what an absolutely grand summer!

truly. i love teaching, especially in the summer time. i shall give you a few highlights of my most incredible summer ever. first:

women's river trip. i do not bring a camera on this trip because the photos would be too incriminating. it involves about 30 women, canoeing down the st. croix, paddling and drinking the day away. we paddle for a while, pull into a beach or camp, have a dance party, put back in and scuff down river. needless to say, one dumped canoe, a giant bruise, some scars and a good old street dance later... one of the most memorable events of the summer.



i was actually at this concert. it is a small clip, but can you imagine? BEST CONCERT I'VE EVER BEEN TO. elton john is on a different level. elton john was almost spiritual for me, being a pianist and all. (i use the term "pianist" rather lightly.) i cut a rug, really. i'm surprised i didn't wear a hole in the floor where i standing. it was excellent. even though these clips aren't from the concert i attended, i just want to show you another song that i got to hear, LIVE.



even though this was shot over 30 years ago, i swear the live performance was actually better. it was absolutely incredible. "isn't she lovely?" DUDE. did you know he plays all of the harmonica tracks on his albums? all of them.

next. i spent some wonderful time with my best friend and her husband in old town at my boy's place. my boyfriend has moved out of my camp on the lake and closer to the college he'll be attending in the fall. it works out because it is a nice halfway point to the bbprincess and her husband. also, we can walk to a bar which is sadly essential to my summer time fun. hey, can't pull this sweet stuff off during the school year, cut me some slack. also, i played at my friend towel's grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. it was great. i got to catch up with her family and then we spent a few days at the family camp on a beautiful lake. we canoed, kayaked, swam and enjoyed every minute of it.

4th of july in lubec, maine. what a blast!

i am pretty sure if you looked up 4th of july in the dictionary, you would see a picture of me and my pal sarabelle at the bar around 10 or 11 am. similar to this one:



let me just tell you once thing, those margaritas may have been 8 bucks plus tip a pop, but they were delicioso. they brought tequila to a whole new level. it was all organic and just reeeediculously good. the 4th is a three day celebration back home, and i took full advantage and managed to remain on my feet for the entire bash. i tell you what. nothing like a 3rd, 4th and 5th in lubec. i managed to skip the 1st and 2nd, which i think is what may have led to my success. here are a few more pics:



this is me on my way to eastport (where i also cut a rug), with belle and some dude. i think his name is either wendell, dave or sam. poncho works for me.





this is a pic of my cousin, myself and my sister. this doesn't do any of us justice, i don't mind saying that much, but my sister is far more beautiful in person. she's even prettier than me, which damn near kills me to say. but there it is.

next, american wilderness leadership school. it was held in at a local camp here in downeast maine. it was an unexpected learning experience. i got a few college credits as well. it was a week long "school" offered to teachers from all over the country. it taught conservation through hunting, fishing and trapping. i had not thought of hunting as a way of controlling populations of wildlife. i hadn't thought about controlling populations period. when i hunt, i hunt for meat. i didn't know that hunting and what not is a way of controlling the local wildlife pops, which is necessary. anyway. i learned how to tie a fly, cast using a fly rod, how to shoot a shoot a moving target with a 12 gauge (essential for my winter time hunting), learned about trapping, local bogs, we went sailing, ate excellent food, we had a "lounge" in the evening, saw hunting dogs in action, learned to clean the breasts off a bird, learned about invading species, oh the list could go one forever. all about area flora and fauna. oh it was positively one of the very best times i'd ever had downeast. here are some pics:


this is of some petroglyphs found in machiasport. i have lived in downeast maine for the majority of my life, and i never knew these existed. can you even believe it? thousands and thousands of years old. this is of a "birthing woman." she is squatting, and you can see the baby's head coming. obviously, it is thousands of years old, but you can actually see it on the rocks. there were others, deer, elk, moose, dancing women... but this came out best. then, a local passamaquoddy sang some traditional songs and played his drum. the songs were in praise and honor of mother earth, courage and strenght. definitely incredible.








we took a "cruise" on the sylvina beal out of eastport. it was great, although some "people from away" couldn't handle the fog. and i won't lie, it was a little chilly, but i can't help but enjoy the fog occassionally. something about not being able to see three feet in front of you that is scary and reassuring at the same time. whatever. they are from away. i haven't been sailing in years, although i do intend on going on the bbprincess' old man's boat sometime.

we also went to lubec, my favorite place on this earth, and walked the bog trail. it was gorgeous, as usual. also got to show my new friends where my very first boyfriend lived. it was kind of hilarious. what a blast.

i learned how to tie flies! it was so much fun and the men who helped us were so great and so downeast. and casting! i felt like indian jones! it was GREAT. now i must get a fly rod. also, a canoe and kayak (which i've been needing forever), a compound bow and a trappers' license. i think i can wait on the trappers' license but i absolutely need everything else. OH. and me with the sprawled open bird. we saw some hunting dogs in action. they planted some birds and showed us how they trained them. it was amazing to see those dogs fetch up and point, every muscle in their bodies tensed, at a bird they can't even see. NUTS. anyway, we cleaned the birds and ate the meat later. wicked good too, bub.

i love downeast maine.

then i went to china lake last weekend. it is in western maine, and i had never been there before. it was gorgeous. lots of farmland and open fields. i could live there i think, if there was an ocean. what a blast. lots of good times with friends. tappin' it down as always.

and then, next week, Grand Lake Stream Festival and hanging out with the boy's family, of whom i love dearly. kayaking, canoeing and fishing. i'm not quite sure how this summer could get any better. did you know that stevie wonder sang, "sign, seeled and delivered?" have you ever heard "Sir Duke?"

also, i'm going to see the eagles, john fogerty and kt tunstall at the beginning of the month. i've been reading like a fiend. honestly, like 8 or so books. just finished one this morning. i bought the indian jones trilogy on dvd and a michael jackson cd. i am going to attempt to clean the camp today. word.

oh and i do apologize. pute won't do spell check right now, and i'm sure there are many mistakes. oopsies.

berrer, berrer, berrer, AHHHH!

IS THIS NOT HILARIOUS!?!! berrer berrer berrer berrer! AHHHHHHHHH!

and a fiasco ensued...

so i first MUST tell about the most hilarious morning i have ever had in my life. if i do have any readers other than the b.princess and her husband who have already heard this story, i suggest you prepare yourselves.

i generally like to get up at an insanely early hour because i hate to be rushed while getting ready for work. i rarely am able to pull this off, but one tuesday morning last week, i was somehow able to do so. i had some new duds, which i ironed before i put them on (if you can imagine), did my hair (if you can imagine, it even involves a hair dryer, curling iron, mousse and hairspray), had my lunch ready, coffee in my thermos AND my travel mug... i was ready to roll. just so happens that my travel mug doesn't have a cover, that seems to have been lost somewhere between here and school... but anyway. that doesn't seem to make much sense right now, but you will soon learn why this is a very important part of my gut-busting story.

i live on a looong dirt road. i'm not quite sure if the snow has stopped here in downeast, but if it has, i've clearly missed it. now, this dirt road i was talking about... well it seems as though with the snow pack and freezing rain we have been receiving, it has turned into a sheet of ice. i don't want to you to think i am exaggerating, but... i am pretty sure if i got a running start at the head of the road and hurled myself on a flying saucer... i could easily make it down the two miles of frozen tundra known as camp road. now, i live at the end of this road and conveniently at the bottom of a slight hill. when i say "slight," i mean i can make it down in a pair of heels with my giant teacher bag on one shoulder and some random instrument in the other. VERY slight. well, the ice has made it seem like i live on the side of katadin. so i park my truck on top of the hill, in a neighbor's yard, because even the grand toyota can't make it up the "slight" ice-covered hill . and as a side note, it did take me an entire canister of sea salt and morton's iodized table salt, to find this out. thankfully the move didn't require the other canisters of quaker's oats, bread crumbs and panko that i also brought out. anyway, i am constantly getting off subject. my apologies.

back to the new duds, "hair-did" and coffee. i'm heading up the ice-covered mountain, previously known as a "slight hill." i've got my new duds on, a wicked cute black and white checked coat, my gi-normous teacher bag and coffee in hand. (in the lid-less travel mug... one might ask why i need a lid-less travel mug... but if i don't drink coffee on my way into school, sometimes i fall asleep and wake up only when i hit the dirt... kind of dangerous.) so i pretty much know i'm going to fall. i'm not very good on my feet as it is, so i tell myself, "self, if you make it to the truck with this coffee still in hand, you will be doing very well." huh. that simply was not meant to be. it was like a video from the classic bob saget's afhv. down i went in a sea of school papers, new duds, cute hair and... coffee. but, as i said previously, i was on an icey mountain side! as my lid-less coffee mug went down, the coffee flew out and began running down this mountain towards me! it was like i was in one of those dreams where you try to scream out but alas... nothing can be done! the coffee starts gushing down the mountain side towards me... in my new duds... with my professional-looking coat and cute hair! i tried to get up... but the ice wouldn't allow. it was like i was doing the running man! as the coffee came closer and closer, my totally sweet outfit flashed before my eyes... quickly and pulled off a "commando-crawl/roll" and dashed out of the path of a river of coffee. from a lid-less travel mug.

so. i gather my belongings and manage to right myself again. my coffee is gone, but it's okay because i have a thermos in my teacher bag. i am also laughing hysterically and feeling sorry that i live so far out in the woods, i was the only one to witness the utter hilarity that had just occurred. i'm chuckling as i attempt the rest of the venture to my truck, which in a grand total is probably about one hundred feet. i'm thinking to myself, "man, i can't wait to get to school and tell everyone about my wicked fall..." and BAM! down i go again! at least this time i didn't have to escape a river of coffee and i just had to go about 20 feet past my truck to retrieve my keys, which had managed to slide ahead of me as i tossed them in mid-air, and i landed in another heap of new duds, cute hair and teacher bag.

i got into my truck, still laughing. i realize that i have hurt my poor little music teaching finger, put a pretty good dent in the side of my lid-less, metal travel mug and what is that? hmm... that smells like last night's macaroni and tomato sauce... so thoughtfully made by the ogre that lives with me. hmm... i thought i had bagged that up... in a container... WITH A LID... hmm... why oh why self, why am i smelling my lunch? why? because one of my two falls that fateful morning, was hard enough to BREAK the plastic container which held my lunch inside my teacher bag. so i had to get out of the truck for one more visit with the ice and pick the macaroni out of my teacher bag... between my laptop case and my grade book. oh yes. just honky-f*#%&@$*-dory.

and. to finish this fiasco... i must tell you. it wasn't quite 6:30 yet. that is 6:30 in the am.

now, for anyone who knows me... knows that i find physical humor too much to handle. i can laugh at the same old budlight commercial where people walk into the window in attempt to get beer. skateboarders who fall on in mid-stunt on that same old rail, crushing their own nuts... GENIUS. so i was able to laugh and retell my story until the next morning, when i was unable to put on my own coat, much less laugh, without my entire upper body tensing up in indescribable muscle aches. not so hilarious.


on a totally different note. check out sara bareilles. totally talented. fairy tale. because, really, what would one do with seven itty-bitty men? dishes of course! love it! they really do say things you wanna hear. dammit. she is also right with that one.


ps. i'm sorry if there are any spelling or grammatical errors. it seems as though even spell check as something against me.

so my sister "tagged" me with this sort of thing on myspace. figured i'd just repost on here.

10 Weird Things about Me. This shouldn't be difficult.

1. i am a sucker for infomercials. i don't know how many times i would ask my mother to buy something from some stupid infomercial on tv when i was growing up. one time i did luck out though and she bought me the "pickle bus." remember? it had all these educational cards in it... i can't remember what it was about... but the only reason i wanted it was because on the infomercial, the pickle bus delivered it to your house! there was always a pile of kids and neat animals on the bus... i was an only child, i wanted to play with all those weird animals and kids! what a pisser when it came "care of the UPS guy." boo. but i am still a sucker for those infomercials. towel and i got the "perfect pasta pot" set, with the lids that had the holes so you could cook AND strain in ONE POT. GENIUS! i wanted, and still want... a dehydrator and the magic bullet! i mean, you can make frozen drinks AND quesadillas! and your own beef jerky in the dehydrator! mmm... beef. (i have tried spelling quesadilla a dozen different ways... it's still wrong, my apologies...) not to mention, proactiv, a trillion knives for 100 bucks AND bare minerals. i want them all! you can cut through a steel hammer with some of those knives!

2. i cried HARD when my mom cleaned the tub with mr. clean and the bald man with the white t shirt and one gold earring didn't appear in the bottom of my tub. i blatted forever. sad sad sad. those commercials are tricky for a young kid!

3. the sound of other people eating makes me nauseous. i can handle most people eating, as long as they don't smack. you know what i mean? that sucking, smacking sound... makes me want to puke. probably a side effect of my father making me eat with my mouth shut from the minute i started eating anything other than breast milk and baby food.

4. i love the fact that i'm from downeast maine... and even more so the fact that i'm from lubec. if i were at the top of the empire state building and had the chance to scream out one thing to the entire world, i'd belt out, "i'm from lubec, the best place in the world. ay yi yi yiiiii!" (and probably a little, "i love you mum.") i love downeast maine.

5. as soon as i was able to read a book by myself, i read the strangest, sickest books. i had an obsession with the holocaust from a very early age. i read every book in the library in elementary school, as well as in high school, about the holocaust. then i sent away to other libraries for more books. i was a very weird kid.

6. i swear i was born a decade or two too late. i've always like "old" or classic music. i've always been two steps behind any new fad or style, and i truly prefer to hang out and party with the older crowd. i don't know why... probably because i was attached at my mother's hip for the first 15 years of my life and hung around her friends. also i'm from lubec, and if you don't hang around the older crowd, you're going to be hanging out by your lonesome. the sad but devastatingly true fact is, i'm starting to get closer and closer to "older crowd" status myself. bleck.

7. i have a canadian accent. i've pretty near got into some fist fights denying it... but i've come to accept it now. now, yes i do live close to the border and half of my family is canadian... but i never lived over there. i think i acquired this accent through a revolt against the "downeast" accent. i began over pronouncing my r's... and now i'm damn near a full fledged canadian accent. it's not a bad thing i guess... but people have poked fun at me a time or two.

8. i actually had to delete this one and re-do it, because i thought of something even more weird about myself. i had, (and still do a little) this overwhelming need to live in an old trailer. like one of the old ones, where everything is within arms reach. for instance, if you were in the living room and wanted a coke from the fridge in the kitchen, just reach out and grab one. and the one skinny hallway that goes down the side to the two bedrooms and bathroom... it was so narrow that if you ever tripped, you would smash up against the wall before you hit the ground! what if you were at the small kitchen table at dinner time... and you forgot the butter? lean back in your chair and grab it from the fridge! i mean, clearly trailers were made for convenience!!! good old sara belle and i looked at a trailer once, but it wasn't really fit to live in. what a bummer! oh. and it NEEDS the tires on the roof and cinder blocks for front steps. i'm not moving in without cinder blocks and tires. oh and ps. in what other living situation would you need a skirt?!! plywood skirting is the best for trailers.

9. my handwriting is schizophrenic. one day it is gorgeous, just lovely. and the next day it looks like i just entered the first grade. hopefully that doesn't go to the rest of my being. i heard schizophrenia starts in your 20's, and everybody's got a little crazy in 'em, but i'm probably one step ahead of the rest in that department.

10. i LOVE animals. (with the exception of the squirrel that lives in my ceiling... i shoot squirrels with my BB gun... ) but i do love animals. i considered dropping out of music school and going into veterinary science. i love love LOVE elephants, giraffes, humpbacks and dogs. i'm going to have a pack of dogs of various sizes, like cesar milan (the dog whisperer)... and have an addition built onto whatever i'm living in for them. with doggy doors on all of their pens so they can go in and out as they please... and i'm going to have to drive a station wagon so i can take them with me wherever i go, but that is something i'm willing to do. drive a station wagon full of dogs... NOT kids. oh and ps. i named my old dog cindy after cyndy lauper. i was a HUGE fan, when i was about 5 or 6. loved it!

"i'm gonna do a lil' something called jambalaya"

so this may be the absolutely most adorable video i have ever seen. soooo cute. makes me remember why i love to teach.

i guess i'll just have to start over.

goodness. i've been trying to post for days and this rig wouldn't let me type into this box. humph. so i went to "settings" and changed some random things that i still am confused about and bam! la ti da.

i started over because the blueberry princess doesn't have the oh-so-classy myspace and sometimes when i blog, i tell myself, "man, she would find this hilarious!" and she is probably the only one... so here i am. and i wouldn't pay much attention if i were you.

i don't use capitals. i don't know why. i do when it truly counts, like in correspondance with administrators or other professionals. but this isn't professional and neither am i. see, should i use neither or nor there? i try to use correct grammar, but apparently even i make the occassional mistake.

well, i was feeling the blog thing about ten minutes ago, but now i change my mind.