Saturday, May 31, 2008

Countdown

This is my 396th post on Hodoeporicon. I've written more than 400 posts overall, if you count the 29 posts on Enigmatic Snippets, my old blog and the 23 posts on Museophilia, my professional blog. However, it's still pretty exciting to be this close to 400 posts on this, my most personal & creative of outlets.

Maybe I'll write my 400th post on the night Manny knocks in his 500th homer. ;)

UPDATE:
Haha, I love it! Twenty minutes after I posted this, Manny hit #500! Nice birthday gift to yourself, eh, Manuel? :)

Thursday, May 29, 2008

I want to ride my bicycle

You guys, I have a new bicycle. OK, it's actually a forty-year old bike, but that's part of the appeal. My mum still has her bike from 1968, an old Phillips. It's spent the better part of the last year sitting in what used to be an animal shed behind my grandfather's NH house. This weekend, with her help & permission, I liberated it & brought it down to Portsmouth.

On Monday night, I walked it to the gas station, filled the tires, bought a bag of chips, and rode back home with the chip bag gripped in my teeth. And I have to tell you - I forgot how f-ing joyous riding a bike down the street can be (note that I didn't say the actual f word; this is a family show!). Remember that feeling? Riding down the street, weaving in big loops back & forth, free and easy? I haven't had that feeling since I was 10.

The plan is to ride to work most days & take the bike for fun rides on other days. Will update more later! :)

Monday, May 26, 2008

The Real Title Town

Just two things to say on a night like tonight:

1. Go Sox! (game at 10:10pm)

2. Go Celts! (game time 8:30pm)

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

"Any minute now, my ship is coming in"

I was listening to a song by Colin Hay last night (don't you love it, Jenny?). It's called "Waiting for My Real Life to Begin" & I love the idea behind it. In essence, he's looking for his ship to come in. And, really, aren't we all at some point in our lives?

However, for me, it's complicated. My move to Portsmouth was based on practicalities. I needed a graduate degree to get the jobs I really wanted & this was a good location from which to attend State U.

Somewhere along the line, though, this life I've created here in Portsmouth became the life that I've always wanted. Here, I have good friends, a good job, a good apartment, and a deep sense of place. I feel as though I've finally found somewhere that I never want to leave.

I'm halfway done with my degree now. And while that's exciting, it's also incredibly scary because it means that one year from now, I no longer have an excuse for staying in Portsmouth. :( I feel so invested in my life here - this life that I've constructed, piece by piece, all by myself. I just don't want to give it up.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can find a job next year in a place that's close enough to commute. Because otherwise? I don't know what I'll do. I came to Portsmouth to live because it was cute & convenient. And now I never want to leave. ;)

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Gotta Hand it to the Kids

(Photo courtesy of Boston.com)

As if regaining our first place position in the AL East wasn't enough, Jon Lester pitched a no-hitter last night! I wasn't able to watch the game, unfortunately: I was at a bar with friends in Campus Town & there was just one TV. In the totem pole of sports, a regular season Sox game falls below both the NBA & NHL playoffs, apparently.

They did, however, flip to the end of the game & I looked up to see the score (7-0) and Lester's teammates mobbing him. "Oh, neat!," I said, "he pitched a shut-out." Another friend with a better view of the TV said, "No - a no hitter!!!"

So congratulations, Lester. And can we all just reflect on the wonderful job that our farm kids are doing? Ellsbury's diving catch last night helped keep the Royals hitless. And it's been less than seven months since Buccholz landed his own no-no last September. The future's so bright, we've all gotta wear shades.
:)

Monday, May 19, 2008

The Universe has righted itself

For the moment, at least.

American League
East

W L PCT






Boston 27 19 .587






Tampa Bay 25 19 .568






Baltimore 23 20 .535






Toronto 23 23 .500






New York 20 24 .455






Thursday, May 15, 2008

Itty Bitty World

Oh, Portsmouth. How I love you so, but how very teeny tiny your world is. ;)

Let me explain. I had dinner plans with two of my bosses tonight, then was going to meet up with a couple of friends for drinks afterwards. The ladies & I wandered down to the Poco's deck for dinner, where we ran into the friends I was meeting for drinks later! (Turns out my friend left me a voicemail saying they'd be there, but I totally missed that part somehow)

As we were sitting there, enjoying nachos, sangria, and beer, I noticed two guys on the deck that I know very vaguely - one of the downstairs bartenders at the Brewery & another history grad student at State U., who I just met last night.

OK, so that's just two people, right? Well, four if you count my friends, who I should have known would be there. Around the time we were getting ready to go, however, I looked over at a different part of the deck & noticed that one of my other bosses & one of the guys I used to date had arrived (separately - they don't know each other). Oy.

Funnily, they were sitting at tables next to each other. They were also right by the door, so we had to say hi on the way out. Awkward conversation ensued. Again, Portsmouth, I love you, but you make it hard to enjoy a drink in anonymity. ;)

Sunday, May 11, 2008

The Next Francis Ford Coppola

I'm proud to present . . . Thing 1's directorial debut, filmed this afternoon at Mother's Day lunch. ;)

Friday, May 09, 2008

Almost There

You guys are luckier this time around. I've definitely been bitching about my end-of-spring-semester work less than the end-of-fall-semester stuff. ;)

I'm still stressed, tired, and panicky, but I've got only fifteen pages more to write (by Monday morning) and I will be free as a bird!

Plus, tonight as I was walking to the library, the sunset was breathtaking. The whole western sky was lit up with pink & blue and the undersides of the clouds were a mellow rose. It reminded me that my relaxing, lovely summer is very close.

Then the Boy I Like drove by, saw me, turned around, pulled over, and gave me a ride to the library. So that helped, too. ;)

(Warning: Sunset above is not from this evening in Campus Town. I do not, in fact, go to school in the middle of the ocean. It's just a lovely pic that went well with the post.)

Thursday, May 08, 2008

One for the Photo Album

I should be working on my penultimate paper (and I am), but I had to share this adorable picture of the boys. Aren't they sweet? :)

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Tired

Yawn. I just added up the number of hours of sleep I've gotten over the last four nights. It averages out to 5.75 hours per night. Thus, I need to toddle off to bed early tonight.

This was a Public Service Announcement. Thank you for your time.

Oh, and one more announcement. As of Monday, May 12th, I will be officially done with my first year of graduate school! Yay. :)

Good night, all!

Sunday, May 04, 2008

Oops

Well, like Cynthia, I hailed Moss' Friday night performance. However, as she points out, the poor boy had to have an emergency appendectomy today! :(

He's out of the hospital now, though, and will be resting for the next 10 days. Understandably, at the moment, the team isn't sure when he'll be back. I'm going to send my thoughts his way for a speedy recovery. You should do the same!

Saturday, May 03, 2008

New Boyfriend?

Forgive me, Mike & Jacoby, but after the way he played this week, I think I'm developing a crush on Brandon Moss. ;)

I'll update this post later with a dream that I once had about Moss. In the meantime, just look at that goofy smile!

UPDATE: OK, so one night last fall, I clearly had the Sox on the brain. I drifted off to sleep & found myself in a dream where I was at Fenway with my parents. They were sitting in a fictional "player's parents" section, so I got to meet a lot of the players as they came by to say hi to their folks. (I think this odd idea hearkens back to my track days. My parents were great team parents & spent lots of time in the bleachers with my teammates' parents.)

At any rate, they got to talking to Moss' parents & the next thing my dream self knew, I was dating Brandon Moss! And you know how you wake up & really believe that your dream was true for a minute there? Yeah, I definitely woke up & was convinced I was dating Moss for a couple of minutes. My apologies to his wife! :)

Friday, May 02, 2008

My First "Session"

So I consider myself a beer geek/nerd/whatever. I am the person who brings "good beer" to the party & orders draft or cask ales when everyone else is pounding Buds. I don't, however, post that much about it. If you click on the label for "beer" at the bottom of this post, you'll get maybe four or five posts.

On the other hand, though, I happily consume the daily or weekly posts of a number of beer bloggers. Check out my "beer blogs" links in the sidebar to explore some yourself. And many of them participate in something called The Session. In essence, a different topic is chosen for each month, someone agrees to "host" (i.e. be a repository for links to all the posts), and whoever wants to posts about the topic.

This month, Boak & Bailey are hosting the Session. Here is the question/topic:

"We’d like you to write about the moment when you saw the light. At what point did you realise you were a beer lover/geek/enthusiast? What beer(s) triggered the conversion? Did someone help you along your way, or did you come to it yourself?

In short; how did you get into good beer?

If you can talk about a specific beer, so much the better — it would be good to see if there are any trends."

I never liked beer as a teenager. Even though my dad did some homebrewing, I seemed to always end up drinking warm canned Bud Light out of someone's backpack at a house party. Blech! No wonder I thought I didn't like beer.

Around the time I was 17, that started to change. My family's summer house is on Prince Edward Island, Canada. The drinking age there is 19 & many of my friends were/are two years older than me. So in my 17th summer, we drank a fair amount. ;) I started the summer drinking what I called "chick beer:" Mike's Hard Lemonade, Sublimes, and occasionally wine coolers. However, one night I tried a friend's Schooner. Now, I know Schooner is considered piss water by most Canadian beer drinkers. However, it was not Bud Light & that seemed to make all the difference for me.

Two years later, I started college at a small liberal arts school in New Hampshire. Due to its location & liberal politics, a lot of neo-hippies from Vermont attended my school & I became friends with them. These guys bought kegs of Long Trail Ale. Kegs! Of Long Trail! I realized what I had been missing in my beer - flavor. :) I moved from Long Trail to my next love, Sam Adams White Ale. I sprang for 6-packs of White Ale when it was out & toted them along to drunken college parties.

Two years after that, I spent a semester as a visiting student at the University of Edinburgh. The beer choices were astounding! While I didn't take enough advantage of them (far too much cider on far too many nights), I had caught the bug. I think it was Caledonian 80/- that really did it. Again, I know Callie 80/- isn't real ale or even the most creative or respected of Scottish ales. However, I loved the color, the flavor, and the way the pint glass felt in my hand. ;)

This was a fun post to write. I've told the "warm canned Bud Light" story to others before, explaining my interest in good beer. However, I hadn't really thought about the other components of my evolution from beer hater to quality beer lover. As I sit here with my Shipyard Blue Fin Stout, I'm glad I decided to throw my hand in.

You can also check out more "Session" posts here, here, here, and here!