I’ll be knocking off a bit early today to take my first real vacation since January (trust me, the days off for moving in no way qualified as “vacation”), as I have to pack. I was supposed to do that last night, but after having a few (ok, several) beers with Lara and Larkin, I was rather unmotivated when I got home. So the bad news is that I still have to pack, and get everything here prepped for being away for a week. The good news is that I’m going back to what I still consider my home state, Maine (despite not being born or even raised there).
The current plan calls for me to get the Jet Blue red eye to Boston tonight, arrive at 5 AM and meet a friend of mine for a quick and early breakfast in Boston, hop the Downeaster up to Portland at 9, and be at the O’Grady family compound in Georgetown, ME by 1 or 1:30 in the afternoon. First thing on the agenda when I get up there is trying to figure out how drive my Dad’s new 19 foot boat without destroying a.) our boat, b.) the dock, or c.) someone else’s boat. Then some striper fishing, dinner and the Sox game at the bar at my favorite restaurant, capped off with some hammock time. The next day? Rinse, lather, repeat. Friends of mine from here and the Boston area will begin trickling in on Friday and Saturday for a Saturday evening get together, then I’ll have several days to rest and recover from that event when my folks arrive on Sunday night for a week.
Should be an excellent all around week plus of detox, given that the only connectivity out there (Georgetown being, after all, an island) is dialup so my motivation level for checking in will be poor to quite poor. What am I bringing for entertainment? Books – lots of them. Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Chabon, Life of Pi by Martel (both of which I started on planes but haven’t finished), my usual compliment of John D. MacDonald novels (still my favorite), and yes, the new Harry Potter. I’m ashamed to admit to the latter, not because it’s a kid’s book (I still love cartoons, after all), but because I try to steer clear of anything receiving that much hype – be it books, music or movies. I got hooked on the series, however, while stuck in the Montreal airport due to yet another delayed flight – the only books available were the first in Rowling’s series, or a selection of schlock from seemingly airport-only novelists Clancy, Cornwell, and Koontz. Little did I know that series is like crack; you can’t just read one. You’ll notice as well a distinct lack of business titles in there (unless you count the mini lessons MacDonald regularly imparts), and there’s a good reason for that: I’m on *vacation* 🙂
Anyway, I’m sure I’ll have a lot of boring pictures when I get back, but in the meantime I’ll be more or less unreachable. To see some pictures of the area, you can check out my old boring pictures of Maine here, here, or here. For emergencies in the interim see my colleague, James, but otherwise I’ll look forward to checking in with you guys in a week or so (unless I catch some monster fish and have to post about it).
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