CraigInMaine

At long last...

2009-03-28T14:58:00.000-07:00

So I'd like to start out saying that for some reason I've come to using ellipses (...) frequently, as you can see in the title. Not sure why this is, especially since I consistently use them wrong. The next obvious thing to say is that I haven't written in here for a VERY long time and I'm not sure anyone bothers to check it anymore. My theory behind my lack of diligence with blogging is that life in Maine is now just that- life. I initially started the blog when I came out here to do my internship and everything I did seemed like an adventure and a lot of new stuff was happening. When I moved out here to work, there were again a lot of changes taking place. Now, the things I do are part of life. I am still hiking, snowboarding, and visiting new places when I can but now they are just little exciting pieces of the everyday. I have been explaining this theory to a few people lately and every time I tell it I think "How sad that I no longer see life out here as an adventure worth writing about."

So what has been going on? Quite a bit I suppose since I last wrote and will obviously miss a lot. So major changes is that with the departure of my ACMNP friends to Denver and the recent relocation of my friend Kate to Austin, TX, all of my original network of friends have moved out of Maine. On the bright side I have met a good number of other people. I have moved from Brunswick to Freeport (home of L.L. Beans). This means a longer commute to work, but less of a commute to Young Life events. I am still volunteering with Young Life and continue to find myself amazed that I enjoy working with high schoolers so much. They keep me young and are so excited about life. We have an awesome group of kids here. I have done a lot of snowboarding this winter and was recently able to go with Rob and Julie who were visiting from MN. It is always good to see MN friends. As the weather is getting warmer, I'm earnestly waiting for the snow to melt, for mud season to pass, and to get out hiking again. My friend Eric has moved back to the Boston area from his brief stints in MN and England. I am now living with my friend Peter in a sweet Condo (which is about double the size of my last place). We just put a ping pong table in our garage. I was able to go to Yale with Peter and visit his girlfriend. We went to a hockey which was a lot of fun. I was able to go on the annual BWCA trip again which is always a guaranteed good time.

I still do not have any definite plans for moving out of Maine, which is to the delight of my Maine friends and to the chagrin of those in MN. I still do not foresee myself making this my permanent home, but I guess that is for God to decide. I have a great job here which would be hard to beat anywhere else. I still would love to move out West for a while. At this point, I have decided to stop saying, "I am moving at this time" because I have tried that about three times and have failed to even make a vague plan.

Well, hope you are all doing well. Come visit. Maine is beautiful!

P.S. So after adding these pictures, I've decided it has been a good year full of adventure. Praise God for all the blessings. I never cease to be amazed by what he has created for us! Some of these pictures are taken in New Hampshire on a day hike with my buddy Nate and another with Lee and Erin in the White Mountains. Some are from a couple different hiking trips in Maine. Obviously, one is from Yale and a couple are from the BWCA.

Panama Trip

2008-06-22T10:17:00.000-07:00

So I know it has been a long time since I've posted again, and a lot has happened since my last one. Namely: Panama Trip 2008 (End of April/Early May).

So many of you might be thinking, "Panama? Why would you go to Panama?" I asked myself that question at first as well. It was actually our fall back plan for Belize. BUT let me tell ya, I was not even a bit disappointed with Panama... well Panama City wasn't overly exciting. I learned how out of practice my Spanish skills have once again become. Unlike Peru, no one in Panama City would even humor you to try and speak English or slow down their Spanish. Outside of the city, things were much better.

We (my friend, and former roommate, Matt and I) arrived in Panama City and about 1:30AM and caught a cab to our hostel. After convincing the guard (somehow) that we had reservations (which we did), we found a couple open beds in the dark and bunked for the night. We spent most of the next day trying to figure out what to do in Panama City. In hindsight we should have went to the canal right away but had it planned for later in the trip. We went to a park in the middle of the city. This isn't really a typical city park, this is like "state park" in the middle of the city. So we hiked a mountain... twice actually because I mislead us (oops). Then we took a ride on these crazy tricked out school buses which are actually their city buses. We didn't have a clue where we were going and ended up in a sketchy neighborhood. (I serious about sketchy too... we went through the same neighborhood again on bus on the way back to the airport and heard gun shots.) We decided to change our plans a little and head to Bocas Del Toro early.

So we catch the overnight bus to Bocas thinking we'll be able to sleep for 10 hours on this bus. Well things were going great until shortly after I fell asleep it got really cold (and I had no warm clothes with as I only brought my small backpack on the trip), then water from the AC started dripping on me, THEN we had to make a rest stop and they forced everyone to get off the bus, THEN we had to stop for the drug test. Needless to say, it wasn't quite as restful as we planned. When we finally get to Almirante at ~5:00AM it is still dark and we have no clue where to go and still cannot communicate in Spanish. Luckily for us, we have made some friends by this point who we follow as they are headed to Bocas as well. So Matt and I get separated at this point into two separate truck taxis and I start praying we end up in the same place, which we do. From Almirante we take a water taxi to Bocas. Where we then sit and wait an hour and a half for the hostels to open.

Finally, we get into an awesome hostel. We shower, nap, and then start our vacation. I will be less specific for a little bit. We get a snorkeling trip where we do some snorkeling, see a bunch of dolphins doing cool tricks, hang out at a sweet beach, see poisonous red frogs, and relax in hammocks talking to newly made friends. Honestly, the people we meet on this really were awesome. People from all over the world and country who have traveled a lot. We went out a few times at night and went to a few beaches. We tried surfing at one; saw a ton of starfish at another. Greatest snack ever: Trits! They are like an ice cream/cookie sandwich but way better than anything I've had here in that category. On our last day on the island, we rented a scooter to drive around the island. Yes, I did say "a" scooter as in one. Think Dumb and Dumber and that is pretty much what it looked like. Crazy fun though. The islands were beautiful. I recommend Bocas del Toro to anyone. Note: when snorkeling, make sure to apply lots of sunscreen to your back and triceps. We got REALLY burned. Couldn't sit back against a chair for days. Matt's back looked leprous when he started to peel.

We changed our plans last minute and went to the mountains for our last day. (Skipping the Panama Canal). It was one of our best decisions the whole trip. We took this ridiculously cramped bus up to there. It was packed with the locals. I luckily got the inconvenient but cool spot next to the door. Matt was cramped in the hot and steamy back. The mountains were amazingly gorgeous. Our hostel was really cheap and probably the worst one I've ever stayed in but we didn't have much of a choice. We survived though. The owner was super cool and helped us find the Canopy Zipline Tour we went on. Again- wicked fun. (p.s. if you want to pretend you are from New England use "wicked" frequently as an adjective... for anything). We ended the trip with a red eye flight back home. I'd love to give more detail if you want them. God blessed us with an awesome trip that couldn't have had better weather or run more smoothly. Burgers in picture called "Super Burger of Luxury". I don't even remember everything on it, but it was the best burger I've ever had.

House pics

2008-04-20T19:33:00.000-07:00

I don't know if anyone is reading this still, but I know some people have been curious as to what my place looks like. It is pretty small and anything but luxurious. It works as shelter though I guess. My room is actually leaving soon too so if you know anyone who is looking for a place to live for a few months, let me know. Ha!

One picture is of the kitchen and the other is the living room. I didn't take any pics of my room because it's too messy.

I Like Ecstasy!

2008-04-06T10:25:00.000-07:00

Yep, that's right. I like Ecstasy. Frankly though, I'm a little disappointed in those of you who thought I meant the drug. Although, the Ecstasy I like can give you a little bit of a high or maybe an adrenaline rush. The Ecstasy I'm talking about is actually a run at Sunday River. It isn't a double black diamond or even a single black diamond. It is actually a blue square, but it is just a fun run. I have been spending almost every friday the past few months at Sunday River. Dropping the cash for a season pass was tough, but it has been completely worth it. I have went snowboarding way more because of it. Luckily, my friend Peter is able to go up on Fridays as well. Last weekend, we took a group of Young Life kids up there Friday night and stayed at one of the kid's family's cabin. It was a ridiculously fun time. They had a ping pong table and an air hockey table on the floor that the guys stayed on. Needless to say, we didn't get a whole lot of sleep that night. However, as the warmer weather and decreased snow is great to see along the coast, it is less exciting up in the mountains as snow conditions are suffering. It's to be expected I guess, and in all honesty I totally stoked for the late spring and summer. I can't wait to start hiking and kayaking again. Not that I own a kayak... yet. Bethel, Maine which is near Sunday River now has the world record for the tallest snow man and woman. They broke the record for the tallest snow woman this year. In other snowboarding news, I also hit up Sugarloaf for the first time. It is the other popular mountain here. Maybe some of you remember Bode Miller from the past Winter Olympics- This is the mountain he developed his mad skills on.

For Easter and my birthday, I travelled down to Pennsylvania with my roommate Matt. We went to his hometown of Hollidaysburg which is near Altoona. It is right in the Appalachian Mountains. It was pretty beautiful despite the lack of green yet. We hung out with his family and some of his friends. We went fishing one night which proved to be quite an exciting adventure believe it or not. They didn't have any snow left when we got there, but you better believe they got 3 inches one night while I was there. We celebrated Easter with his immediate family on Saturday then drove Easter day to Philly to eat even more food with his dad's side of the family. I ate SO much food. The following weekend, my friends had a birthday party for me and my friend Jenny. It was small but fun.

In other news, I'm going to Panama at the end of the month. Matt and I had decided a while back it would be fun to go to Belize just because. Unfortunately, by the time I was told I could have work off, ticket prices to Belize had increased. So we looked for another option that was also cheap. So to Panama I go. I can't wait. It is going to be a blast. I better start tuning up my Spanish skills.

Otherwise, I stay busy with Young Life. My friend Sarah (not the Sarah from previous posts) and I lead the game time disguised as Boris and Ivana. It is a riot. My costume includes a pair of shorts that are right on the verge of indescent. Well, they might actually be indescent, but they aren't too the level of scarring. Work is going well. After about two weeks of a horribly slow schedule, I've spent the past two crammed with patients.

I also received good news recently that my time off request was approved in August so I get to return home for the annual BWCA trip with my boys from GR. Unfortunately, we have to wait until August.

Due to popular demand-

2008-03-01T14:17:00.000-08:00

Hello again! Sorry for the delay. I have gotten a few requests to post some blogs again so I thought today would be a good day since it is snowing yet again and I have some time. Once Cody started making comments on Dokken's blog about how big of a blog slacker I was, I figured maybe I should get back in gear with it. I will admit that it is sort of flattering to know that people actually give a crap. Sometime when writting, I think "Is anyone even going to read this thing?" I think I do need to take a lesson from Cody and maybe focus more on short updates rather than feeling I need to write short stories.

So, what have I bee up to since October huh. Wow! Well, mostly I've been settling into life in Maine. I haven't settled too much. I still try to keep exploring and not just settle and forget that I have tons of God's beautiful creation all around me waiting to be appreciated.

For example, last fall during a "Nor'Easter" storm, some friends and I drove down to Portland to check out some popular light houses. Let me tell ya, being along a rocky coast during a storm is AWESOME. It is so powerful. Watching huge waves crashing into large, solid rocks is actually sort of a spiritual thing. Not to mention, you feel sort of young as you are your buddies make get excited and make comments like, "Whoa! Did you see that one? It was huge." Plus, rocky shores also provide a chance for rock jumping, which honestly, who doesn't get a weird enjoyment of jumping from rock to rock. The only down fall was that it was sort of wet and cold. Wind and rain will do that.

I've taken a couple trips to Boston. Once with my friends who had never been there which was fun. So besides the ridiculously rude service (but really good food) we received at an Italian restaurant on the North side, the next best story from that trip that I can remember was the hawk I saw sitting in a tree eating a squirrel in the middle of Boston Commons. So cool! Smart bird huh! There are tons of squirrels around there and not many hawks. Surprised I never saw any on the UofMN campus. The picture was taken on the subway on the way to Harvard. It was Leah's first time on a subway, hence her silly facial expression in the picture. My next trip to Boston was also a great time but on less happy terms. This trip was to hang out with Dokken before he left for England. It was great to catch up before he left, and we had a good time. Unfortunately, we did not represent Minnesota well in the pool games we played. Sorry MN!

L.L. Beans main store is in Freeport, ME (essentially where I spend most of my free time- Freeport that is, not Beans). Anyway, they pretty much have a campus there. The morning of their Grand Opening of their new Hunting and Fishing store, they were giving away free gift certificates ranging from $25-$500. So Sarah, Kim, and I woke up ridiculously early to get in line. Unfortunately, we all thought we'd be able to wait inside the other store, but unfortunately that was not the case so we were slightly under dressed and spent most of the morning huddling together for warmth. ;) Yeh!!! Huddling with two ladies. hahaha. Our friend Peter, did take pity on us late in the morning and brought us some Dunkin' Donuts coffee and doughnuts. This was shortly before the Starbucks people came I believe. Anyway, after all the wait and cold, I only ended up with a $25 gift certificate. Better than nothing, and the guy first in line who was there at 7pm the night before got the same thing. His friend did get $500 though. Sorry, that was sort of a lame story. I'll try to pick it up a little.

As most of you know, I started working with the Young Life ministry out here which means I get to hang out with a bunch of awesome high schoolers. I'm not even joking, it's fun. (As all my teacher friends reading this roll their eyes- ha!) I was able to go to Camp Saranac in upstate NY, just a short distance from Lake Placid. First of all, it was beautiful up there. We were doing a Work Crew Weekend, which means there are NY kids there doing the "camp" thing and our kids are there being Christ-like servants to make their stay a good one. This means our kids were preparing and serving food (restaurant style- essentially), doing dishes and laundry, etc. The poor kids on my crew got to do the outside physical labor. Needless to say, my crew started with three kids and I think ended with one. His name was Kyle. Let me explain mine and Kyle's experience. We had the job of digging out the foundation of a building. So we are underneath a building, digging out all the dirt underneath it. So at the tallest point it was maybe 3 feet. Plus there was the foundation was built around a large boulder and the building built over it. So we have points where we are laying over this rock trying to get all the dirt out. It was pure insanity, but we did get to wear sweet white jump suits. Can't deny that is a little cool. You know how hard it is to display a Christ-like servant attitude when you have dirt in your nose and eyes and your back and shoulders are screaming. Just saying! But we got it done and definitely grew from the experience. Otherwise, I stay busy just trying to be a part of these kids lives, help them grow in their relationship with Jesus, and to reach out to other kids.

Hmmm... what else. Oh yeah! Thanksgiving away from home. So I went with some friends to Connecticut (who would have thought you spelled it that way) to have dinner with a family my buddy was connected to down there. So imagine the most Italian-American family you can and that was this family. They were great. It was a lot of fun and the food... Wow! The first course was lasagna which I was all about since I love that stuff, BUT this lasagna was all homemade even the noodles. It was probably better than the lasagna I actually had in Italy. I think I'm drooling a little just thinking about it. The rest of the food was great too as was all the homemade wine. Turkey was an option, but mostly as a technicality. I think only myself and a couple other people ate any. I had to eat some, I mean, it's Thanksgiving, right.

I was able to make it home twice in Decemeber which was great for seeing family and friends but bad for the bank and getting a little homesick. The first time was be there for two of my best friends getting married. Bryan and Alicia said "I do" on December 9th. It was a great time and a beautiful wedding. They are now living in Iowa trying to not get bored out of their minds. At least I moved someplace fun to visit! (Just kidding Iowa- I'm sure its great there). The second trip was for Christmas. I can't even explain how it felt to be home for Christmas this year. I love my family. I was also able to see some high school peeps which was for far to short of a time though. This trip also encompassed the last time I would see my Grandfather alive. He passed away in February. When I saw him in December, he made the comment "Sometimes I just want to give up." What do you say to that? At least, I know he was ready to go and ok with it. He is not longer suffering and is in a much better place. I was able to travel home to be with my family as well. Perhaps the best thing about a funeral is that it brings family together. For my immediate family, it was the first time in years that we have all been together. My oldest brother and his family flew in from Neveda. It was so good to see them.

What else: I got a season lift pass so I go snowboarding whenever I can (thankfully I have fridays off). New Years was a total gong show which entailed my roommate at one point having to press his bare chest against a cold door window for 5 minutes and Rob dancing a little to close to Peter for everyone's comfort, especially Peter's. You'll have to ask me about that story if you want more details. It was the result of a crazy board game called "Would you rather..." I own it, we'll play it sometime. My friends Nate and Jen had a beautiful baby boy, Christian, on Dec. 9th. He was about 3 months premature and spent a few months in the hospital but is now home and growing like crazy. I went cross-country skiing for the first time last weekend. I pretty much rock at it. ha! or something like that. I went snowshoeing today. I think we've gotten about 100" of snow this winter already. I hate shoveling. My roommate and I have done a little rock climbing. My roommate continues to travel a lot for work, but he is on his last trip now. Then he will be here from mid-March till beginning of May before he moves out, which will be a sad day. Well, I think I covered most of the highlights since my last post. I'm excited to see all of you who are planning trips out here.

Some of you may be wondering about my future plans. Status: Still waiting on God's direction. I'm still considering moving out west (maybe Bozeman, Montana) for a while or trying traveling PT for a while. I'm not sure when I'll leave here yet. Getting involved with a ministry doesn't make it any easier to leave. Please pray for me as I look for God's guidance with that. p.s. Apartment pics are on the way soon.

Miss you all. God bless.

There and Back Again

2007-10-18T15:28:00.000-07:00

No, this is not a tale by Bilbo Baggins, which is too bad because if they made a story of this movie, I'd really make a lot of money. The title will make more sense as you read on.

So has happened since I last wrote. Quite a bit actually. I went white water rafting on the Kennebec River with some friends from work, which was awesome. It is such a rush and, surprisingly, it wasn't that cold. Granted the wet suits probably helped some. We got up to camp very late Friday night and pretty much went straight to bed. The next morning we woke up, ate a small breakfast and started getting ready to head out onto the river, but not after some training first which included a lot of shouting and throwing. We then stacked the rafts onto the van 3 high and headed to the dam. After carrying the raft down the steep steps to the river and jumping in we were we on our way. There were a lot of sweet waves. I was sitting in the front and think that most of the time I was so far off of the water that my paddle was mostly only pushing air. The other great thing about a front seat is that you catch a lot of waves right to the face and chest.

At one point, Buddy's brother had fallen off this raft type thing that he was on himself. So we pulled over to the side of the river, and the next thing I know, Buddy was handing Lee the rope telling him to hold on and a second later he was jumping into the water action hero style. After a little delay, his brother showed up to guide our raft until we were able to meet up with Buddy again. After eating lunch, I was told and shown how to jump into a whirlpool. It is pretty sweet. It sucks you down, spins you around, and then spits you back up down the river. That night after getting into dry clothes we went to check out Moxy Falls and also had a fire which Sarah (my co-worker) lit with a large blow torch. The Moxy Falls are beautiful. On Sunday we went to the Common Ground Fair on our way home. Buddy and I liked to refer to it as "Hippiefest". It is all about organic living for the most part and anything else you can associate with hippies, except Woodstock. When I got home, I was able to wrap up my already fun weekend with a cook out at the Foley's. Mmmmmmm... grilled food.

Now, remember the title of this blog? It is about to make sense:
I was referring to the fact that I was able to take a brief weekend excursion to the motherland (aka Minnesota) the first weekend of October to participate in the celebration of the joining of my friends/classmates Jeff and Carrie in Holy Matrimony- not holy macaroni, but that is what I was saying when referring to how much fun it was see be there and to see so many friends again. Duluth was a little on the cold side, but the wedding and reception where a lot of fun. The dance was quite a blast as well. You should have seen me cutting the proverbial rug (is that the right use of proverbial? what I wanted to get across is that I wasn't actually cutting any rugs. Don't want anyone thinking I was participating in vandalistic acts). I digress. I don't want to brag about my dancing skills, but....

The next day I was able to hang out with Alicia, Bryan, Rob, Julie and Andrew. I did lose both games of Settler's but it was still fun. Watch out if you play with Rob though. He is a self-proclaimed cheater. It was fun to hang out with all of them again. We went to the playground for awhile, and I learned that I can still tolerate a pretty sweet tire swing ride, and I can swing quite well still. More weight equals more momentum though I guess. The flight home was very non-eventful which was nice. I was able to sleep the whole way and enjoy Benny and Joon on the bus ride back to Portland.

Upon return home, I met my new roommate who had moved in the night before. Matt will be joining the ACMNP kids (Sarah, Rob, Kim). So we spent the rest of the weekend hanging out. We tried to do some fishing off of Land's End, but unfortunately didn't catch anything. However, it was a beautiful night and was great just sitting out there. Maybe we would have caught something if we would have remember a flashlight considering how dark it was. Actually, it wouldn't have mattered. We tried fishing again on Wednesday. Again, it was dark. We tried going farther south this time and finding a beech right on the open ocean. We finally got directions to a state park where there was a good area. We parked outside the park, as it was closed, and walked in. We got down to the water and climbed down to the waterline. Granted this was more difficult then it sounds as it required walking down semi-steep slippery rocks. I almost lost it once but managed to maintain standing. I'll admit I was a little nervous that night of rogue waves and of getting marooned as the tide was coming in as we were fishing. Not to mention, the wind eventually got a little cold. Unfortunately, we were again unsuccessful in our endeavors to catch fish and haven't been able to go again since. However, we would have to go quite a ways south by now as they are all migrating.

Last weekend Rob, Matt, and I went hiking in White Mountain National Forest. We hiked Caribou Mountain which is 2828 feet above sea level and about 6.5 miles round trip. The leaves were vibrant, the air was brisk, the sun was bright, and the company intelligent and ridiculously humorous (and a little gassy). We crossed numerous rivers, streams, and creeks. There were a lot of water falls and cascades. The view from the top was pretty stellar as well. You could see the rest of the surrounding mountain range, including Mount Washington (not seen in picture) which is the highest point on the Appalachian trail and I believe East of the Mississippi. It was a sweet hike. On the way home, we found a great little greasy spoon restaurant where I ate a ginormous greasy burger. It was so good. If that wasn't a great enough find, further down the road about an hour or so, we found an ice cream shop that was closing for the winter and giving away 2 for 1 ice creams. Talk about luck. Unfortunately, despite our best to charm the young lady at the window she would not give us a 3 for 1 deal considering our odd predicament. (Catch the pun?) I got Maine Black Bear ice cream. Let me tell ya- that flavor is sinfully good. Honestly, I can't believe they don't have in everywhere.

I wrapped up the weekend with a good Sunday. I went to church, which was followed by a potluck (Mmmmmm... potlucks). Then after doing laundry, the Foley's, Matt, and I went over to Nate and Jen's to watch the Patriot's vs Cowboy's football game. They have the best place for hosting, not only do they have a big TV, big living room, and really comfortable couches, but Nate loves to make delicious foods. I mean, these two have hospitality coming out of their ears. After the Patriots ran over yet another team, we played a rousing game of TriBond. My proudest moment came when I found the connection between the following three words: Danke, Tank, Grazie. Take a minute to see if you can figure it out. Maybe you are really quick, but it took us a minute. The trick is to not pronounce them in English as they are all ways to say "Thank you" in foreign languages.

In general, life here has been great. Work is going well. Having a roommate has been phenomenal. We get along great and have a lot of common interests. In addition, he likes to bake and cook. He has made me really jealous though by telling me about he past jobs. He did the ACMNP ministry 4 years in Yellowstone and spent the past summer working just north of Yellowstone for the National Forest Service maintaining trails and collecting wildlife/plant data. He has some awesome pictures and stories. He started traveling this week though for work, so now it will be like I'm still living alone with a visitor who keeps stuff here. I've been getting to hang out with other friends a lot more as well. I've really been blessed with some amazing friends out here which made returning from my Minnesota trip a lot easier. The bus ride home from the airport had me really questioning my decision to move. I am comforted though, that God wanted me out here. I can see the difference people here are making in my life, and I believe I am fulfilling a need in their lives as well. I'm glad I followed my heart out here rather than staying in Minnesota for the higher pay.

Will I stay in Maine? I'm still not planning on this being very long term, but I can't say when I'll leave or if I'll return to Minnesota when I do. I am actually feeling a strong pull to the west and to the mountains. There is so much out there left for me to explore. Huge beautiful vistas that God has created for us to enjoy. I'd hate to not appreciate as many of them as I can. I imagine someday I'll be back in Minnesota. My family is still there and some of my best and truest friends.

God bless!

A Bit of Minnesota

2007-09-20T19:37:00.000-07:00

So I know it's been a while a since I posted. Unless you blog, you might not realize how long it actually takes to write a post. I suppose if I wrote more often it wouldn't take as long. I digress- I should tell you about my last couple weeks.

A couple weekends ago my friends Josh and Amy Johnson came out to New England for vacation. So Saturday I drove down to Rhode Island to meet them and hang out for the weekend. We met at a Polo match which was pretty cool as none of us had ever been to a match. It is definitely an upper class sport considering the rest of the crowd and the spreads that brought to enjoy during the match. It was interesting to watch nonetheless. At "half-time" between the 3rd and 4th chukka, you can go onto the field and help replace divots. If you ever decide to help make sure to watch out for the horse apples that were left on the field. After watching nearly a full game, I still have no idea what the rules are. I did eat a pretty tasty sausage there though. They really decked the thing out too.

We left at the beginning of the 6th and final chukka and went to check out the mansions of Newport, RI. You should see these places. They are ginormous and to think that most of them are second or vacation homes. We then drove along the oceanview road and finally went downtown to grab a bite to eat. Josh and I each ordered Quahogs (aka clams) and Josh has an Oyster. The waitress thought it was pretty odd that we only ordered one of each, but hey!, they're expensive. We also had some pretty stellar clam chowder. Finally we drove up to Plymouth, MA to spend the night. We woke the next morning to walk down and see Plymouth Rock. Not to burst anyone's bubble, but it isn't overly exciting. The history of it is really the cool part. There is also a replica of the Mayflower, called Mayflower 2, which was built in England and sailed over. It is pretty cool to tour. We then went to the Plymouth Plantation which is similar to a live museum-type thing. For those of you from Northern Minnesota, it is sort of like White Oak Society. I learned a lot about the real story of the first Thanksgiving. After the plantation, I went back to Maine and the Johnson's headed to Vermont, the Green Mountain State.

I was able to see them again later in the week up in Boothbay Harbor which is a beautiful place in Maine. They were staying at a Bed and Breakfast that had one of the most amazing views I've ever seen from an Inn. It was called the Topside Inn if you are ever in New England and looking for a great place. The bathroom in their room was about the same square footage as my whole house. Amy and Josh were also kind of enough to share some of the tasty fudge they had bought earlier that day. You should also join them for breakfast sometime as not only is Josh a really good cook, but they bought a bunch of delicious syrup. We went out to eat again that night. Josh and I split a tasty crab cake appetizer and I finally had the lobster roll I'd been craving.

Last weekend, while the Johnson's were wrapping up their trip in Boston, I headed up to Katahdin for another take at the mountain. Again I made it up to the top, but alas the weather was again crappy so I was not able to get much of a view. I went with a group of people who I didn't really know. Out of the 9 people who also went on the trip, I knew Peter and had met Jenny once before, but I figured it is always good to get to know more people. We rented a bunkhouse so we had hard bunk-bed type "beds" to sleep on, but more importantly we had a fireplace which came in very handy after we got back from hiking all day in the rain on Saturday. Sadly Friday and Sunday were beautiful days, but I didn't hike either of those days. On Saturday, it was raining as soon as we woke up. The hike up went quite smooth. About half of the group, including myself, decided to hike to the top of Hamline Peak rather than Baxter (the tallest that I did last time). I am determined to get up there at some point and check out the sweet view that I'm sure awaits me up there. Nevertheless, I did manage to get a few cool pictures. The leaves are starting to really change here. I'm pretty excited for the fall foliage, but not the soon arriving winter and cold weather that accompanies it. I saw part of a Maine moose. Sadly, it was disappearing into the woods before I got up to a point where I could see it in the middle of the trail. Sunday morning, we took one last small hike to a pond to see if we could catch a glimpse of any more moose. We didn't see any large animals but caught a pretty nice view anyway.

In other news, I've started watching more movies again which was quite rare during PT school. I've played some more tennis. Got paid again (always exciting). Worked a lot. I'm getting used to the 10 hour days. The extra day off is quite nice. Got to know some of my friends out here a little better. All-in-all I've had a pretty good couple of weeks. It's always good when I get to see Minnesota people out here though. I also bought an antenna (bunny ears) for my TV so I now get a few channels. PBS comes in the best. I will hopefully have my DVD player all lined up soon so I can watch some movies here. Not that there is anything wrong with watching them on Sarah's 13 inch TV. That's about it for this posting. Plus I'm close to falling asleep.

Becoming an Adult- Sort of

2007-09-03T17:45:00.000-07:00

Wow! Well it feels like a lot has happened since the last time I wrote, but I think that is more the result of me waiting so long as I haven't been overly busy. Something really pretty exciting did happen a little over a week ago. It was a pretty new experience for me: I got a pay check. Yep, that's right. My first ever paycheck for doing physical therapy. It is a crazy concept getting paid to do it. I'm sure all my classmates and anyone else who has done unpaid internships can relate. I sat at home almost all day anxiously awaiting its arrival (partially because of its significance and partially because I really just needed the money). The mailman, bless his/her heart, decided not to deliver my mail until about 4:00 pm that day so by that time I had already wen to work and made some phone calls. Luckily, people already know me and know that I'm not always that high-strung.

The last weekend of August, Kim, Sarah, and I woke up bright and early to drive about 3.5 hours to Baxter State Park (which we somehow got into for free) to climb Mount Katahdin, the highest point in Maine. We had wanted to climb the Knife's Edge trail but it was too late and the less-than-pleasant ranger ladies at the visitor station in Millinocket (that's not even close to the craziest name upstate) highly advised against climbing that route due to potentially inclement weather conditions. So we picked a different route and headed into the park. As we started hiking up were baffled by how quickly the sweat started. Granted we were walking up a steep incline and at a fast pace (we're pretty much hiking all-stars considering how many people we passed) , but apparently it was almost about the most humid day ever experienced in Maine. At least the worst I'd experienced. Eventually that didn't matter because the higher we got up, the winder it got. The trail changed from a slightly rocky trail through the woods into a huge bolder field where you had to climb over all these giant rocks and ledges. It was awesome, except for the part where I lost my sunglasses, which were totally unnecessary on this trip. Thankfully they were a cheap pair that were on the verge of breaking, but I did buy them in Vegas so they had some memories tied to them. What was even worse is that I could still seem them, but they were out of arm's and leg's (yes, I thought about using my legs and toes) reach. The farther we went up the mountain, the cloudier it became until we were actually right in the cloud, which is pretty wet and still windy. The view at that point became much less impressive as we couldn't see much past 10 yards away. As we neared the top, the wind picked up quite a bit, and we contemplated turning back. However, we were only a mile from the summit and someone told us the wind settled down a little when you got a little higher up. So we pushed on and eventually summitted the highest point in Maine and simultaneously reached the "Terminus of the Appalachian Trail". There we met some people who hiked the Knife's Edge partially on their hands and knees. We also met Max, a Cornell student from Pennsylvania, who is taking a semester off to hike part of the A-Trail. He hiked back down with us, which was probably a good idea for him not to go back down alone due to the slight slipperiness of the rocks. We all made it down safely and then drove home in wet pants.

The weather for Labor Day weekend was nothing short of phenomenal. You seriously could not have asked for nicer weather. It was warm, but not too warm, with a nice breeze. On Saturday, I headed up to the Camden area again to hike Mount Megunticook. I found a trail that sounded fun online so I decided to try it and was not disappointed. It took me to Maiden's Cliff which is a cliff (obviously) that overlooks Lake Megunticook. It is also the site where 12-year-old Elenora French fell to her death on May 7, 1864, while trying to catch her windblown hat- hence the large white cross. The view is spectacular. From their I continued on through thick woods with sporadic views of the lake or the ocean. The summit of Megunticook is less than exciting. All it has is a sign stating the elevation, but as it is still below the tree line, you can't see much from the summit. However, I shortly thereafter arrived at Ocean Lookout, which provides stunning views of Camden village, Penobscot Bay, and Mount Battie (which Greta and I visited my very first ever weekend in Maine). I sat here, enjoyed the view and a snack before heading down the last leg of my hike. The lamest part of the trip was the mile hike back to my car along the road. I had met some rock climbers before I started hiking so I tried to find where they were climbing but was unsuccessful, unfortunately because after talking to them I had an itch to get back into it again. I then took a quick dip in Lake Megunticook before heading home. It was a quick dip too as the wind picked up as soon as I got there, and the water wasn't all that clean. Not to mention the sketchy looking ducks that were hanging along the shore. But man was it refreshing. I think it may be all the "swimming" I have done this summer. I haven't made it into the ocean yet. I might be running out of days to do that. It might have to wait until next year.

The rest of my time has been spent with friends. Tennis has become a common occurrence in my life. Rob, Nate and I have played a lot over the past few weeks. Today, we were able to sucker a fourth person into playing so that we could play doubles or two singles games. Last night, I hosted Texas Hold'em night. I took 3rd place so I didn't win any money or even break even, but it was still fun. Sarah, Rob and I helped Leah celebrate her birthday. I tried to even let her win in Scrabble, but Sarah and Rob weren't as giving that way as I was. I still don't have a TV, well one that gets any channels anyway. This rarely concerns me, but I'm slightly worried about my absolute lack of knowledge of the news. I mean, who knew they were having forest fires in Montana and that a mine caved in Utah (right? Utah?). Farmer's Markets have continued to be a source of pleasure for me. Not only in attending, but also in the crazy good food I am able to make. Mmmmmm... corn-on-the-cob. And who knew Eggplant could be so tasty when not with Parmesan. I for one didn't have a clue, but they look cool enough to entice me. In other news, Pomegranates are in season and my health insurance has kicked in. Now I can go to the dentist before all my teeth rot out.

Finally, I just received some VERY exciting news via e-mail. My friends Josh and Amy are planning a trip to New England and are going to be arriving next weekend. September is going to be awesome! Well, best get to bed so I can be on top of my game tomorrow after a 4 day weekend.

I'm Back!

2007-08-18T12:28:00.001-07:00

Not just to the blog but back to Maine. Due to popular demand, I've decided to return to blogging. Oops, pardon me! (Shout out to Krisanne- "I blogged") And by "popular demand", I mean Elisa wanted me to, BUT maybe someone else will read it too. Now I considered blogging while I was in Minnesota but one avid reader told me I shouldn't worry about it as the blog is titled "CraigInMaine" and so to write while in Minnesota would make the title, well- untruthful. However after my month and a half hiatus back in Minnesota I have returned to Maine with a degree and license to practice physical therapy. The story since last time goes something like this...

After spending the last week or so of my internship in Maine saying good-bye to friends, hurting my foot, and deciding if I wanted to take the job at the clinic I had been working at, I accepted the job Friday afternoon (despite having a much better paying offer in Minneapolis- God works in mysterious ways) and jumped in my car and headed home. The first night I stopped in to visit and stay with the Halgesens near Boston for the night. Then left early the next morning for Detroit where I would stay with my classmate Megan and her husband Kevin. On the way, I stopped at Niagara Falls and was stopped at the US/Canadian border (I knew that Marijuana scented air freshener was a bad idea). The only time I've ever been randomly picked for anything and it wasn't even a prize. Wait! I guess I did win a PlayStation through random chance once. From Detroit, I headed back to the GREAT state of Minnesota. There I stayed at Bryan's apartment for the week while taking a Licensing Exam review class, going to out graduation party, and finally GRADUATING!

Yep, I finally graduated for the 3rd and hopefully, final, time. See there's a picture to prove it. After 7 years of secondary education I finally got my DPT degree. Yep, that's right- Doctor! It was a little bit of a bittersweet event. It was a great culmination of years of hard work which was exciting, but it was sad to part from a great group of people. I could never say enough good things about the UofMN DPT Class of 2007. I have been known to be one of the greatest advocates for officially titling us the greatest class ever which has to do with the fact that I truly believe it. We went through a lot together and had some really great times. I wouldn't trade even a second of it for anything. Even the months of taunting I received after getting prone and supine mixed up in front of the class, or when Jaynie showed most of my not-so-attractive buttocks to the class during a palpation demonstration, or my ever infamous quote "I've been saving them for special guests". For any of you reading this: You guys rock and made the past three years probably the greatest years of my life. I miss you all and hope you are all enjoying your careers.

Enough of the mushy stuff! After graduation, my family and some of my closest friends gathered for a cook-out and some yard games to celebrate my entrance into adulthood- finally! Well almost. Before that happened, I went on a BWCA canoe trip with the Boys (Geisler, Dewey, Petey, and little Dewey) which is anything but adultlike despite most of them being married and fathers at this point. After a brief visit to Millerville, MN to celebrate my grandpa's birthday, I headed down to Minneapolis (perhaps the greatest city in the US of A) and stayed with my extremely good and giving friends, the Engessers. Where Joshy and Mari helped keep me young despite the stresses of trying to study for an exam, prepare to move to a new state, and get quality time in with friends all in a short amount of time. The process to take the exam was a messy one. I ran into several hurdles and delays and waded through a lot of stress and frustration. Elisa was beyond patient hearing me vent about it everyday. Finally I found out one Monday night that I could sign up for the exam. So I called Tuesday morning to schedule it and took it Wednesday morning.

Wednesday afternoon my parents showed up and we loaded their trunk and my car. We left Engessers home at 4:30 and after some mild traffic were on our way in Wisconsin when I heard on the radio that the 35W bridge had collapsed. I hope that no one knew anyone involved. I almost felt like I was abandoning my city. My parents and I made decent time heading out to Maine. We ran into some road construction which slowed us down but we made it here on Friday, August 3rd around 4:30. We got a tour of my new place, which is small but comfortable thanks to the help of my parents. We took a lot of trips to Target, Wal-Mart, and the Home Depot the next several days, but took some time to do some site-seeing as well. We all ate our first whole lobster and on Tuesday morning went deep sea fishing where we caught some blue fish (that is the actual name, I'm not just describing them). We caught 5 between the 3 of us. It was a great time. I can't even express how much I appreciated having my parents out here. That made the move so much easier, gut even better, we got to spend some needed quality time together which hadn't happened for a long time. They even got to meet most of my Maine friends. It was hard to come home from work on Thursday to an empty house.

I've stayed busy here adjusting to work, getting reacquainted with friends, and trying to finish the settling down process. Work has been great but a little slow as they are easing me into it. The schedule is picking up and getting better every day. There is another new PT at the clinic, Lee, which is great because not only is he new to the career as well but he is also a male which this clinic didn't have many of. Before Lee and I showed up, there was only one male OT and no male PTs. We are trying to persuade the supervisors into giving us our own office, the Man Cave, complete with a flat screen TV, mini-fridge, and maybe some cigars. Otherwise, I have spent a lot of time with friends. I've been playing tennis with Rob, which has been nice as it makes me feel right at home- he kicks my butt just like Greta did back in Minneapolis. A bunch of us went to see The Bourne Ultimatum- Awesome! And I read the last Harry Potter book in two days. Yep, I know I'm a nerd, but I'm ok with that. I had my first Friday off after working 4 ten hour days. It was great. You can get so much done on a weekday. Mostly I enjoyed going to the Farmer's Market. If fact, I enjoyed it so much I went to another one today. Mmmmmm... corn-on-the-cob. I think that should be one word- cornonthecob.

Well, that's all for now. It's long enough I think. Feel free to give me a call or write, but remember I'm in Eastern Time now. Come and visit!

Bubbles, Beehives, Beaches

2007-06-09T11:02:00.000-07:00

So as the end of my time here in Maine approaches, I've been trying to get in some last minute must-do's. The most obvious being going to Acadia National Park. Sarah and I headed up after she got off of work and made it to myself. Sarah is my Acadia expert friend as she worked in the park for two years. We got to Bar Harbor about 9:00ish. I dropped Sarah off at her friend's place and then went and got some ice cream. I don't remember the name of the flavor but it was awesome. It had carmel, chocolate, grahm crackers, and other deliciousness in it. I then drove down to the seawall which was beautiful. There was a full moon reflecting off the ocean and rocky shore. Breath-taking really. I went and parked at the picnic area and after walking along the shore for a bit, and I decided I was too lazy to set up my tent and didn't want to pay for two nights of camping. I figured I'd just sleep in my car in the parking lot of the picnic area as Sarah said the Park Rangers wouldn't be patrolling it too heavily yet this time of year. Well, after about an hour and a half of "sleep", I was awoke by bright lights shining in the back of my car. So I sit up and see an officer standing next to the car. So I go to open the door and my car alarm starts going off, so I fumble for my keys and finally manage to shut off the alarm. I open the door and the officer asks, "You know you aren't suppose to be sleeping here?" I go with the ignorant tourist act and reply, "Oh really?!? Ok, I'll move." He replies, "Well, if you're really tired, I don't want you going back out on the road, and I don't really care if you stay here, but the Park Rangers might." I reply, "Ok, thanks." I'm thinking "Sweet!- I'm set." He then states, "I'll stop by every couple hours to check on ya, a lot of heroin addicts come down here." gulp "Thanks." So I decide I should be safe since this nice officer is going to come and check up on me, but then I start having images of me being drug out of my car and pillaged by herion addicts and the cops shows up to find me after I've lost everything. I sort of have an active imagination. Needless to say, I decided I needed to move and luckily remembered that the Rangers manning the camp site would be long gone and I'd be up and gone before they showed up. So I drove across the road and slept peacefully until about 6:00AM.

I then woke up to a cloudy, humid day and went and check out the nearby lighthouse. I was able to watch some lobster boats heading out to check their traps. After that I figured I get started hiking right away. Sarah had provided me a list of sweet hikes I should check out so I take out my not so good maps and try to find where they are. I start driving to where is seems as those the trail heads should be. Eventually, I realize that I'm farther north than the first hike I was planning on doing and after driving around somemore I think, I'm just going to do Acadia mountain since I know where it is. Well, I thought I knew where it was. The parking area is actually on the opposite side of the road from the trailhead, which they don't bother to tell you in anyway so I head down some other trail which ends after about 500 yards. However, I was still determined this was the right trail and figure I know right where the trail must really go and keep walking through the woods. Eventually I run into another campground and realize I'm not even close to the trail. So I walk back to the road and then to my car and decide to go set up my tent for the next night and get a better map.

I then went to the camp site, and battled the misquitos as I put up the tent. I grabbed a good map from the fine Camp site rangers and headed off to try again to do some hiking. So I'm following my much more detailed map to the trailhead of Bernard Mtn only to find that both roads leading to it are closed. Sad that I won't be able to hike that mountain today I headed to Mansell Mtn. The hike started out very humid but I didn't want to take off my long sleeves as the bugs were thick. When I'm finally totally drenched in sweat and sick off bugs and starting to wonder if this was worth it, I turned around and saw an amazing view. I also realized there was now a nice breeze and the bugs were significantly less and things got much better. I made it to the top of Mansell and realized I could easily hike from Mansell to Bernard. Well, that all took a little longer than anticipated and I was 15 minutes late for picking Sarah up in Bar Harbor. She didn't seem to be too upset though.

We then checked out the beach she used to life gaurd at, hiked Beehive and the South Bubble mountains. The Beehive is pretty cool as it has ladder parts to help up the reallys steep parts. We went to Thunder Hole which is a spot on the shore where when the waves crash into the whole in the rocks it sounds like thunder- hence the name. After dropping our bikes off at the top of Cadillac Mountain, we drove down to the bottom so we could hike up it. Cadillac Mtn is the highest land point on the East Coast until you get to Brazil. It still doesn't compare to anything out west in the Rockies, but the thing about east coast hiking is that they don't appear to believe in switchbacks. You just gotta go straight up. Finally, we summitted a little humbled after scoffing at the 1.5 miles hike at the beginning. It was tough. However, then we got to ride out bikes down the mountain. No peddling needed as most of the time I was going so fast that I thought I was going to wear out the brakes before I got to the bottom. My significantly greater mass than Sarah tended to make my bike want to go a lot faster so I also had to be careful not to fly past her or into her.

That night we roasted S'mores over the fire after we ate supper at Poor Boys. I had some delicious stuffed haddock and Sarah had the hugest plate of eggplant parmesean I've ever seen (not to mention her's was a bottomless plate). The rain managed to hold off until I was going to bed and was done by the time Sarah woke me up in the morning. Thankfully, I stayed dry and slept very well. The ground in a tent was much more comfortable than my car. That day we went a visited the people who were working for A Christian Ministry in the National Parks which is who Sarah works for in the main office. We went to the Jordan Pond House for some warm beverages, seafood chowder, and popovers. Luckily, Sarah's connections came in handy and we only paid for the drinks. We ended our Acadia trip with a bike ride down one of the carriage trails and some ice cream.

The rest of my week has been pretty low key really. I saw Shrek the Third on Tuesday. On Wednesday, my CI invited me over for dinner and made me lobster rolls for dinner - Mmmmm. I went kayaking for two hours on Thursday. Just when I was turning around to head back toward my house a seal popped his head out of the water about 100ft from me. I got my camera out and he disappeared. I waited a while with camera in hand and he wasn't to be seen. So I put it away and started back toward home again. After about 10ft he popped his head up again about 60ft from me, so close I could see his whiskers. So I got my camera out again but by this time the kayak was facing the wrong direction and by the time I got turned around he was gone again and didn't come back. It was exciting anyway, even without a picture. Friday I went kayaking again with my CI on the river by her house. We went around a few islands, saw a beaver, an osprey, and some other cool birds.

Here is a view from my house.

It is sad that my time here is almost done. I have a lot more I want to do, and I'll miss the people I've met. However, I do get to go back to Minnesota and see all of you, which will ROCK! And there is a very good chance I will come back out here for a year to work. See you all soon.

Encore

2007-05-31T14:38:00.000-07:00

So I've had quite the stellar time since I last posted. Last Wednesday I had a BBQ at my house, which was a blast despite the weather being the worst day of the week, but good company and food more than made up for the clouds and cold. God miraculously placed a grill in my basement as up to the night before the BBQ I still wasn't sure what we were going to grill on. Everyone got a tour of my gigantic house and were awe struck by the Chinese Wedding bed in the basement. Thursday was we played possibly the most fun game of ultimate Frisbee I've ever played which could potentially be due to the fact that my team dominated Team Libby. There black eye paint didn't intimidate us. There were a lot of stellar plays and even more laughs. The only downfall of the night was getting my first wood tick of the year which latched on. To add a little more excitement to it, he was at the perfect stage where you couldn't tell if he was a harmless wood tick or a disease infested deer tick. Thankfully, it is clearing up and I don't have a bulls-eyed shaped rash. Thank you Jesus! One souvenir I don't want to bring home from Maine is Lyme's Disease.

Friday night was the first night a an AMAZING weekend. The weather was perfect for an outdoor baseball game so that's what we did. Rob, Leah, Sarah, Kim, and I headed down to Portland to watch a Seadogs game. It was a good game and a great crowd and the food/drinks were actually vaguely reasonable. Sarah and I busted out early Saturday morning for Boston where we explored the town for the day walking the Freedom Trail, soaking in the history and eating some tasty food. Yes, Sam Adams Boston Lager does actually taste better in Boston and Canoli's on the north side are quite good. I recommend. In addition to the Freedom Trail we were fortunate enough to be there during Earthfest- a free music festival held in the park next to Charles River. We were able to catch KT Tunstall and Guster. Sweet! We then bailed to hang out in the park before grabbing something to eat. We spent the night in Manchester BTS with Dokken and the Halgesen's who were as hospital as always and gave us quite a surprise when we walked in the door.

Sunday we left early to head to a church in Fairfield, Connecticut to watch Sarah's sister perform in a musical called Encore, which was hilarious. I was really quite impressed. After narrowly missing out on Broadway tickets, we headed down to NYC where I got my first chance at driving in the BIG city and trying to find parking, but with are mad skills (and since it was Sunday) we were able to find free parking for the day. Super Sweet! We did a lot of walking through central park, to St. Patrick's Cathedral, Time's Square, the Chrysler building, the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Plaza, and Mariella's Pizza (good food). That night we stayed in a hostel which was a little sketchy but really cheap. We stayed dorm style with 8 other people in the same room. Which was all fine until, the last two people came in and decided to whisper for about an hour (Sarah managed to sleep through this part). Finally the guy sleeping below them hit the wall to get them to be quite (I don't think he spoke much English) and the rude guy starts talking out loud giving him crap saying hitting the wall isn't normal, what's wrong, etc, etc. Meanwhile Sarah woke up to a loud bang on the wall and some one telling someone else they aren't normal. She was a little freaked. I just wanted them to shut up so I could sleep. Needless to say the couple finally stopped whispering, which unfortunately lead to the him snoring VERY loud.

We woke up early enough Monday to catch the Today Show and luck would have it that Maroon 5 was giving a concert there. So yes that does mean another free concert for us. This one was even better because we were able to get behind the stage and be ridiculously close to the band, not to mention we got on TV. Woohoo- 2 seconds of fame. We met up eventually with Sarah's sister, Nikki, and her friends from Crown College in MN. We hung out for the day experiencing the NYC subway, Chinatown, the Staten Island Ferry, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island (from a distance), and Ground Zero. Ground Zero looks like a construction site as that is essentially what it is, but there is a museum there now which is quite moving. Funny, or sad, how quickly our country became united and how quickly we've forgotten and divided. Finally after a lot more walking and site seeing we headed back to Maine and got back to Freeport about 1:30 AM. I got back to my place and to bed by 2:30 AM and woke up at 5:30AM to get to work. I'm still trying to catch up on sleep.

The rest of the week has been low key. The weather is going down hill again. We had a guys night last night as the girls were painting pots for Kim's birthday. So we got cigars, and hung out on the coast and discussed deep thoughts. Quite scholarly of us, I know. But honestly it was a lot of fun.

This weekend- ACADIA National Park, finally. Hope all is well. Two weeks left here... or a year???

Good Idear: Eat a Bananar in Your Cah

2007-05-21T14:28:00.000-07:00

Tips for talking Mainish:

Beginners--
-Add an -r to words ending in vowels. Some good examples are listed in the title- idear and bananar (yes, I've heard both of those used within the past week).

Slightly more advanced--
- Take the "r" out of words and replace it with an "h". A good example I heard just today was "cah" which translates to car or pahk which means park. (This one is useful in all of New England.)

Let me give you an example of a real life scenario:
Gifted PT Student: So was there a specific incident that lead to your shoulder pain?
Mainer: Yah, it happened when I was working on my cah.
Gifted PT Student: Sorry, what was that?
Mainer: I was working on my cah.
Gifted PT Student: (to himself) Oh! his car
(to Mainer) What exactly happened?
Mainer: Well, I was working on my cah, and I had my ahm extended really fah out, and I was turning the....

That's all the detail I really remember at this point. That might not be the actual conversation but very close. Just remember- if you try these tips, especially both of them together, if people from the MidWest are looking at you weird and having a hard time understanding you, you're probably doing pretty well.

Otherwise, what have I been up to? Hmmm... well Tuesday at guy's night, we watched this Navy Seals training camp video. Holy Crap! They guys are crazy and huge. I wouldn't mess with one of them if you can help it. I can't think of a reason you couldn't avoid it. Well, I guess if you had an unresistable urge to become a tyrant of some small country, then I guess it could become an issue. Anyway, the training is freakin' intense. It starts out with about 89 ridiculously jacked guys and ended with only about 20. Two guys finished "hell week" with broken legs. Yep- a little crazy.

Wednesday was a surprise going away party for my friend Amy. I missed the surprise part unfortunately, but I didn't want to confuse them have and a good surprise wasted on me. It was probably safest for me to be fashionably late. I had a good excuse though. I had to go all the way to Damariscotta for my first day of house sitting. I didn't want to make the poor dog hold his bladder for a whole day right off the bat. I was house/dog sitting from Wednesday to Sunday. The dog's name was Simon (part wiener dog, part Beagle). He was able the easiest dog ever to take care of. He was pretty laid back. He had some attachment issues though and felt the need to follow me around to every room. The home owner provided me with a ton of food which was nice, especially the ice cream and cookies part. Mmmmmm!

Most of the week was really gloomy and rainy. On Saturday, the rain managed to quit long enough for my friend Sarah and I to spend the day outside. We chilled out at Popham Beach and ate some delicious sandwiches prepared by your's truly. (Note: Avocado on a sandwich really adds a tasty twist.) Tide was pretty high when we got there but eventually went out enough to allow some additional beach space. The waves were pretty big and it was awesome watching them splash against the islands. All the waves crashing put a sort of mist into the air and it looked pretty sweet. Some guys were crazy enough to go surfing out there. Yeah- Surfing! Who knew anyone did that in Maine. They obviously had some dry suits on because the water is still COLD. Gotta catch the waves when they're there though I guess. Anyway, we then went over to Seawall Beach and to Morse Mountain. I can't get over the view from Morse Mountain. It's incredible.

Sunday I returned home from house-sitting to see a huge mess all over the house courtesy of my landlord which I had the pleasure of cleaning up.

Well, that's all for today. I'll attach a picture of a part of my house as Elisa has asked several times and since I don't have anything to really add, it is a good time.

"Never Stop Exploring"

2007-05-09T16:21:00.000-07:00

So I know that it has been a long time since my last post. The biggest news of the last two weeks is that the weather has finally gotten nice. In fact, they've been amazing. The last weekend of June was a little rainy so I didn't really do much but relax at home. Saturday, April 28th, I ran a 5k race that was a fund raiser for an organization called Safe Passage which provides schooling for poor children in Gautemala (I believe). I didn't have my best race ever, but I did alright and it was fun. Quite a flat course for New England. There are hills everywhere here. The most exciting part of Sunday was that my landlord had a guy at the house checking the energy efficiency of the house and he had a infrared device so you could see where all the heat was leaving the house. Anyway, he let me play with it a while after he was done. That was pretty sweet. I found that I really do have poor circulation to my fingers and if you look in a mirror with it while wearing classes, your head looks just like a skeleton.

I've also met some people my age to hang out with which has been awesome. I finally have some sort of social outlet, and I don't have to talk to myself as much. The girls have a "girl's night" every Tuesday so me and a couple other guys get together and hang out. So far I've watched The Village, I learned to play chess, and went to see Spiderman 3 (which I recommend). We also had a Cinco de Mayo party with a piñata and everything. Unfortunately, the piñata was broke and candy was spilled without even a swing of a bat. Apparently it was tied up real well. More candy with less effort, can't really complain I guess.

My friend Eric came up from Manchester BTS last weekend and we did some mountain biking at Bradbury Mountain State Park (which I found isn't one of my strongest skills, but I got better) and then went kayaking at my house. Kayaking is much drier and easier on the shoulders if you have a decent paddle. Don't be fooled by the guide books on the view from Bradbury Mountain, you don't really get a good view of the ocean. It was nice nevertheless. On Sunday I went up to Pemaquid Point to see the lighthouse with some friends. It was an amazing area. The rocks around have some unique formations and the lighthouse just adds to the scenery.

The weather continued to be just awesome on Monday so I decided to head out to Morse Mountain/Seawall Beach. Seawall Beach is this great sand beach that is about a 2 mile hike to get to, but there was no one there. It was quite serene. I then booked it up to Morse Mountain to catch the sunset. However, I booked it a little to fast as I got there about 30-45 minutes too early. So obviously I got out of control taking pictures thinking, "I have a digital camera, I can take as many pictures as I want." Which is true, but only as long as the batteries last. As the sun got lower, I got colder (my hands started moving pretty slow) and the worse I had to go to the bathroom. While waiting though I did get inspired by my North Face fleece (which was actually keeping me quite warm). I found that it was printed inside it several places the phrase "Never Stop Exploring." It seemed so profound as I was sitting at this awesome outlook that I found watching a spectacular sunset. I learned another lesson, which I probably already knew- The best and most colorful part of the sunset actually comes after the sun has actually set. So as I'm truckin' down the mountain, I look up and see between the trees one of the most spectacular sunset skies I've ever seen, and I had already left my lookout spot and was out of camera batteries. Oh well, lesson learned. I still have time to get back there.

Tonight I was able to go out kayaking again. It was SUPER SWEET! The water was like glass for the most part and the weather was perfect. I went to a new area I hadn't explored yet and I'm apparently getting at the whole kayaking deal because I got back to my place and still had plenty of high tide left.

Well I guess that's all for now. Remember: "Never Stop Exploring!"

Nor'easter

2007-04-22T15:55:00.000-07:00

After the beautiful day last Saturday, a big storm hit on Sunday. Initially some rain/snow, but it eventually turned to lots of rain and really high winds. I still had power when I left for work on Monday morning. I heard stories of whole villages being without electricity and people who couldn't make to appointments because trees were down across the road. On my way things were looking pretty clear in my direction; a few small branches in the road but nothing major. Then I approached the intersection marking the last 1.5 miles of my trip home. Right at the intersection a huge tree has blown onto the high line wires and is hanging there above the road. I was luckily able to get around that one. I figured already at that point the chances of me having electricity when I got home were not good. Well a little further down the road, I come across yet another tree hanging over the road being held up by high line wires, so as you can imagine the chances of me having power were pretty bleak. As I continued down road, I come across still another tree hanging over the road by high line wires. At this point, I've lost all hope of having any power. So I right away start preparing myself and planning the rest of my night without the wonders of electricity. Well, I walk into my house, and guess what!- yep, no power. (hahaha- did I fool ya?) So yes, that is the second time in about 2 -2.5 weeks that I didn't have power.

I slept that night in a t-shirt, hooded sweat-shirt and a North Face fleece, and pair of pants, two pairs of socks, 4 blankets and a sheet. The next night, still without power, I made a nice fire in the fire place. However, without power, there was no fan to blow the warm air any where. My solution, camp out right in front of it. I then had to wake up every couple hours to put more wood on the fire. It was sort of like spring camping in side. I did stay nice and warm though. I made the most of those days though and managed to stay in a rather positive mood despite it all. The first night I walked through the storm with a rake down my road 1.5 miles to take pictures of the trees and to rake the debris off the road where it was really thick. The second night I could have stayed someplace else that had wood heat but I decided it would be more fun to camp out at my own house.

I did get power back on Wednesday and on Thursday the storm finally ended. This was apparently what they refer to as a Nor'easter. You can look up online what it means metorogically if you really want. Sort of interesting. Locals say it was the worst storm since the ice storm of '93. What I haven't mentioned yet was the large tree that is currently leaning against the shed next to my house (no threat to the house), and the kayaks have all been moved to safety. There was also a large tree that feel next to the driveway ripping up part of the tar, but I'm also not affected by that and I don't use that portion of the driveway. Thankfully on Friday, I actually saw the sun rise from my house. That was a blessing as I was starting to forget what it looked like. I don't know how people do it in the Northwest with all that rain. The weather then turned beautiful.

I ran Friday after work for about 6 miles even though I was planning on 4. I forgot to pay attention to what my turn around point looked like and ran right past it. Oops. I pulled off the 6 miles well anyway, so good for me. That night I went to "the point" which is on the neighbors land (with their permission of course) and watched the sunset. One of the few places you can actually see west for any distance. The neighbor's view from their house alone is amazing as is the house.

Saturday I wanted to go bike around Islesboro Island which you have to take a ferry to get to, but unfortunately I couldn't find a place to rent a bike. No place has started renting yet because it isn't the tourist season. So I had to cross that off my list of things to do that day. I moved down my list to the next activity which was to hike to the top of Bald Rock Mountain. This is in the same park where Greta and I hiked Mount Battie my first weekend. The trail started off nicely, but eventually turned to snow and mud. Once my feet got nice and wet, the hike went pretty fast because I stopped trying to avoid it. It sort of reminded me of my Wind River Valley hiking adventure with Julie, Drew, and Amber minus the part where we kept losing the trail. The view at the top was again phenomenal and well worth the effort. I ate a quick lunch and then hiked/slid back down to my car.

When I got home I decided it was the perfect opportunity to go kayaking for the first time. Don't worry Mom and Dad, I wore a life jacket. Getting into and out of the kayak without falling in proved to be the most challenging part. Well either that or getting all the spiders out of it first (it hasn't been used in a while). There were a lot. After zig-zagging along the shore for about the first 20 minutes, I finally started to get a better handle of it and was able to go straight and go at a good pace. It was a lot of fun. Now if I can figure out how to reduce how much water I get in the kayak, I should be doing fairly well. I was a little wet at the end. Thankfully it was warm out and the water actually felt pretty good. I ended the night by driving to another beach to watch the sunset. It was a small sand beach flanked by rocks or houses. Sadly I had to park illegally here because I didn't know where to get a pass, and I had to trespass a little to get a good view of the sunset. No one is around tourist-wise this time of year so I was ok. Not that it makes what I did alright. (I should obviously not be a role model)

So that was my exciting week. Hope yours was great and full of electricity as needed.

Oh! Krisanne- My snowman is (or was) single, but he's already left town. He's the type of guy who never sticks around too long. You don't want a guy like that. lol Otherwise I would have hooked you up.

The Slopes of Sunday River

2007-04-11T17:23:00.000-07:00

4/14/2007
So on Tuesday I was sitting in the office doing some paper work and strike up a conversation with the PT supervisor about running and skiing. I tell her that I was thinking about going snowboarding this weekend. She tells me that the slopes at Sunday River are great and that it's too bad I can't go during the week because she has a coupon for a free mid-week pass. Jokingly, I say something about my CI having a conference or something Wednesday. She gets really excited and says that I should seriously ask her if it would be ok. I'm thinking "Yeah right! That would go over well- asking for a day off to go snowboarding after I had a day off last week because of snow". So I kind of just forget about and say I have the day filled with observing at the pool and cardiac therapy.

Later on when my CI is also in the office, the PT supervisor actually asks her for me! Pretty much saying it would be a great opportunity for me to get out there and snowboard before the snow is gone (which doesn't seem to be happening any time soon). Well, my CI turns out to be all about it. I even tried to say that maybe I should do this other things and she was insistant on it.

So needless to say, I spent Wednesday snowboarding for about 5 1/2 hours at Sunday River. There was hardly anyone there. The snow was a little wet as it was quite warm, but it still was awesome. It was great to board in the mountains again rather than the great hills of Minnesota. However, I did forget to wear sunscreen and managed to get some pretty nasty burn lines. One patient looked at my on thursday with sincere concern and asked "What happened?" It wasn't good. The lights in the clinic make it look even worse, but I'm peeling now so I should be back to baseline soon.

Nothing else too exciting happened this week. I'm starting to get more and more patients on my case load which is nice. I had to do a TMJ eval, which reinforced how much I don't like working with TMJ problems. Teeth Apart Tounge Up!

The weather today was the warmest and sunniest it has been the whole time I've been here; Which is encouraging since, we had yet another snow storm on Thursday. I had to park down at the horse farm about 1/4 mile from my house to make sure I could get out and actually make it to work. I should have borrowed a horse. But today was beautiful. I went for about a 5 mile run. I then took a drive down to Bailey's Island with juts out into the ocean. It was a cool shoreline and will be even cooler once things turn green. It might also be a nice place to catch a sweet sunset some night. Thankfully I was able to catch a little time out in the nice weather today as there is another storm of some sort planned for tomorrow. Weather here is as messed up here as in Minnesota.

Well, I'm going to try and start working on getting a job. Wish me luck!

"The Way Life Should Be"

2007-04-08T13:53:00.000-07:00

That is the Maine motto. New Hampshire is a little more hard core: "Live free of DIE!" I think they adopted that after they broke free from the ruthless domination of Vermont. At least that is my theory.

Anyway, I managed to survive my first week. It was a little rough at times but I managed. I have managed to get some sleep every night despite being a little spooked every night and every morning. However, I have continually grown more comfortable in the house. I had a full day off work already this week as there was a snow storm on wednesday night which took out my electricity and phone. Luckily my cell phone had enough signal to call into my clinic. I did do my best to get there, but I was only able to make it about two feet out of my garage and considering the length of my driveway, shoveling the whole things wasn't an option. Needless to say, I didn't get plowed out until about 2:30 pm. Apparentely I'm way down at the bottom of the priority list. My getting to work isn't quite as important as the horses get fed right on time or all the retired people being able to get to...ummm... where ever they need to go first thing in the morning. But I'm really not that bitter because it was a great excuse to get a day off right away. My phone eventually came back on around 1:00 pm, but my electricity didn't come back on until 1:30 pm friday. The house was pretty cold friday morning.

So what did I do with my day off? Well, after shoveling my car out enough to get it back in the garage at about 7:00 am, I decided that it was prefect snow for building a snowman. So obviously, I built a snow man. I finished reading a book I've been working on, took a nap, and did some snow-shoeing. I guess I really can't complain about being snowed in. And it was really quite romantic eating a candlelight dinner. I'm sure its VERY romantic with someone else.

The rest of the days of my week consisted of going to work, going to the gym, and then going to Cafe' Cre'me where they have wireless internet. I was there 4/5 days this past week. Nice people, good drinks, free internet- what else could you ask for. I also had a good time grocery shopping. Possibly one of the best times I've ever had grocery shopping. Normally, I hate it, but it was fun doing it someplace new. The seafood sections are much larger. They have a large tank full live lobster even. Although, I really felt bad for them as they are all in the small tank together with their "claws" rubber-banded shut. I think I'm taking empathy to an unnatural level but the thought of being in a small room with a bunch of other people with no use of my hands made me quite naseaus. My friend assures me that they don't have feeling, but these lobsters looked rather uncomfortable.

Easter weekend was rather went well. I returned to Mancherster BTS to hang out with my friend Eric and his East Coast "family". We ate some delicious food, colored some Easter eggs, hand an Easter egg hunt and talked about old cartoon while seeing how much of the opening songs we could remember. Saturday morning I was foolish enough to agree to run 8 miles with my friend Eric who normally runs much faster than me. He slowed down for me some, but took me through about the hilliest part of the town. It was killer. I lot of huge houses to look at though and a good ocean view. For Easter Sunday, we woke up early for a Sunrise Service on the coast. It was an amazing sunrise and there was a free breakfast afterward. Even better, there was enough time to take a quick nap before going to the actualy church service. Eric tried to convince me to give my this nap time for a run, but I wasn't having any of that again this morning. After church, we went to have Easter lunch with some of Eric's friends. So much good food! FYI: Sweet potatoes with pineapple stuff on top- DELICIOUS! Plus I got hooked up with a bunch of candy to take home. It was a pretty good weekend.

Sidenotes: Whoopie Pies- supposedly an amazingly tasty treat, but the one I had so far didn't impress me much. Apparently I didn't have a "good" one. They are essentially two pieces of chocolate cake with a marshallow creme in the middle.
On ramps out here are very short, and people refuse to move to the left lane, even though totally open, to let you in. Tolls from Brunswick, Maine to Manchester BTS is total $3.35. I really missed Greta when I hit the tolls.

I think that is all for an update this week. In the spirit of the holidays: take a minute to realize the sacrifice Christ paid for your life and the amazing significance of it. A good time to reflect on your blessings! "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" God bless!

GO TWINS!!

Maine or Bust

2007-04-02T16:50:00.000-07:00

So I just finished writing a really long and witty first edition to my blog attempt and managed to lose it. Go figure. So this version promises to be shorter and much less amusing.

Greta, my talented travel buddy, and I left Minneapolis at 6:00 AM on Tuesday morning on our journey to Maine. First I will answer your question concerning what Greta's talent is. Well, not only is she the most proficient text messeger I've ever met, but she is apparently really fast at counting change and picking it out of a bag. Just so you know- tolls don't take pennies. Despite Greta's ability to manage change well, I think she still grew a slight hatred for them as she tried to take one out, which she claims was an accident. Anyway, we made it to Cleveland without any problems where we stayed for the night. The next day we made a pit stop at Cooperstown, NY to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame (which I recommend for any baseball fan). We essentially had the place to ourselves. We made it to Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA that night to stay with my friend Eric. Now you may be asking why "by-the-sea", at least I know I asked. Apparently, the original immigrants had very little creativity in coming up names so most of the town names are repeated between states. Henceforth, Manchester, NH is so close to Manchester, MA that the former had to add a qualifier.

Moving on, Greta and I headed up the coast through New Hampshire to Maine. Where we stopped in Portland (Maine's largest city claiming ~60,000 residents). Here we grabbed a bite to eat and searched for a large park, which we never found until the next day. We then made our way up to Freeport which is home to the L.L. Bean Company, which is cool, but still no match for REI in my opinion. However, it is open 24hrs/day and John Travolta is occasionally seen ther late at night (Tour guide books can be so informitive). We didn't see any celebrities unfortunately. Side note: if ever traveling with Greta, do NOT forget to point out every establishment that serves ice cream. It may be important. (LOL- sorry I'm laughing at my own inside joke right now at Greta's expense).

Finally, we made it to my house, which is a large 5 bedroom/5 bathroom home on the water, in the middle of no where that I have all to myself. This place may be farther in the boonies than my parent's house. So it is a little spooky at night. After choosing a room, moving my stuff in, and reviewing every detail with my landlord, Greta and I enjoyed some lobster and then explored the local towns a little. We ended at the Road House bar and grill where they were having open mic night. Greta performed a few numbers and we headed home.

The next morning we went for a 5.5 mile run, met my landlord's whole extended family, and then headed up the coast to Booth Bay and Camden. These towns apparently close down about half the business during the non-tourist season, but still have some cool sites. We hiked up Camden Hill to get a great view of the coastline and met a nice retired couple along the way. Maine may be the except to the East Coasters are jerks stereotype. They seem quite nice to me, minus their short entrance ramps and refusal to move to the open left lane. But I digress, we headed back to Manchester BTS, and Greta flew out at 6:15 AM Saturday from Boston. I spent the rest of the weekend with my friend Eric and his "family" there. Norweigen (I'm not Scandinavian so I don't know how to spell such words) pancakes are very tasty and you can eat about 7-8 before getting full. I was surprised to find Scandinavians this far east, I thought they all lived in MN, WI and the Dakotas. Who knew!?! They are different out here though, they don't have the cool "Fargo" accent at all.

I started my last clinical rotation today. Yes! That's right my LAST clinical rotation. That does indeed mean (barring any major catastrophes) that Craig Dorn will finally be graduating and done with school. Woohoo! After only 7 years and we won't even discuss how much money. My new site seems nice. My clinicial instructor seems a little on the crazy side, but very smart. So I hope to learn a lot.

Anyway, I don't have tv at my house and only dial-up internet. So I'm hoping to have some adventures outside my house. I've already joined a gym and found a great coffee shop with free wireless. Well, sorry this has been long. I decided to try this route to keep everyone posted (and to continue my resistance to joining Facebook - Stay strong Alicia!)

I miss you all. Come visit.