So, without a doubt I love Portland (as seen here and here), and I most DEFINITELY love(d) St. Lawrence. I just hadn’t drawn this important parallel until one of my good friends said it: “Portland does brunch like no one else.” This is true, there are a number of places in Portland where one can get an excellent brunch (188, Hot Suppa!, Becky’s, Marcy’s and the Front Room to name a few). And, depending on where you choose, the wait can be anything from fifteen minutes (Becky’s) to thirty minutes (Front Room and Hot Suppa!). In case you’re wondering where the parallel is – for any of my readers who have been to St. Lawrence in the far North Country of New York – Dana brunch is a must-do after the “rigors” of the weekend. The wait wasn’t as long, and maybe the dining hall food wasn’t exactly as good as Hot Suppa!’s french toast or applewood bacon, but if you weren’t at brunch to fill in Saturday night’s gap with your friends, then you were likely still passed out in bed. There are a lot more similarities between SLU and Portland – the demographics, the intense activism, and a deep-seeded enjoyment of the outdoors to name a few. But it wasn’t until my friend mentioned a love for brunch that the image clicked for me. Add this to my list of hopes and dreams: may I never live anywhere besides a place with a love of brunch.
Parallels, or one potential reason why I love Portland as much as St. Lawrence
Musical Memory
We all have songs that instantly transport us back to a certain place in time. Songs from high school bring us back to our adolescent years. Songs from college bring us back to those hazy years when we were on top of the world. For me though, for better or for worse, certain songs don’t just transport me to a time period, but rather to a specific moment in time. For example, upon hearing the Goo Goo Dolls “Black Balloon” this morning I could see myself bombing along the Ross Rd. with a coworker on one of our infamous three hour break/Starbucks runs at the tender age of 17. “How to Save a Life” by the Fray reminds me every single blessed time of Calvin (may he rest in peace :( ). “Run” by Snow Patrol instantly brings me back to Cimarron, NM, and driving across Ted Turner’s property. There are a gazillion songs that transport me back in time. What are some of yours? ((Yes I’m asking for feedback :))
Posted in Work
Incredible News
After coming home from an absolutely epic weekend, it was with the knowledge that the Maine State House of Representatives had the opportunity to make history. For the past few months, EqualityMaine and its partners have been lobbying the Senate Judicial Committee hard to pass a marriage equality bill out of committee and on to the floor of the Legislature. With a successful committee hearing last week (from a supporter’s point of view), the Senate acted quickly, voting in favor of the bill and sending it on to the House. Today was the day that the House voted, and lo and behold, they passed the darn thing. For so many reasons passing this bill was, and is, the right thing to do. The boost to the wedding and tourism industries, a new draw for young businesses and people to move to Maine, the ability for many more thousands of Mainers to finally have a permanent, legal union with the partner of their choice, and – not least – the end to one more layer of inequality.
I’ve always held that Maine is a fiercely independent state. It’s a state where the biggest bite of the electoral pie belongs to registered independents. A state where folks are more inclined to say, “I don’t care what you do on your side of the fence, just don’t bring it to my side.” I’m hoping that this continues, and Governor Baldacci does the right thing by signing this bill into law when it lands on his desk. Twenty years down the line, our offspring may not know (or remember) that Maine was the fifth (or sixth depending on the vote in New Hampshire) state in the nation to legalize gay marriage. However, I guarantee that they will know that Maine didn’t support it, should the bill not get signed. It’s past time for the legal protections that shelter some couples to shelter all.
Postscript: Let’s all give a shout-out to Governor Baldacci and the fact that he is now the first Governor in United States history to legalize gay marriage. There’s still a long road ahead as the opposition gathers the requisite number of signatures for a people’s veto, but the fact that we have reached this point at all makes me even more proud to be from the great State of Maine.
Balancing act
The thing I love most about a week like this week isn’t the time off, isn’t the time working, and isn’t even the time I get to spend at my favorite coffee shop, it’s been the time I’ve gotten to spend with friends. I’ve pretty much gotten to see my favoritest of favorites this week – including friends who have recently returned from abroad and friends from the former Job #2. If you ever need to know the best way to keep an even keel – even in times of extreme turmoil – be sure to catch up with your friends. Family is great, and work associates are awesome, but friends are the glue that keep my sanity together.
Posted in Co-Workers, Friends, Portland
People Watching
Sitting on the corner of Exchange Street at lunch time is like watching a live sociological experiment. The cross section of different demographics interacting is just so fascinating. There are the urban, the business casual, the fashion forward, the tourists, the earthy, the multi-cultured, the punks, the skaters, the straight up weird and the straight up regular Joes. It’s incredible to see how people interact (or don’t), and the way that all the different populations seem to meld together to form this awesome city that we call Portland. I wish that every day could be like the first day of summer, with the simpleness of an iced coffee, friends and street musicians.
If you get the opportunity, I strongly recommend getting outside (particularly today!) and just watching as the world meanders by.
Posted in Portland
Another Reason to Love Spring in Maine…Because We Needed Another?
From November until early April (Patriot’s Day to be exact), we Mainers tend to be immersed in shades of grey: Grey clothes, grey landscape, grey, grey, grey. This is part of the reason that when the first croci and daffodils show up we tend to be struck with Spring Fever. When Winter lasts 10 months out of the year (okay, a gross exaggeration) when the first shoots of green appear, it’s no-holds barred “Get Out and Do!!”
And believe you me, I “did” today! I went out to one of my favorite places in Southern Maine, Powell Point Preserve. With suburbia growing around Portland, it’s tough to remember that there are some incredible places to take just a simple walk in the woods: and all within a twenty minute drive. Read More…
Posted in Portland
Perfect days
There aren’t many perfect days, that’s why when one occurs you have to seize it and hold it close to get you through the rough patches. Yesterday was one such perfect day. TV came up from Boston and the bunch of us hit up the Seadogs game. What a change from last year when the first game we went to was forty degrees, rainy, and windy. So from the gorgeous 65 degree, sunny, light breezy Hadlock Field we went back to the house to barbecue. Hooked up the radio and listened in disbelief as the Red Sox came back not once, not twice, but THREE times to beat the Yankees. It was an incredible weekend. And I am definitely going to hold it close to me to remember why I love Portland, Maine, and my friends.
Posted in Portland
La la la
Today marked the beginning of a beautiful friendship…No, no, no, that’s not right…
Today marked the beginning of *dah dah dahhhh* spring. Well, that was actually a couple weeks ago, so that’s not exactly right either.
Let me try again, today I went for my first therapeutic drive of the warm weather season. And let me tell you, it was a doozy. I don’t know how many of you have ever driven out Rt 302 (from Portland to Naples, or vice versa) during the peak summer months, but believe you me, it can be wretched traffic wise. And, although today wasn’t exactly Fourth of July traffic, 302 wasn’t exactly the road less travelled either. Even though I was driving out there at 2pm (still a little bit early to just be skipping out of work despite the warm weather, IMO) there was a pretty good sized stream of cars heading either direction. While driving through Westbrook and Windham aren’t always the most titillating areas, when you hit Naples it really comes home how special a place Maine is.
This is what awaited me when I reached my destination:
Sebago Lake from the Causeway
Not a bad view – and this was taken from my phone. The actual colors and landscape are much more striking in technicolor (versus whatever weird sepia-ish thing is going on here). From here I opted against driving on to Conway and chose instead to saunter on down Rt. 114 towards Gorham. Through forests, along the lake shore and finally over rolling farmlands, today was a distinct reminder of why I love Maine so much. If you ever get a chance, take a loop out through Western Maine. The scenery is fantastic, the people are decent, and, if you can get past the tourists, you’ll remember what brought you to Maine, and why you continue to stay.
For me the most important byproduct of my therapeutic drives are I remember that as claustrophobic as I can feel in Portland from time to time (excellent coffee selection withstanding), a mere 45 minutes away is an immense outdoor playground ready for me to re-discover.
Spring in Portland, Part Deux
There is no longer any doubt about whether it’s spring in Portland or not (flowers, green grass, budding trees and ever present skateboarders and bikers on Middle St mean that it is definitely here), so now I’m going to share with you why I love spring in Portland.
- Iced coffee (sans irony of drinking it in winter)
- Street corner musicians – particularly the good ones
- The macabre hope that today is going to be the day that one of the damn skateboarders is going to hurt themselves and they’ll all stop skating in the middle of the damn road (/rant…just had to be said…)
- People watching from outdoor benches or tables
- Seeing people’s faces again – so long seven layers of winter warmth!
- Green, budding trees and flowers :-)
- The Square outside the Nick from noon onward (catches the afternoon sun splendidly)
- The knowledge that tourism is going to be returning to So. Maine and the winter lull is (hopefully) over
- Walking downtown and NOT feeling like various body parts are going to freeze off
- Strolling downtown instead of the winter stalk/half-jog to get out of the cold
- Did I mention the fact that winter’s over?
Don’t get me wrong, I love winter. There is nothing like the silence of a snowstorm, or the empty streets during a parking ban. That being said, one of the wonderful perks of a Maine winter is the prerogative to kvetch about it and the prerogative to thoroughly embrace the warm weather as it returns to the (occasionally) Arctic north.
Posted in Portland
Isabella’s Sticky Buns
This has been a long time coming, but I’m going to share a review of sorts about my favorite restaurant in Freeport, ME.
According to some of my cohorts in the land of Bean, Isabella’s came under new management in the past couple years. Now, I haven’t been working in Freeport for too long, so I can’t give you a comparison between then and now. However, let me tell you that now Isabella’s is AWESOME. Not just regular awesome, but italicized, all capitals AWESOME. I have yet to be disappointed when I go in there (although there was that time in January when they were closed, that was sad for me). But first things first – the nitty gritty. Read More…
Posted in Restaurant, Reviews
Waiting For That Rocket 