Road Trip

Mark and Gus and I drove fourteen* hours south of here, and there we found spring! We spent a deluxe long weekend with David, Ellen, Stella, Ben, and their good dog Miles. The day we arrived, it was actually hot, hot enough to wipe Gus The Furry out after short walks, hot enough to make us strip off our jackets and scarves and remember what it feels like to sweat a little bit, hot enough for David to present us with the first iced coffee of the year on their sweet front porch. There is a huge pink cherry tree in their back yard, and as you drive along the highway, there are pink and purple and floaty white blossoms mixed in with the pines.

Our host.

I got to spend a whole day with Ben, taking walks and eating snacks and visiting a coffee shop and a comic book store.

Blue skies, grass, trees, Ben.

Ellen and David treated us to live music, too--Sylvan Esso outdoors under a starry sky on a night that felt like August in Maine, and The Mountain Goats--both hometown bands, and great shows.

We ate amazing food, including food truck crêpes outdoors on Easter, tapas with David and Ellen at Glass Half Full before The Mountain Goats, biscuits with eggplant "bacon" and incredible donuts at Rise, more donuts (also incredible) at Monuts, handmade chocolate at Videri, homemade Indian food at Vimala's, and so much more.

We came home knowing it wouldn't actually feel like spring yet, but still it was surreal to drive northeast watching the landscape get increasingly brown and gray, patches of snow start to show through the trees, to get out of the car at a rest area and remember suddenly what it's like to feel freezing (and this happened in Baltimore, not to mention Massachusetts).

I said it on The Book of Faces, and I'll say it again: this is what April 10th, also known as February 69th, looks like in beautiful Portland, Maine.

Ahh, home. I brought a miserable cold/cough home with me, the cough tubercular-sounding enough that Mark dropped me off at the Urgent Care place as soon as we pulled into town yesterday. They did not cure me of this stupid cough (they prescribed some useless medicine, in fact, I say after a sleepless night of croupy coughing), but I did get to have my very first chest X-ray, which didn't reveal anything fishy. And so I cough.







*my lucky number

Crystal Anniversary: I Got You a Unicorn Figurine, Portland

I keep starting to write a blog post and realize it's basically nothing but a list of wintry complaints, so then I delete it because that's just...so bad.

It's our fifteen year anniversary of moving to Portland! This is the longest I've lived anywhere--in one state, not to mention one house. When we moved here, the Bean was only six, and Isaac was going on three. So little. I really do love Portland, and Maine, and have friends I love here, but sometimes I feel like my attachment to this place, this house, is tenuous. Like, we could pick up and move easily. But then I think about all the crap in our basement, and how it probably represents much more heaviness and attachment then I'm letting myself acknowledge. And anyway, for now, we're not going anywhere. Also, while I wouldn't miss my neighborhood much, I would miss this ocean if we left it.

The winter is stealing my words. I need a news/information cleanse, probably, because I keep Googling things like "buy an island" and "remote farmhouse."

Today I was thinking "My get up and go has got up and went." Maybe what I need is a hunk of cheese.


Yep. Basically, my ten gallon hat's a-feeling five gallons flat. And yes, I can eat cheese on my Very Special Diet.

BUT, okay, here we go, almost halfway through February, and I got to spend a January weekend in New York with Ellen visiting Zoë, who's back at school in these United States, luxuriating in a fancy hotel room (thanks to David and Ellen!), drinking good coffee, eating good food, ducking out of the cold into cozy shops and museums and cafes. It was so lovely.

I've seen tons of movies and read many books already in 2014. See sidebar for details! Not listed there yet is my beloved pal Melissa's poetry chapbook, Girl, Giant, which I am savoring like a box of very expensive, beautiful handmade chocolates. It sits by my bed making me blissfully happy. Movie-wise, my goal is to see all the Best Picture nominees and then as many of the others as I can. Mom and I are hosting another intimate* Oscar party in a Boston hotel room with a TEE VEE and CABLE. Come and join us for a sleepover, unless you're afraid our snoring will keep you up all night.






*possibly just me, Mom, and snacks.

Pride Rock

I dreamed that I was worried about Isaac, who had gone off in the cold with Stella and a very small dog. I couldn't find him, Mark, or Ellen in my cell phone contacts, and I couldn't remember their numbers. Meanwhile, the floors of my house were sagging so that you had to walk only where there were supporting beams underneath. I found that there was solid floor in a little hallway, and also a blast of warm air from a radiator (I was freezing in my dream), so I sat there to check my phone again and found I had an email from Zoë. She reported that she had taken a little side trip to somewhere in Africa for a few weeks, staying "at the very top of Pride Rock!" She said that she kind of wished she were at the bottom, though, where "the daffodils are always blooming." She also said, "If Africa were a monkey, I'd only know as much as the very tip of its tail." Isaac's friend Anthony came to the door with an ax, asking if we had any firewood. I told him we didn't, but to "chop up anything you want."

so much depends upon*

home! after a wonderful week in north carolina with the sweeties. here's one sweetie, david and ellen's long-suffering oldest child, miles. i like this picture because he looks so happy and silly. and look at his racoon-ish paws.

the newest sweetie, little ben. i want to call him "small baby," or "this baby," the way zoë's hindi teacher, rita, referred to her own baby. as in, "here, you take this baby."

my stella, who only paused briefly in front of the butterfly house sign before running to the dinosaur exhibit when we visited the fabulous museum of life and science. check out her jazz hands!

i always love to go to caffe driade when i'm in chapel hill -- they have such good coffee (they know exactly how to make an iced americano, for example, with perfect espresso shots), and this time we got to interact with the scary CHAI GUY, who yells at you if you order chai, to make sure you know that they don't serve the kind that comes from a box, and that if that's the kind you want, you're stupid. i identified him because of this interaction:

david: i'd like a latte, please, but not in a bowl.
chai guy: oh, you don't want it in a bowl. well, what do you want it in, then?
david: oh, whatever -- a glass, or a to-go cup.
chai guy: well, i'm not very good at making decisions. so...
david: a glass, i guess.
chai guy: okay. you want a latte. in a glass.

so then, after you've recovered from something like that, you get to sit outside on their beautiful woodsy patio, surrounded by twittering birds, by which i mean actual birds, making bird sounds. all the birds in north carolina are loud and bright.

one night, david and ellen's friend joyce had a party at her house in durham. she has a vast backyard full of perennials and vegetables and chickens. below, joyce and baby oliver. below that, gratuitous photos of various chickens.

you know what i like about where david and ellen live? there are so many places to sit outside while you eat or drink coffee. we did that many times last week, including parker and otis in durham. here are ellen and ben sitting on the porch.

many more photos here. and here's my advice, re: train travel. if you have the extra time, DO IT. just bring good snacks and your dad's ipad. sometimes i had a seat mate, but at other times i had the whole thing to myself. talk about leg room.

so, back to wearing sweaters for a while, but i apparently missed an entire week of rain, so things are green and kind of glowing here, through the fog. and on friday, my baby boy turns fifteen.

*red wheelbarrow, white chickens, et al.

carolina

i'm in north carolina visiting my sweetie stella kate and her new baby brother ben.* rumor has it that i'm missing some cold, gray, damp weather back home in maine, which is nice, but the nicest thing is waking up every morning to this smiling face, hearing her sweet voice say, "IZZIE!" she's a sunshiney girl, for sure. and her baby brother's pretty cute too - below, ben with his superhero mom.

i'm here to "help," although there have been plenty of moments i've drawn a complete blank on all things baby-and-child. what DO you do when both kids are screaming simultaneously (that only happened once)? etc. it was a long time ago that i slung isaac over my shoulder while sitting on the floor playing with zoe and her lion king guys. anyway, i'm doing my best to be helpful, but mostly it's just fun to hang out with these two and their amazing parents.

*i traveled here on a train, which was awesome. dad loaned me his ipad, i packed exactly the right snacks, my seat was incredibly comfortable, the view was lovely, and the hours flew by.

the whole dream of these things

my brand new sweetie was born yesterday -- my nephew benjamin ewan woodbury!

david and ellen make cute babies, don't they? i can't wait to meet ben, and i can't wait to see stella in the role of big sister. in a few weeks, i'm heading down to chapel hill to squeeze this baby and his sister (and his parents)!

the adventures of stella

my almost-one-year-old sweetie, stella kate, came to visit us this weekend. she brought her parents along, too!

stella kept busy while she was here, receiving kisses from minnow;
























taking us out for a delicious dinner at pom's thai taste;
























telling hilarious jokes;
























playing the piano;
























hanging out with her cool cousin boo;
























and strolling on the beach with her adorable mom and dad:

happy birthday, ellen!!!

(hope you don't mind that i stole this picture off your flickr photostream...)