(Until we resume our regularly scheduled programming around here.) It’s 9pm, and I have an early date with my pillow. It’s going to be epic.
But wait! I won’t leave you empty handed – here’s something related to tide you over: one great gem from the New York Times archives. Not to be read if you are squeamish. There’s more on the topic (hint… gefilte fish and tapeworm) here. Science!
Staring up at that sign – pretty much the only time hearts swell for a petroleum company. Just thinking about our World Series win last week. Still feeling warm and fuzzy.
I like the stillness of this Thursday night. No different from most other Thursday nights, except:
I went for a manicure. My nails are pink, shiny, and girly. I’m not really a pink, shiny, or girly person, but I’m all over this shimmery business today.
I picked up my race packet for my half marathon on Sunday. This is my first half marathon. Not counting last weekend when I ran a 10 mile race, and then ran an extra 3.1 because I had badly coordinated with my ride home. And also, I got locked out of the house, so I paced the block several times to keep warm until I realized that I could break in and solve my own problem.
A stranger casually mentioned to me how he had found a Jawbone (step-tracking bracelet) on the ground at an establishment and taken it home without bothering to turn it in. Made me cringe. He then proceeded to animatedly tell me how much he loved the device. It’s still stealing, dude. (But yes, I love mine too.) Also made me curious as to whether or not these self trackers can be remotely shut off.
I spent a few hours looking through old photographs. So many of them made me smile. Old friends, summer meals, weekend trips, dogs now in heaven (I’m more sold on dog heaven than I am people heaven. Something about that excessive tail wagging that makes me think that if there is an afterlife, it’s inhabited by puppies.)
I turned down a sample at Trader Joe’s. Because technically I was there yesterday and they had the same sample, and thus it felt like I’d be taking seconds. And even though they let you do it, taking seconds at Trader Joe’s seems morally wrong.
I wasted several brain-stabbing minutes reading the interview on Eater with the asshat editor at Time – yes, that’d be the editor who put together the “Gods of Cooking” piece and neglected to include any women…Which, in itself, I mean, whatever. I grumbled. The interview though… yeah, wow, champion of asshattery. Here’s the link, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.
And now, to bed with a book!
Here’s a photo essay of sorts – I’ve finally managed to organize and edit my photos from our trip to Mount Washington a few weeks back. Devon and his coworkers were on a random work assignment, and I was happy enough to tag along. It was the last weekend to drive up the Mount Washington Auto Road before it closed for the season, and even though I like to think of myself as an active and outdoorsy person, driving up Mount Washington seemed a lot more appealing than hiking it this time around. (To get to the summit you can hike, drive, or take the cog railway. For some reason, the idea of a train climbing up a mountain is even more terrifying that us driving it.) So what, exactly, does driving up the auto road entail? For about $27, and an additional $8 per extra passenger, you get admission to the auto road, a compact disc audio tour, and the infamous “This Car Climbed Mt. Washington” sticker. The drive to the summit is a twenty to thirty minute loop around the mountain. The road is narrow, there are no guard rails, and if you are nervous, I highly recommend that you don’t read Yelp reviews of the road before summiting. Of course I did, so I’ll share my favorite two here:
“Unless you like scuba diving to see great white sharks or bull fighting or have nerves of steel, trust me this is to be avoided at all costs!! This is a white knuckle ride to put it mildly!!”
“I’m not afraid of heights, but I am afraid of plummeting 7 miles to the earth below.”
Despite the warnings, the drive is actually quite safe. Best explained in the auto road website FAQ: “Be honest, how many people have died riding on the Auto Road? Over 150 years, there have been three fatalities on the Auto Road. In 1880, a stage overturned (in the hands of a drunk driver), and a passenger was killed. In 1984, a vehicle experienced brake failure about a mile up the road and was unable to make it down safely. Most recently, a motorcyclist suffered a fatal crash in 2009.”
So up we drove, through the auburn foliage, up past the tree line to the lunar-like tundra zone, and finally up to the icy cold summit. At the top, we got to say hello to the scientists working in the Mt. Washington Observatory, and say hi to Marty, who, I could have sworn was an animatronic cat, despite assurances from several people that he is in fact, alive.
While the drive up was fine, the drive down was slightly more disconcerting, and I spent much of it trying to avoid looking out of the window or nervously fidgeting.
This is what happens when you neglect the advice to shift into a lower gear and use the turnouts several times on the way down and not ride your brakes. (My assumption – that isn’t actually our car.)
The rest of the weekend was spent lounging around North Conway. I stopped multiple times at my favorite North Conway coffee shop Frontside Grind. I had my regular cortado (very good), and the Fog Lifter (espresso in coffee), and sadly forgot to refill my cold brew growler, which was forgotten not once, but twice in the car. We acquired lobsters at Hannaford (for 5.99/pound, you pick a live lobster and they’ll boil it for you in minutes), and got real fancy with lobster mac & cheese, and enough Trader Joe’s appetizers for eight people.
We watched hours of movies, ranging from great to terrible – starting with Toy Story 2, then Spaced Invaders, then The Ruins, which only served to make me feel terrible for both Jena Malone and Jonathan Tucker. Before heading back to reality, we took a drive up Cathedral Ledge, and reveled in the fall foliage. New Hampshire is a truly special place to be this time of year.
And because we are friends, here’s one last gem from the camera roll – in which I follow through with my resolution to spend more time in front of the camera. Vogue, my dears, vogue.
One of my favorite places to be in the Fall is next to (not in) a body of water. Rivers, oceans, reservoirs, lakes, creeks, anything will do. I pace the Charles River to think, meander on the Harbor Walk daily before and after work, and head to the ocean when I can. I love when the sky is white-grey, the water blue-grey, and then that moment when you turn around and everything on land is vibrant in contrast – deep greens, auburn, gold and twinkly. In New England you blink and winter will cast that grey light on everything, so I’m doing my best to soak in the colors right now.
These were a few shots from New Hampshire this weekend, the little island town of New Castle, right next to Portsmouth. There have been houses here since the early 1600’s, and with a view like this, it’s not surprising why.
I’m nearly incapable of being in front of the camera without being silly.
I’ve been thinking about what to post all week, and finally decided to pull together some photos from the fourth of July weekend. “Thinking about” is not “doing”, and lately I’ve tried to re-commit to “doing” in all aspects of my life.
This week my focus has been on photography. It was one of my summer to-do’s, and just the act of writing out that I wanted to improve launched me into doing something about it. I upgraded to the new Lightroom (I was working on version 3, and it was slow loading), and invested in two Creative Live courses (50% off sale!) Food Photography with Andrew Scrivani, and Food Photography with Penny De Los Santos. I watched the majority of these courses when they were free (Creative Live airs all of their courses free while live), and the amount I learned in less than a few days of class time was priceless. A few years ago I also had the incredible privilege of taking a real live in person class with Penny, and it was thrilling. I wish I had been even a tiny bit more knowledgable about manual shooting at the time – I would have gotten so much more out of it on top of the massive amount that I learned.
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A few weekends ago, Devon and I drove up to Byfield to spend the weekend with our friend Alison for the 4th of July. It was just the three of us – her family was in North Conway, mine was at a very crowded house in Maine, and we decided that we’d make a go at a bit of a quieter 4th. On Wednesday we drove up late, after getting in my mile run at 8:45 at night, the earliest that I found it bearable in the heat wave. We arrived to air conditioning, and promptly passed out. We spent the next two days eating, sitting, talking, laughing, and trying not to pass out from the heat. We went to Newburyport to the record store, and to Jabberwocky, and T.J.Maxx. Here are a few of my favorite shots from the weekend.
:: Stephanie’s Village Pancake House, in Rowley, for some down home comfort. I’m not quite what happened with the focus or the white balance in this photo. I’m evolving, but still trying to get a hang of my camera.
:: The Farm: after breakfast we headed over to Tendercrop Farm, to pick up some staples for dinner – hot dogs, potatoes, corn, green beans, tomato – and say hello to some farm friends. 
:: And then there was ice cream. As a teenager, Alison worked at Bensons, hulling buckets of strawberries every day for their famous native strawberry ice cream. We picked up a half gallon of strawberry, another of mint chip, and would have called it a day, but after stuffing ourselves to the gill at breakfast, we couldn’t help eating just a little bit more. I think it’s how it ends up going on vacation. I went with a New England classic – Grapenut ice cream. It’s what you think it is – cream infused with the classic cereal, and then studded with it. (The New England version of Momofuku’s cereal milk soft serve…)
:: Dinner. I wish I had a picture of dinner – but we ate it in the dark, on the porch, with the mosquitos, until the mosquitos drove us inside to sit around the table off the kitchen. After dinner we watched hours of Boston’s Finest, and followed it up with Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.
:: Breakfast. Alison is a delightful hostess. Freshly baked beer bread muffins… and cornbread. Clearly I need to be on top of my breakfast game.
:: And sunset. I could deal with this view every day of my life.
Here’s to setting intentions, and doing more “doing” than “thinking”. What are you going to be doing the rest of this summer?
Some very sad news sent us driving down the coast today in the afternoon, just any direction that the car would take us. Four hours later we ended up at the tip of the Cape, at Race Point Beach, right after the parks service had finished taking fees for the day, so parking was free. The ocean was so very blue I could barely believe it. I promised myself that I’d shoot something beautiful today, and I think this counts.
We fortified ourselves with Ben and Jerry’s in North Eastham (I had White Russian and Coconut Seven Layer Bar in a waffle cone), headed back north, and now we are home.
