Retrospect: Boothbay Harbor 1985-1987

Yesterday, I started a rough catalog of my life in honor of my 30th birthday coming up. Here's the second chapter: Boothbay Harbor, Maine. I was 5 years old when we arrived and 7 when we left. For the first year, we lived in the bottom of a big old house right on Main Street in downtown Boothbay Harbor. Growing up by the ocean at that age was a dream.

• I started school in Boothbay—Mrs. Williams was my kindergarten teacher and I loved her.
• I made a Christmas ornament at school: it was a little stuffed pillow that said "Soe 1985." I still have it.
  
• I learned how to swim—in the ocean and at the YMCA
• I learned how to read—Mummy would put a big blanket out on the front lawn and I would read through the Primers that we had sounding out words like "mat," "cat," "hat" and "sat "The cat sat on the mat!"
• Boothbay Harbor was such a cool town and it was all within walking distance from our house. There was a bakery nearby called The Crunchy Snail. They made glazed claw donuts called "Lobster Claws." They were my favorite. There was a restaurant that looked like a giant boat. There was a salt water taffy shop where you could look in the window and watch them pulling taffy. They were all different colors: green, pink, orange and green.
  
• There was also a old-fashioned trolly that went around town. One day when my friend and I were hanging out at the house and Mummy wasn't looking, we decided to catch the trolly and take a ride around town. Only thing was it was summer and we weren't wearing any shoes. The trolly driver thought we were orphan runaways. So he called a policeman who took us to the diner for a meal and then when we told him that we had a home, he brought us there. My mother was so worried—especially when she saw the policeman. The policeman was just confused.
• The second year, we moved out of the house on Main Street and into a trailer out on a country road. We were all pretty depressed about it, but Mummy built a gigantic garden in the yard (although I'm pretty sure it turned to mud) and we had lots of room to play.
• That was the year my birthday fell on Easter and I got a bunny basket for a present.
  
• That was also the year I took Hannah's bike and road it down the dirt road. As I was turning the corner, a car was coming in the other direction and it hit me! The bike went under the car and was crushed, but luckily, I just rolled onto the hood and didn't even get a bruise. The little old lady driving the car got quite the fright though.
• Oh yeah, here's another memory from the trailer. Hannah decided to have a "seance" in her bedroom. She made a bowl of eyeballs out of grapes or pearl onions or something. And another bowl of cold spaghetti was supposed to be guts. She made us put our hands in the bowl in the dark. When Papa found us, he was not happy. We were all grounded!
• Oh my gosh, there are a lot of memories from Boothbay, from the time we forgot Emi at the beach to the spawning jelly fish to playing with the sea cucumbers at the aquarium. All of the friends we had. All of the friends we left behind.
• Papa got a new preaching job in Pittsfield, Maine and so we left Boothbay in 1987.

Do I really have no photos of Boothbay? Mummy do you? I'll keep looking.

Retrospect: Pawlet 1980-1985

I'm turning 30 in a few days. I'm fine with the 30 thing. But certainly a lot has happened in 3 decades and so I think this is a good opportunity to take a look back. I did a little digging to see what pictures I could find. There weren't many from those early days! But I did find a few that bring back great memories.

Wow, I've led a pretty nomadic life, with my family and then later on my own. From humble Pawlet, Vermont to Paris, France, I've lived in more houses than I can count on two hands.

I'll start with humble Pawlet. Here's what I remember:

• Here's where I grew up from 0-5 years. I was the youngest of three little girls.
• In the winter, the snow was always above my head.
• My mother might say I had issues as a small child. I got into naughty things like pills and rat poison. But somehow made it through ok...
  
• When I was less than 2, my mother took us girls back to England to live while my parents' marriage was on the rocks. Luckily, Papa got a grip, he and Mummy patched things up and we moved back to good old Pawlet.
• We started going to church—all the way in Glens Falls, New York!
  
• Our house burned down. We lost most of our belongings. But it meant we got to build a shiny new house! While the new house was being built, we stayed in our friends the Winpennys' sugar house for the summer.
  
• I loved leotards—I wore them all the time.
• I loved the color purple.
• I loved drawing and still remember what I got for my 4th (?) birthday: a carousel filled to the brim with Crayola crayons. I will never forget that.
  
• My best friend Aura Joy lived next door. One day I cut all of her hair off. Her mom was mad.
• I liked to cut my own hair too. That's why I always had short hair.
• I fell off the rope swing behind the house. It knocked the wind out of me.
  
• We had sheep outside. When our sheep Jemimah gave birth to a little lamb, my parents let me name him. I named him Butt Lamb because he would run after you and try to butt you like a goat. Butt Lamb was dirty white with a black face. I loved him. Whatever happened to butt lamb?
• In 1985, Papa got offered a job preaching at a church in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. So, we packed up our belongings and, on my fifth birthday, we upped and moved away.
  

pics from the weekend

Last weekend was Easter weekend and we planned to go up to Newport to spend the weekend with the rents. Colin got in from a work trip late Friday night. So we decided to wait till Saturday to head out of town. On the drive up to the NEK, we met up with Kev at Jay Peak to get in some spring riding & skiing. It was a hot weekend and hit near 80 degrees at the base lodge. But they still had tons of snow on the slopes.

We were in tees and snow pants. But some people were in bikinis. This girl was posing in her hot pink one:

We got a few good runs in. Colin convinced me to try the mini park. It was so fun! He said not to worry about jumping, just to go over the roly poly bumps. But after a couple, I got the hang of it and got some good air off a couple—I even got some hoots from the chair lift. It was so sunny and so hot, that we had to keep taking breaks to drink water and rest. Here's Kev:


Finally, we headed home happy and tired, tired, tired. It was so warm outside, we ate our Easter dinner outside on Saturday night. Papa roasted some of the coffee beans we got him in Hawaii and made us a special brew. Next morning, the Easter bunny definitely came (after church of course!) and showered us with treats. Lovely!

nyc yippeee

The last time I was in New York was over a year ago to celebrate Mark and Kathleen's engagement. Over a year! They're married now. Now we're married too. We went back down to New York last weekend for another engagement party—this time for Spencer and Courtney.

I love going down to New York to see Courtney & Spence. They always show us a good time and bring us to some tasty restaurants.

On Friday night, we got in to the city and went for a late dinner at The Redhead. It's this tiny little gastropub in the East Village specializing in southern comfort food. We got snacks at the bar while we waited for a table: bacon peanut brittle (yes, believe it!), house-made potato chips and french onion dip. For dinner, I got a green goddess salad with fresh spring asparagus and peas. Then the most amazing shrimp and grits I've ever had, albeit a tad salty (Oh well, a little swell in the feet won't hurt, I reckon.) Colin got fried chicken and cornbread. Spence and Court got burgers.

And we all shared a taste of the buffalo-style sweetbreads. Tasted just like chicken! Mmm. I actually liked it.

Saturday morning for brunch, we went to The Breslin at the Ace Hotel. Another gastropub kind of meal, but with more of a Brit style. It was super excellent. Get this: segmented grapefruit with ginger sugar and mint. Grilled 3-cheese sandwich with ham and toad-in-the-whole egg. (That's what Spencer & Colin got. Insane.) I got yummy poached egg atop curried lentils. Can't remember what Court got.

We shopped around for a bit to walk off brunch. Walked through a farmer's market. Courtney left us to get ready for the party. It was hot and sunny—even in mid-March. I had to strip down to a tank top.

Lots of walking. Visited the Burton store in SoHo so Col could flex his muscles. Grabbed some Cuban coffee on the way home—iced cafe con leche. Papa would've loved it.

Then it was time to get ready!

We dolled ourselves up and headed to Gemma at the Bowery Hotel for the engagement party dinner. The others were there when we arrived. Everybody looked so pretty and dapper and ready for a good time. Couples were seated opposite each other. Very proper. We decided to get tons of little plates and pass them around. Perhaps I was distracted by the company and conversation, but I can't really remember much of what I ate. The one thing I do remember was the chicken pate, which was very good. And the atmosphere was lovely.

After dinner, we went to the Bowery Electric for the party. When we arrived, there were buckets with champagne all set out in a private room. There were cute little napkins printed with Spencer and Courtney's names. There were other guests too. We danced and danced and danced. Spencer's sister earned the official title of Breeze, rightfully so. I couldn't live up to that performance. Everything else went off pretty much without a hitch with some excitement mixed in: the prom queen bachelorette entourage crashing our party, a late-night excursion up to the rooftop, some karate kicks, a few cuts and scratches, and a purse full of hot sauce:


(I can't believe that's the only photo that came out from the entire weekend.)

Woke up the next morning. Grabbed some bagels, some hot coffee. And it was time to go. Already. Boo! We'll have to go back again real soon. Love you guys.

me day

Ah, finally a Saturday morning at home. I can't remember the last Saturday when we stayed home and relaxed. All winter, it's been either out-of-town or to the mountain as soon as we wake up and, while I bet it could be a good day of snowboarding today, I'm taking this day for myself.

Colin's out west for work. This is his first work trip since we got married—the first time away. I always miss him when he's gone, but after a couple of days, I do eventually get off the couch, dust myself off and do as many ME things as I can fit into a day.

For now, that means lots of fresh coffee and 3 new magazines I've been saving to look at. It's a sunny day. I'll sit by the window and soak it in. And later, I might walk into town. Or go to a sugar house. Or cuddle with the cats.