ADK Journal aka why the hell did I buy so much squash?

Silver Lake, NY.  A little piece of heaven and my annual girl getaway for many years.  Most years Pilar or Alli or Molly make some sort of daily journal or art book filled with quotes and moments and every year I go back, flip through them, and lament that I didn't do the same. 

Silver Lake

Thursday:

The boathouse, with girls!

On the ferry.  I text pilar, she says, don't eat - we are waiting for you!  Arrive, eat snacks and wine, chat with Jim, Judy, and Blas.  Pilar's thumb is big from slamming it in a car door!  Blas has the boathouse this year so we stay in the big house.  Boo on Blas.




Friday:
Wake up and get my morning coffee.  Have it on the porch, listen to NPR.  Read my book.  Pilar again tries to fool me into a hike which means climbing a mountain.  I say NOOO.  No.  Swim a lot.   Judy goes to town.  Judy gets into an accident.  Seafoam car DOWN!  Judy ok.  Now there are only grey hatchbacks in the driveway.  Phew!  Seafoam was messing things up.  Pilar and I walk to the bog.  Monica seems to be dying, she is very thin for a cat.Pilar goes to bed at like, 6pm.  I stay up and drink liquor with Blas and Jim.

Reading in the boathouse

Saturday:
Wake up to Penny sitting on my bed staring at me.  Finally get up.  Blas turns down the Healthblats for mountain climb.  Very unlike Blas. Brooks no show; this makes Pilar sad.  I read.  Have coffee on porch.  Pilar and I go on a long walk to Judy's cabin with Penny.  Take a swim off Judy's dock.  Pilar makes awesome BLT sandwiches.  Pilar and Blas Guffaw at me for drinking at 1pm.  Do Yoga with Pilar in the yard.  Swim.  Read.  Judy packs a picnic and we all get in the little motor boat (except Blas who canoes).  We stop at the Healthblats dock (ok I really don't remember their real names...it's my pet name for them for years b/c they are always exercising and everyone calls them that now).  Get to the beach on other end of Lake.  Have baked brie, rum & tonics.  When I look at us we look straight out of the 60's.  We are very cool.  Go back, make dinner and then a bonfire with smores.  Everyone hates my game "Ghost" but they hate Pilar's game more.  Pilar goes to bed at 8pm.  Blas and I stay up and enjoy the fire.

Sunday:

Rainy day!  Penny is scared so we put on her thunder jacket.  Coffee on the porch.  Read.  Drive to Lake Placid and see "The Help."  Pilar tries to teach me how to use Itunes.  I hate you apple.  Blas makes us dinner - fish burritos (everyone is very amendable to my weird eating restrictions).  Jim says, "who would name someone Benny Anders?" and Blas responds, "this coming from a guy who named me Blas Nadal."  I giggle.  Teach everyone Balderdish.  They like this better than the other games.  Judy wins.  Pilar actually stays up.  Amazing.

Monday:
Coffee on the porch.  I pack.  I am sad.  Get some last minute sun and hugs all around.  On the way home I stop at a local farm and buy a bucket of squash.  It was only 3 bucks but now I'm like, wtf did I do that for?  I've been eating squash ever since.

Till next year my happy home!

To Goa I Go!!

Packed my bags, have my tickets and passport, my kindle is all charged and stocked up with several books!  My camera is a ruined heap of metal thanks to me dropping it on the ground so I'm hoping my travel partner can send me some of her pics to share.

My co-workers and friends have all been giving me ample ideas for things to do in Goa (I was content with sitting on the beach but there seems to be a lot more things to do).  At least the list contains mostly food to eat.  That I can do no problem.

Exploring sedentary life

So this week I got stuck in a flash flood, made progress at work, got sick twice and recovered both times, got drunk twice(not at all related to being sick), and let my guard down with good rewards.

My 6th (!!) weekend is upon me and it’s the first time since I arrived that I have absolutely no plans unless I’m surprised by some random out of country person stopping by to visit me. I have a few things I plan to do, like make it down to MegaMall to check it out, locate a Henna place -- b/c I think that Henna is super cool -- and meander to a cool coffee shop I found and spy on the Huka Smoke shop next door to figure out what exactly is going on over there. The first time I wandered by and saw people smoking I did a double take but was unable to understand the full scenario occurring in front of my eyes. Since then I’ve decided to try to try to do some reconnaissance to get to the bottom of it.

I’ll let you know what I find out!

Weekend retrospect

It’s Sunday afternoon here, around 5:30 or 6pm. It’s 8am in Boston. I know this because my sim card still will not work and my phone is stuck on east coast time.

I didn’t do much yesterday, slept a lot and read “Murder on the Orient Express.” It was also raining off and on with little warning and I didn’t want to be stuck outside when a monsoon hit so I moped aorund indoors and rested. I still don’t have internet. I spoke briefly to Eric on Friday who tried to commiserate with me on the lack of it which was sweet but annoying. “Yeah, I feel so cut off and remote” he says to which I rolled my eyes. I’m in F’ing Mumbai, okay? You’re in maine.

Today was the first day I could actually sleep in and I finally rose around 1pm. Nice thing about India is that you don’t need to shower b/c inevitably you smell better than everything around you. So I threw on some clothes and took a walk around my “neighborhood.” I have a cinema right next door to me which is cool, but there were no american movies playing. Even indian new releases were out as mumbai is shut down for swine flu and theatres are not recommended for people to sit and stew in each other’s virus breath. I wandered a bit more down the block, found a mall and some restaurants. Crossed a street (yay!) and then stopped because somewhere between the street and the mall and normal mumbai I ran right into the slums. Not sure how that happened except that the architecture of Mumbai reminds me a lot of boston – it’s an old haphazard type of city and things are just thrown together due to need rather than any forethought. Went back to the mall, found a TGIFriday and grabbed a beer at the bar.

Here is what I have learned so far: going to an american restaurant for a beer costs you the same as if you were in america drinking that beer. KFC commericals should be outlawed b/c they are so sexually explicit they make me blush. Bugs and other little creatures are something I’m just going to have to get used to. And finally, I need some ex-pat friends pronto, I haven’t had a conversation in 3 days.