new question and that some age-old questions remained unanswerable. We are still wading in the Renaissance's wake; best sellers argue old concepts instead of making fresh strides- ex: Dawkins. Back to my initial statement concerning the protestant church. Christians do not go untouched by cultural changes. We don't today and we didn't in 1485. Without this feeling of a personal freedom to analyze the existence and compositions and flaws of organizations like feudalism and the roman catholic church, people like Martin Luther may not have thought to criticize. Had the church refused to transition with society, then those empty cathedrals may be all we'd have to show for christianity. Even Puritans were Calvinists- a reformation group. And most other groups who moved to America were individualized marketeers. These are just some thoughts. I have to eat and head to Josiah's to watch a patriots game.

Nubble Lighthouse

Earlier today, when I was "returning" from York School Dept, I accidentally turned north instead of south. oops. I figured this out when i saw Nubble Lighthouse in the distance. So I figured, eh what the heck I'll just go to the light house. I spent a good hour there. That light house is on an island, so i couldn't walk right up to it. It was adorable though. I sketched it. And I climbed down the rock wall to the rocks below and found a good spot to lean back and just watch the waves fill a unfill a gulch beside me. I closed my eyes and just listened to it for a while. A seagull came up right next to me and squawked and squealed for a little while, but other than that, I couldn't see or hear anybody. I prayed and journaled a lot. About many things. About the way I look at life and time and change (I think I focus too hard on the steps instead of the big picture like someone walking by a beautiful lighthouse on the ocean and staring at their feet), about our move and our choices and the process of choosing, about my and Chris' future, about his job transition way later on down the road, and about finding a new church wherever we end up, about the foundation we are building.

I miss him a lot. I wrote the other morning, "I feel like I am on an extended vacation without a companion."
I said to Maghan a few days before, "Okay, I am done playing military. Can he come home now?" Reality sets in.

Snack

You know what's good. a glass of iced milk with poorly mixed peanut butter and cream cheese on apple slices while sitting indian style on the front porch steps watching people walk their dogs under the big still green oak trees barefooted yet wearing a sweater because the air is getting a little cold.

You know what would make it better?
Chris.

Later, I ate a spinach, mushroom, bacon and almond salad with apple sauce on it. Hey I was out of dressing.

Today, I saw 5 whales and 4 people throw up.

I went whale watching in the Gulf of Maine with the youth group today!

He maketh me chaperon fun youth trips;
He leadeth me upon not-so-still waters.
Yea, though I ride 'cross the sea of 6 ft waves ,
I will fear no seasickness for thou art with me...
Mike Hoy's puke runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

Ha! fortunately I fared pretty well, but a lot of poor youth got pretty darn sick (Mike puked 8x. Once out the window of the car in front of me on the drive home. Poor poor Mike.)

ANYWAY. We saw 3 different species of whales. Lots of dorsal fins and a few tales. No jumps or double axles. The car ride talk was super fun- I'm pretty excited about getting to know more cool cats in this group.

Yesterday, I went to he UNH football game with my new friend, Maghan. Ha! This stadium (Division 1 AA) was 3x SMALLER than my HS stadium and way easier to sneak into! Todo, we are not in Texas anymore.

And then Mag and I went running on Rye beach. I ran further than I had run since the 7th grade. I ran the full length of Rye beach almost twice! I really felt like I conquered something. Okay, granted Rye beach is not very long. Like 13/17s of a mile (Sorry, I just couldn't break that fraction down. It is pretty precise. ha jk). So I ran not as far as many semi-normal people run regularly (esp considering that Mag ran 5 more laps) but I am still proud. I wouldn't have done that by myself.

I got in from my long trip at 9pm. It was actually a little cold here in Maine. I had to to put on a cardigan and my pretty purple knee length light coat with a cute hat in order to walk down town comfortably. It was so neat- I got that feeling I had when I was in England again. It was dark and quiet so I could hear the current and the lights reflecting off the fast-moving water looked so neat. The tide was higher than I've ever seen it, I think. I caught a down feather in midair while I was crossing the draw bridge. I felt fortunate. :). i feel comfortable here. I am so glad that I got to be here with Chris for a whole 2 months before I had to be here by myself.
I chose to eat at the Press Room! What a neat spot: brick walls, low old wooden rafters, pew-like booths, dim lighting, an age-stained bar, and instruments in the corner! A live Jazz band was playing. I think they had been playing for a while based on how much they were sweating and the time. All I could see of the pianist was a bobbling bald head, the base player had that Harvard professor look that all base players have, the guitarist reminded me of a friendly uncle, & the drummer was in the black beret that you expect the base player to wear. I peeled off my outer layers, hung my hat on a heavily used hook and perched in a cozy booth adorned with weird local art. I ordered a Guinness with a cup clam chowder and field green salad. A girl told me that I smelled good (random) and I journaled most of the time. I think I will frequent that place.

September

I leaned back and sighed to myself "aaaa last plane ride for 4 mos" and smiled. Then i realized that there's no one waiting for me this time. Thank God for the Kindstedts. I will be living in a house and sleeping in that bed tonight by myself. I leaned forward and teared up. "...wake me up when september ends..." (Green Day)
No.
Chris gets back from sea September 30. September is my first month in New England by myself. What a phase this will be.
Heather, your life can be so romantic. You can be creative and elegant. Heather, what the heck does that mean?
-elegance moves slowly and wears snug gloves. Elegance is Audrey Hepburn when she is not quirky.
-creative is magazine clippings and ink everywhere.

September.
September can be barefoot walks on Rye beach. Whale watching. Hiking in the White Mtns. September is summer's last wish.

October.
October is children in green tights and navy striped sweaters. October is a Lands End catalog. It's pumpkin patches and school buses under falling leaves. It is pumpkin spiced lattes while the kids are at school.

Fall is October. Fall is my favorite.

November is cardboard cutouts of Precious Moments pilgrims.

December is all Christmas. If it weren't for Thanksgiving, December would start November 15th. Thank you Plymouth colony.

You know, I bet I was the last group of elem. kids whose teacher read "The Last Christmas Pageant Ever"aloud to them.