OK - so it's beena while since I commented on my interface with the critter world here. Several discoveries over the last couple of weeks, 2 of which are noteworthy:
1. Bugs here, like squirrels and roadkill, are substantially larger than I have experienced. Now that the weather is nice, I spend a fair amount of evening time on the deck off of my bedroom reading, surfing the net on my blackberry, or chatting on the phone. The deck is open to the forest on two sides but has a sizable hedge on one side. And that hedge is VERY popular with bees (daytime)and large cinnamon-hued flying beetles that prefer the evening. Would that I had landscaping authority in this rental, I'd be choppin' that hedge down so fast because A. It obscures my view of the valley, yard, etc; and B. Bees LUV to swarm in, around, and through it's branches. Thus far, the bees, which appear to be big fat bumble-bee types, have left me alone but I'm pretty intentional about not wearing yellow when I'm laying out. Now the cinnamon-hued flying beetles are another thing - at dusk, they become quite the distraction because of their sheer size and the volume of their buzzing. So I've taken to crushing them against the screen,f loor, and exterior house wall with my Ralph Lauren flipflops. I need to buy a fly swatter. So, this means if I don't sweep my deck at least once a week, I'm walking across the broken bodies of numerous hardshelled bugs to reach my chaise lounge. Yes, very reminiscent of one of the older Indiana Jones movies where you hear the crunch as they walk across scorpions in some cave. But I'd rather have them underfoot and mangled than intact and disrupting my peace. And, when I'm lying in bed reading late at night - they see the light thru the cracks in the drapes and dive bomb the windows - no kidding. Thwack, thwack, thwack - for HOURS... Not very smart beetles.
2. Critter Comment #2: Old Orchard Beach, ME has dog-free streets most of the day! So last weekend, while tromping around Maine, I couldn't figure out why it "felt" different than Vermont (besides the whole seashore, blueberry, lobster thing). And that's it! Here, people bring their dogs to AA meetings, dogs to work, dogs to the post office. Every time you turn around, someone's unleashed dog is licking my open toed shoe. Isn't it quite the midlife crisis that I, of all people, ended up living in (and loving) a state which has a population smaller than the city of GR (let alone the metropolitan area of GR), has bears, has no Target store or Macys, and is apparently dog-lover capital of the nation? Sigh...
So now for the juicy stuff... (for all of you that rapidly scrolled past the "Critter report" to get down here to the good stuff). Had a date today. We went to the Canoe Club in Hanover for lunch (Equal in status to Cygnus in GR, but more small town-y in atmosphere). And it went ok - but it was a whole lotta work. No sparks, but nothing majorly horrible. Reminded me of why I am not a more active dater. And he was the best of the prospects that I have "perused" thus far. Five to ten years ago, I may have been more tempted or interested in his type (professionally successful and driven, in sales, makes a point of telling me he has a large flat screen HD tv, lets his 10 year old son watch "Gladiator"), but post-30-something - I'm just lookin' for a whole different kind of thing. But in the words of 99% of the single girls in my life, at least I "got out there."
So, work is fine! Spent 2 days in New Haven at Team Leader meetings (a bi-annual event, apparently). Met lots of people. Connected the most with the women of color with the urban areas. Met one colleague I really liked to invited her to come to VT sometime. Oh, and I'm going to be on a community panel re: racism on June 10. My company co-sponsored development of a film/documentary about issues related to race and family in Vermont. So I have my first community speaking gig.
So that's about it! Hope all is well with you. Keep in touch.
Marilee
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Hola from Maine!
Last Thursday, I read about some great little inns in the Boston Globe Travel Section - so decided to take a last minute trip to the southern shores of Maine for the holiday weekend. Because of gas prices and the economy, several places were offering deals. The one I utlimately chose is the Sea Cliff Motel, which offered an oceanview, HBO, a year round hot tub, and private balcony all for less than $90.00 a night. So here I am in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, which has 7 miles of sandy beaches, just north of Kennebunkport and just south of Portland.
When I arrived on Friday ngiht, I was alittle skeptical about the resort (and town) at first. My room had the "kitschy" feel - peach sponge painted walls, older-style linens, narrow, rickety outdoor wooden stairs up to it on the side of the building. The town has an amusement park right on the beach, lots of tee-shirt stores and tattoo parlors. But, I thought, sigh, you get what you pay for. So I headed to town in search of a martini and some seafood. Found a great spot on the beach - and had a yummy dinner of scallops and coleslaw. When I got back to my room and settled in a bit - it had grown on me. While small and having the atmosphere of a 3rd floor dormer of a large house, I in fact have a GREAT view of the ocean - which I can see while lying in my bed. There are no other rooms on the top floor so I don't have "neighbors" and kind of have my own private little, oddly shaped nest with a great view of the dune grass, shore, and islands off in a distance. So it's ok now!
Saturday I rose early and took off to explore. Went to Kennebunk port and had breakfast on the water at the mouth of the river at the Breakwater Inn and Spa. Lovely. All the lobster boats were going out, it's a beautiful restaurant, and I was surrounded by several "mature" couples (men dressed for the holiday in blue blazers and khaki pants - on Saturday). I was hoping to eavesdrop on some fabulous political dish - but didn't really hear any. Kennebunkport is nice. I don't know that I like it better than Cape Ann. But it is pretty. So browsing through the little towns all day was fun. Had a lovely broiled haddock (with cracker crumb and dill crust) lunch in Ogunquit - which IS fabulous - lots of little shops, well laid out, oozing charm and character. The day was fairly overcast and off and on rainy so I wasn't in a rush to head back for beach time. Around 3pm it really started rainy and it just so happened I came upon a cinema in Wells, ME so pulled in a had only a 15 minute wait til the new Indiana Jones movie was showing. So caught the show (not bad, not great) and then grabbed groceries and headed back to Old Orchard Beach. Not having figured out the cable/satellite thing at the house yet, we are sans tv except for video rentals. So it was a real treat to lounge around and have 100 channels at my disposal.
This morning I rose at 5:00am in order to see the sunrise (yes, it had already started by 5am). Had a quiet couple of hours drinking coffee on my balcony and watching the sunrise. It's breezy today - but clear skies and supposed to be a high of 75. I think I actually got a little sunburned on my face from a few hours sitting there from 5am-8am! So today will be a beach day and then tomorrow I will grab a few hours in the morning as well before heading back to Vermont.
Hope you all are having a relaxing holiday weekend! Would love to hear from you.
Love,
Marilee
When I arrived on Friday ngiht, I was alittle skeptical about the resort (and town) at first. My room had the "kitschy" feel - peach sponge painted walls, older-style linens, narrow, rickety outdoor wooden stairs up to it on the side of the building. The town has an amusement park right on the beach, lots of tee-shirt stores and tattoo parlors. But, I thought, sigh, you get what you pay for. So I headed to town in search of a martini and some seafood. Found a great spot on the beach - and had a yummy dinner of scallops and coleslaw. When I got back to my room and settled in a bit - it had grown on me. While small and having the atmosphere of a 3rd floor dormer of a large house, I in fact have a GREAT view of the ocean - which I can see while lying in my bed. There are no other rooms on the top floor so I don't have "neighbors" and kind of have my own private little, oddly shaped nest with a great view of the dune grass, shore, and islands off in a distance. So it's ok now!
Saturday I rose early and took off to explore. Went to Kennebunk port and had breakfast on the water at the mouth of the river at the Breakwater Inn and Spa. Lovely. All the lobster boats were going out, it's a beautiful restaurant, and I was surrounded by several "mature" couples (men dressed for the holiday in blue blazers and khaki pants - on Saturday). I was hoping to eavesdrop on some fabulous political dish - but didn't really hear any. Kennebunkport is nice. I don't know that I like it better than Cape Ann. But it is pretty. So browsing through the little towns all day was fun. Had a lovely broiled haddock (with cracker crumb and dill crust) lunch in Ogunquit - which IS fabulous - lots of little shops, well laid out, oozing charm and character. The day was fairly overcast and off and on rainy so I wasn't in a rush to head back for beach time. Around 3pm it really started rainy and it just so happened I came upon a cinema in Wells, ME so pulled in a had only a 15 minute wait til the new Indiana Jones movie was showing. So caught the show (not bad, not great) and then grabbed groceries and headed back to Old Orchard Beach. Not having figured out the cable/satellite thing at the house yet, we are sans tv except for video rentals. So it was a real treat to lounge around and have 100 channels at my disposal.
This morning I rose at 5:00am in order to see the sunrise (yes, it had already started by 5am). Had a quiet couple of hours drinking coffee on my balcony and watching the sunrise. It's breezy today - but clear skies and supposed to be a high of 75. I think I actually got a little sunburned on my face from a few hours sitting there from 5am-8am! So today will be a beach day and then tomorrow I will grab a few hours in the morning as well before heading back to Vermont.
Hope you all are having a relaxing holiday weekend! Would love to hear from you.
Love,
Marilee
Saturday, May 17, 2008
On a sunny, 70 degree day in Vermont...
I'm impatient with myself that I have yet to really get out and explore the area sans the enclosure of my midsized, auto-locking doors, air-conditioned 4-door sedan. Yet all I can think of at this moment is the local newspaper article this week that said that a man in New Hampshire had a collision with a bear while driving his motorcycle on the highway. Just when I think I have mentally conquered this issue, some article like this sends me back to my city-girl-conditioned state of hyper-vigilance. So we'll see...
But I at least dressed for the occasion today. At my favorite coffee spot, the waitresses have started asking "Are you working today?" the last 3 Saturdays that I was in. So apparently, I'm over dressing. So today I put on un-ironed brown cargo pants (rolled up a neat 3 inches above my ankle), flat brown strappy sandals, layered tank tops, and a red sweatshirt (and of course, my fabulous, trendy blue/brown Belizean choker). They seemed relieved this morning to see that I have some "non-work" attire in my closet. My new favorite waitress there is Russian. Her husband is a glass blower at Simon Pearce in QueChee. They came to the States 3 years ago and live above the glassblowing studio in town. They have a 15 year old daughter. She seemed very happy to talk with me. She took the job to work on her english - and I told her she had great english skills. So we're bonded. I heard from my masseuse at the Stronghouse spa that the Russian masseuses in Boston are the BEST. Stronghouse is the eco-spa I have been frequenting because of trauma from pilates (2 sessions now, muscle trauma both times) and my inability to position my ergonomically-correct $1200 Herman Miller office work chair at a comfortable height for marathon online report reviewing and approving. I have had Belizean massages, Korean massages, Romanian massages, Japanese massages - but NOT Russian. I think I must try this...!
But otherwise, things are going well. I can't believe I'm at home for a 3rd weekend in a row. In GR, I usually would go away at least 1-2 weekends a month and here I am, spending a 3rd straight weekend in VT. I considered going away last weekend, but looking at rejuvenating, reachable-within-3-hours locales online, I realized that I didn't want to deal with traffic (which ruled out big cities and cape cod) and that actually, water-view aside, most people would be paying big bucks for my house and view (even tho the leaves on the trees obscure the valley view abit). So I stayed put and lounged on my deck in my chaise reading "The Love Bug and Other Tales of Psychotherapy" by Dan W. Briddell. Fascinating book. Now I'm reading Midnight Musings of a Family Therapist by Carl Whitaker. Equally fascinating. Both are books I picked up at the Dartmouth 5 colleges book sale a few weeks ago (annual event, all books under $4.00, I got 31 books for $39.00). Am trying to re-orient my mind to clinical work versus thinking-like-a-law-firm-recruiter.
So that's the news! Everyone have a great, great day and I'll chat with ya later.
Marilee
But I at least dressed for the occasion today. At my favorite coffee spot, the waitresses have started asking "Are you working today?" the last 3 Saturdays that I was in. So apparently, I'm over dressing. So today I put on un-ironed brown cargo pants (rolled up a neat 3 inches above my ankle), flat brown strappy sandals, layered tank tops, and a red sweatshirt (and of course, my fabulous, trendy blue/brown Belizean choker). They seemed relieved this morning to see that I have some "non-work" attire in my closet. My new favorite waitress there is Russian. Her husband is a glass blower at Simon Pearce in QueChee. They came to the States 3 years ago and live above the glassblowing studio in town. They have a 15 year old daughter. She seemed very happy to talk with me. She took the job to work on her english - and I told her she had great english skills. So we're bonded. I heard from my masseuse at the Stronghouse spa that the Russian masseuses in Boston are the BEST. Stronghouse is the eco-spa I have been frequenting because of trauma from pilates (2 sessions now, muscle trauma both times) and my inability to position my ergonomically-correct $1200 Herman Miller office work chair at a comfortable height for marathon online report reviewing and approving. I have had Belizean massages, Korean massages, Romanian massages, Japanese massages - but NOT Russian. I think I must try this...!
But otherwise, things are going well. I can't believe I'm at home for a 3rd weekend in a row. In GR, I usually would go away at least 1-2 weekends a month and here I am, spending a 3rd straight weekend in VT. I considered going away last weekend, but looking at rejuvenating, reachable-within-3-hours locales online, I realized that I didn't want to deal with traffic (which ruled out big cities and cape cod) and that actually, water-view aside, most people would be paying big bucks for my house and view (even tho the leaves on the trees obscure the valley view abit). So I stayed put and lounged on my deck in my chaise reading "The Love Bug and Other Tales of Psychotherapy" by Dan W. Briddell. Fascinating book. Now I'm reading Midnight Musings of a Family Therapist by Carl Whitaker. Equally fascinating. Both are books I picked up at the Dartmouth 5 colleges book sale a few weeks ago (annual event, all books under $4.00, I got 31 books for $39.00). Am trying to re-orient my mind to clinical work versus thinking-like-a-law-firm-recruiter.
So that's the news! Everyone have a great, great day and I'll chat with ya later.
Marilee
Sunday, May 4, 2008
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