The First Week “Home”

October 5, 2009

Well, the weather isn’t as good as Colorado, but I guess one shouldn’t be so picky and it builds character. And I’ve had a good week despite it all. Oh and seeing the colors of New England are a real added bonus.
Mom had people over for dinner Monday and Tuesday night so that I could show some pictures and tell some stories. Wednesday I actually got to work for the Krauses (the catering company I’ve worked for since high school).
Thursday though was when the real adventures started. I caught the commuter rail to Boston, met Tom there after just a little bit of difficulty finding each other (at one point he was driving in circles around the Boston Commons, while I stood on the edge cell phone to ear, watching for a car I’d never seen before). Then Tom and I went to meet his brother for dinner (another interesting time trying to navigate through Boston. Never again. I’ll stick to walking and the subway for cities).
Friday, I went to breakfast with Katelyn Dolan at the Big Bean in Newmarket (highly recommended by the way) and then went apple picking with her. That was actually rather exciting because we got to use the long pole with a basket on the end. It was quite the challenge to catch the apples from the top branches. Some apples unfortunately decided to commit suicide, but we couldn’t let our attempts go in vain and the apples to waste, so we sampled them anyway, deciding which apple was best. Critiquing texture, flavor, crispness, etc. I would have loved to make apple pie to reap the benefits of our hard work, but unfortunately there was no time. I did have the chance to meet and catch up with Sarah Nelson, before I went for a run and made a stop at the registrar’s office. In the afternoon, I talked briefly with Mark and then met my old roommate Jill for lunch at Pauly Pockets, to hear of her adventures in Ireland. She also caught me up on how things were with the Outing Club, whicj I’m happy to find out is doing much better than last year-mainly probably because of the new SAFC funding.
After that, Tom and I left for VT to stop by his uncle’s place to see his giant legendary haunted corn maze, and his cousins. I had a blast scaring people, though I ended up sacrificing my voice. I had the chance to with talk and meet with the relatives afterwards.
Late that night we drove down to the Tuft’s cabin in Woodridge?, We ended up taking a slight detour (this seems to become the theme of our weekend), arriving there at 1:30am. We managed to drag ourselves out of bed (which was the back of Tom’s car with the back seat put down-we were far to lazy to set up the tent in the rain) at 5:00, for the big outing club relay race at 6:50. The weather was just a bit wet, windy and cold on Franklin Ridge, but the traverse was fun anyways. It’s crazy when people disappear in the fog just 100 ft in front of you, blank whiteness engulfs the surrounding scenery, and every flew steps the wind pushes your foot sideways, causing a few missteps. I like though despite the weather and wet rocks, I didn’t have any big wipeouts until the very end of the trail. In the cover of the trees and on the easy section of the trail, my back foot sneaks beneath a hidden root when I’m in almost full stride, sending me into almost a full split. Needless to say, my groin was a little sore after that.
No news yet who won, but it was a close one. I think I ended up hiking 16 miles total that day, about 12 miles actually racing (and so I fully enjoyed the donut and ice cream Sunday at the fair the next day). On our drive back from the race, we made a stop at Tom’s mom’s house and then finally made it back to Portsmouth for at least a few hours of sleep. We were up early the next morning then to head to the Berlin fair in CT. This is where the detour theme continues and we arrived maybe 45 minutes later than originally planned because we got on 395 instead of 84. Oops.
After a fun afternoon at the fair, some delicious pizza for dinner, Tom headed home and I crashed in bed. I do hope my remaining weekends can be just as exciting, though I think a little more sleep would be a nice addition.