Maine N'at

The above pic is of the bench I found in Portland, Maine (with me sitting on it.) I've been lax on posting for the last three days, but I've been moving at a fairly frantic pace. I'll be going through Pittsburgh to celebrate my parent's 40th anniversary on the 24th and have been getting as much of New England as possible into less than a week and a half. So from Newport, it was one day in Providence, a half day in Portland and now a day and a half in Bar Harbor, Maine. Again, it is so crowded here. Who knew people would want to be at the beach in the summertime?

Just to mention a couple of things, and they're going to be in a bulleted list because I just happen to think better in bulleted lists:

• Reading: I just finished reading "High Fidelity" by Nick Hornby, which was a great read. But I'm on to John Steinbeck's "Travels with Charlie" and I'm in love. Where has John Steinbeck been all of my life? Why didn't one of my English teachers force me to read one of his books? Every sentence I read, I wish I had written it. Just an incredibly clever dude. I got to one point in the book where he admits that he is visiting some places so that, when someone asks if he's been somewhere (like Niagara Falls), he can say yes "and be telling the truth for once." I get that. Already there are some places I have gone to just because I don't want to hear disappointment when I'm asked if I have been there and I say no and someone says "You went all that way and you didn't see ?" I wonder if that is what motivates all tourists. Like we really don't want to see anything, we just want to be able to say that we saw it. I'll let you contemplate that for a moment.
  


Lobster: I've been thinking about my dad's friend, Ben, on this trip. Ben loves food. I mean, he loves food. Rumor has it that he plans his days around his meals, he loves it so much. And me, I'm kind of meh on food. I could take it or leave it. Although, I guess I have to take it because of the whole sustenance thing, but I don't go out of my way for anything special. (Ben is probably crying right now reading this.) But I've been thinking about him because I know I won't be able to return home to Pittsburgh without eating a lobster. He would disown me. And then he would talk my dad into disowning me. So I went off of my budget and had one this afternoon:

Before:

After:

I showed that lobster who's boss. And then had blueberry pie. (My apologies, though, to any vegetarians.)

• Acadia National Park: I was going to write about my trip to Acadia National Park and do a walk through on how to ruin a trip to a national park (which I realize I do because I worry so much about random, unimportant things.) But I'll save that for Yellowstone and just share a picture of me contemplating our existence while peering out at the ocean:

What I've listened to in the last three days:

"U" "S" "of" "A" (a four-disc mix by my friend Sara. She found songs about all fifty states, some states having multiple songs. Best. Gift. Ever.)

"Aereo-Plain" by John Hartford

"Neon Bible" by Arcade Fire

"OK Computer" by Radiohead

"On Avery Island" by Neutral Milk Hotel

"East is the Past" by Pete Bush (listened to 3 times in a row; its a must-listen CD)

"Peel Slowly and See (Disc 3)" by Velvet Underground

"Friday Night in San Francisco (Live)" by Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin and Paco De Lucia)

"Elliott Unreleased" (a mix I made of Elliott Smith songs found on www.sweetadeline.net. Side note: if you want to feel your heart melting, listen to his cover of "Jealous Guy".)

Audio book: Discs 2 and 3 of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest