It’s my last hour at my folks’ house in Portland and I wanted to check in before I headed off to our cabin on the lake. Although I have missed being part of the action back home, I think I’m glad that I’m here rather than in the midst of the fray, but I can thank the photobloggers for making me feel like I had a taste of the more positive things going on back home.
When I leave NYC, and particularly when I come up here, I slow down dramatically, to the point where words like “sloth” and “lethargy” come to mind. In fact, I was talking to a friend on the phone last night who commented that I even sounded more relaxed. Could be. But this afternoon the word “relax” becomes the focus of my weekend, as I head out to Casco, where my only concrete goals are: 1) to eat lobster at the Naples Lobster Pound; 2) to fall asleep in the hammock, while reading Appetite for Life, Julia Childs’ biography, and listening to the sounds of the lake; 3) to finish the baby hat I’m knitting for a friend before I return home; and 4) to have a chocolate ice cream soda at Pears, the ice cream joint in “town,” which is little more than a gas station, a library, and a church.
A handful of friends were supposed to come up from NY, Boston, and elsewhere, but couldn’t quite pull together the travel arrangements. I’ll have some local visitors, and a friend of mine from DC is at his family’s house nearby, so I’ll get to see him too. Enjoy your long weekend, folks, and don’t forget to slow down and chill, wherever you may be.