School's Out For Summer

I am pleased to announce that the school year is o-v-e-r. I survived, endless sicknesses and parasitic infestations be damned! So, yes, as the title of this post suggests, school is indeed out for summer, but summer school is just one short week away. Summer school will mean even earlier mornings and a new crop of huggy-buggy little chillins to teach alphabits to. God bless elementary school teachers; I would never wish that job upon anyone.

I will miss these little cuties. One of my classrooms on the last day.

 I'm learning a myriad of things from my time here, so despite the active countdown I keep of days before leaving this place and job, I am sincerely grateful for it. I have an inner dialogue these days of, "Lord, I am going to/already have fall(en) down to the fetal position if/because you keep teaching me things, but okay, let's keep going." And actually, the latest turn in the conversation is a request to just pick me up from the fetal position and shuffle me along because I have no idea how to do anything, except how to be a total sloth. I'm really good at doing that. When I'm not slothin' around like a fatcat, I do keep busy.

I go to fun parties

I was so very fortunate enough to go home for a quick weekend so that I could attend Zach's engagement party.

Yes!

I whitewater raft

 I went with 3 other friends to The Forks for a day of whitewater rafting in the Kennebec River. I thought it would be miserable because the water was going to be cold, but it was SO much fun, even though the water was cold. I voluntarily jumped in that thang to do some swimming over class 2 rapids. High tech outdoor clothing is a wonder. I got the pants I bought at the Patagonia outlet in Freeport because my friend Laurie said I needed them for Katahdin, but I had no idea how awesome they were until, while in the actual river, they continued to be water resistant. THE JOY OF PANTS. Laurie brought her GoPro on the trip so here are some of her great stills from filming:

Paddle into the rapid!

Our feet as we fall back into the river (on purpose)

It was a beautiful sunny day

Sleeps after the rapids

 

I end up in strange places

One of my friends told me about this farm in Turner that does a Pizza & Jam night, so we went.

Nezinscot Farm

The farm store. Inside was the pizza.

The jam part of the evening - random musicians get together and play whatever.

He is INDEED playing the washtub!

 There were all hippies and beat-generation folks at this gathering. Amongst them, Cat Kerouac.

Cat Kerouac - on the road

What is that?

Existential life crisis :(

 Maine still has its chilly moments. It was in the low 60s by the time the sun went down on this day, so we were thus chill'd. One of the hippies suggested that we hula hoop to keep warm, so we did. I am really good a hula hooping, no lie.

I watch whales

Somewhat spontaneously, I got the opportunity to go whale watching in Portland. I decided that this would be a very good day so I went to Hannaford and bought myself all the components of a delicious lunch, packed my camera, and headed down to the docks with about an hour to get there. Little did I know that my GPS would behave oh so stupidly and drag me all over town and make me late, and then my chocolate bar melted, I used up all my rainy-day fund dollars for tolls and meters that didn't even matter, and I was very close to being left. So I was ANGRY! But then I got on the boat and it was real nice. Then it started splashing and raining a lot so I got wet and cold, which was not so fun, but then we saw gorgeous lightning and some bizarre animals.

Little stubby lighthouse

Gorgeous boat, take me with you!

Part of the reason I was so late - visitors have begun to descend upon Maine and Portland is packed with them (and parking garages are a lot more expensive now). Just look at those Crocs 'n Socks...

The place always knocks me out. I love it.

Our first sighting: Basking Sharks!

Their fins were HUGE! And they got very close to our boat.

Basking sharks are "harmless to humans," as they are filter feeders.

This bird kept drafting off of us like it was NASCAR Thunder!

Roll tide.

Whale! A finback!

Hey, bud!

Stormy

Stormy

Cold and wet and slightly miserable

In sum, we saw Basking Sharks (they look EVIL!), Minke whales (they jump around), Finback whales (second largest whales next to blues!), and some giant seagulls.

The lesson is this: sometimes you think something is going to suck and then it doesn't (like whitewater rafting) and sometimes you think something is going to be awesome and then it isn't (like rainy, low-whale content whale watching or your job), so you should use discretion and bravery to try lots of different things because regardless, you'll learn or see something new (like how cool basking sharks are or how to teach and discipline children effectively or that Patagonia makes the best pants in the entire world).

It's the final countdown,

JB