Wednesday, October 13, 2010

October is 1/3rd completed...

...and this is my first post of the month.  Also my first post from Maine in a couple of months, too.  Yep, back east coast for a of couple weeks, until the 26th.  Liam is getting hitched and I wasn't going to buy a ticket home for just a long weekend; I wanted to (somewhat..) get my money's worth.  Landed in Portland around 5pm EST on Monday and haven't looked back since.   Very, very happy to be back for some fall season.

I can already tell it's going to be a challenge working back into an EST sleep schedule.  I didn't go to bed Monday night, choosing to rather muscle up on Tuesday and just try to get back on track Tuesday night.  Instead I dozed off on the couch for about four hours early Tuesday evening and now it's nearing 2:30am and I'm again wide awake.  I wouldn't say it's something I'm especially worried about, but I can tell already it's going to be interesting negotiating sleep into my routine for the next few days.  I found last time around two weeks is just long enough to have a miserable first week back then become fairly accustomed to sleeping at normal times again for the second week so upon return to the island another miserable sleep week will be on the horizon.  So I've got that going for me, which is nice.

I knew I would definitely be coming back now for quite some time so the couple of months on-island between my East Coast trips felt very disjointed because I didn't bother to find a permanent home over this period of August - early October.  Two globe-trotting friends were kind enough to let me get back settled by sleeping on their couch.  Both were traveling home for a week each in early August so my first couple of weeks back I had a bed...then sort of milked their hospitality in exchange for monetary compensation, chores, and a gigantic free dinner Hula Grill provided for my employee of the month prize from the summertime.  I'm not going to lie though, there was a little stretch where things where things were fairly snug as both of them and their respective boyfriends were home on the regular...but that's neither here nor there now.  Once again one roommate left for my final ten days as she traveled cross-country from NY to LA with some friends.

To Anna & Steph: you girls are the best and your generosity will not go unnoticed or unrewarded.

This situation was all due to the fact J.Mac had discussed a possible return to the 808 so I felt it would be better to wait on choosing a long-ish term home until his plans were finalized, with eyes on locking down a  nice place for us post-Liam's wedding.  Quite surprisingly this worked out exactly as planned.  Upon my landing at PWM I had a message waiting that my rental application was approved for a nice three bedroom condo in a posh little spot in the Kahana district of Lahaina.  It's a nice corner unit with an ocean view and should provide a significantly upgraded home base for our shenanigans this time around.  J.Mac lined up another friend to make the trip so we'll be one happy family by early November.  Between lots of hours at the office and viewings and applications my final few days on the island were not spent in the sunshine to a great extent and thus I am pretty unimpressed with my current pasty complexion...but in the long run F you for judging me as I'll get back and be well-bronzed again by the end of October as you New England folks will be frosted and nearing snowfall.  Sorry about your luck.

But for the first time in my life I actually took a bit of initiative and didn't procrastinate and for this I am immensely proud of myself.  Too bad that spark wasn't there for my thesis..

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I'm really joking about the tan and I don't mean to hate about the snow.  I'm going to miss it this year, I can already tell.  I feel almost as though life is too easy out there as I just deal with riding through a rainshower in 80 degree temps every now and again.  The air was crisp exiting the airport terminal and it was a tremendous pleasue to walk around the waterfront for a bit in Portland Moday evening, eat outside at Flatbread and then roll home with the windows down on Rt. 100 rather than the hustle and bustle of I-95.

And as I put my baby out to pasture when I dipped out in July I'll be taking a bit of my island lifestyle around town  as my old two wheeler will be my mode of transportation.  Let's just say it's well below the quality of my Schwinn Cruiser parked on the island.  It's a mountain bike I picked up in middle school saving pennies and Christmas checks which I rode about ten times before I left it for dead in the back of our garage.  The wheels are a hair smaller, the frame is shorter from seat to handles and I just didn't feel like I could get up on it and muscle up hills like you can on a single speed.  I want to go fast, all the time.  I don't care if it's hard.  So many gears make for too many options, so I left it in the high gear and just made it work as best I could.  At least I'll finally get a little bit of return on investment now.  I rode it today down to the bank and the post office and over to Bates and back home again.  It's by no means ideal but it will certainly get the job done in the interim, provided the lightly dry-rotted tires don't crack and pop out on a commute. 

It was nice to see a couple other people on bikes around town today.  It was also nice to ride a bike for more than five minutes without becoming plastered in sweat. 

Another example of why the 207 is the way life should be.  Cheers.

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