It's Friday again. This weekend will be spent hanging around the house, relaxing, swimming, some grocery shopping. I'm looking forward to a bit of downtime.
Alright, here we go. You know the drill. Shuffle up and deal. No apron-wringing!
1. party generation (end of summer)--dar williams
2. heading home (love and china)--nerissa and katryna nields
3. happy frappy (parachute)--guster
4. strangers like me (disney's greatest hits 3)--phil collins
5. love me do (1)--the beatles
6. jennifer falling down (play)--the nields
7. this town is wrong (if you lived here, you'd be home now)--the nields
8. mona lisa (parachute)--guster
9. stupid (afterglow)--sarah mclachlan
10. phantom doll (flower of avalon)--tracy grammer
Seen Live: Dar, N&K, Guster, Tracy
Majorly enjoying: Heading Home, Happy Frappy, Phantom Doll--this is a pretty stellar set, though.
Memory Trigger: Strangers Like Me used to stop my friend's son from crying on a dime. The opening chords would sound, and even if Ben was in major meltdown mode, he'd immediately stop crying and listen intently.
Favorite Lyric: will i say "i love you" even when they are just words/the way words sometimes are when you pray
Friday, July 28, 2006
Thursday, July 27, 2006
thursday thirteen...the frff edition
4 days later, and I'm still carrying a bit of Falcon Ridge with me. Here are some of the hilights/lessons learned:
1. Arriving in the daylight (as I did this year) is FAR superior to arriving after 9 PM and pitching a tent in the dark (as I did last year).
2. There is NOTHING better than sitting around laughing and catching up with old friends. Somehow, though the other 2 members of our camp also live in MA, Al and I only manage to see them at FRFF. They are wickedly funny.
3. *Always* wear disposable shoes at FRFF. You never know when you're going to have to navigate gushing streams of mud. My FR flipflops were tossed as we packed up camp on Sunday.
4. Falcon Ridge always holds musical gems that you don't expect. This year, I discovered Dan Bern (hilarious), TaxiChain (very cool) and was introduced to Shawn Colvin's folky side.
5. A Friday Night Song Swap that includes Susan Werner, Christine Lavin and Cheryl Wheeler WILL make you laugh til it hurts.
6. Old favorites never fail to amaze you at FR. There's just a magic about it all. Crooked Still, Tracy Grammer and the Nields put together some of the best sets and workshops I've ever attended.
7. *Never* complain about the sun and the heat. It will come back to bite you in the ass.
8. Embrace the rain--as long as your tent stays dry and the music plays on, how bad can it really be? Muddy, rain soaked hillsides can come in handy and save property and lives.
9. When you are evacuated from your tent at 3 AM due to fire, grab a blanket. Otherwise, you will freeze for 3 hours in the damp, muddy cold. (How many times can the word "mud" be used in one blog entry anyway?)
10. Less than 48 hours is *plenty* of time to establish wonderful friendships that continue to grow. Big Yellow reunions rock and I can't wait for October.
11. Sometimes, you just have to put on clean, dry clothes and pretend that mud isn't caked all over your ankles, feet and legs. It's the only way to get some sleep.
12. Emergency cookies and apples taste better at 4:30 AM than cookies and apples have ever tasted before.
13. As you drive away from the farm--exhausted, filthy, drained and sunburned--you can't help but ask "How many days til Falcon Ridge '07?"
Big Yellow friends, how did we manage to NOT take a photo of the 6 of us together?
Monday, July 24, 2006
rain, flood, fire and mud...my weekend at frff
I am home (well, at work right now).
I am clean.
I am dry.
I am tired.
I am riding a high from good friends and good music.
When I arrived at Dodd's Farm on Thursday, I was a little grouchy. Work had been crummy on Wednesday and I still felt like grumbling and raging. However, as we drove down Rte. 22 towards Hillsdale, I caught a glimpse of multicolored tents and tarps through the trees. I gasped at the beauty of it and suddenly forgot all the work worries. The new farm was great...and the vibe and soul of Falcon Ridge was the same. As I parked my car to get my wristband, the volunteers greeted us with a "Welcome home!" And it really does feel like home.
Maybe it's just me, but I think the music was better than ever this year. Clearly, N&K's energy was better than usual being back on stage after 3 months...I thought NFN was going to jump right off the stage during Tailspin! Other favorites did not disappoint either...Crooked Still, Tracy Grammer (who is just sublime), Lowen and Navarro and EFO had us singing and dancing in our seats. I laughed until my sides hurt with the likes of Christine Lavin, Cheryl Wheeler and Susan Werner. And DD's fave, Dan Bern, had us all laughing hard and ignoring the rain well into the wee morning hours.
Speaking of rain, after a SCORCHING Friday, the rains did come on Saturday. Everything from sprinklings to drizzles to outright downpours...the field of green became a muddy mess. And less than an hour after climbing into our tent, finally dry, in clean clothes and with substantially LESS mud on our feet and legs, AL and I woke up to screaming and talk of 911. A car had caught fire about 50 yards from our tent...we quickly decided to abandon camp, abandon the car and head down the hill in case things got worse. Fire officials had trouble getting up the hill due to mud, but thanks to the ground being wet and tents being wet, etc., the fire didn't spread and just burned out a car or 2. So, in the end, thank God for the rain. It could've been a lot worse.
By far, the hilight of the weekend for me was catching up with my Big Yellow friends. Those of you who couldn't be with us were missed, but it was great to see A, N, J, T and C. T and C, I'm sorry we didn't get to catch up more! I looked around during N&K's mainstage set to see all of your smiling faces and was amazed at the sense of community that had been formed in less than 48 hours.
I'm not sure how coherent I was here and I'm sure that N, J, A, T and C will also have blog entries about this weekend, probably more coherent than mine. I arrived home yesterday exhausted and drained as I did 3 loads of laundry and scrubbed off the mud. I loved every minute of it though!
I am clean.
I am dry.
I am tired.
I am riding a high from good friends and good music.
When I arrived at Dodd's Farm on Thursday, I was a little grouchy. Work had been crummy on Wednesday and I still felt like grumbling and raging. However, as we drove down Rte. 22 towards Hillsdale, I caught a glimpse of multicolored tents and tarps through the trees. I gasped at the beauty of it and suddenly forgot all the work worries. The new farm was great...and the vibe and soul of Falcon Ridge was the same. As I parked my car to get my wristband, the volunteers greeted us with a "Welcome home!" And it really does feel like home.
Maybe it's just me, but I think the music was better than ever this year. Clearly, N&K's energy was better than usual being back on stage after 3 months...I thought NFN was going to jump right off the stage during Tailspin! Other favorites did not disappoint either...Crooked Still, Tracy Grammer (who is just sublime), Lowen and Navarro and EFO had us singing and dancing in our seats. I laughed until my sides hurt with the likes of Christine Lavin, Cheryl Wheeler and Susan Werner. And DD's fave, Dan Bern, had us all laughing hard and ignoring the rain well into the wee morning hours.
Speaking of rain, after a SCORCHING Friday, the rains did come on Saturday. Everything from sprinklings to drizzles to outright downpours...the field of green became a muddy mess. And less than an hour after climbing into our tent, finally dry, in clean clothes and with substantially LESS mud on our feet and legs, AL and I woke up to screaming and talk of 911. A car had caught fire about 50 yards from our tent...we quickly decided to abandon camp, abandon the car and head down the hill in case things got worse. Fire officials had trouble getting up the hill due to mud, but thanks to the ground being wet and tents being wet, etc., the fire didn't spread and just burned out a car or 2. So, in the end, thank God for the rain. It could've been a lot worse.
By far, the hilight of the weekend for me was catching up with my Big Yellow friends. Those of you who couldn't be with us were missed, but it was great to see A, N, J, T and C. T and C, I'm sorry we didn't get to catch up more! I looked around during N&K's mainstage set to see all of your smiling faces and was amazed at the sense of community that had been formed in less than 48 hours.
I'm not sure how coherent I was here and I'm sure that N, J, A, T and C will also have blog entries about this weekend, probably more coherent than mine. I arrived home yesterday exhausted and drained as I did 3 loads of laundry and scrubbed off the mud. I loved every minute of it though!
Sunday, July 16, 2006
kissing the new england soil
I've returned from the South. I was the only Yankee in the ranks, so I spent some time deciphering the "southern-ese" spoken in every session. It was a good conference though, learned some interesting things, met some nice people. I'm always glad to meet other professionals in my line of work and realize that I'm not alone in my struggles and that this is a new area of focus for institutions. We're all working without a net. I'm also glad HC doesn't have the tradition of WEARING the school color in professional settings the way that Clemson does. HC Purple is not much more flattering than Clemson Orange.
One of my favorite moments was when I drove past an intersection in SC that had a Dollar General on one corner, an El Cheapo gas station on the other and a Family Dollar on a third corner. About a mile down the road, I found a Dollar Superstore. Also, on the highways and roads leading into campus, there are big orange paw prints, for the Clemson tigers, don'tcha know?
How did it get to be July 16?! FalconRidge is a mere 4 days away and I'm thrilled, but also disturbed! This summer is flying by. I have to go now to do some more shopping for the weekend. I'll be around, but busy this week, so don't worry too much if I disappear. My goal is to post my "road not taken" thoughts by Wednesday. It's been so interesting and enjoyable to read your thoughts.
One of my favorite moments was when I drove past an intersection in SC that had a Dollar General on one corner, an El Cheapo gas station on the other and a Family Dollar on a third corner. About a mile down the road, I found a Dollar Superstore. Also, on the highways and roads leading into campus, there are big orange paw prints, for the Clemson tigers, don'tcha know?
How did it get to be July 16?! FalconRidge is a mere 4 days away and I'm thrilled, but also disturbed! This summer is flying by. I have to go now to do some more shopping for the weekend. I'll be around, but busy this week, so don't worry too much if I disappear. My goal is to post my "road not taken" thoughts by Wednesday. It's been so interesting and enjoyable to read your thoughts.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
early 10 and 13
I'm off to South Carolina. Should be hot and sticky--yippee ;) I thought I'd treat you all to a random 10 and a *Tuesday* thirteen.
I set the 'pod a'shufflin. No skipping tracks or rationalizing.
And the winners are:
1. Romeo and Juliet (Rites of Passage)--Indigo Girls
2. Your Fire, Your Soul (Beauty of the Rain)--Dar Williams
3. Red, Red Robin (All Together Singing in the Kitchen)--The Nields
4. Forever Young (Forever Young)--Alphaville
5. Lightning Rod (Ganging Up on the Sun)--Guster
6. Two Points for Honesty (Lost and Gone Forever)--Guster
7. So Close to My Heart (My Better Self)--Dar Williams
8. You Like Me Too Much (Help!)--Beatles
9. Rebecca (Pat McGee)--Pat McGee Band
10. California (The Guest)--Phantom Planet
Bonus: Closer to Fine (Indigo Girls)--Indigo Girls
Seen Live: Indigo Girls, Dar, Nields, Guster, Phantom Planet (as a guster opening)
Good Tunes: Your Fire, Your Soul; Red, Red Robin; Lightning Rod; Rebecca; Closer to Fine
And Not So Much: Romeo and Juliet
Favorite Album: The "newest" albums on this list were all *really* pleasant surprises...I get nervous that new CDs won't be as good as the last, or the first. But Guster's Ganging Up on the Sun is fabulous. Dar's My Better Self is different, but really fabulous. The Nields' latest, All Together Singing in the Kitchen, is delightfully fun.
Least Favorite Album: Well, I only have the one song on it, but I'll go with Alphaville's Forever Young because I just can't imagine it being good!
Memory Trigger: In that same veing, Forever Young is a trigger...I spent 2 summers as a counselor/RA for an academic "camp" in Lancaster, PA. We had 10 dances in a 6 week period and Forever Young was part of the "Canon" that we played at EVERY dance, along with classics like Istanbul, End of the World, Bizarre Love Triangle and American Pie. This song takes me back to a hot, steamy quad, with 600 teenagers dancing all around me.
Favorite Lyric: Could you wear something that celebrates/Everything you love and maybe/What your family hates
************************************
Tuesday Thirteen
1. I have 2 scars on my right forearm from where I had 13 screws and 2 plates inserted.
2. I fell 30 feet out of a chairlift and snapped my arm in half.
3. I love thunderstorms.
4. I am practically counting the hours til FRFF.
5. I am spending the night in Brighton, MA tonight.
6. I'm a little nervous about going to this conference by my lonesome. What if no one talks to me?
7. When I was younger, my mom had my hair permed.
8. I love to fly.
9. I'm planning to coach a 10 year old b-ball team this winter with a co-worker.
10. My first concert was Billy Joel/Elton John at Giants Stadium.
11. I am a Yankees fan (ducks for cover).
12. I was a Yankee fan when they were the worst team in baseball--not a carpetbagger.
13. I'm determined to teach myself the guitar, but I haven't picked it up in months.
I set the 'pod a'shufflin. No skipping tracks or rationalizing.
And the winners are:
1. Romeo and Juliet (Rites of Passage)--Indigo Girls
2. Your Fire, Your Soul (Beauty of the Rain)--Dar Williams
3. Red, Red Robin (All Together Singing in the Kitchen)--The Nields
4. Forever Young (Forever Young)--Alphaville
5. Lightning Rod (Ganging Up on the Sun)--Guster
6. Two Points for Honesty (Lost and Gone Forever)--Guster
7. So Close to My Heart (My Better Self)--Dar Williams
8. You Like Me Too Much (Help!)--Beatles
9. Rebecca (Pat McGee)--Pat McGee Band
10. California (The Guest)--Phantom Planet
Bonus: Closer to Fine (Indigo Girls)--Indigo Girls
Seen Live: Indigo Girls, Dar, Nields, Guster, Phantom Planet (as a guster opening)
Good Tunes: Your Fire, Your Soul; Red, Red Robin; Lightning Rod; Rebecca; Closer to Fine
And Not So Much: Romeo and Juliet
Favorite Album: The "newest" albums on this list were all *really* pleasant surprises...I get nervous that new CDs won't be as good as the last, or the first. But Guster's Ganging Up on the Sun is fabulous. Dar's My Better Self is different, but really fabulous. The Nields' latest, All Together Singing in the Kitchen, is delightfully fun.
Least Favorite Album: Well, I only have the one song on it, but I'll go with Alphaville's Forever Young because I just can't imagine it being good!
Memory Trigger: In that same veing, Forever Young is a trigger...I spent 2 summers as a counselor/RA for an academic "camp" in Lancaster, PA. We had 10 dances in a 6 week period and Forever Young was part of the "Canon" that we played at EVERY dance, along with classics like Istanbul, End of the World, Bizarre Love Triangle and American Pie. This song takes me back to a hot, steamy quad, with 600 teenagers dancing all around me.
Favorite Lyric: Could you wear something that celebrates/Everything you love and maybe/What your family hates
************************************
Tuesday Thirteen
1. I have 2 scars on my right forearm from where I had 13 screws and 2 plates inserted.
2. I fell 30 feet out of a chairlift and snapped my arm in half.
3. I love thunderstorms.
4. I am practically counting the hours til FRFF.
5. I am spending the night in Brighton, MA tonight.
6. I'm a little nervous about going to this conference by my lonesome. What if no one talks to me?
7. When I was younger, my mom had my hair permed.
8. I love to fly.
9. I'm planning to coach a 10 year old b-ball team this winter with a co-worker.
10. My first concert was Billy Joel/Elton John at Giants Stadium.
11. I am a Yankees fan (ducks for cover).
12. I was a Yankee fan when they were the worst team in baseball--not a carpetbagger.
13. I'm determined to teach myself the guitar, but I haven't picked it up in months.
Monday, July 10, 2006
love
I am in love, my friends. His name is Jack. He has long arms and endless legs. His fingers are long and skinny. His mouth is kissable and he has deep, soulful blue-grey eyes. His jet black hair is looks ready for a mohawk. My heart melted the moment I saw him.
He is 6 days old.
My weekend was delightful. Friday night, I went into Boston with friends from work for tapas--YUM! Saturday, after seeing my boss' daughter play in a b-ball game, I headed home to NY/NJ for my cousin's college grad party. The apartment is at 22nd and Park and we were on the roof. It was a perfect NYC evening...not too hot, not too humid, no rain...we watched the sun set over the Hudson and had a view of the Chrysler, Empire State and Met Life buildings. Make-your-own-fajita dinner, surrounded by cousins (some of whom I saw in NC, some of whom I didn't), a little time with my parents, siblings and grandmother...it was a great night. Without fail, these nights turn into an opportunity to tell stories about my mom and her cousins growing up, or my generation of cousins as kids. Always fun.
Yesterday, I headed north, with a stop off in CT to see baby Jack. He'd just finished eating, so he was full and happy...he passed out in my arms for an hour and a half...I could have sat there with him all day.
I'm only here today and tomorrow at work, then I head to SC for a conference Wednesday til Friday. I have so much to do at work that I'm a bit overwhelmed, but it'll all get done.
He is 6 days old.
My weekend was delightful. Friday night, I went into Boston with friends from work for tapas--YUM! Saturday, after seeing my boss' daughter play in a b-ball game, I headed home to NY/NJ for my cousin's college grad party. The apartment is at 22nd and Park and we were on the roof. It was a perfect NYC evening...not too hot, not too humid, no rain...we watched the sun set over the Hudson and had a view of the Chrysler, Empire State and Met Life buildings. Make-your-own-fajita dinner, surrounded by cousins (some of whom I saw in NC, some of whom I didn't), a little time with my parents, siblings and grandmother...it was a great night. Without fail, these nights turn into an opportunity to tell stories about my mom and her cousins growing up, or my generation of cousins as kids. Always fun.
Yesterday, I headed north, with a stop off in CT to see baby Jack. He'd just finished eating, so he was full and happy...he passed out in my arms for an hour and a half...I could have sat there with him all day.
I'm only here today and tomorrow at work, then I head to SC for a conference Wednesday til Friday. I have so much to do at work that I'm a bit overwhelmed, but it'll all get done.
Friday, July 07, 2006
Friday Shufflin'
Once again, it's time for the Random Ten. Set those 'pods a-shufflin' and tell the fine folks of the blogosphere what's spinnin'. No skipping tracks or rationalizing.
Here's the juice:
1. Hallelujah (Grace)--Jeff Buckley
2. Perfect (Goldfly)--Guster
3. Three Hits (Rites of Passage)--Indigo Girls
4. We're Okay (Rent: Original Broadway)--Cast
5. Blood and Fire (Indigo Girls)--Indigo Girls
6. Eternal Flame (Lilith Fair)--Susana Hoffs
7. Either Way (Fooling Around)--Fools on the Hill
8. The Night Before (Help)--Beatles
9. Happy Frappy (Parachute)--Guster
10. Rent (Rent: Original Broadway)--Cast
Seen Live: Guster, Indigo Girls, Rent, Fools
Majorly Enjoyed: Hallelujah, Either Way, Happy Frappy, Rent
Minorly Enjoyed: Blood and Fire
Favorite Album: Rites of Passage or Parachute
Favorite Lyric: Struggling to content ourselves with what we think best/That what makes happy of which we seem never full/Is actually more than plenty though it is already possessed
Here's the juice:
1. Hallelujah (Grace)--Jeff Buckley
2. Perfect (Goldfly)--Guster
3. Three Hits (Rites of Passage)--Indigo Girls
4. We're Okay (Rent: Original Broadway)--Cast
5. Blood and Fire (Indigo Girls)--Indigo Girls
6. Eternal Flame (Lilith Fair)--Susana Hoffs
7. Either Way (Fooling Around)--Fools on the Hill
8. The Night Before (Help)--Beatles
9. Happy Frappy (Parachute)--Guster
10. Rent (Rent: Original Broadway)--Cast
Seen Live: Guster, Indigo Girls, Rent, Fools
Majorly Enjoyed: Hallelujah, Either Way, Happy Frappy, Rent
Minorly Enjoyed: Blood and Fire
Favorite Album: Rites of Passage or Parachute
Favorite Lyric: Struggling to content ourselves with what we think best/That what makes happy of which we seem never full/Is actually more than plenty though it is already possessed
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Thursday Thirteen
I can't wait to dive into the prompt on "The Road Not Taken," but first...
1. My parents have had the same phone number since I was 2.
2. I just ordered a copy of the Nields' newest CD and I'm wicked excited.
3. I am number 4 of 24 cousins.
4. I don't think I could ever give up iced tea and coke.
5. But I don't drink coffee.
6. When I swam competitively, I was a backstroker.
7. I took 2 years of Spanish and 3 years of Latin in high school.
8. I really like TV on DVD.
9. I miss coaching even more than I miss teaching.
10. I think I'll look for a rec league to coach in the fall/winter.
11. I have pictures and prints in my office that haven't gotten on the wall in the last 6 months.
12. I love cards...I love hunting for the perfect card and accumulating pretty/funny cards.
13. I'm a little tired of my current living situation.
1. My parents have had the same phone number since I was 2.
2. I just ordered a copy of the Nields' newest CD and I'm wicked excited.
3. I am number 4 of 24 cousins.
4. I don't think I could ever give up iced tea and coke.
5. But I don't drink coffee.
6. When I swam competitively, I was a backstroker.
7. I took 2 years of Spanish and 3 years of Latin in high school.
8. I really like TV on DVD.
9. I miss coaching even more than I miss teaching.
10. I think I'll look for a rec league to coach in the fall/winter.
11. I have pictures and prints in my office that haven't gotten on the wall in the last 6 months.
12. I love cards...I love hunting for the perfect card and accumulating pretty/funny cards.
13. I'm a little tired of my current living situation.
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
summer thoughts
First things first...
Countdown to FRFF: 15 days
Ahhh...summer. The heat, the humidity, the stickiness, the OCEAN. I'm back from my week at the beach and I have a sprinkling of freckles across my nose and cheekbones to prove it. My freckles go into hibernation for the winter, but a few hours in the sun on a June afternoon makes them POP. 3 people have commented on them today, as if they are a new phenomenon. I'm 100% Irish, of course I freckle!
Anyway, I just spent a week here in this house. My cousin Mark graduated from high school and got to choose the family vacation destination and the Outer Banks was his pick. The house was full of my mother's cousins and mine. We played ENDLESS rounds of SlapJack, a few games of Cranium, ate a LOT of seafood (steamed crabs, crabcakes, swordfish, grouper), set off fireworks on the beach, took long walks, hung out in the hot tub, lounged on the beach and played in the ocean. The water was pretty cold and pretty rough (in knee-deep water, Mark's 180 lb. frame was getting knocked on it's ass), but still a delight. There were dolphins jumping on a daily basis. We taught my 10-year old cousin Maya (a mere 53 lbs with not an ounce of fat on her Chinese body) how to boogie board and she LOVED it. She became a total ocean lover in my company. She didn't even mind getting slammed by a few waves...it's not a real day at the ocean til you come up bloody anyway! We made a trip to a Sonic (our first experience with this particular brand of fast-food--we loved it!) and to a Brew-Thru because you can't just drive past the 8 we saw without trying one!
For as long as I can remember, summer has meant the ocean. I have a mother who LOVES the beach. Many summer days and summer weekends were spent at Jones Beach on Long Island with my parents' best friends and their 4 girls. We went to Spring Lake on the Jersey Shore from time to time to spice things up a little bit. Our vacations were to the Outer Banks and later Cape Cod. We spent hours every day on the beach, biked endless miles, wandered the towns of Duck and Chatham, able to return to our favorite shops summer after summer. Sure, there were many days spent at the Ramsey Pool, since it was 5 minutes from home and by the time I was 10, I could ride my bike and/or walk there with my sister...plus, swim-team practice was there at 8 AM every morning all summer long. I learned how to swim in that pool, how to dive in the diving well and played endless hours of games with my best friends there as well. But the ocean meant summer...the smell of sunscreen and saltwater, cokes and cold-cut sandwiches on the beach, playing "chicken" in the waves (you turn your back, link arms and hope for the best--we used to get SLAMMED).
My grandmother (dad's mom) and uncle (dad's brother) also joined us on every summer vacation (to OBX/the Cape) for about 15 years. The huge bonus to this meant that Erin and I could ride with them, and not deal with Ryan during the 5-10 hours of car time involved in driving to said destinations. My grandmother was laid-back and easy-going, loved going to the beach when we were younger, and when she got older, she'd hang in the AC'ed house, watch reruns of Hunter and Golden Girls and Matlock, then ask for updates on the water conditions and beach activities of the day.
When I look ahead 10/15 years or so, I see myself taking my own children for vacations to the same beaches, wandering the same towns, biking the same trails. Vacations weren't about expensive meals (the benefit of renting a house was making our own meals) or extravagant hotels or exotic locations. Vacation was a time to hang out as a family, spent time laughing and playing together, catch the occasional Cape League baseball game and come home relaxed and slightly pink. I have nothing but the happiest of memories about family vacations. In fact, family vacations still exist...occasionally we do something more "unusual" like a tour of the CA coast (which still involved 5 days at the beach) or visiting family in Ireland, but most years, like last summer, it's still a house on the Cape with whatever family members feel like coming.
Now, getting back to the first lines of this entry, summer has another meaning. The 3-4 days that I spend in Hillsdale every summer since 2003 are a summer hilight. Good friends, good food, good music, good times...and this year, it means a mini-BigYellow reunion, so that's even better! I've been introduced to wonderful new music at FR (including the Nields, EFO, Girlyman, Tracy Grammer, DaVinci's Notebook, disappear fear) and I come back every year feeling relaxed, peaceful and giddy for weeks! See lots of y'all there!
Countdown to FRFF: 15 days
Ahhh...summer. The heat, the humidity, the stickiness, the OCEAN. I'm back from my week at the beach and I have a sprinkling of freckles across my nose and cheekbones to prove it. My freckles go into hibernation for the winter, but a few hours in the sun on a June afternoon makes them POP. 3 people have commented on them today, as if they are a new phenomenon. I'm 100% Irish, of course I freckle!
Anyway, I just spent a week here in this house. My cousin Mark graduated from high school and got to choose the family vacation destination and the Outer Banks was his pick. The house was full of my mother's cousins and mine. We played ENDLESS rounds of SlapJack, a few games of Cranium, ate a LOT of seafood (steamed crabs, crabcakes, swordfish, grouper), set off fireworks on the beach, took long walks, hung out in the hot tub, lounged on the beach and played in the ocean. The water was pretty cold and pretty rough (in knee-deep water, Mark's 180 lb. frame was getting knocked on it's ass), but still a delight. There were dolphins jumping on a daily basis. We taught my 10-year old cousin Maya (a mere 53 lbs with not an ounce of fat on her Chinese body) how to boogie board and she LOVED it. She became a total ocean lover in my company. She didn't even mind getting slammed by a few waves...it's not a real day at the ocean til you come up bloody anyway! We made a trip to a Sonic (our first experience with this particular brand of fast-food--we loved it!) and to a Brew-Thru because you can't just drive past the 8 we saw without trying one!
For as long as I can remember, summer has meant the ocean. I have a mother who LOVES the beach. Many summer days and summer weekends were spent at Jones Beach on Long Island with my parents' best friends and their 4 girls. We went to Spring Lake on the Jersey Shore from time to time to spice things up a little bit. Our vacations were to the Outer Banks and later Cape Cod. We spent hours every day on the beach, biked endless miles, wandered the towns of Duck and Chatham, able to return to our favorite shops summer after summer. Sure, there were many days spent at the Ramsey Pool, since it was 5 minutes from home and by the time I was 10, I could ride my bike and/or walk there with my sister...plus, swim-team practice was there at 8 AM every morning all summer long. I learned how to swim in that pool, how to dive in the diving well and played endless hours of games with my best friends there as well. But the ocean meant summer...the smell of sunscreen and saltwater, cokes and cold-cut sandwiches on the beach, playing "chicken" in the waves (you turn your back, link arms and hope for the best--we used to get SLAMMED).
My grandmother (dad's mom) and uncle (dad's brother) also joined us on every summer vacation (to OBX/the Cape) for about 15 years. The huge bonus to this meant that Erin and I could ride with them, and not deal with Ryan during the 5-10 hours of car time involved in driving to said destinations. My grandmother was laid-back and easy-going, loved going to the beach when we were younger, and when she got older, she'd hang in the AC'ed house, watch reruns of Hunter and Golden Girls and Matlock, then ask for updates on the water conditions and beach activities of the day.
When I look ahead 10/15 years or so, I see myself taking my own children for vacations to the same beaches, wandering the same towns, biking the same trails. Vacations weren't about expensive meals (the benefit of renting a house was making our own meals) or extravagant hotels or exotic locations. Vacation was a time to hang out as a family, spent time laughing and playing together, catch the occasional Cape League baseball game and come home relaxed and slightly pink. I have nothing but the happiest of memories about family vacations. In fact, family vacations still exist...occasionally we do something more "unusual" like a tour of the CA coast (which still involved 5 days at the beach) or visiting family in Ireland, but most years, like last summer, it's still a house on the Cape with whatever family members feel like coming.
Now, getting back to the first lines of this entry, summer has another meaning. The 3-4 days that I spend in Hillsdale every summer since 2003 are a summer hilight. Good friends, good food, good music, good times...and this year, it means a mini-BigYellow reunion, so that's even better! I've been introduced to wonderful new music at FR (including the Nields, EFO, Girlyman, Tracy Grammer, DaVinci's Notebook, disappear fear) and I come back every year feeling relaxed, peaceful and giddy for weeks! See lots of y'all there!
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