Just Like Neon

"April showers bring May flowers" is less a punny joke and more an insightful witticism in New England. Spring has finally arrived since I last wrote; the earth is coming back to life and, to celebrate, she has bedecked herself with blossoms and more blossoms. My time has been filled with festivities commemorating the verdant emergence of this sweeter season. It's been a bit too full, in truth, but as I sit on my back porch, overlooking a wild blanket of dandelion, violet, and clover, I am finally able to process the goodness of all that's happened.

(Unmarked) Trailblazing in Norway

I've been to the charming town and awe-smacking surrounding nature of Norway before to go cross country skiing, but now, I have seen it with fresh non-snow'd perspective. My friends Kari and Lauren found out about this unmarked trail with a very vertical ascent (essentially 120 degree incline for the duration of the hike from base to peak). We climbed it, my heart pounded, we were tired, and then we went to eat ice cream at Gifford's, the most magical place in Auburn. At Gifford's, you can get two scoops of their delicious homemade ice for $1.99 including tax when it's the flavor of the week (one scoop regularly is like $3.19). As a poor person, I know about all of the things like this.

The view progressively became more stunning.

Really quick incline.

Slope'd.

One of many jumping picture attempts.

Polar Plunging at the Orchard

As appropriately dubbed by a friend, Old Orchard Beach is the Myrtle Beach of the North East. Its filled with shops of tawdry souvenir t-shirts, beach-side arcades, and fried food stands (potatoes and dough for the most part). I took an afternoon trip down there with friends for a picnic lunch on the beach and to perform a polar plunge with my friend Laurie (it's on her Maine Bucket List). Delicious peanut butter sandwiches, homemade strawberry lemonade, a little liquid courage to run into the chilling sea, some subsequent dancing to beach speaker music; a lovely day at the beach. I find it very strange that there are coniferous and deciduous trees so close to the water at the beaches here, but that's an entirely random thought.

Charming

Picnic Pals

Babooshka Babayaga (the weirdness ensues)

Buried alive!

swimming out to sea!

aaaahOOOOOOO (Wolfe's Neck Campground Clean-up Weekend)

Because we are poor AmeriCorps members, we respond obligingly to the exchange of labor for free things, such as food and camping. Mostly it's food, but we were fortunate enough to catch wind of a volunteer opportunity right outside of Freeport (the land of L.L. Bean) at a campground. We helped prepare campsites for camping campers by raking out leaves, pine needles, and putting sticks into piles. We arrived Friday evening to Wolfe's Neck Farm campground where we had lasagna and pizza pie and regular pie for dinner. We set up our campground amongst the trees and right by the bay and then piled into a tent where we hung out until it was time to go to bed. It got very cold at night, in the 30 degree temperature. Thankfully, I had my insulated leggings, waffle-weave shirt, L.L. Bean wool sweater (the best Goodwill find one could hope for), and mummy sleeping bag.

Inland view from camp site

Shoreward view of camp site

Hiding in the car when it was too cold to be outside. The coast is about 10 degrees cooler than inland temperatures.

Spring!

Weirdo friends

Road back to farm house

Typical weekend activity

Farm house

The Farm!

Hello, bebe

The ewes were lambing while we were there - this little precious was born the night before this photo was taken! So sweet!

Cat alert!

They pulled us behind this tractor to take us to our work sites.

Spruced up our camp site number

Ending the long workday with a fire and s'mores.

It was udder-ly exhausting.  

Getting Salty with the Sea Dogs

After a... shall I say... turbulent? week of spring fever and frustration at work, I wanted to nothing but to vegetate this weekend. Rather than vegetating at home alone, aside from the company of Netflix, I went to a Portland Sea Dogs game with my friend Laurie. The Sea Dogs are the Double-A minor league affiliate of the Red Sox. I have come to the conclusion that I absolutely love daytime baseball games because all you do is:

1. sit in the sun, 
2. eat disgustingly delicious fried things, 
3. drink a cold pop or Shipyard, 
4. people watch/listen as kids say thee DARNDEST things, and 
5. stare at highly attractive baseball players. 

Needless to say, I will be returning to a Sea Dogs game, as they are only $8 to see with what are good seats. It was exactly what I needed to empty my mind, get outside, and be around people without actually speaking to them.

Cozy stadium. No such thing as an awful seat here.

Slugger is unsafe!

Slugger the sea dawg

In conclusion, I've been busy every single weekend for all of time. I've been thinking about the John Mayer song "Neon" that says:

She's always buzzing just like
Neon, neon
Neon, neon
Who knows how long, how long, how long
She can go before she burns away?

Being busy was one of things I wanted coming to a placid place to remedy, but it turns out it's me that has the problem of schedule overbooking, not the environment in which I live. I get run down from constantly buzzzzzzing, as Sr. Mayer says. I have a faith that the sometimes overly-ambitious and flighty disposition I'm given to is a strength to be worked out into something lovely. 

In a last piece of happy news, the job that I really want for next year with FoodCorps has offered me an interview next week! The specific host service site is the one that I want to be placed at too so I am very appreciative of prayer for the best thing possible for me to happen. I'm hoping the best is to get that job. Hooray regardless!

Checked back into reality,

JB